Track Your 2018 Vacation Budget Here...

[margievis]

Well, my hubby and I sat down and talked about our vacations this year, and we decided that a trip to the beach in May just isn't in the cards for us. Summer is my busiest time at work, and May is the ramp up...my boss would let me off, but it would be so much better for my studio if I didn't ask off that week. And my hubby will be coming off of a week of travel for work at the beginning of May, so really doesn't need to take a week off then either. So, we are switching our plans around a little bit. Our beach trip will be tentatively pushed out to an October/ fall break trip. Which means I need to divert all of my swagging/savings to paying off the end of June NY trip and the Labor Day Disney trip, and then I will start saving for the beach after that.
So, as a reminder, here were my original goals:

Hubby and I have a Food&Wine trip planned for Labor Day weekend,and it is a splurge trip for sure... we booked a bounceback trip at Animal Kingdom Lodge, with free dining, so I upgraded it to Deluxe Dining...so we can do a few signature restaurants. Total package price: 2880.11. So far, I have paid 922.83 with Swagbucks, Ibotta, Shopkicks, etc. Remaining balance: 1957.28. I am hoping to get my SW rewards points up to take care of the flights, but we’ll see on that. I have a trip at the end of June with my twin daughters for their eighth grade trip(we are fundraising and making payments for this trip) to New York. Cost for the 3 of us: 2700. Amount paid as of now:1500. Amount remaining (not counting spending money): 1200. I am adding in an end of May/early June beach trip for our whole family, so that will take priority in my swagging/ and saving for now. I will need probably about $3000 our family of 6 for a week. I love the idea of putting it all in one place here to keep track.
So, in summary:

May Beach trip:
Needed: $3,000
Saved:$25
Still need: $2,975

June New York trip:
Needed: $2,700
Saved/paid: $1,500 (OOP and fundraising)
Still need: $1,200

August Disney Trip:
Needed: $2,880.11
Saved/paid: $922.83 (No OOP- all swagbucks, Ibotta, and other savings apps)
Still need: $1,957.28

I will update as I bring these totals down!

And here is where I stand right now:

June New York trip:
Needed: $2,700
Saved/paid: $1,800 (OOP and fundraising)
Still need: $900

August Disney Trip:
Needed: $2,880.11
Saved/paid: $1,123.01 (No OOP- all swagbucks, Ibotta, and other savings apps)
Still need: $1,757.10

My sister is talking about taking her daughter to Disney the same week as us, and as I would love to enjoy Disney through my 2 year old niece's eyes, we may extend our trip by a day or two. Or do a split stay. If I do, of course I will update totals.

October? Beach trip:
Needed: $3,000
Saved:
Still need: $3,000

 

[Lvsdisney]

UPDATED Costs/info in BLUE:

Budget is for 2 adults and 2 children

Hotel: 1 Night at ASMo ($94 OOP after using Disney Visa Rewards Money) and 5 nights BWV standard 2 bedroom, rented through a DISer, splitting the cost with my parents but they are paying more (they offered) since they decided to join us and I was originally getting a studio. $1000 for our share. I've been earning money through SB and at this point I have $285 more to earn to pay for it completely with no money OOP. Final payment due end of Feb, however my parents are paying the full payment and I plan to pay them back back our share end of April.

Transportation: 4 tickets on SW booked, paid with RR points, so fees and EBCI (for going home), total $104.80. Parking at my airport is $11/ day so $77 unless I can find a better deal on Groupon.

Tickets: I had enough "free" Disney money (Disney Visa Rewards, DVA closing bonus GC, and other free GCs) for 2 Adult and 1 child 6 day ticket (non-hopper). Between discounted GCs and DVR money, the 4th child ticket cost $322 OOP. I didn't want to wait too much longer to purchase due to 1) possibility of ticket price increase and 2) FP+ day opens this month.

Food: we are planning on breakfast and dinner in the room, I priced out what we need on Instacart and it's about $250 and we'll split with my parents, so about $125-$150. I also have budgeted QS lunch for DH and I for the 5 days plus snacks around the world the night we arrive. I usually order kids meals so I'm budgeting $20-25 per meal (for the 2 of us combined), and I figure no more than $150 between arrival night and the next day, so we'll say $250 for the week for QS meals (last time we went we did the same thing and we spent less than $300 and that included a TS dinner so I think it's realistic). So $450 total for food. I'm hoping to get this down since we'll be flying SWA and can bring non-perishables in its own dedicated suitcase without any baggage fees.

