Saving (hiding) money away for trip

[margot31]

If you are going to be FL residents, you may be able to get good FL resident deals on both tickets and lodging.

Military is better than FL. So as long as military is being offered at the time and i get into the resort my husband wants to get into (cause now he is thinking AKL) we will try that. If military isn't than I will go with FL.

 

[tzolkin]

You don't have any access to an account with only your name on it? If not, you need to get one. I have a very part time job, but I also have my own credit card and own checking/savings accounts.

I don't agree with this at all.

Having separate/exclusive accounts is not a "need". I have no issue with people choosing to handle their finances in whatever manner works best for them. This may be your preference and it may work well for you, but that doesn't mean that it's the best/only option for every family.

 

[MariMama]

I don't agree with this at all.

Having separate/exclusive accounts is not a "need". I have no issue with people choosing to handle their finances in whatever manner works best for them. This may be your preference and it may work well for you, but that doesn't mean that it's the best/only option for every family.

My accounts are not exclusive (though I don't really know what that means). They aren't a secret and my DH has access to them. They are funded with his paycheck! LOLOL

The separate account is used for household and miscellaneous expenses. A woman should always have access to money in her marriage without having to go through her husband.

 

[manning]

If you go out to eat cut back, you'd be surprised how much you save. Start making meals from scratch, it isn't that hard. I laughed when my aunt announced she couldn't cook and my grand mother said "If you can read a cookbook you can cook" A lot of money can be saved there. Here's one item you can save a bundle on. You said you are expecting. Store bought baby food is expensive. You can make your own and save a ton of money. Youtube has videos on how to do it. Search "making baby food." This is later around 3-6 months.

 

[SunnieRN]

I also recommend Swagbucks. I've been doing it for three weeks and I've already cashed out a $25 Landrys gift card, a $50 target card and have $61 accumulated still. I did buy a few products, that I needed anyway, but that gave me more Swagbucks then I spent. I think it's great so far.

I also read another thread called Dimes for Disney. If you fill up a 2 liter bottle with dimes (which is much harder than it sounds), when the bottle is full,you will have between $500 and $700. So, now when I get change,I ask for it in dimes. I accumulated 14 today!

Also a thread here, on the budget board, called One Year to Save, started by Stayhomemom77 is full of great ideas.

Best of luck!! My son in law was in the army and wanted to go to WDW for one of his leaves from Iraq. We worked it out,over Easter and spring break, with only 30 days notice. Thank you for your service to our country.

 

[lilkimmyk]

Some things we do are when paying cash put the change in an old fish bowl, we get about $120 for that. I also save $5 bills. Anytime I have one it goes into the envelope. They add up fast. The other thing DH and I began this year is the one year savings challenge I found on Pinterest. At the end of the first week you put away $52, the second $51 and so on. I know this is a tough one to hide from him but maybe you can swing less, like$20 or so.

I wish I could offer some better ideas. I'm a SAHM as well and can never surprise DH with anything too expensive. You have a good amount of time until your trip and this is such a fun and thoughtful idea, I'm sure it will work out.

The Contemporary is on my Disney bucket list as well, have a great time and good luck!

 

[teller80]

Are you planning on all five of you being in one room? Or does the hotel have two bedroom suites? How much do you need to save?

To me, a good marriage is about communication, and I wouldn't be thrilled at all if my spouse decided to spend a significant amount of money w/o my input. We can afford to stay at a deluxe, but we prefer experiences instead - tours, mvmcp, cirque, etc. But this is something we decided together. Your spouse might want to save that money in your children's college fund or buy a pool or get a better car, but at least he'll have a say on where it'll be spent.

I also wouldn't be too happy that my spouse was able to hide money from me.

 

[margot31]

Are you planning on all five of you being in one room? Or does the hotel have two bedroom suites? How much do you need to save?

To me, a good marriage is about communication, and I wouldn't be thrilled at all if my spouse decided to spend a significant amount of money w/o my input. We can afford to stay at a deluxe, but we prefer experiences instead - tours, mvmcp, cirque, etc. But this is something we decided together. Your spouse might want to save that money in your children's college fund or buy a pool or get a better car, but at least he'll have a say on where it'll be spent.

I also wouldn't be too happy that my spouse was able to hide money from me.

Right now I am planning on all 5 of us to be in the same room so that way we can go into a deluxe resort. His mom will pitch some in but we won't tell her what her tab is cause we don't let her pay for certain things....if she pays for a meal or something or figures out how to use MDE than that is her thing. My husband knows I want to go again and have already pitched the idea of going next Oct. He knows I am looking at prices of moderates and WL. He knows I am talking to his mother about the idea. I have talked about going into a resort that he would love to go into and he knows the cost.

