To those who have to seriously save for a Disney trip...

[FutureDisneyEventPlanner]

What is your plan of attack?

For me, I don't use credit cards, so I usually create a "vacation" savings account and put a little bit of money into it every few weeks.

 

[Eighty8Keys]

I do a combination of opening new credit cards and bank accounts to get the sign up bonuses, using my credit cards strategically to earn maximum rewards for my purchases without spending more than I normally would have (and never carrying a balance), using shopping portals like Ebates, and taking advantage of opportunities to buy discounted gift cards that I can use on vacation. I also have a small amount that gets transferred from my checking account into a vacation savings account to cover incidentals that aren’t covered by the above methods.

I was able to cover 75% of my last WDW trip this way. It’s the only way I’d be able to do the trip the way I want to do it. It’s become a challenge to see how much I can cover with free money.

 

[Cruising Engineer]

I use Ebates, RMN, Dosh, swagbucks for shopping items I need then turn the rewards into Disney GCs when and where I can get the best deal (Sam's club, BJ's, Target). Combine my small cards into a large denomination at DisneyGiftCard.com. It's a process to get the best deals. Use the best rewards cc when buying online or in the store. I use the cc rewards for airlines tickets.

 

[angierae]

I am already saving up for our December 2020 trip. I budgeted it out - room/tix/food/flights/spending money/and a tour to Kennedy, and put it all in a spreadsheet to see what it totaled. Then I split it up over how many paychecks until I needed each thing, and accounted for those two 'extra' checks a year, plus my profit sharing check at the end of the year. It worked out to where I need to put in $40 out of every bi-weekly check, and then set amounts out of my profit sharing and those "extra" checks.

Hopefully if nothing goes wrong, I'll have the money for our trip and it basically came out of tightening the budget in other ways.

 

[siren0119]

No credit cards here either. I budget out our trip, figure out roughly what I need to put away every week, and then use bonus money/gift money/cash from selling stuff we don't need/etc to accelerate the savings. I use my Target RedCard to buy Disney gift cards with the 5% discount so that my money stretches a little further. And I get airline points for business travel, so I hoard those until I can make sure our flights are covered!

 

[wendow]

My method is the same as @Eighty8Keys. There is no way our family could go to Disney once a year and stay as long as we like, pay for two onsite rooms, fly 6 people, feed 6 people, etc. without the help of bank and credit card bonuses. I do pull money from each of my dh’s paychecks to help cover the amount we pay out of pocket. I would say that is about 25% and I pay for that amount with discounted gift cards to help cut that as well.

ETA: we never carry a credit card balance or pay interest.

 

[billlaurie]

Credit cards are helpful in saving for the trip if you pay your balance off every month! I put everything on my CC and pay the entire balance. Like others have said, I use my credit card (Disney Visa) to gather rewards, pay for the Disney gift cards and pay it off every month. I haven't tried the other tactics that I just learned about recently from this board! I am sure they can really boost the reward and will try this for next time since I have learned my Disney rewards don't give me the best bang for my buck!

 

[Marionnette]

Credit cards play a major role in how I save for Disney. Pretty much everything that can be put on a personal CC is. Plus, we have a small business with several thousand going on the CC each month. Those cards with points are used for airfare and car rentals. Those with cash back are used to buy Disney GCs.

I also participate in rewards programs that pay cash via PayPal.

And I save a set amount each week in a savings account designated just for Disney.

I follow the Disney GC thread for tips on how to buy the GCs for less than face value. And I use the money from cash back CCs, the rewards programs and my savings to pay for GCs that I get for anywhere from 10% to 20% off.

 

[Disneyfan754321]

We tried a savings account, but kept having to borrow from it... so now I buy disney gift cards every week, we need 300 in gift cards for each person. That is our biggest expense that we have to pay for. We stay off site and I work the deals. Our up coming trip in march 1 of the days is a guaranteed price match with a 50 gift card ( so they are giving me 10$) one is free from hotel points. The rest is on us we use our tax check

 

[Shughart]

For our 2016 trip, we started planning/saving in 2015. We had tried a few times before to get savings going, but we just weren't in a place financially where we could even pay all our bills/responsibilities, let alone try to save for ANYTHING.

'Saving' for our 2016 trip was basically us setting the budget, and then saying, OK the package has to be paid off a month before the trip, we have X amount of checks between now and then, so let's break our budget up into chunks. I'd basically buy about $150-300 in gift cards a month at Sam's Club, bring them home, and add them to our Disney Savings account (online thing not offered anymore). Once we could book our package, we had a tidy sum in there. So then I would keep buying gift cards and bank them up to $500 and then make a payment on our package again. Rinse and repeat until paid off. We took nothing but Disney gift cards. Budgeted a small amount for the beach, but otherwise we were on site the whole time.

This time we are doing a mix of 'putting it on a card and paying it down ahead of time,' buying gift cards for things in the park I cannot get a discount on with my Disney Visa, and saving up cash to pay off the balance we use from my Disney Visa while on the trip.

 

[JAMIESMITH]

Our first trip was entirely paid for with bonus checks that I was getting from a finance company for sending them sales contracts. I work for a different company now and while I do get some small spiff checks for sales, they aren't enough to pay for a trip. I am hoping to cover our dining with them and pay for the rest of our trip with credit card rewards. I have airfare completely covered with Southwest, our room mostly covered through a Capital One Venture card, and our tickets mostly covered though a Barclay Arrival card.