Memory Maker: $169 (any DVR points I earn going forward will be applied to this, so I think I can get the cost of this closer to $100).

As you can tell, my main focus is as little OOP as possible! Right now if I did nothing and only paid the remainder OOP, it would be $1502. My goal is to get that number below $1000.

ETA: When I first posted in this thread my OOP would have been $2242.56! I'm so happy with the amount I was able to earn/save to make this trip more budget, and a BIG thanks goes out to the Budget Board! Thank you all!!

 

[kristenrice]

Oh...boy...

This "budget" post kind of morphed into a pre-trip planning post for me (sorry about that, folks), but planning and budgeting really do go hand in hand.

At this point, I am frustrated on a daily basis. I can't book airfare yet because SWA has not released their fares. They will release their next batch on February 15...but that will only go through October 1...so I will have to wait until the next round is released. The reason it is so frustrating is because I can't really nail down my budget until I can decide on where we are going to stay. Well, I can't decide where we are going to stay until I know when we are going to arrive, which I won't be able to figure out until I know what the schedule will be. Of course, by the time the airline releases their schedule, the availability at the DVC resorts will have changed and I will have to fiddle around with that all over again. I need to know if we CAN arrive on Friday night, or if we will have to arrive on Saturday. Then, CAN we get a late enough departure on the following Friday? Or will we need to depart on Saturday?

Here's a bit of good news...Since I didn't know exactly what nights we would be there, but I have enough points for a full week (7 nights) at AKV, I have 8-nights (Fri-Sat) booked at AKV. This way, we can either do Fri-Fri or Sat-Sat and I won't have to spend ANY money on lodging. When I had realized that we may need to shift to the Sat-Sat, I tried to add on the night at the end, but I had to book it at Kidani and waitlist for Jambo. I got the email this week that the room became available and so now, if we need it, we have all 8 nights at Jambo. I'm fairly certain we will only stay 7 and either do the first or the last at the Hyatt (it's in the budget), but again, it will depend on the flights. If we *really* wanted to, I can borrow the 14 extra points and we can stay all 8 nights. It would save the OOP money for the night at the Hyatt ($280), but I hesitate to use them because it could potentially impact my 2020 vacation, which has not been planned yet.

Ok, back to the budget...

My plasma donations are back on track and they are offering some nice bonuses and incentives over the next several weeks so as long as I stay healthy, I have the potential to earn about $300 this month. Swagbucks and my rewards programs are trucking right along too. I am keeping up very well and I am very optimistic that I will hit my goal.

After talking to my girls, I was surprised to hear that they are actually OK with leaving the ticket situation as-is...2 days without going to the parks. Unfortunately, that idea seems to have backfired on me. Now, they want to do the Painting with a View ($50/person), DVC Member night at Splitsville ($47/person) and take a horseback ride ($55/person) instead. It would have been cheaper to add the 2 days on to their park tickets ($85 total)! Based on that, I REALLY need to make sure that I can stay on track, particularly with my plasma donations.

Here's where I stand so far....

GIFT CARD EARNINGS: $1027.23 / $1503.00
CASH EARNINGS: $997.03 / $1800.00

So, realistically, as long as I stay healthy, I should have my cash earnings made by the end of the summer. The gift card earnings are going to be a little harder since those are earnings that come a little slower. I have to average about $2/day in rewards earnings which will be VERY difficult in Swagbucks alone. Right now, I am focusing on meeting my daily goal every day. That should help earn about $1/day. I will hopefully be able to supplement that with Target FWP gift cards and my BB rewards, along with the extra rewards I earn along the way, like larger offers from Swagbucks and MyPoints.

Sorry for the long update...but thanks for reading.

 

[WDW_fan_in_TX]

Here's is an update as of Feb. 12.

Price again to show how much:
Package price: $1,800
Food: $800;
Souvenirs: $500;
Flights: $400;
Rental car: $254
Travel (drive to Dallas and stay at hotel night before trip), $200;
Total: $4,154

Amount saved/paid:
DW's bonus that she gets Feb. 15 will cover package price and either flights/rental car/travel or food
Money saved for extras:
Change jar: Was: $147.28 + Added: $36.53 = Now: $183.181
Disney GCs: Was: $165 + Added: $25 = Now: $195
Cash: $150 (bought outbound flight from Dallas to MCO)
Total saved thus far: Was $312.28 + Added: $61.53 = Now: $373.81
Also paid for flights. Now saved up $373.81 and paid for half of flights

 

[rockinmom]

I am joining and could use any advice anyone has to offer on ways to save.