Last Dec I got my trip no kids and we stayed at WL so I could see the decorations every day. So to kind of say thank you to him I wanted to go to a resort he wanted to stay at. We could afford it at the end of day but we do like to find ways to save money too. He loves to be surprised but it is very hard to surprise him. He also knows I squirrel money away....I used to do it when I did work. My money was our slush fund. We put plenty into Roths, kids stuff...we are in a place right now where we are good.

 

[MommaBerd]

You didn't really ask for suggestions on how to handle this with your husband...but I'll chime in. If you DO want "open communication," I suggest telling him that you'd like to/are going to "squirrel away" some money for some special surprises for everyone on the trip. And maybe let him know (if you wanted to) some of your ideas of how you're going to save some of the money. Or not. That way you aren't "going behind his back" but you aren't letting him know what the surprise is. My DH would respect that and wouldn't pry - he knows that I like surprises and I like to plan surprises...and I like to find ways to save/be smart with money!

I do have one money-saving suggestion. I don't recall if you said how long your trip would be, but maybe you could do a split stay. So stay only one or two nights at Contemporary and the remainder of your trip at another resort. Or MY dream scenario would be that your Mom can stay with the kids for one night, and you and DH have a romantic one-night's stay at CR! (But that may not be your dream )


I wish you lots of success in your saving, whatever you choose to do!

 

[margot31]

You didn't really ask for suggestions on how to handle this with your husband...but I'll chime in. If you DO want "open communication," I suggest telling him that you'd like to/are going to "squirrel away" some money for some special surprises for everyone on the trip. And maybe let him know (if you wanted to) some of your ideas of how you're going to save some of the money. Or not. That way you aren't "going behind his back" but you aren't letting him know what the surprise is. My DH would respect that and wouldn't pry - he knows that I like surprises and I like to plan surprises...and I like to find ways to save/be smart with money!

I do have one money-saving suggestion. I don't recall if you said how long your trip would be, but maybe you could do a split stay. So stay only one or two nights at Contemporary and the remainder of your trip at another resort. Or MY dream scenario would be that your Mom can stay with the kids for one night, and you and DH have a romantic one-night's stay at CR! (But that may not be your dream )


I wish you lots of success in your saving, whatever you choose to do!

I can't even book the trip till after we move back to FL and know what his work schedule is going to be. He could be deployed at the time I would like to go. And at that point I won't be going. I have suggested that we make a Disney account and he said no, he would rather put that money to the saving's and the Roths because we could afford the disney trip when ready.

He knows I am planning a trip already. He knows I am already pricing things out. What he wouldn't know is when I go to make my phone call i will be making a reservation to a different resort than "planned" I make all the disney plans...he doesn't touch anything with them.

 

[tzolkin]

My accounts are not exclusive (though I don't really know what that means). They aren't a secret and my DH has access to them. They are funded with his paycheck! LOLOL

The separate account is used for household and miscellaneous expenses. A woman should always have access to money in her marriage without having to go through her husband.

I apologize if I misinterpreted your meaning, but I just went back and read your previous post and it still seems to me like you're staying two completely different things...

You don't have any access to an account with only your name on it? If not, you need to get one. I have a very part time job, but I also have my own credit card and own checking/savings accounts.

To me, the terms "only your name" and "my own" imply that those accounts are exclusively yours (yours is the only name on them and therefore you are the only person who can access them). But, in your other post you say your DH has access to the accounts. So I'm a bit confused which way you're suggesting the OP do things.

I absolutely agree with your more recent comment that a woman should have access to money within her marriage, but I don't see why she would need separate accounts to do so. I have complete access to everything in my marriage (I take care of the finances on a daily basis), but everything is jointly owned and my husband has access to all those accounts as well.

 

[MommaBerd]

Right - I guess my point was to let him know that you are going to find some ways to earn/scavenge/scrimp for some Disney "extras". I assumed y'all talked about and agreed upon a certain budget, which the CR would exceed. And thus the need for secrecy.
If you decide to do Perk, SB, or some of the other programs, you can only get GCs (right?) so that money is "protected " in GCs.

Finally, it's never too early to start saving, even if you don't get to go when you were hoping.

 

[Marionnette]

I can't even book the trip till after we move back to FL and know what his work schedule is going to be. He could be deployed at the time I would like to go. And at that point I won't be going. I have suggested that we make a Disney account and he said no, he would rather put that money to the saving's and the Roths because we could afford the disney trip when ready.

He knows I am planning a trip already. He knows I am already pricing things out. What he wouldn't know is when I go to make my phone call i will be making a reservation to a different resort than "planned" I make all the disney plans...he doesn't touch anything with them.

It sounds like your husband prefers to keep a close eye on the finances. He may not be crazy about household money being skimmed to divert to Disney when he already nixed the idea of a dedicated Disney account. I know that my husband would not be cool with that kind of secrecy.

