Saving for Disney?

[profa]

We take one big vacation each year and a few smaller ones. Th big one is paid w/ by the tax refund.
But for extras I belong to 3 swap sites on FB and I regularly make $100+ /mo selling kids clothes there.
We don't eat out much to save for traveling.
We buy everything on credit and pay it off each month to accumulate air miles.
kids and I go to CA SAt for 5 days. I am a teacher and passed a national boards exam and earned a small stipend this yr and so I chose to spend it on this extra trip.
For summer we are all 5 flying. I read on DIS about the special SWA was having so DH and I both got credit cards and we each get 50K miles. That should cover 4 of us.
We also balance the trips w/ 1 meal out and the rest packed. Last yr we drove to DL (11 day road trip from WA) and it was great to bring food and souvenirs from home.

 

[AshleeH]

For our Disneyland trip, we've had it in the works for 5 years, so we've just been putting money away for it.

We are wanting to do a Disney Cruise to Alaska in a couple of years - significantly more money to save. Our two biggest plans:

$5 Savings Plan: Every time you have a $5 bill, you put it in a jar - never spend it. It adds up quickly.

Disney Gift Cards - we have purchased hundreds in all increments (anywhere from $20-$100). I buy at least one every week - minimum of $50 for the week - you don't realize what you waste $50 on in a week until you're putting it toward something specific. An amazing amount of money saved in a short amount of time!

 

[Mr Snappy]

Really good ideas.

Let me also state how the "change jar" can make a nice difference. I have a large dry pasta glass storage thing next to my where i put my watch and wallet at the end of every night. I throw my change from the day in to it and am amazed how much it adds up every year. I am able to usually get around $200 from the jar the week before the trip. That is the money i keep in my pocket to pay for those little things during the week like McDonalds, Gas, IN-N-OUT, parking, etc.

$200 may not seem like much, but it keeps $200 off of a credit card.


Here is anothe thing that saves us HUGE MONEY....we bought a time-share in Anaheim. We have a two-bedroom apartment/suite at Dolphin's cove. It literally cost me $235 (not a typo) and I have to pay yearly maintenance of $835. The first year the maintenance was paid.

We would stay at a nicer hotel that would run about $200.00 per night, so a week would run about $1600+ and we were never as comfortable as we are now. With the $800 we save on that, we pay a substantial part of our airfare from KC.

Diffinitely not a solution that works for everyone, but it has saved us a ton of money. The nice part is that if we decided to take a year off from SoCal, I can rent my week out for around $1500.

Another place we saved big money was using costcotravel.com for our rental car. This does not always work as they only provide massive discounts if the rental companies have big car inventories very close to your trip. Here is what I do, I make a reservation early with National Car rental (my preferred company) so I am guaranteed a car. Then, i watch costco weekly to try to get a better deal. In October my National reservation would have run $300. Costco ended up costing me $97.00 (total, including taxes and fees)

My suggestion is to attack every area of your spend and constantly look to reduce costs. Coupons, credit card offeres, discount books, web sites,....just keep at it!

 

[profa]

For our Disneyland trip, we've had it in the works for 5 years, so we've just been putting money away for it.

We are wanting to do a Disney Cruise to Alaska in a couple of years - significantly more money to save. Our two biggest plans:

$5 Savings Plan: Every time you have a $5 bill, you put it in a jar - never spend it. It adds up quickly.

Disney Gift Cards - we have purchased hundreds in all increments (anywhere from $20-$100). I buy at least one every week - minimum of $50 for the week - you don't realize what you waste $50 on in a week until you're putting it toward something specific. An amazing amount of money saved in a short amount of time!

If you have a target red card ( I have the debit card; no fee and no cost) you get 5% off your Disney gift cards. And last June they had a special where they were marked 5% off already so I got them a $50 card for $40. I would love to see that deal again!

 

[SA mom]

We charge every purchase to our SPG (Starwood Preferred Guest) American Express Card. Starwood Hotels run Swan and Dolphin, as well as Sheraton, Westin, etc. We pay everything off at the end of the month. Then we book on points. Our last two Disney Vacations (we go about every other year) have been with free lodging. We usually stay 6 nights.

With that said, we are pretty disciplined with spending in general. I try to go to the grocery store only once a week, cutting down on those impulse buys. I make a menu and shopping list and stick to it.

We try to charge our insurance, any major repairs, all our medical co-pays, everything we can to add to our points for vacation.

 

[AshleeH]

If you have a target red card ( I have the debit card; no fee and no cost) you get 5% off your Disney gift cards. And last June they had a special where they were marked 5% off already so I got them a $50 card for $40. I would love to see that deal again!

I know, I'm so jealous about this! The nearest Target to us is 75 minutes away .

 

[Greysword]

Carolyn's question was the same I had a while back. I see a Disney vacation as having four main components: Transportation, Lodging, Food, Entertainment (including park tickets).

