The Save Money for Disney Thread (Tips Included)

[Gisele]

I agree, for I too, see nothing wrong in stating ones interest for receiving gift cards, in lieu of an actual product, for a gift.
I tell people often, that I would love to receive a Target gift card or one for Macy's, for my birthday or Christmas, Halloween, etc.,now do they listen? well not so far, but hey at least the word is out! seriously.

 

[abish19]

Thanks for your replies! I'll put the word out (my birthday's next month) that Disney Gift Cards would be appreciated.

I think part of the reason people are uneasy about giving gift cards is that the recipient knows exactly how much the giver spent...or didn't spend! For example: we have 5-6 graduation open houses we're attending this year, and gift-giving is becoming expensive! If I only give $25 each, that's still $150. I could probably purchase something really nice, but less expensive, and give that instead.

With a Disney gift card, you do have to purchase at least $25.

I will still ask!

Thanks again!

 

[i<3tink]

Glad to hear it I<3tink. That's the idea, brainstorm, put our heads together and find a way to visit the Mouse again! hehe

Thanks we are taking our 2 children for the first time in August, with all these great ideas maybe we will be able to go longer than just a weekend, the only thing I have been doing is saving change. We have a big hawaiian punch bottle almost full!

 

[teacher9702]

We are taking our two kids for the first time next June. We don't have to worry about our rooms as a friend of the family is a DVC and is getting us our rooms. So far I have a little over $1300 saved up. Here is how I have been saving:

1. My son is no longer in need of a babysitter during the day so that $60 goes into the account.

2. We save up our pennies in a big pickle jar. I would do other change but since we are a one income family during the summer I need all of the change I can get. The kids have a ball when they find a penny because they know it goes in the Disney jar.

3. I save all aluminum cans. Here we are paid by the pound. Where I go gives 78 cents per pound.

4. I take $25 out of my paycheck and $10 out of my husband's paycheck. That amounts to $90 per month.

Since I started saving later than I wanted we won't have as much saved up as I thought. I just want to go down and let my kids have fun and get what they want without having to say "no". This is our first family vacation and I don't know when we will get on another one. Money is extremely tight in our household and my kids do without a lot of stuff. I just can't wait to take them.

 

[RichieTruxillo]

Hey guys, I have officially started residency and I am down to little to no time haha. Go figure. Anyway, I found out I get reimbursed for moving expenses so I'll be throwing a few more bones into the Disney pot. My ebay affiliate stores scored a few sales yesterday also, netting me 16 bucks. Not bad for autopilot as I haven't touched them in 2 weeks. Richie's Bridal brought in 3 of those sales alone.

August and September are going to be two very tight months but we'll manage.

keep on saving people!

 

[RichieTruxillo]

4 more sales on ebay affiliate stores today, though money is going to have to go toward power bill this month. I did put a couple extra bucks in the kitty though.

 

[PaDisney02]

I opened a new account with my bank...it is a "way-to-save" account. Every purchase I make with my debit/check card, an extra dollar gets added to my purchase and deposited into the "way to save" account. I think its a pretty good idea.

 

[2bagator]

Great posts, many tips for what i need to be doing to save more money for Mickey!

 

[RichieTruxillo]

I opened a new account with my bank...it is a "way-to-save" account. Every purchase I make with my debit/check card, an extra dollar gets added to my purchase and deposited into the "way to save" account. I think its a pretty good idea.

What bank do you have this at? Is it Wachovia that is doing that promotion?

 

[cruisnfamily]

What bank do you have this at? Is it Wachovia that is doing that promotion?

yUP, It's Wachovia. I opened one back in February and I average about $50 per month. It also transfers a $1 for every automatic transaction and I do lots of those!

 

[bettyann29]

yUP, It's Wachovia. I opened one back in February and I average about $50 per month. It also transfers a $1 for every automatic transaction and I do lots of those!

Is there a maximum that they will transfer??

Just wondering as I have a Wachovia at the end of my street and Ive been looking for a new bank.. I use my bankcard ALOT! so this would be sweet, but curious if there is a disclaimer for a max amount and also is there only a certain time line that they are doing this?? Does the promotion stop?

 

[GOOFY4DONALD]

I have an OT question. I would love to keep one of the trackers going for our trip but I would rather keep it on my homepage rather than post it on the message board. Does anyone know where I can find one? If this even makes sense.

 

[cruisnfamily]

Is there a maximum that they will transfer??

Just wondering as I have a Wachovia at the end of my street and Ive been looking for a new bank.. I use my bankcard ALOT! so this would be sweet, but curious if there is a disclaimer for a max amount and also is there only a certain time line that they are doing this?? Does the promotion stop?

