Saving for disney in two years ... suggestions?

[nathaliabrown]

Well we just got back. Had a blast. Kids want to go back..OF CORSE. Well we are broke and both DH and I are going to school. So our plan is to go back in two years. We loved the free dinning but dont know if we can go back when free dinning is because my SD will be in 7th grade then. We also will be taking my then 5 year old and then 3.5 year old. What are some good ways to put back a disney fund to start us off so when the time comes we dont feel like we are having to put out so much? Also when we go we still want to do the basic dinning plan even if it is not free since the kids loved and got the most character action through them.
Thanks

 

[jfegan]

I know the feeling. We went Oct 2008 and when we got home the trip was not paid for and all I could think about was going again, so....

First we paid off the old trip. Then I opened up a vacation club account and started putting an automatic contribution in. This scenorio backfired when the account matured and all my money deposited into the account our car payment comes out of and....Well that was correctable and I redeposited the money, but then I discovered something else. I opened an add-on CD at the credit union that pays a better rate than the vacation club. Aside from my regular deposits I put any rebate checks, suprise checks, yard sale profits...you get the idea. Whatever we save is the kind of trip we will have and I am constantly shopping for deals.

Additionally we have the Disney VISA card. CC are tricky for some. If you don't pay off the balance monthly, then it doesn't pay to use them, but this summer they were offering a 5xs the rewards offer. It wasn't on everything we bought, but we did earn almost $300 dollars we wouldn't normally have had. However this month I may not be able to pay it in full and that's kind of got me kickin my own Butt. But one month does not a failure make and we won't use it again until I get a similar offer.

I have done everything shy of get a job thinking to the future...I have to wait until it won't cost me more to work than I can make (childcare).

Good luck and if you have any great ideas, don't forget to share!!!

 

[aka-mad4themouse]

Give a little thought as to when you'll want to go to WDW and what kind of resort you will be staying at. Then go to the WDW website and check the pricing on a 2010 package for those dates. Aside from Easter time, which changes every year, the "seasons" are pretty consistent from year to year. Once you get that 2010 package price, add another 5% to it for price increases for 2011.

Then take the number of months between now just before your trip and divide the total cost of the trip by that amount. This will give you an idea of how much you need to put away each month in order to be able to pay for the trip. Then open a separate savings account dedicated to saving for your Disney trip. Put the money in there regularly and don't touch it, even if it is tempting!

A Disney VISA is great for earning the rewards. But I would not rely on it to pay for your trip. It would take a lot of charging on the card to pay for a trip for a family of 5. But it can help to defray the cost of the DDP or little extras like a Photopass CD or Fireworks Dessert Party.

Join a few rewards programs that offer GCs or cash. Use them for your online shopping and their paid clicks or emails. Check the Disney Rewards Board for names of reputable programs and hints on how to make them work for you.

Good luck! Two years seems like a long time to be able to save but when you consider that it's only 24 months, you'll see that it's going to take some dedicated saving to reach your goal!

 

[Tinkio]

We have a Disney world popcorn bucket that we can see on a shelf in my office. Every chance we get we see that bucket and put in a $1 here and there. Hopefully by the time we go in August of 2010 we will have some extra spending money. If you don't have a popcorn bucket you can pick one up off of EBay.

 

[Tinkio]

Do you know how you would determine how much the dining plan is if it isn't free?

 

[aka-mad4themouse]

Do you know how you would determine how much the dining plan is if it isn't free?

For 2010, the DDP is $41.99/$11.99 (adult/child) per night for most nights. There are certain nights were the price goes up to $46.99/$12.99. Those dates are 2/12/10 - 4/10/10, 6/04/10 - 8/14/10, 12/17/10 - 12/31/10.

Everyone on the reservation must get the dining plan or no one gets it. And you must get it for every night of your package.

 

[Mom2PrincessSavannah]

I believe the price of the dining plan is on this site somewhere, but it is roughly $40.00 per adult and $12.00 per child per day.
I take on any little job I can do from home, fr example EBay is updating it's site and every seller has to add return policies and handling times. My step-mom's company uses EBay and needed all their listings updated, so I did that and made a ocuple hundred dollars. Talk to anyone you know who may have extra projects at work, most can be done at home these days. In this economy many companies have more work than employees but don't want to hire right now.
I would also suggest that you budget for your activities such as BBB, figure your dining tips (I always figure $20.00 per day and that works out in the end somehow), Mousekeeping and spending money. Our trips always cost double whatever we pay WDW. I can never figure out why
Also, I would suggest that you look for every way to save money to add to your Disney account. In my house if I save $20.00 in coupons I put that in my Disney savings, if my family keeps lights off and our electricity bill goes down I add that, and of course anything I sell on EBay!
Two years isn't a lot of time, start off with whatever you can now and keep adding to it! Good luck