However, mine does know about my rewards programs and gift card churning activity. He just didn't learn how lucrative it was until I had to declare it for our 2015 taxes. And since the income is in the form of GCs, it is pretty limited as to where it can be spent, so he is fine with it covering our Disney trips (although I have used the GCs for Christmas gifts, a great stroller for my nephew's little girl, a digital SLR and lenses for our recent cruise vacation, etc). Like your husband, mine leaves the travel plans up to me with discussions limited to where we will stay and when we will go and any ADRs that he would like to make.

You know your husband better than anyone here. If you feel that he will be delighted with the resort upgrade instead of annoyed by the deception (you, yourself, referred to it as "hiding" money in the title of this thread), then go for it. I just know how my husband would react if I hid thousands of dollars from him.

 

[knkmom]

I am a stay at home mom, so I don't have a paycheck coming in either. I get all our weekly grocery money in cash. Any money that does not get spent for the week I put in my vacation jar. My goal is to add $20 a week, sometimes I can do more sometimes less. It does mean more shopping around for sales and better budgeting, but I like that I am able to save up some money for fun extras.

This is me too! In my case though I opened a savings account at the bank inside my grocery store so any cash left gets directly deposited before I leave the store!

 

[katyjeka]

I was going to suggest sharing your plans with your dh with hopes that he may find little ways to help contribute to the fund. Maybe skip a coffee, have a less expensive lunch, etc... I try to use coupons, buy items when on sale and but this money aside for our trips. Its surprising how fast it can add up. I don't like to "hide" things from my husband as I'd hate for him to do it to me. Have fun planning.

 

[cruisingtwins]

I apologize if I misinterpreted your meaning, but I just went back and read your previous post and it still seems to me like you're staying two completely different things...



To me, the terms "only your name" and "my own" imply that those accounts are exclusively yours (yours is the only name on them and therefore you are the only person who can access them). But, in your other post you say your DH has access to the accounts. So I'm a bit confused which way you're suggesting the OP do things.

I absolutely agree with your more recent comment that a woman should have access to money within her marriage, but I don't see why she would need separate accounts to do so. I have complete access to everything in my marriage (I take care of the finances on a daily basis), but everything is jointly owned and my husband has access to all those accounts as well.

If you knew how many times friends and family members have been left with nothing because the husband emptied the bank accounts. That's one of the reasons Women should have an account with ONLY her name of it. Of course it will never happen to "you" but none of the people I knew thought it would happen to them.

 

[kelly622]

How nice That you'd like to do this for your husband, I'm always trying to squirrel away a little extra for special things like that! I have a couple of suggestions for you:
1. They say the average person is sitting on $1000 of sellable items in their home, try consigning, sell any useful items i.e. old furniture, kids clothes, books (try Amazon), DVDs, video games etc.

2. Research any reward credit cards that might help you attain your goal. There's a travel blog I follow mommypoints.com I think the chase ultimate rewards program is very good

3. As the others mentioned, keeps swaggin! If you have a couple of devices and put in a little time each day you can attain $ 75-100 plus a month.

4. Save your change! It'll add up, slip a dollar bill in sometimes too.

5. Lastly, this app has done wonders for my savings! It's like a Virtual change jar, great since most people use plastic rather than cash. It's called Acorns. I'm saving to Send my two teens on a high school band trip to Disney on n March. You link your most frequently used cards and it rounds every transaction up to the nearesr dollar and sweeps it into a savings account. You can also add small deposits as you wish, I chose to do a dollar a day. Every once in a while I'll throw an extra five dollars or $10 in on pay day. I started in November, and I now have $1100 in it!!! This is money I did not miss and would not have saved otherwise! This is a great saving tool for retirement as well.

Best of luck to you!

 

[Marionnette]

@kelly622 you might want to edit that link since referrals (invites) are not allowed.

 

[focusondisney]

Do you need to stay in the tower? As a previous poster suggested, the garden rooms are less. I checked prices for the 3rd week in Oct 2017 for 3 adults, 1 child & 1 infant. The most expensive courtyard view room at WL is $3919. The cheapest garden wing room at the Contemporary is $3700. You could plan & budget for that room at WL & book CR instead if he wouldn't care where your room is. Then you could surprise him & save $$!!!

 

[margot31]

Thank you to those who got the idea of where I was going with this post. I really appreciate the help and ideas.

By no means are we strapped for money. We live very comfortable even for military. Both my husband and I do look at the prices of Disney and the total cost for things. We did a great trip in Dec that we splurged on because it was for my birthday. So while we are no longer kid free for disney anymore I wanted to kind of give him a little something. He is willing to explore all options but I just wanted to try and say thanks for my last disney trip here is what I plan on doing but I would like it to be a surprised since its not often I get to pull one off and he enjoys them once and a while.