My son and I are going April 17th thru the 24th for his 15th birthday.
Airfare- $0 - opened a SW cc and got 2 free tickets
Disney package from April 17th-21, 4 day base ticket- $983.52
(used a travel agent who got us a deal plus used Disney gift cards from target to pay for the trip, purchased when target had their gift card sale in December, making them 15% off)
Dining- This is where I am unsure on the budget. We have no ddp, not sure if we would benefit from one since my son enjoys dessert and isn't old enough to drink and I am not going to drink either. We have a few ADR's, Chef Mickeys, Ohana and Sci Fi. I have yet to figure out the budget here but I have $600 in gift cards still for this vacation bought 5% off, so if anyone has budget tips to keep my dining and souvenir budget under that, you will be my hero, lol I do plan on having my best friend who lives near Orlando to deliver me some groceries that will cover breakfasts, water, and a bedtime snack for my son.

Now for the universal part, this has not been paid off yet
21st-24th, currently booked at Cabana Bay, 2 day park to park ticket, no dining or express pass, though rethinking this one.
Total was $922.12 after all the discounts
TA told me that for an extra $300, we could stay at the Lowes Pacific and get the express pass, considering this but not sure yet.
Thinking $75 a day for food here, is that enough for quick service for two of us? $150

No cost for transportation- using DME to go to Disney, BFF lives close to Orlando and will pick us up and take us to Universal and out to dinner on our first night at Universal, then he has also agreed to get us to the airport so that saves some money.

This is my first universal trip and my first disney trip not including the dining plan. Not sure if I left anything out? Any budget saving suggestions?

 

[pigletto]

@rockinmom , I would definitely check out the menus at Allears.com to get an idea of what you will eat and the prices. I always do this when paying out of pocket for meals and it helps me get a good idea of what we wil be spending.
As for Universal, we spent a lot of days there in the last year and a half and chose to stay at Cabana Bay for every trip in 2016/17. We love it there. The Express Pass at the Deluxe hotels would be really nice if your days are going to be busy. I would check crowd calendars for your dates. If not very busy, you can easily see everything by having a plan and taking advantage of early entry. We’ve stayed at the deluxe hotels with express passes several times and we didn’t miss it on any of our Cabana Bay trips. Also I would NOT bother with a Universal quick service dining plan. It’s almost impossible to make them work in your favour unless you plan to eat the most expensive items at the most expensive counter restaurants (which tend to be the Harry Potter ones.) We have used it in the past when planning to do just that, but do the math first. The universal forum is an excellent resource for these those questions and that group is a big help in the planning .

 

[pigletto]

Ok folks .. hopefully it’s ok if I join in to this planning thread! We have just decided on a Disney trip as an early big Christmas present. It will be five of us.. Dh and I, dd21, ds14, and dd’s boyfriend. He will be paying for his own park ticket and plane ticket. We are paying the rest. I thought it would be fun to track along with all of you and try to find ways to reduce the cost as I go.
Tentative budget so far..

8 nights Bonnet Creek 2 bedroom deluxe - $1080
6 day Base tickets for four people. - $1610 (hope to earn two tickets with airmiles)
Travel costs (driving gas and hotels) - $600
Food ..groceries,restaurants, and snacks. - $1400
Dog Boarding - $350

So it looks like the total is $5040 . That might not sound too bad until you realize we are Canadian and at todays exchange rate that is $6440... and that’s not happening .

Now if I am able to get two tickets with airmiles, And cover the hotel on the way down and back with swagbucks/credit card points it brings me down to $4235 ($5414 Canadian). I’d like to get the total cost down to $5000 Canadian if I can. There’s some wiggle room in my food budget. We’ll be able to make a lot of meals in the condo which is the benefit of a full kitchen,and we plan to eat offsite for dinner or counter service in the parks. I also think I can earn more “extra” money (Swagbucks, selling things I don’t use, credit card points). So I think I can do this trip for the $5000.

Lots to think about but I thought I would get the initial budget out there and work with it from here. I’ve left off MVMCP tickets .. they may end up in the budget if I can lower it in other areas, but there’s no room for them right now.

 

[MickeyMouseCD524]

Can I jump in on this too?

