What are your trip cost saving measures?

[CJK]

Let's brainstorm! How do you save money?? Even with my obsessive DIS'ing and an improved exchange rate, this trip is still well over $2000CAD. We're 2 adults going for one week. Here's the rundown
Flight : $640CAD total
Hotel: $22 a night through priceline
Car: $112USD total (great deal through National)
Universal tickets : around $150CAD (got them at par from CAA and will have days leftover)
Disney tickets - not sure if we're buying 4day parkhoppers or AP's (since we may be returning next summer)

Depending on what tickets we buy and factoring in about $400USD spending money (which pays for gas and tolls as well - we will only do a couple sitdown meals and our hotel has a free continental breakfast), it comes to between $2200 and $2800CAD. I guess this is pretty good considering some people pay many more thousands per trip, but I've really tried to keep costs down this trip.

How do you save money??

 

[LisaSt]

Our biggest savings is driving and buying an electric cooler to bring food with you so you don't have to eat out all the time and you can have snacks in the car and make lunch during the rest stops. It saves quite a bit of money doing it this way.

 

[hockey mom]

I think there comes a point where you just can't do it for less. I think $2800 for 2 for a week is pretty good. Tickets seem to be a killer and there is no way of reducing the cost of those. Then of course you have to eat- which for us is our second biggest expense.

 

[cdnmickeylover]

Have to agree with Lisast. We drive with an electric cooler and bring snacks/water/pop with us so that we don't have to buy it. You could go to the grocery store while you are down there and buy some snack foods and keep them in a styrofoam cooler with ice.

Have to agree also with hockeymom though that at some point it just doesn't get any cheaper.

 

[CJK]

Thanks! I forgot that we have a free fridge in our room so I plan on bringing food to put inside. We usually bring a suitcase of food (ie. peanut butter, granola bars, put bread in tupperware so it won't get crushed). Thanks for the reminder.

 

[LisaSt]

Not sure if you guys had heard or not but Disney is now putting mini fridges into all deluxe and moderate resorts.

 

[PhotobearSam]

We save before the trip...Stop eating out, put money in the piggy bank etc. etc...

Once I have all the money we will have I divide it up over the amount of days and out $50 per day in each enveloppe. Once the $50 is gone...We stop spending. We really do this and it works but for a larger family it would have to be more.

We stay off-site and drive down. We get a condo for less than the price of a motel room and make sandwhiches for certain park days and soup and grilled cheese for some suppers.

We get an allowance of about $100-$150 each for spending on us and that is all...It can be done.

 

[dsneygirl]

It's too late for you this trip but we always fly to Buffalo. You could easily shave your airfare in half. We've gone for as cheap as $49 each way. Or about $350 CDN for both of us.

Also travel at off peak times when they have buy one get one half price, at Par etc.