I've spent some time researching these area, and I've found a way to mitigate lodging (via joining DVC), food (via DVC, that is eat in the room with the full kitchen and ask for Disney cards for Christmas/birthday), entertainment (a little harder, but ticket discounts are key). The trickiest (and high cost) was transportation. This started my quest for low cost airfare (and possibly car rentals) to Disney, and this is what I found.

It might be harder for Canadians, but a good way to offset transportation (and some lodging) costs is to leverage your credit.

There are several travel blogs that talk about how to use daily spend to gain credit card signup bonuses.

For instance, in January we signed up for the US Airways card from Barclays bank that provided 40,000 US Airways miles on first spend. I charged $7 on it for something, and received the points. Since it has no annual fee for the first year, I have no out of pocket for 2013, and can cancel as 2014 approaches if I don't use the benefits. US Airways is in the Star Alliance, so it can yield 2 round trip tickets on US Airways, United, Air Canada, or another partner.

I also signed up for the Chase Sapphire Preferred card. It gives 40,000 Ultimate Rewards points after $3,000 spend in 3 months. UR points can be used to buy tickets out right (about $400 for the 40k), or transferred to Chase partners like Southwest Airlines or United for airfare.

Between the two, we will have 80,000 miles for and Star Alliance carrier reward ticket (United, US Airways, Air Canada, etc), which is at least three round trip tickets for the cost of normal daily spend (groceries, gas, cell phones, etc). The trick is to pay the cards off at the end of the month as if it were cash.

In reality for our trip in May, two of the three tickets (for DW & DD) were free using Delta miles we received during a promotion and meeting daily spend on the Delta card.

ETA: a better option than the Disney card by Chase (which I have too) is a straight 2% cash back card.

 

[KristinRiess]

I also stay at home with the kids. Being Canadian I get the $100 monthly child credit. I was using the monthly $200 for kid stuff, but realized if I didn't we never really noticed that much of a strain on the bank account. I started cashing the cheque and stashing it away. My husband never noticed that our grocery/Walmart bill went up.

Then, every time I went to Walmart/superstore/anywhere with cash back I would do either $20 or $40 cash back. All of that got stashed away. I also have my own business making paper goods (cards, birthday banners, party supplies) and any cash order would get tucked away as well. I finally told my husband what I've been doing, and he's happy I now have $2,000 stored away to help pay for the trip. I really reccomended the cash back because it doesn't seem like much but it does add up quickly.

 

[larina]

My kids are in on the saving too. They love saving for "the next time we go" to DL. My youngest is 4 and doesn't even realize there's actually a date, but he's still excited to have his own money when we go, lol). I also have a thing for change in my room by where my jewelery is kept. I use a DL popcorn bucket, the kids have Disney banks. I cash our change in for Disney gift cards every so often. We have about $400 worth so far for the December trip (we decided on Christmas that we want to go next Christmas) and its only been about 2 months. Thing is, nobody in the house spends change, we all put it in the bucket.

 

[NMcowboy]

It's interesting to read all post and see how people save.. and if you really start to compare, the most important thing to notice is discipline, and consistancy. for my 2011 trip, I had recently paid off an ATV (my toy) and instead of canceling the auto deposit into a seperate bank account for the monthly payment, i just left it the same as obviously after 2 years of paying it off, i never saw that money, so i learned how to budget around it.

1. auto deposit into bank account. Remember... discipline!! don't touch it, it's your vacation money.

2. another thing mentioned here.. Spare change, change jar, even dollar bills. if it's less than $5 bill in my pocket or wallet, i throw it into the jar. you would be AMAZED!! as to how fast this adds up.

3. any yard sales, garage sales, etc. deposit into vacaction fund..

While mostly all people here have the same idea, i did this for 1 1/2 years, and i had enough for a PAID IN FULL Disney vacation. And as we all know.... it can add up quickly!! NOTHING is cheap in DISNEYLAND and it can quickly escalate into thousands. During that time i saved enough for a 8 night stay at the GCH, w/ 6 day park hoppers (when they had'em), 1 day at universal studios, roundtrip flights, rental car, food money, souvenir money, without spending an extra dime. and still had some left over. and yes....since that last 2011 trip... i'm doing it again in 2013!!! YEEEHAAA!!!! Good luck!! and remember... DISCIPLINE!!!!

 

[VandVsmama]

Over the last few months, we switched our cable tv to basic cable. cancelled the home phone line and now just use our cell phones....those two things saved us $125/month.

 

[jcatron243]

1. We use our income tax. Both DH and I claim 0 at the single rate in order to "force saving" We have 2 kiddos. We Always get enough plus to pay in full for our vacation.