We're going in the fall for as a belated wedding gift for some friends. We're covering the hotel and tickets for them.

Between the hotel, tickets, and all it's going to come to about $10,000. And with the grace of God our lovely travel agent will find us deal as we get closer. I've already put down the deposit on both rooms and will probably be able to drop another $1000 at the end of the month thanks to swagbucks. The only thing I'm battling with now is Universal I just can't justify those ticket prices.

 

[margievis]

This is where I stood the last time I posted:
June New York trip:
Needed: $2,700
Saved/paid: $1,800 (OOP and fundraising)
Still need: $900

August Disney Trip:
Needed: $2,880.11
Saved/paid: $1,123.01 (No OOP- all swagbucks, Ibotta, and other savings apps)
Still need: $1,757.10

I found out that my sister, brother-in law, and niece will be joining us, so I added 2 days to our park hoppers before the price increase Sunday. We are planning n doing a split stay with out adding the dining plan, but I haven’t booked it yet, so I will wait to update that part until I do.

Here’s where I stand now:
June New York trip:
Needed: $2,700
Saved/paid: $1,850 (OOP and fundraising)
Still need: $850

August Disney Trip:
Needed: $3084.59 after adding 2 days to our park hoppers
Saved/paid: $1,223.01(No OOP- all swagbucks, Ibotta, and other savings apps)
Still need: $1,861.58

Plugging away!

 

[Andrea1975]

We're halfway through February and it's been a good month for my vacation account. I got a $400+ refund from some legal work I had to have done, and I sold my old phone for $55. With that, swagging and apps, and credit card rewards I've added $540 this month so far.

Southwest fares for my date range went on sale this morning and I snagged our 3 tickets for $558. The only problem is that it's a very early morning flight (I went with the closer but smaller airport so there are limited options) so we won't be able to get the train to the airport. If I drive, the parking will cost about $120. It's still a net savings (the best price I found otherwise was $808, so even if I pay for parking it will save me $130) but I'll have to think about options. Uber family only has one car seat and I'm not sure how available they'd be at 5 am anyway. My sister will be visiting, so there's a chance she'd be willing to drive me--but I hate to ask her to get up at 4:30 to take me to the airport. I know I can use a taxi without car seats, but I feel uncomfortable doing that. For now, I'm just assuming the worst--but I'm dropping my target saving amount from $3800 to $3700.

Right now I have:
$1528 in my vacation savings account
$58 in credit card rewards
$56 in interest in my online savings account that I haven't transferred yet
$30 worth of swagbucks (as of 2/1 when I can get another discounted card)
$5 in shopkick credit
$17 on mturk

That gives me $1694 or 46% of my total budget of $3700.

The big thing now is just waiting for my tax refund. That will be $2058 which should put me over my goal!

 

[Scott Dunn]

Really neat to see how everyone works it.

Our first trip this year so all of this is fancy schmancy new to me.

Travel by car cost: $200
Stay from 11/12-11/16 at OKW - $560
4-day passes - $1400
QSDP - $600
Total Cost: $2760

Savings -
Purchased 4x Best Buy GCs at $450/piece but are valued at $500. Converted to $2000 in Disney GCs

Will purchase two more probably for in park fun like a character meal and if the kids want a little sumpin' sumpin' extra

So we saved $200 plus getting DVC points at $6/point. Not a crazy good start but I'm not paying rack rate, thank ya Jesus!

 

[WDW_fan_in_TX]

Here's is an update as of Feb. 23.

Price again to show how much:
Package price: $1,800
Food: $800;
Souvenirs: $500;
Flights: Budgeted $400 (cost was actually $424);
Rental car: $254
Travel (drive to Dallas and stay at hotel night before trip), $200;
Total: $4,178

Amount saved/paid:
DW's bonus that she gets Feb. 15 will cover package price and either flights/rental car/travel or food
Money saved for extras:
Change jar: Was: $183.31 + Added: $29.92 = Now: $213.73
Disney GCs: Was: $185 + Added: $25 = Now: $210
Cash spent: $424 (bought round trip flight from Dallas to MCO)
Total saved thus far: Was $368.31 + Added: $54.92 = Now: $423.23
Also paid for the second half of our flights. Now saved up $423.23 and paid for round trip flights

Other notes:
Earned 8,300 swagbucks this week. Will use that to buy a Walmart gift card and then a Disney gift card;
Made $62 in paypal and $90 hard cash (both today) from selling baseball cards online; and
Got a $102 Walmart E-gift card by cashing out credits from Walmart Savings Catcher (will use to buy a Disney gift card).

