Saving a buck?

[Nwall81]

We are a family of 8 that need to save money over the next 10 months before our Disney Trip. Having the money for the tickets, ect. is not a problem. But we need to save money up for souvieners, food ect. (yes we are staying offsite...) Any money saving tips out there for a big family?

 

[kymom99]

Do you save aluminum cans? In 10 months you could get a small chunk of money by cashing in your metal stuff.

Do you normally eat out for lunch? If you do, try packing and put the money you don't spend in a vacation jar along with your change.

 

[tarheel618]

Unshop your grocery cart each week for a 20 to 40 per month savings. Before you check out see if there is any product(s) that you really could do without. If you could do this each week for 5-10 dollars savings in 10 months you could have 200 or 400.

You could also use coupons for items you already are going to buy and put the coupon savings to the side for your trip.

 

[abmitch01]

sign up for the Sweet Tomatoes web site. they are a wonderful salad bar with hot foods too. their coupons are often 3 eat for $20 and deals on kids meals. My kids love the place, we sved a ton by staying off site and eating there.

 

[LJSquishy]

Unshop your grocery cart each week for a 20 to 40 per month savings. Before you check out see if there is any product(s) that you really could do without. If you could do this each week for 5-10 dollars savings in 10 months you could have 200 or 400.

You could also use coupons for items you already are going to buy and put the coupon savings to the side for your trip.

I really like this idea and I bet you can save a lot by doing this. I am a very disciplined shopper and always shop alone, but over the weekend my husband and I went to Walmart to buy napkins and aluminum foil...and ended up buying those items as well as (2) 12-packs of soda, large bag of M&Ms, and large bag of Twizzlers Nibs! We spent an extra $10 or so because of impulse buying.

 

[LJSquishy]

One tip I have is to shop your own pantry/freezer. When you think you need to make a trip to the store, involve the kids and challenge them to come up with a meal (with your help if needed) using only items you already have at home.

Estimate how much you would've spent if you had to buy those items at the store (or the cost of eating out), and put it in your Disney fund.

Maybe you would save money by planning out your car trips better to different stores. If your family goes out to the movie theater often, do a night in with a rental and pop some popcorn. Have a game night instead of doing an activity that costs money.

Maybe collect every receipt you have from grocery shopping and save change by rounding up to the nearest dollar...so if your receipt was a total of $18.37, you would round up to $19 and put 63 cents into your fund...or even round up to the nearest $5 range, in which case you would put $1.63 into your fund.

A lot of members have done the weekly savings jar idea where Week 1 you put $1, Week 2 is $2, etc. Maybe you can do that for the number of weeks until your vacation. Some folks opted to randomly draw a week number, so week 1 they may draw the $27 amount but week 13 they may draw the $2 amount.

The best tip I've ever read regarding souvenirs is when you get to Disney, tell your kids they can each choose one item (or however many you see fit) as a souvenir but they cannot decide until the last day. When they see an item they just "have to have", take a picture of them holding the item. At the end of the trip, let them look at the photos of themselves with the souvenirs they want and allow them to choose which one they want most. It helps them make a more informed decision instead of thinking they "need" one of everything. Best idea ever!

 

[disneymagicgirl]

One tip I have is to shop your own pantry/freezer. When you think you need to make a trip to the store, involve the kids and challenge them to come up with a meal (with your help if needed) using only items you already have at home. Estimate how much you would've spent if you had to buy those items at the store (or the cost of eating out), and put it in your Disney fund. Maybe you would save money by planning out your car trips better to different stores. If your family goes out to the movie theater often, do a night in with a rental and pop some popcorn. Have a game night instead of doing an activity that costs money. Maybe collect every receipt you have from grocery shopping and save change by rounding up to the nearest dollar...so if your receipt was a total of $18.37, you would round up to $19 and put 63 cents into your fund...or even round up to the nearest $5 range, in which case you would put $1.63 into your fund. A lot of members have done the weekly savings jar idea where Week 1 you put $1, Week 2 is $2, etc. Maybe you can do that for the number of weeks until your vacation. Some folks opted to randomly draw a week number, so week 1 they may draw the $27 amount but week 13 they may draw the $2 amount. The best tip I've ever read regarding souvenirs is when you get to Disney, tell your kids they can each choose one item (or however many you see fit) as a souvenir but they cannot decide until the last day. When they see an item they just "have to have", take a picture of them holding the item. At the end of the trip, let them look at the photos of themselves with the souvenirs they want and allow them to choose which one they want most. It helps them make a more informed decision instead of thinking they "need" one of everything. Best idea ever!

