Tips for saving money for Disney. List your tips here.

[MsDisney23]

When my cleaning lady moved to another state, I decided not to hire a new one. I now clean my own house and pay myself!

 

[disneydreamersx4]

The best way we save for Disney World is to wait 3 or 4 years to go back

 

[dtr_angel]

We never pay interest on credit cards. I try to use rewards to our advantage so we are actually making money off of them - we just use whatever card works the best for us.

When shopping online I use ebates, mypoints, or links through my credit cards to earn the most % back or points towards free gift cards on things we need anyway.

I am a serious couponer and CVSer. Thanks for CVS, I've gotten so much stuff that we need for free, or better than free so things like toothpaste and shampoo don't have to be worked into our budget.

Any extra money we get, like rebates goes into our secondary savings account towards vacations. Right now, our next vacations are pretty far off so the money will go towards my tuition or extra car payments.

We don't eat out unless we have to or its a special occasion, and try to get the best deal possible.

As far as shopping goes, I stopped buying things just because they were really good deals. Not only do I save money this way, but my house stays less cluttered.

I switched our car insurance and homeowners insurance to save money. I struck out with the cable company and unfortunately they have a monopoly on my town which still makes me really mad, but saving on other things has helped.

We very rarely go to the movies. We are huge fans of redbox, and blockbuster express and get as many free rentals as possible. Since we have digital cable, starz on demand is free for us to watch so we take advantage of that.

I keep very organized Excel spreadsheets on our spending which helps me track trends and know where we need to adjust.

I'm sure there is more, but that is all I can think of right now!

 

[dtr_angel]

I save all my change. I turn it in once a year to my bank that will accept it without a fee.

Also, my husband travels a lot for work. He will get a per diem for each day that he is gone but he never spends that much. So he'll figure out what he spends and what he "earned" and we'll put that difference in savings.

I keep a certain minimum in the checking account. Once the bills are paid, I transfer any extra to savings where I get better interest.

We do these things all the time, not just for trips. In fact, we've been doing this for years now and next Spring we plan on paying cash for a new car.

My husband just did that! He has been away for training for 6 weeks (he's coming home today, yay!!) he was given $20/day for food and made a game out of spending less than that so we actually made a little bit of money off of it. The best part is, he charged all of his food purchases to our Disney Visa. For April-June we had the 3x rewards if you spend over $500 each month on food & gas. Normally, we would never spend that much on food and gas, but thanks to him being gone and basically getting paid to eat, we earned points for those purchases and actually got the 3x rewards.

 

[skysmom99]

Loving all the great tips! I'm new to saving for Disney trips; we're going on our first family trip this fall. With advice from a friend who was on the Dis, I started doing a few things w/in the last year.

Rewards sites: I'll have a $50 Disney gc from one, $30 check from another, and $100 Rainforest gc from a third.

Saving change: This will pay for a character meal for the 7 of us (taking my parents with us).

Bottle returns: I still have them stacking up in the garage so I don't really know how much that will add up to.

CC rewards: I'm saving those for pre-paid gift cards, too. I'll also have about $50 from my Disney Visa.

Most of the cost of this trip is coming from income tax refunds. I've put aside $$ the last two years toward airfare, resort, and park tickets. (I'm one of those weird people who let the gov't take the money up front because it is much easier to not spend it that way. )

 

[erincon23]

I save Coke Rewards points. We use them sometimes to rent Blockbuster movies or games, and they've had deals on there for free Universal tickets. I won't buy Pepsi or anything else even if it's on sale -- not going to sacrifice my Diet Coke -- but the Coke Rewards makes it worthwhile (and my parents and in-laws also buy Coke products, so they give me their codes as well).

 

[LovesTimone]

2. Four years ago I joined a rewards / survey site (check the DIS rewards board, lots of info there). I make approximately $50/month taking surveys online.

I must be blind I can't find this.
Can someone please help!!!!
Thanks

 

[hsmamato2]

yes,PLEASE tell,what rewards sites? I've looked at a couple,but WHAT sites do Disney GC,etc??????

 

[gwiz5kids]

Loving all the great tips! I'm new to saving for Disney trips; we're going on our first family trip this fall. With advice from a friend who was on the Dis, I started doing a few things w/in the last year.

Rewards sites: I'll have a $50 Disney gc from one, $30 check from another, and $100 Rainforest gc from a third.

what reward sites are you using for such great rewards?

 

[cglaura]

2. Four years ago I joined a rewards / survey site (check the DIS rewards board, lots of info there). I make approximately $50/month taking surveys online.

I must be blind I can't find this.
Can someone please help!!!!
Thanks

yes,PLEASE tell,what rewards sites? I've looked at a couple,but WHAT sites do Disney GC,etc??????

I use Sunshine Reward, sometimes Ebates if it is not offered on SR.

They have 6 daily surveys available right now. Even if you can only get 2 per day...that is around $50. If you can get all 6 (not likely, but some days possible) it would be $4 per day. I try to get at least 2...one of the .8 or .9, then one of the .6 = average of $1.50 per day...then with the extra days of getting more than 2 surveys, I average $50.