 

[kristenrice]

I feel guilty posting about my vacations at this point. Over the past week, we had some major budget catastrophe's hit our household. Natural disasters have caused us to incur about $5k in uninsured damages and I'm not sure where that money will come from at this point. I actually considered cancelling our trip, but then I talked to DH and pointed out that the $800 that I have available at this point will not help at all and cancelling the trip would be a huge mental blow to the girls. Right now, the stress of what is going on here is hitting me unlike anything I have ever experienced in my life. I have no appetite, I can barely sleep and for the first time in probably 15 years, even the thought of a Disney trip is making me anxious.

I'm trying to stay positive, knowing that things are out of my control. I can only do so much. I am continuing to chug along on my Swagbucks. In fact, I am currently in the midst of my longest streak ever of hitting my daily goals...23 days and counting. I have also made ALL of my eligible plasma donations this month so far. On Thursday, due to a coupon I had, my donation paid me $75. If I am successful Tuesday, it will be worth $85. The only bad thing is that I had another cell loss last week. That means that I cannot have another one until April or I will be out for 8 weeks. On top of that, it looks like one of the veins in my left arm is just not going to work very well anymore. That means that I have to use my right arm every time. It's not usually a big deal, except for what happened last week...my right arm vein stopped working in the middle of a cycle and they had to try to poke my left arm in order to return my cells. Since my left arm is really hard to hit (scar tissue), they couldn't and I had a cell loss. So now, I just have to pray that my right arm stays strong and runs well every time.

Anyways, enough with the bad stuff and on with the update....here's where I'm sitting right now...

GIFT CARDS NEEDED: $1570
GIFT CARDS ACQUIRED: $1175.23
STILL NEED...$394.77

CASH NEEDED: $1800
CASH ACQUIRED: $1243.53
STILL NEED...$556.47

These numbers look a little ominous, but actually, I could be in a good situation. First, I have about 235 days until we leave. That breaks down to only about $1.75/day in gift card earnings. That is totally doable so I should be fine in the gift card department. In addition, the gift card budget also includes $170 for the purchase of (10) OTU points. Based on our most recent plan, we will NOT need to purchase those points. So that means that either I will have an extra $170 to spend, or I only have to save about $225 more in gift cards. Either way, it is a cushion for right now. I will know for sure when our 7-month window opens up in a few weeks (March 23). As far as the cash shortage goes, I am actually not that "short". The budget currently includes $300 for a night at the Hyatt. IF the airfare schedule works out, we will not need that night so that will eliminate $300. On top of that, I budgeted $1200 for airfare. I spent $440 on points for SWA. If we can get our flight HOME on SW by using those points, there is currently a flight on Delta that I can get for $550 that will get us TO Orlando. If I add $50 for 2 bags (even though we'd probably only check 1), and $80 for EBCI and fees on SW, that brings my total airfare cost to $1120, which is still $80 below budget. I could save another $50 by not checking any bags, which is how we normally travel....we'll see...I'd rather plan for the worst-case scenario. Right now, I have about $750 available in my vacation account. That will be enough to cover the airfare when it opens up (hopefully) and should leave me with a little left over. Other than that, the only other thing I had budgeted for "cash" was $300 in miscellaneous expenses...tips, Uber, and other activities that may not be covered by gift cards. Overall, I think I am in very good shape considering I still have 7 months before we leave.

I plan to lock up the funds for this trip and then start chipping away at the household debts that have smacked us. We "borrowed" from the kids' college savings so that's where my plasma money is going to start going once I have enough saved up for the vacation. We have very little family time and vacation is the one chance I get to really bond with my children. Debts and finances are things that will always be there, but I do not have forever with my children and family and I am choosing to put them above my financial woes right now. I will make sacrifices elsewhere but vacation is non-negotiable.

 

[Lvsdisney]

It's been a few weeks so I wanted to update my budget. I'm getting so close to my $1000 OOP so I'm just excited!
UPDATED Costs/info in BLUE:

Budget is for 2 adults and 2 children

Hotel: 1 Night at ASMo ($94 OOP after using Disney Visa Rewards Money) and 5 nights BWV standard 2 bedroom, rented through a DISer, splitting the cost with my parents but they are paying more (they offered) since they decided to join us and I was originally getting a studio. $1000 for our share. I've been earning money through SB and at this point I have $275 more to earn to pay for it completely with no money OOP. Final payment due end of Feb, however my parents are paying the full payment and I plan to pay them back back our share end of April.

