Saving for Disney

[eliza61]

We hav til next november-a nice looong time lol but is 1 year 3 months and 3 weeks......and we are going for 8 days 7 nights@POR

Basically we get a budget. First we always go to the exteme luxury route and then after we pick ourselves up from laughing so hard we start to make our choices and then set a goal.
we pick
resort
travel (fly or drive)
tickets type
food budget

After we assign a dollar amount to each category we pretty much decide how much biweekly we have to save to reach our goal.

 

[mrssmith06]

We have a small amount direct deposited into an account every month and then whenever there is extra (from overtime pay, Consignment sales, money saved from using coupons, etc) then we deposit that into savings as well. I also use MyPoints - So on our recent trip I had gift cards that paid for our lunch on the road as well as helped purchase some of the clothing we took with us.

 

[jenny105]

I have a separate savings account through ING that gets a small portion of my paycheck every two weeks via direct deposit.

I also have jars that I throw spare change and loose bills into and deposit them into that account every month. Anything I have left over from gas money, lunch money, etc also goes into my Disney fund.

I'm also a member of My Survey and E-Bates. You get points for every survey taken on My Survey that you can cash in for a $10, $15, or $20 deposit into your paypal account. E-Bates gives you cash back for shopping so whenever I do have something to buy, I go through them!

There's no set amount I aim for each week. I decided on the amount I wanted to save and am working toward it little by little.

 

[jldixon62]

I'm not the best saver, so I tend to book the package and pay on it monthly like a bill. I do the surveys to get gift cards and save them for a little pre trip shopping and I do save most of my travel reimbursement checks for the airfare and spending money.

 

[famsen]

Qualifying for surveys depends on demographics and persistence. I know some members get 8-9 surveys every day, which adds about $5 per day to their account. I strive for three per day, which earns me about $2. It usually takes multiple tries for me, but I can almost always get the Greenfield, Surveyhead and SSI survey each day, and if I have time, I try the others. Weekends and Monday mornings are more challenging since the survey companies don't usually add any new surveys during that time.

Some of the survey companies occasionally route to an Opinion Outpost survey, so you might need to click out of those since you are a member there. If that happens, you can go right back in to see if they have another survey. You can keep trying until you get one.

If you are not a member of the Sunshine Rewards forum, you should check it out. There are a lot of tips there to maximize earnings. I didn't earn very much my first few months - it takes a little while to figure it all out, but the forum is very helpful.

I can say that I try for at least $3.00 every day through Sunshine Rewards surveys. Some days I get more, some days less.
At first I thought it would never add up to anything but here it is almost 4 months after I signed up with them and I have nearly $500 in Disney gift cards from them. It also helps to use them to link to shopping sites that you are going to go to anyway such as Disney.com. You get a percentage of your order in credits! I am thrilled to have found them.

 

[mollymar]

Qualifying for surveys depends on demographics and persistence. I know some members get 8-9 surveys every day, which adds about $5 per day to their account. I strive for three per day, which earns me about $2. It usually takes multiple tries for me, but I can almost always get the Greenfield, Surveyhead and SSI survey each day, and if I have time, I try the others. Weekends and Monday mornings are more challenging since the survey companies don't usually add any new surveys during that time.

Some of the survey companies occasionally route to an Opinion Outpost survey, so you might need to click out of those since you are a member there. If that happens, you can go right back in to see if they have another survey. You can keep trying until you get one.

If you are not a member of the Sunshine Rewards forum, you should check it out. There are a lot of tips there to maximize earnings. I didn't earn very much my first few months - it takes a little while to figure it all out, but the forum is very helpful.

Thanks so much!! I'll check out the forum.

 

[Whistle]

I have a huge coin bucket and all spare change goes into that! I recently read about someone who does the same thing with one dollar bills (and have recently started that as well).

I also have a thing set up with my debit card where each time I use it, puts $1.00 into a separate savings account (I make sure to add it in when balancing)-- I have saved over $180.00 without even "trying" that way.

All money from yard sales or consignment sales go into our "disney bucket"--

 

[kristenrice]

In April 2010, I used up all of my accumulated rewards for our Easter trip to WDW. This "reset" my earnings to zero as of February 28, 2010.

From February 28, 2010 until February 28, 2011, I was able to accumulate enough "free" money to pay for our ENTIRE spring break trip to Hilton Head Island!

Here's a summary of what I acquired in 1 year...