This is out rule too. 1 souvenir each and not til the end of the trip. I will take them back to wherever it is to get their favorite item of the week. I can't believe how much stuff people but at the parks!

 

[Gumbo4x4]

In the past 2 months, we've made $134 at the resale shop on stuff we'll never wear again.

 

[OhMari]

Do you really need souvieneers interest from the parks. I bought the cutest pair of sweat capris dorm a Walgreen's store. Target carries items too, and cost a fraction of what you would pay in the parks.

To get extra money, do you have a rewards credit card, I have the Disney Chase and pay everything I can with my card and pay it off each week. How about Reward Sites. Also, we have been decluttering our home and selling things on Buy, Sell and Trade on Facebook. I just sold my Wii exercise board and DVD for $50. In the stores it is still selling for $100. I am going to sell my China that I got for my wedding and never used. I just got it appraised at $50, if I never used it, I never will. It is going.

 

[StitchBuddy]

We charged everything we could on our Visa card and paid it off at the end of each month. We earned $600 in points and cashed them in for Disney spending money for our up-coming trip. We also saved another $145 in change. To me it is like $745 of free money just laying around the house.

 

[wishesuponastar]

Unshop your grocery cart each week for a 20 to 40 per month savings. Before you check out see if there is any product(s) that you really could do without. If you could do this each week for 5-10 dollars savings in 10 months you could have 200 or 400.

You could also use coupons for items you already are going to buy and put the coupon savings to the side for your trip.

I love the unshop idea! Thank you for posting that. My tip is to eat at home as much as possible. If you are used to eating out multiple daysduring the week cut it down to just once a week.

 

[Monykalyn]

Meal planning is key! buy in bulk whenever possible (probably already doing this with 8) I also kept all the stray $$ that came out of pockets in the wash and put it into vacay fund (someoone in our family is really awful about emptying pockets-DH never notices it is gone) Had ~$150 in a year.
Also-sign up for Checkout 51-get rewards by scanning grocery receipts. I am NOT a couponer as most things on coupons I can get cheaper by buying store brand (or its processed food I make cheaper at home from scratch-like condensed soup or seasoning mixes) but this has fresh food for rewards too. (and you can still use a coupon if you have one)

Rewards CC (if disciplined about paying in full monthly) can really add up too. We used miles card for a year prior to (and during) recent trip and miles earned paying for flights to LV.

I also got gift cards periodically for the kids and put them away until the trip (DS got such a kick out of his "credit card" he could use to get what he wanted)

Good lucK!

 

[Nztara]

We use a regional coupon website to make couponing easy. I save $20-30 a week. Twice a year, we shop the freezer and pantry until it is minimally stocked. I usually do it in early August (in case hurricane season brings power outages, we don't lose much.) and then again in January.

Using a Target Red card to get 5 percent off of gift cards is a good idea. You can give each child a gift card as their souvenir budget.

If you have a wholesale club or car club membership, compare their ticket prices and options to UT.

We have also been cleaning out unwanted household items. Not just because of the trip, but to de-clutter outgrown clothes, repurpose space, etc. since this is "found money" it goes into the trip.

Cut soda and flavored drinks out of you diet. We save a lot of money by only drinking water - at home and when dining out.

Have children participate in saving. They will think twice about requests if they know it will take away what they can spend on vacation. They can also request Disney gift cards from family members for holidays and birthdays.

My husband's workplace matches the first $5 he puts in a Christmas Club account. Free money and easy automatic savings before he gets his check. We only put in what they match.

A garage sale could also provide income for the trip.

If your grocery store has fuel rewards, use them! I saved $7 on my last fill-up. I don't buy an item just because it has fuel rewards, but will buy an extra if it is something I use and has additional rewards. We also get rewards for every dollar spent, no matter what the item.