Transportation: 4 tickets on SW booked, paid with RR points, so fees and EBCI (for going home), total $104.80. Parking at my airport is $11/ day so $77 unless I can find a better deal on Groupon. (I'm actually looking at an off-site lot that would bring my total down to $61.03 ).

Tickets: I had enough "free" Disney money (Disney Visa Rewards, DVA closing bonus GC, and other free GCs) for 2 Adult and 1 child 6 day ticket (non-hopper).Between discounted GCs and DVR money, the 4th child ticket cost $322 OOP. I didn't want to wait too much longer to purchase due to 1) possibility of ticket price increase and 2) FP+ day opens this month.

Food: we are planning on breakfast and dinner in the room, I priced out what we need on Instacart and it's about $250 and we'll split with my parents, so about $125-$150. I also have budgeted QS lunch for DH and I for the 5 days plus snacks around the world the night we arrive. I usually order kids meals so I'm budgeting $20-25 per meal (for the 2 of us combined), and I figure no more than $150 between arrival night and the next day, so we'll say $250 for the week for QS meals (last time we went we did the same thing and we spent less than $300 and that included a TS dinner so I think it's realistic). So $450 total for food. I'm hoping to get this down since we'll be flying SWA and can bring non-perishables in its own dedicated suitcase without any baggage fees.

Memory Maker: $169 originally, right now with free DGCs from the Grow Up Young, it would be $154 (any DVR points I earn going forward will be applied to this, so I think I can get the cost of this below $100).

Right now, without the food budget added in, I'm at $1010 OOP!! My food budget is $450, so if I stick with that my OOP would be $1460 which in itself would be AMAZING but, I'm still working on getting that even lower!

 

[Andrea1975]

I was just lamenting how slow this week was for earning (my lowest yet since I started tracking in August) when I realized that my federal tax refund was deposited overnight. I was very responsible and put the earmarked amounts into my Roth IRA and the kids 529 accounts before I let myself transfer the balance ($928) into my vacation account. Now I'm just waiting for my state refund.

Budget Update
Airfare (for 3): $558 (purchased, but haven't paid off cc yet)
Airport Parking: $119
Disney package: 6 nights at pop century, 6 day tickets, DDP (if free dining is offered) $2500-2600 depending on discounts
OOP Tips/food: $125
Other: memory maker, souvenirs $250-300
Total: $3550-3700

Right now I have:
$2461 in my vacation savings account
$82 in credit card rewards
$56 in interest in my online savings account that I haven't transferred yet
$35 worth of swagbucks (as of 2/1 when I can get another discounted card)
$5 in shopkick credit
$17 on mturk

That gives me $2656 or 72% of my total budget of $3700.

 

[Karenj2]

When I first saw this thread, we were still trying to figure out our plans - now we've gotten quite a bit firmed up. Some background - I will be going with DH and DDs 8, 5 & 5 in August for 8 days. I've been wanting to rent DVC for a LONG time, and finally had DH ok with doing that. When I was trying to compare pricing with that from WDW, the Disney site didn't have any 1Br DVCs available at Boulder Ridge. Long story short, when we were communicating with the lady we rented from, I showed DH the pricing for the 1br because that's all that was available, and he ok'd it, but he was thinking of a number that I had given him that included dining plan and tickets, not just the room. So, the trip is costing us almost $2k more.

Here are the numbers so far:

Estimate Actual
BRV 1br $ 2,040.00 $ 3,825.00 <- paid $960
Dining Plan $ 1,597.65 $ 1,597.65
Tickets $ 2,198.02 $ 2,228.75
Flight $ 2,000.00 $ 1,534.80 <-- bought already (on CC to be paid off this month)
Souvenirs $ 500.00 $ 500.00
Tips** $ 300.00 $ 300.00
MNSSHP $ 370.00 $ 0.00
Groceries $ 80.00 $ 80.00
Childcare (for Adult Night Out) $ 130.00 $ 130.00
Stroller (OSR) $ 86.00 $ 86.00
Dog Boarding? $ 500.00 $ 383.00
Hotel w points $ 0.00