 

[pens4821]

We tried a savings account, but kept having to borrow from it... so now I buy disney gift cards every week, we need 300 in gift cards for each person. That is our biggest expense that we have to pay for. We stay off site and I work the deals. Our up coming trip in march 1 of the days is a guaranteed price match with a 50 gift card ( so they are giving me 10$) one is free from hotel points. The rest is on us we use our tax check

I buy gift cards too, and find thats the best way to do it. Although, I get fuel rewards from mine, but even if I didn't, I think this it the best way to save. Even if you buy $100/month it adds up. I buy when they do double fuel rewards, but once again, if they didn't, I'd buy a Disney gift card any time I had some extra money. If it's sitting in my checking account or at home, I'll end up spending it (whether it be a need or want), but once you buy the disney card you are more likely to not spend it You could sell it, but I would think most people wouldn't unless it's definitely needed.

 

[Searc]

Buying gift cards may work for some, but keep in mind you may end up with hundreds of dollars invested in a Disney vacation you won't be able to recoup if the trip is cancelled. I'd rather have the cash in hand if needed.

 

[Disneyfan754321]

Buying gift cards may work for some, but keep in mind you may end up with hundreds of dollars invested in a Disney vacation you won't be able to recoup if the trip is cancelled. I'd rather have the cash in hand if needed.

They are always close to what you paid on ebay, or you can shop at the disney store...

 

[Marionnette]

Buying gift cards may work for some, but keep in mind you may end up with hundreds of dollars invested in a Disney vacation you won't be able to recoup if the trip is cancelled. I'd rather have the cash in hand if needed.

Agreed!!!

I own DVC, so those GCs will end up paying my dues every year, whether we go or not. If I rent out my points, I get the dues money plus more back in the form of cash. I would not recommend buying Disney GCs as a regular savings plan otherwise.

 

[easyas123]

We have a vacation savings account that set amounts are automatically deposited from our paychecks. We use this savings account for any trips, WDW or not. When I'm going to WDW I have a rough idea of what amount I need to have (I pay for flights, hotel, tickets along the way in full) for spending money, and I will also buy a extra $50 GC each paycheck from the disney site...free shipping & they mail it right to me. I stack them up as extra spending money.
I usually don't book a WDW trip until I have at least the $$$ to pay for the hotel & tickets (we usually rent DVC points so need to pay upfront for those).

The gift card purchase each paycheck I've been doing for months now, it has worked out great! Before I go I'll combine them onto 1 or 2 card and use it to pay off our magic band purchases.

 

[AlohaNow]

For Disney, or any other ‘big’ vacation, I formulate a savings plan in Excel (I love Excel) and set up the needed bi-weekly automatic transfer from checking to savings, as I am paid bi-weekly. If I’m going to get any additional influx of cash I add it in to my sheet for the expected date so I am always on top of my ‘vacation balance’. We utilize a rewards credit card in our daily life to accumulate airline points. I also churn rewards programs to obtain Disney GCs for less than face value. The great thing about the gift cards is that we always know that they will get used for at least something Disney! I’ve been churning for over a year on the current batch with no particular Disney goal in mind and it came up that we may be able to attend a MNSSHP before our fall cruise. I consider it ‘free to me’ because of the sunk cost of the GCs that I already have on hand. And if a great DLR or DCL deal appears, I can jump on it and pay mostly in GCs. And I have earned untold fuel points on my haul!

We have also taken advantage of the 0% financing for packages on the Disney Visa for our Disneyland trip. In the months leading up to the trip I plan out at what points I would throw $500 of the cost on that card and then I would pay it off interest-free $100 a month for five months. You have six months each time you do that, but I always short it by one to be safe. I could easily pay that amount out of regular cashflow, so it never even really felt like a vacation expense! But if you do not wish to utilize credit cards, obtaining Disney GCs for less than face value is definitely the way to go!

 

[Searc]

They are always close to what you paid on ebay, or you can shop at the disney store...

LOL I hope no one is foolish enough to buy a Disney giftcard off of ebay.

 

[Malyficent]

This isn't specific to how I save for Disney - just how I save in general. I have a set amount of my paycheck sent to my savings account that is fairly untouchable (I have to schedule a transfer and it takes three days). So after the first few paychecks after that change I forgot about that money. We use it to pay for everything "extra" including the kids summer camps.

Specific to Disney I had to beef up our savings and keep it separate from this fund - make it even more untouchable (this was probably just me being odd and wanting to be super specific about that savings). Every week I would walk our extra Disney savings to my credit union (it's only a few blocks away) and put it in that account. I think I have a check book for that account somewhere but I never use it. Eventually I pulled it and used it towards buying the 8-9% discounted Disney GCs from BJs.

My goal is to eventually set up a "vacation fund" account and fund it to the point where we make a decent % off those savings. Even if it's just 1-3% that's that much extra I have to spend on fun drinks. That's going to take a bit longer to get in place as I have other financial goals to clear first.

 

[mi*vida*loca]

We don't do Disney every year but we do vacation every year. We make a line item in our budget for "vacation" and that amount goes directly to savings. Then we use our bonuses and "extra" pay months.

I really don't have the time to churn credit cards and bank accounts. I did just get a card with a good cash back rewards which I'm planning on using for all expenses. Then I'll use the cash back towards vacations.