 

[Mom2PrincessSavannah]

I believe the price of the dining plan is on this site somewhere, but it is roughly $40.00 per adult and $12.00 per child per day.
I take on any little job I can do from home, fr example EBay is updating it's site and every seller has to add return policies and handling times. My step-mom's company uses EBay and needed all their listings updated, so I did that and made a ocuple hundred dollars. Talk to anyone you know who may have extra projects at work, most can be done at home these days. In this economy many companies have more work than employees but don't want to hire right now.
I would also suggest that you budget for your activities such as BBB, figure your dining tips (I always figure $20.00 per day and that works out in the end somehow), Mousekeeping and spending money. Our trips always cost double whatever we pay WDW. I can never figure out why
Also, I would suggest that you look for every way to save money to add to your Disney account. In my house if I save $20.00 in coupons I put that in my Disney savings, if my family keeps lights off and our electricity bill goes down I add that, and of course anything I sell on EBay!
Two years isn't a lot of time, start off with whatever you can now and keep adding to it! Good luck

 

[NeverlandClub23]

If you can afford to put away $100 a month you may want to open a TD Ameritrade Save Yourself savings account. You get $100 bonus (equivalent to earning about 8.5% interest) after 12 months of saving $100 automatically every month.

Save Yourself Account Info

*Oh, and you may find that it would be a better deal to just use a room only discount code as opposed to buying a package through Disney and paying OOP (out of pocket) for a few character meals. Just make sure to price out all of your options for the best deal when your trip gets closer. Disney's packages aren't always the best deal (even if dining is "free").

 

[Darcy03231]

1. I have a special vacation savings account. A certain dollar amount is deducted every week from our checking account and it goes into this account.

2. We save change. Once the jar is full we take it to the bank and deposit into the vacation savings account.

3. Everything in my household has a budget amount. If we spend less than that amount that month the excess goes into vacation savings. For example if I budgeted $600 for groceries for the month and I spent $500, the extra goes into vacation savings. If I budgeted $150 for the electric bill and it was $130, the extra $20 goes into vacation savings. However, if the bills are higher any month than what I budgeted, the money has to come out of vacation savings if I didn't make it up somewhere else. It doesn't come out of regular savings.

4. We spend very little on entertainment at home. I can't tell you the last movie I saw in a theater. We don't eat out much either. All of that extra money goes into vacation savings.

5. Before making any purchase I decide whether it is a "want" or a "need". If its a "want" I ask myself if I really want to spend the money on the item or do I want to go on vacation sooner. Most of the time I decide I can do without the "want" and put the money in vacation savings.

6. We don't buy a lot for Christmas and/or birthdays. In fact, DH and I usually don't exchange gifts. We'd rather use the money toward travel. The kids would rather go on vacation too.

7. Any "extra" (bonus, overtime, rebates, etc.) money goes into vacation savings.

You'd be surprised how much a small amount every month will add up too in the long run.

 

[mrsklamc]

Be sure to invest some time in the rewards programs. I have tried and quit a few of them, thinking I could never make any money that way-but it ended up that I just needed to find the ones that work for *me,* and now I am doing better with them.

 

[katiedid36]

We won't be going for 3 years due to my schooling. Our trip will be my graduation present. I bought a Disney gift card. I have been adding money here and there. They don't expire and I know the money will be going towards our trip. I hope to have my trip paid for by gift card alone. I also second the rewards sites. Every little bit helps!

 

[zippy2]

I have a change jar and a dollar jar. My youngest ds loves to put money in them. The other day I found he put every bill from my husband's wallet in my jar! He has the right idea! My jars are glued so I can't grab a handful too easily. We have a lot of fun with it.

 

[AntePrincess]

1. Institute a once-a-week breakfast-for-dinner night (breakfast foods are cheaper than dinner foods). Serve Mickey head pancakes to remind everyone what you're saving for.

2. Replace one night out a week with a night in eating homemade (or freezer) pizza and a Disney movie borrowed from the library.

3. Quit the bagel and coffee on the way to the office habit, instead bake a week's worth of muffins and brew a week's worth of cold press coffee lattes on Sunday morning.

4. Replace expensive, sugary bottled drinks with a homemade recipe you and the kids concoct. Even full price Kool-Aid packets are cheaper than bottled drinks.