$ 0.00​

Parking long term $ 96.00 $ 96.00

Totals $ 10,077.67 $ 10,761.20
Paid so far (this will change) $ 2,494.80

BRV Estimate was for a Studio, Actual is what it really is. We paid $960 so far for this. The remainder (and the Dining Plan) is due in June.
Dining plan - I don't expect prices to change.
Tickets - we're still not sure if we want to do 6 day parkhopper or 5 day parkhopper. I think the original number was for 5day parkhopper+. I'm hoping to get them through Undercover Tourist before they run out of the old priced tickets. If not, that number will probably go up.
Flights - Bought! I booked them on SW on Feb. 15th, and they were less than I estimated. YAY! PLUS, with SW we don't pay for luggage.
Souvenirs - I'm estimating $500, which is definitely high, but I include the PhotoPass photos ($169) in there, because that's MY souvenir.
Tips - Just a guess - I'm counting $5/day for mousekeeping, plus TS dinners, plus bellhops, etc.
MNSSHP - I put it in there as an estimate, but I don't really see the NEED to go. So that's a savings of $370 right there!
Groceries - I'm guessing $80 for the breakfast basics. We'll also have the dining plan, which I plan to use for lunch and dinner.
Childcare - this is another thing I can drop if I have to, but I don't want to! We'll be celebrating our anniversary while we're in WDW (21 years), and I'd like to have a nice dinner out.
Stroller - I priced out the cost for a double stroller, which I'm still debating. I posed the question on the Disboards FB site, and it came down pretty strongly on getting a stroller. If we need to, I can cut the cost by either getting a single and/or cutting the number of days.
Dog boarding - that's at home, of course. I estimated a bit high, although I'm still going to try to save up the estimated amount, because something ALWAYS pops up with this dog while he's being boarded. (They are a safe and wonderful place and I trust them completely - I just got "burned" once when we had him neutered at a late stage because he was a rescue, and he reacted badly to the meds, and what should have cost us only $400 was well over $1k!)
Hotel with points - we're going to BWI instead of PHL because we had better choices for flights, AND the parking is MUCH better there. Luckily, I accrue hotel points through my workplace, so I'm hoping we can score a free stay. Worst case, it'll be $180 for the night.
Parking - this is for the parking at BWI.

And this is what we're doing

• We currently have $911 in Disney Dollars through our Disney Visa (it's been a LONG time since we've used the points!) I'm guessing that by August we'll be over $1k. I could use that for tips & souvenirs or pay for part of my flights.
• I earn money through eBates - all of that is going towards our trip. ($117 in February)
• In December, I sold quite a few things on my local FB yardsales. I haven't yet deposited that, but it was a couple hundred dollars. I'm still aggressively cleaning out my house, so I'm hoping to make a couple hundred more.
• We just got our dependent care amount ($2k) and our Federal Tax refund ($2900)
• I'm going to ask that for the girls' birthdays (and mine) that we be given Disney GCs.
• My healthcare through my company offers incentives - I think I have about $25 dollars more (unfortunately I spent the other $175 already).
• Any hotel points that I can transfer to GCs for use elsewhere to free up "cash" for this trip.

 

[Andrea1975]

Woohoo! Got my state tax refund, moved it into the vacation account and am now fully funded (with even a bit of cushion!)
Time to start planning/working towards vacation 2019 (which won't be Disney.)
That said, I'm going to leave most of my swagbucks and shop kicks as amazon credit from now on (I had been transferring the equivalent amount) to use for Christmas presents. Even without that, I think I should have another $2500 by next summer.

Budget Update
Airfare (for 3): $558 (paid)
Airport Parking: $119
Disney package: 6 nights at pop century, 6 day tickets, DDP (if free dining is offered) $2500-2600 depending on discounts ($200 paid)
OOP Tips/food: $125
Other: memory maker, souvenirs $250-300
Total: $3550-3700

Total Paid: $758
Remaining to pay: ~$2950
Vacation Account Balance: $3068


I started a pre-trip report if anyone wants to read along!
https://www.disboards.com/threads/o...g-this-time-an-august-2018-adventure.3667244/

 

[kristenrice]

I'm getting nervous...SWA releases their flights on Thursday which means I am about to book my airfare! That's the last expense I will have before we leave!