2. The kids have to earn their souvenir money. 7 and 9 and so far they are up to about $85 each(we leave in ten days). The lesson is to save money for something great. They are in charge of paying for their own items as well. (Great grandma has given me $50 gift cards for each them for doing such a great job saving too.)

3. I book early. Use AAA for hotels (well worth the cost) and shop around for good deals.

 

[Carolynleanne]

Over the last few months, we switched our cable tv to basic cable. cancelled the home phone line and now just use our cell phones....those two things saved us $125/month.

We recently did this too! We actually got rid of cable and our home phone. Got Netflix instead and it's saving us close to $100 a month!

 

[Astylla]

My husband and I have been buying Disney gift cards every paycheck at Safeway since they count towards gas rewards and stowing them away. We plan to have about $300-$350 in gift cards to pay for our meals for the most part or other small things.

 

[DizMe]

I just saw last night that Southwest renewed the deal where you get 50,000 points for getting their Visa. I'd first read about it on the Budget Board. I applied online and got instant approval. I know it's not for everyone, but it gives me enough points to fly my whole family to DL! I plan to use the card for hotel etc and accrue more points

 

[NokOnHarts]

I just saw last night that Southwest renewed the deal where you get 50,000 points for getting their Visa. I'd first read about it on the Budget Board. I applied online and got instant approval. I know it's not for everyone, but it gives me enough points to fly my whole family to DL! I plan to use the card for hotel etc and accrue more points

We got the card last year with the 50,000 points making it possible for us to fly to WDW. I've loved the card! As long as you can pay off your card every month never paying an interest charge, this is an awesome deal. I also do surveys through e-rewards and get 500 SW points for each $25 I earn - this has added up to several thousand pts. It was a great choice for us to get the card since we just treat it like cash / pay it off each month.

 

[awdsmama]

Speaking of saving "found" money...I looked on my states unclaimed property website and found out that I have money there waiting for me to claim it!! It has an old address on it so must not have forwarded when I moved. It says it's under $50 (could be $3 for all I know)....but still it's money I didn't have before so in the fund it goes!!

 

[DizMe]

We got the card last year with the 50,000 points making it possible for us to fly to WDW. I've loved the card! As long as you can pay off your card every month never paying an interest charge, this is an awesome deal. I also do surveys through e-rewards and get 500 SW points for each $25 I earn - this has added up to several thousand pts. It was a great choice for us to get the card since we just treat it like cash / pay it off each month.

Thanks for the info! I have a cc I pay off every month, but it isn't a reward card so it seems like such a waste. I've been trying to decide what card to get and figured I might as well try this one. I have e-rewards, too, so woohoo!! Good deal!! I've not been very good about doing the surveys but now I'll have more incentive.

Speaking of saving "found" money...I looked on my states unclaimed property website and found out that I have money there waiting for me to claim it!! It has an old address on it so must not have forwarded when I moved. It says it's under $50 (could be $3 for all I know)....but still it's money I didn't have before so in the fund it goes!!

This happened to me once and I found out I had $200 coming! It was a nice surprise.

 

[NokOnHarts]

Thanks for the info! I have a cc I pay off every month, but it isn't a reward card so it seems like such a waste. I've been trying to decide what card to get and figured I might as well try this one. I have e-rewards, too, so woohoo!! Good deal!! I've not been very good about doing the surveys but now I'll have more incentive.


With how many great reward cards there are out there it makes sense to only use those. I closed my other card that was not a rewards card. What my DH and I do for points is use our SW card for visa purchases and get points for airline miles, and for places that take Amex (like Costco, who does not take visa) we have Amex's blue sky card which is great. No annual fee and you get a $100 credit for every 7500 points (many cards it's 10,000) which you can use on anything. Sometimes we use the credit on a hotel, airline fees or vacation packages. Great way to get the best of both worlds! Again, as long as people pay it off each month. I don't advocate racking up CC debt. But with the points you get for buying what you need anyway, it's really helped our vacations be affordable! I love both cards for how easy they are to redeem points.

 

[taylor3297]

How do you guys find the extra cash for a Disney trip? Do you put something aside monthly, skip certain activities or just charge it when the time comes?

I'm a stay at home mom so we live on my husbands income. However, I've started as a consultant for a cloth diaper company and found it to be giving us a few extra hundred dollars a month in the bank. We've set up a special Disney find and all the money that I earn now is going there.
It sure is fun saying things like "This month I've earned enough for one 5 day pass!" Or "this will pay for our character breakfast!" I think it makes the excitement build

What I do is when I pay for something with cash, I put all change in a bank when I get home. It something costs $5.01, I will give the cashier either a $10 or $6 depending on the bills I have. So the .99 I get back goes in my bank.

Also, at the end of the day, if I have 5 one dollar bills I will take 3 of them an put the bills in a special container. Occasionally, I will put a $5 or $10 in the special container. When the bank fills up, I then take all of the money and deposit it into my savings account. It really adds up over time.