 

[Rosiekins]

I have a series of Money jars and a Giant Piggy Bank. I separate my coins out in to their own milk jars that I have decorated with a Mickey head that has one of the Coins belonging in that jar glued in the center (Penny, Nickle etc..) When one fills I empty it and roll it then cash it in. Rolling it means I don't have to pay the coinstar fee and I get the fun of counting it.

I put the cash in pickle jar that is totally covered with Disney paper so I can't see all the money in it and want to spend it. Besides the coin cash I also put all my DH's and my ones at the end of the day in to the cash jar. Anytime I skip a treat like going out to dinner I put the money in the jar. I also try to put a small amount of my pay check at the end of the week (I just have a part time job as help my husband in his contracting business and am a housewife) The money I make is our fun and grocery money so I make sure to save some for fun later. Any bonus money goes in here too. Once a week I trade the ones and 5's for Twenties and when I have enough I trade those for hundreds so the jar isn't too full and because I am way less likely to just grab a hundred dollar bill out of it. (where I might be tempted to grab some ones or or a Twenty) After the Bills and such are paid we count the money and pay it towards our trip. We wait until the end of the month so that we can be sure we didn't need the money for bills and such as however sad it may be that does take priority to Disney.

Lastly we have my Big Pig. Whenever my DH goes to the bank he asks for whatever dollar coins they have in their till it is normally 5 to 10. He brings them home to me and I stick them in the Big Pig. Unlike the jars this one does not get counted or emptied. If I manage to fill him before we go another one will be bought. I will empty him and put the dollar coins in the bank right before we go and it will be spending money for the trip.


Hopefully I will mostly be able to pay for the trip this way. I have the jars on my desk so I look at them all the time and love seeing them fill up. I think about them before I impulse buy or go out to eat. Would I rather be putting this money in my jars? I ask. The answer I find is almost always yes on the impulse buys and is yes about half the time on eating out.

 

[worm761]

I do a bunch of rewards programs. But mostly just the paid to click ones. I am not much of an online shopper. So far I have earned over $60 with those in the last couple months. We won't be going until 2011. It is my goal to pay the trip (or at least a large chunk) with these programs. I have not been very good at doing them lately. I am 29 weeks pregnant and just don't want to. Horrible reason but the truth.
We have a change jar we are collecting our change in but that is hard since we use debit cards for everything.
I put any extra money in a savings account with ING. I know the interest rate is not the best right now but I have to wait to get my money. I can't just go to the bank and withdraw. So that stops me from taking money out.

 

[boakl]

We plan to go next year for four nights in October, so I figured out how much we'd need for the trip from gas to get down there, lodging, meals, souvenir allowances and tickets for me and my husband (kids still have enough days on an old, NE, PH), parking, etc, and padded that number by $500. After only 6 weeks, we already have nearly a 1/4 of the money saved!

Here is what we are doing:

1. Big tupperware bowl under the kitchen sink decorated with Disney stickers

2. I get a budget for the week, any money under budget goes into the bowl. This has REALLY cut back on impulse spending for me. It turns out my life is fine without reading that Us Weekly.

3. My husband does the same.

4. The boys put at least $1 of their weekly allowance into the fund

5. Any "found" money ie gifts from grandparents, rebate money, money found in the laundry, etc goes into the fund

6. We save all change and put all $1's in our wallets into the fund at the end of the week.


My sons enjoy watching me count our savings each week and subtracting that amount from our total needed. If anything, they will learn that every dollar does count and that small amounts add up quickly. Hopefully they will come out of this as savers!

It is amazing how quickly the $$$ adds up and it makes us wonder exactly what we were wasting our money on. It's been an eye opener for all of us!

 

[mrsklamc]

I do a bunch of rewards programs. But mostly just the paid to click ones. I am not much of an online shopper. \

This is why I say to invest some time in it.

1) with some work I have been able to revamp my shopping some (involved waiting for free shipping codes)

and

2)Paid clicks didn't seem to add up fast enough for me, and without shopping online I got really discouraged.

BUT then I found programs that work better for me...I'm not mentioning specifics because I am trying to follow the mod's lead in just saying 'check out the rewards board.' There is lots of info there. It really seems that the program that is best for one person, is different than the one that works better for someone else.

Also...I know it's exciting to watch the cash build up, and if it works for you that is wonderful, but I seem to remember someone's cash Disney fund getting stolen awhile back. Plus, it's not earning any interest that way, and just like a rewards program, little amounts there add up faster than you would think.

 

[Shelly F - Ohio]

Have a garage sale. Start collecting items now to have a 2010 spring garage sale.
Saving coins in a jar.
Automatic deposits to a savings acct set up just for the WDW vacation.

 

[Rootskate]

Definitely save all of your change! You will be amazed at how fast it adds up!