There has been a budget development that has helped a LOT...the girls and I have decided that *if* we do a split-stay, it will be between AKV and OKW which means I will have enough points for the full 7 nights and we will NOT need to purchase any one-time use points. That means that I do not need the $170 that I had included in my gift card budget for those points. On top of that, I have found flights on both American and Delta that fit within our budget right now so we should be able to fit our itinerary within the planned 7 nights without having to add a night on at the airport Hyatt which will free up the $300 I had allotted for that stay.

I started a grocery list with Amazon PrimeNow, even though the inventory always changes, but I wanted to get a ball-park figure for my grocery budget. I'm glad I did because I was looking at $50 and I am going to probably be closer to $75. I'm not sure...it will depend on whether or not we decide to check any baggage....and that will depend on what airline we fly and when our flights are scheduled. I know we will be arriving after 10pm so we will have to get our checked bags no matter what, it's just a matter of if I want to actually take the time to go and do that or not. We have managed to do carry-on only for the last 3 trips, but our trips are also generally 5 nights and/or in a 1BR with laundry and kitchen facilities readily available. This will be 7 nights in a studio so we may need to either pack a little more or make a slightly larger order from Amazon....we shall see...

Here's the current numbers...

Gift Card Balance: $1237.57
Gift Card Budget: $1600.00*
Gift Cards Still Needed: $362.43

Cash Balance: $1448.51**
Cash Budget: $1800.00
Cash Still Needed: $351.49

*The gift card budget still includes the $170 for the one-time use points which will NOT be needed. Instead, the extra funds will be used towards a horseback ride or other entertainment, but I am not going to remove it from the budget goal at this time.

**The cash balance includes $480 that was spent to purchase/transfer SWA points which will be used to purchase at least one-way tickets so it is part of the $1200 airfare budget. The cash budget also still includes $300 for a room at the Hyatt which will NOT be needed, but I am not going to remove it at this time.

 

[kristenrice]

Alrighty...airfare has been purchased. I came in about $150 under budget so far. I say "so far" because our outbound flight is going to be on Delta this time. We have flown SWA for many of our past trips and we have also become quite efficient at travelling with only carry-ons. We typically pack light anyways and don't even need a checked bag. So, at the most, my transportation expense might go up $25 for a single checked bag. We are flying SWA to come home so no added baggage expense on the return.

The times worked out so that we will not need to stay at the airport Hyatt on either end of our trip so that eliminates the $300 I had set aside for a night at the airport. I'm going to keep it in the budget (for now) as a "cushion" since we still have more days on vacation than we do on our tickets. That $300 can be used for F&W events, MNSSHP or just adding a day to our passes.

From here on out, it will be fine-tuning...dining, groceries and incidental budgets need to be planned out. I am in pretty decent shape right now. I have a little overage in my cash budget thanks to the savings on airfare and the hotel so I could, in theory, cover the entire trip TODAY, but I want to cover all of our food and entertainment with the free gift cards. There is still $175 extra in the gift card budget which is what I had originally budgeted to purchase one-time use points. Now, we won't be needing those, but I kept the money in the budget anyways, just because I am fairly confident that I can earn it in the next 7 months anyway. I asked my older daughter if there were any restaurants she was particularly interested in and she said that she was not sure which ones would be OK because she wasn't sure how much money we had to spend. Aww...I told her not to worry about it because EVERY SINGLE PENNY of our food budget is coming from FREE gift cards so ALL of our food is going to cost us NOTHING. That put a smile on her face.

Here's today's numbers...

Gift Card Budget: $1600.00
Gift Cards Available: $1245.11
Gift Cards Needed: $354.89

Cash Budget: $1800.00
Cash Available: $1523.51
Cash Needed: $276.49
**IF I can successfully donate plasma twice a week until the end of March, I will make $280 and meet my goal by the end of the month. I just have to stay healthy, keep my hematocrit up, and hope my veins cooperate.

 

[kristenrice]

UPDATE

Disney Gift Cards and Equivalent: $594.35
Amazon Gift Cards: $25.00
Cash: $621.93

Total Have: $1241.28
Total Needed: $1758.72

I posted this exactly 4 months ago...

...In that 4 months, I have earned $592.54 in FREE gift cards!!

I have also accrued $901.58 in cash earnings. A large part of that is plasma donations, but I have also earned small amounts from cash back credit cards (<$100), eBates (<$20) and my $19 every two weeks from direct deposits.

So in just FOUR months, I have managed to, rather painlessly save up over $1400 towards my vacation...and I still have 7 months to go!