Not all have disney gift cards as rewards. I usually put mine in paypal. Then I can buy a giftcard online. If not paypal or disney gc, get a card for something you'd buy (cvs, walgreens, walmart, etc). Then take the cash you would have spent and put it in your disney vacation fund.

Here is the rewards board:
http://www.disboards.com/forumdisplay.php?f=35

HTH!

 

[gwiz5kids]

what reward sites are you using for such great rewards?

 

[DawnM]

We live pretty frugally as it is.

Thankfully I have 2 weeks at Disney paid for already and hope to add another week in there somewhere! Will see what I can save.

PS: I did just sell about $300 in stuff on ebay, but that wasn't really for Disney.....or maybe in a round about way.....I used the $300 for some "toys" I had been wanting and that way didn't use money from the bank account.......

 

[disneychrista]

I have looked into some of these rewards site and most/all seem to be for shopping online...can you earn real rewards just for surveys?

 

[cglaura]

I have looked into some of these rewards site and most/all seem to be for shopping online...can you earn real rewards just for surveys?

Yes. I can't speak for others, but on SR, just go to the link on top menu "Surveys"

You have to qualify for them. Survey companies look for info from certain demographics, so you'll only get one if you fall into whatever they are looking for on whatever day. ie...female, age xx, w/ kids, in midatlantic region. But there are tons added all the time. Even if you don't qualify for one in the morning, you probably will sometime else in the day.

They are free to take, no money from you at all.

 

[Swimalie]

My husband just did that! He has been away for training for 6 weeks (he's coming home today, yay!!) he was given $20/day for food and made a game out of spending less than that so we actually made a little bit of money off of it. The best part is, he charged all of his food purchases to our Disney Visa. For April-June we had the 3x rewards if you spend over $500 each month on food & gas. Normally, we would never spend that much on food and gas, but thanks to him being gone and basically getting paid to eat, we earned points for those purchases and actually got the 3x rewards.

My husband sadly has to charge his travel stuff on his work credit card but occasionally he can get away with some of it on our Am. Express which we have rewards with.

 

[SnowWhite607]

Well, we pretty much do most of the above. Use local library as often as possible i.e. free kiddie DVD's, baby & mommy classes, books & music series is wonderful for the older kids. We do the play areas on rainy days (the mall, McD's, Chick-fil-a) and you can't beat the local parks. Now, we don't eat out often enough to really utilize the restaurant reward plans as we have stopped that and now only eat out once a month & have our own Mexican and Pizza nights. The kids love making their own pizzas and burritos, tacos, etc. it can get pretty interesting w/ the toppings sometimes . Oh yeah, we down sized our Directtv Pkg we no longer have HBO & Showtime but we still have our Sunday Ticket as WE ARE AND WILL ALWAYS BE DIE HARD NEW ORLEANS SAINTS FANS! In other words that is the only way we can see them here in the QC & we could not give up the games on Sundays. And yes, we have the "Disney World Money" as my kids say i.e. the gallon Hawaiian Punch jug where we put all coins and singles(1's & 5's) in. We are doing well so far we are on jug#3

I agree, we can give up eating out and buying books and movies but never, no never, give up the Saints!!

 

[lamb616]

I

I do surveys and also swagbucks. I am saving up enough points to earn gift cards for Christmas presents.

i'm doing the same thing. I have $400 in gift cards so far just since January and come November 1st which is when I usually start Xmas shopping -- however much I have in gift cards, I will put that amount into our WDW account.
(And I'm also in MA ).

I also set up a couple of auto transfers into savings accounts and I use my Citizens debit card (as credit, not debit) for EVERYTHING to get the points which I then trade in for cash. From 1/1 to 6/1 I earned enough points for $100 cash into savings (and I didn't consciously start using the card for points until March or April).

I also do the change in jars and rollw them every couple months.

 

[Our 2 Princesses]

The best way we save for Disney World is to wait 3 or 4 years to go back

So very true but so very hard!!

 

[eyor44]

I do lots of these things to save to get to Disney, but one way I save AT Disney is to buy kids meals. I can't eat a lot at one time, so the kids meals are perfect. Plus the carrot sticks and grapes are prepackaged so I can take them with me for later if I don't eat them right away.

 

[QVCshopper]

This may sound dumb, but I always check vending machines. Today, for example, I found $2 when I pushed the return button and another .50 cents just sitting inside the return slot. So, $2.50 for less than a minute of my time. I usually hit the ones at my YMCA, but I've also found cash at the food stores. Over the course of a month, I usually find $6, sometimes more. Most of it's just change lying around at the food store, mall, etc. Every penny gets put in my kids' piggy, which we then cash in at the bank. Plus, it's fun!

Also, do the summer reading programs. TD America gives kids $10 for reading 10 books (must have an account). Borders and B&N are giving 1 book for summer reading.