**$500 in AMEX Blue Sky rewards (paid for one night at Residence Inn on the way home and $400 in resort charges at HHI including bike rental, dolphin tour, kayak trip, refillable mugs, Kids Nite Out, 2 community hall activities and multiple adult beverages)
**$150 in Disney Visa Rewards (added to the $400 AMEX rewards to cover the remaining room charge, and also bought a few souvenirs for the kids)
**$150 in Marriott Gift Cards earned from MyPoints (paid for 2 nights at the Fairfield Inn in Gatlinburg, TN on the way to HHI)
**$25 Discover Card Gift Card (used towards groceries at Wal-Mart)
**$10 Wal-Mart gift card (reward for an online survey that I took, used towards groceries)
**$40 Visa gift card that was a black Friday rebate from my Norton purchase (used towards groceries)
**$50 TGI Fridays gift card (earned from Sunshine Rewards, used towards dinner in Gatlinburg, TN)
**$700 in Sunshine Rewards (I put this in my PayPal account and used the PayPal debit card to pay for the gas in the truck and all of our other expenses, like food on the road, a wagon ride at the GSM National Park and dinner out at HHI)

What a great feeling it was to take our family of 4 on an 8-night vacation without having to touch our bank account. We did not deprive ourselves either, as you can see. We could have opted to spend a lot in Gatlinburg, but the kids loved the national park and we ended up spending the entire day in Cades Cove.

I will add that we are DVC owners so having a 1BR villa at HHI for 5 nights helped with the budgeting for this trip. I'm looking forward to our next trip in 2013 and I'm going to start saving now. I'd love to do another "free" trip!

 

[bookgirl]

I don't spend change, there's $300 in my WDW popcorn bucket right now.

Also I take any extra money or left overs from my paycheck and put them imediatley in a seperate place. Out of sight is out of mind. I usually divide it between a few different saving goals (new tv, trips, household upgrades, emergency fund, etc) some is in my official savings account for emergency access, some in my deposit box for long term use, some at home in cash for quick needs or current spending).

The trick is to assign money to go certain 'places' and to leave it there. Check out money envelope systems or excel spreadsheets. If you know where you're money IS and where it GOES it's much easier to save.

 

[Empress]

The way I'm doing it is:

1. Subtract my bills, gas and grocery and see what I have left for the pay period in incidental spending money. From that, I determine how much I can spare and still get through til next payday. i.e non mortgage pay periods I put in 100.00, mortgage pay periods I only put in 20.00.
It's slow going, but the fund is growing.

2. Any time I have everything I need and I see money in the account, I transfer 10 or 15 into the disney acct.

3. SPARE CHANGE--- I have collected 90.00 just by going through the couch, under the beds, in the drawers, in the cars, through my purse, my hubby's pockets on a regular basis... you'd be amazed how much it adds up.

 

[Cin]

I have a vacation savings account set up at the credit union and part of my paycheck goes straight into that. And then everyone knows I save every penny I get for Disney I have a large "cat" piggy bank for change, (even hubby puts his change into the cat bank (but I've seen him take out too for pizza delivery tip) but back to the topic, ... so I save all birthday money, Christmas money, and a portion of the tax return for my Disney trip. I can't take a trip as often as I'd like because life and life expenses get in the way, but it's how I try to put back for my magical trips.

 

[crisi]

I transfer money into my savings account monthly for large short term expenses like vacations, or a new driveway, or a new car. Long term expenses (college, retirement) have special accounts.

 

[Tinkerbellie16]

We have the kids accounts that they save for their trip (we make them pay for their portion of the trip) and our own savings accounts that are for vacations and other extras. After paying everything off each month (all bills) and setting aside money for retirement (15% of our gross income into 401k, IRA, and Roth IRAs), we put the rest into our savings accounts and distribute it as follows - 25% in kids accounts, 25% in our savings accounts, & 50% in our high interest online account (but that is our emergency fund).

And we also use any extra credit card points and dollars, gifts we receive during the year, hotel and air points, etc. toward our vacation. We also keep an eye out on any vacation deals we can find - airfare, hotels, etc. Based on what we have and can afford, then we choose the right vacation for us.

 

[susan730]

Decide the cost of the trip and figure out how many weeks you have until you leave. Make sure that much money gets put away every week. Also, begin a change bucket for everyone to deposit their extra change into. This can add up quickly and be used toward souveniers. Have a great time!

 

[rainyday77]

- I have an automatic transfer of $300 a month into our holiday account
- we collect spare change and deposit it a few times a year
- if dollar bills have been sitting in the house for a few weeks I throw them into the piggy bank as well.
- we get between .5 and .25 cents for recycling pop bottles and milk containers in Canada so this goes into the fund
- the odd items I sell online goes into this fund (baby items)
- we get money for Christmas from my parents which goes towards our flights
- this year we plan to cut back on Christmas gifts as our toy room is already overflowing. We are also asking the grandparents to cut back on the toys they buy the girls and give them a bit of money instead to go towards their park passes or gifts to buy at the parks
- we book a good neighbour hotel across the street from Disneyland to save on hotel costs as the Disney hotels are outrageously priced!
- I find it easier to save money once we have a plan to go to Disneyland as this helps motivate me to spend less!