It's your own $$ they are transfering. Not theirs. So I'm sure it will go on forever. It's kind of a take off of BoAs "keep the change" except they do a $1 instead of just the change.
The account pays 5percent interest though and at the end of the first year they will also give you a 5 percent bonus based on how much you have in the account at the time.
You can make withdrawals(but it would be smart not to because of that 5percent bonus after 1 year) but the only deposits you can make are automatic deposits or the $ per transaction. No regular deposits. Here's a link and here's a cut and paste....apparently the bonus is for 3 years, not just the first year:
Here's how it works.—View Demo

We'll transfer $1 from your Wachovia checking account to your Way2Save account when you:

* Make Check Card purchases.
* Pay bills online, including through Online Banking with BillPay note 1.
* Set up automatic debits made from your checking account.

To build balances even faster, you can set up an automatic transfer, up to $100 each month, from your checking account to your Way2Save account.
Get paid to save.

We want to help you save. So, for the first three years, Wachovia will give you something most basic savings accounts don't—an annual bonus. note 2

The first year, we'll give you a 5 percent bonus on what you've socked away. Keep saving, and in the second and third years, we'll pay a 2 percent bonus on the dollars you have contributed within each year. In addition, for the first year, you'll earn 5.00% APY on every dollar saved, and 2.00% APY on the second and third years of your savings.

 

[thymed]

The Disney Rewards card is great for booking the vacations and getting 0% interest for 6 months BUT there are other rewrad cards out thre they pay better. Discover has one and Citibank has two you can research them online google cah back reward credit cards.
The tooth fairy always brings Disney Dollars which help with buying stuff for the kids on vacation.
Any money you get back in coupons or rebates or rewards should go towards the next vacation.
I have earned hundreds with a rewards program online.
It all adds up!!! Keep saving

 

[vargas17]

I have been reading over the tips to save for the past few days. I had already started dropping all of my change in a container and started doing the two sided check registry tip. Last night we got some Mickey's Clubhouse stickers for my son to decorate a jug for change. He has never ever paid attention to money or change before. We labeled the jug his "toodles" jug since that is one of his favorite parts of the cartoon. Today he finds a penny and brings it to me. The first thing out of his mouth is "toodles". He knew exactly what he wanted to do with the money. I was shocked yet pleasently surprised.

 

[RichieTruxillo]

Ok, been re-certifying on ACLS and PALS the last couple days so it's been no time for me.

I did manage to get up a new website for saving my pennies. Revenue is driven by banner ads and google ads. Pretty much generic diet information from RSS feeds from other article sites. Should be self-maintaining. Did it as a project. Had a couple more ebay sales today too. Nothing flashy but all the articles should come up without errors now.

Also had a payout from the yahoo search thing (#5 on my list) today, but it will go toward paying for groceries this week until I get my first paycheck.

Now, I got a fence to bury in the yard. Keep on saving!

 

[RichieTruxillo]

the Disney rewards program is pretty good if you pay off your entire balance every month.

 

[disneymom3]

I confess to not having read the whole thread so if someone has touched on this I apologize. I just don't have the ability to do it today as my eyes are tired.

Anyway, we have an ING account but any savings acct attached to your checking account will do. I have it set to automatically take out a certain amount to round DOWN to the nearest hundred every time DH gets paid. For instance, let's say his paycheck is $252 every two weeks. On the following Monday, ING deducts $52. In my head I think of DH as being paid $200 each pay check and we NEVER miss that money. Here is the proof of that--and it's kind of scary!!--ING will only do this for 6 months at a time and then you have to reactivate it. Well, I didn't realize that and we went like 3 months without this happening. (You can see I am not so good with balancing the checkbook here!) At any rate, we never noticed that we had an extra $100+ coming into the account every month. So the old adage that you don't miss money you never had is clearly true.

So, my suggestion is automatic savings!

 

[mkaccountant]

I did not realize ING would round down paychecks. That is a great idea. I am going to look into that. I do that anyway with DH's check just so he gets to "save" a little spending money, this would allow him to really save.

 

[cruisnfamily]

I confess to not having read the whole thread so if someone has touched on this I apologize. I just don't have the ability to do it today as my eyes are tired.

Anyway, we have an ING account but any savings acct attached to your checking account will do. I have it set to automatically take out a certain amount to round DOWN to the nearest hundred every time DH gets paid. For instance, let's say his paycheck is $252 every two weeks. On the following Monday, ING deducts $52. In my head I think of DH as being paid $200 each pay check and we NEVER miss that money. Here is the proof of that--and it's kind of scary!!--ING will only do this for 6 months at a time and then you have to reactivate it. Well, I didn't realize that and we went like 3 months without this happening. (You can see I am not so good with balancing the checkbook here!) At any rate, we never noticed that we had an extra $100+ coming into the account every month. So the old adage that you don't miss money you never had is clearly true.

So, my suggestion is automatic savings!

I did not realize ING would round down paychecks. That is a great idea. I am going to look into that. I do that anyway with DH's check just so he gets to "save" a little spending money, this would allow him to really save.

Me either

Details on this please.....is your checking at ING too or just the savings? How do they know what the deposit is and how much to pull? Or do you just say "take $52 every other week"? If that's what you're doing I don't see why you need to renew it as I've had an automatic amount pulled out of my checking by them every week forever now.