$How do u save money?$

[WDWfreak89]

Just woundering maybe this could help me. I know im trying different ways to save money for a trip in Feb. 2006. I started something like adding 1$ everyday to a jar i started that like two months ago so we will have about 365$ My parents are saving little by little. Anyone have any tips on saving? Any ideas that you use to save that you would like to share?

 

[Ringo8n24]

This would be the greatest idea... This site shows about 20,000 members. Each member could send in a dollor and then the WDWMagic people could do Disney Trip give-a-ways to a few lucky families each quarter. I guess this could be a way to make sure everyone joins the site and pays for use. (I am a guest only) but this Lottery idea could get some people down there. Sorry only one winner per family, per houshold, per lifetime!

It could work. I won an all expense paid trip to London in May on another website that I am a member. I would go for that. It encourages the person to pay to join the site because if you do not pay, you are not included in the drawings. It was well worth my $35 to go to London for free. I would love to go to WDW for free... :sohappy:

 

[barnum42]

If you buy a cup of coffee from Starbucks or similar on the way to work, dont' That's a few hundred saved right there.

Take a packed lunch to work rather than buying sandwiches or lunch. Several hundred easlily saved right there.

If you smoke, think of the Disney time you could spend with the money saved by cutting back or even quitting.

If you are British, look for late bargains staying offsite - my best so far is two weeks hotel and flights for £350 a ten minute drive from the parks in April 2004

 

[goofy for fire]

Here's something that hasn't been mentioned yet. If you're purchasing everything on your own and not using our friend Pam from Kingdom Konsultants, try buying items like park passes, resies, other needed items in spurts and not all at once. We bought our parkhoppers a couple at a time and it didn't burden our finances as much. Also, if you can still find Disney Dollars, have family/friends buy these for your kids for birthday, Christmas, Easter, presents. This eases your costs and lets someone else pay for your trip.

 

[Debbie]

We bought our parkhoppers a couple at a time and it didn't burden our finances as much. Also, if you can still find Disney Dollars, have family/friends buy these for your kids for birthday, Christmas, Easter, presents. This eases your costs and lets someone else pay for your trip.

This is something we also do. Now that our boys are older and enjoy their 'own' money; we told everyone (who asked) for Christmas and their birthdays, (that follow right after Christmas), to give Disney dollars. Each had over $150.00 of their own spending money and I really think they enjoyed the responsibility of minding their money, paying for their own treats, games, and Disney merchandise, and they could go to the arcade at Pop Century and spend whatever they wanted.
I also buy passes one at a time to ease the burden. When I go to Disney, I only want to need money for food, gas, and a little shopping.

 

[meekoman]

Here's what I do:
Save pocket change,
Sell my excess stuff on ebay,
Put a portion of my overtime pay aside (about 50%)
Save a portion of my tax returns (again about 50%)
Put aside rebates

 

[goofyman]

A painless way to save is to save all your change at the end of the day. I always pay with bills and throw my change into a jar every night. I easily save several hundred dollars this way! Besides that, I save anything 'extra' I get, like rebates, bonuses or 'unexpected' cash. Every little bit helps!

We do the same this is an easy painless way to save some mad money! :sohappy:

 

[goofyman]

1% of purchases made with a Disney Credit Card builds up as bonus dollars, or magic dollars, or whatever they're called. We pay with the card wherever and whenever we can get away with it, instead of cash. Needless to say, this will work only if you pay your balance in full every month--otherwise you just waste that money in fees and interest. We're working our way towards a Disney cruise at the moment, courtesy of our grocery store, our gas station, the auto mechanic, the odd visit to McDonalds, etc. Now if only we could pay our mortgage off with it, we'd already be booking a stateroom for a Christmas cruise.

In addition to the fees, you also have to keep on top of when the dollars expire--something like three years after the month that you earned them.

This is another good way, we use $$ for our park passes. but make sure to pay balances in full!

 

[TwoTigersMom]

Last month I opened a cash management account for our Disney fund. We decided that we will put our entire tax refund check in each year. This year, we had $3500 back to start the account. We had a second baby on January 7th so next year we'll get back even more! Plus, DH and DS are on daily medications. I will be saving almost $2000 a year just by swapping pharmacies. I pay for the meds each month, up front. Then when Blue Cross Blue Shield sends us our 80% back I deposit that into our Disney Fund account. On top of all that, cash management accounts earn a lot more interest than regular savings accounts. We will be going back in April of '07 and we were wondering how we would come up with the money to take a nanny with us. Since we decided to do this, we will have plenty of money to take a nanny and even be able to leave some in the account for the next trip!

 

[Miss Bell]

I set aside a certain amount every month, and put in a savings account. I think of it just like any other bill I have to pay.

I use my Disney Visa card for everything I can--I don't use it to pay for the trip, but the last year and this upcoming one, we have been able to pay for all or most of our big meals. We eat at least table service each day.

We always toss our extra change in a jar, which we cash in the day before we go--it always ends up being more than I think it will. (Less lately due to using less cash to use Visa card.)

Also, half of my daughter's allowance goes straight into her savings account to save for all the stuff she wants to buy at Disney. We've done this for many years. She doesn't miss it in her monthly allowance, cause she never sees it, and she is much smarter about what she wants to buy at WDW when it comes out of her wallet instead of mine.

And like many others before me have said, I often use the arguement of do you want this, or money to spend at Disneyworld, when confronting a less than thought out purchase.

 

[crazydaveh]

I don't really "save" money to go. I go when I have lots, or can barely pay for gas to get home.

Here are some things I do while at the parks to save $$.

Take Pop tarts and instant oatmeal for breakfast. I also buy other snack things to carry around.

Like many others, I make a few sandwiches and eat them instead of buying burgers.

I take my own beer. This saves a lot of money at the hotels. No, you can't take it in the parks, but you can enjoy it at the hotel. The bars at most of the hotels charge $5-6 for a beer. You can buy a case and take it with you for $13 a case! Do the math! Same goes with liquor, just stay away from the liquor store off 192! They're more expensive than drininking on property!

I also buy my own cokes. As with the beer, you can get a thing of cokes for the same as 1 in the parks.

I'm not knocking the prices in the parks. I honestly think they're decently priced. I've paid a lot more at Six Flags in Atlanta and a lot less at other parks, but when you're there for a week, you do what you have to do to get by!

I also take my laptop to dump the pictures I take in every night. This way, I don't have to pay more money for extra storage space or printing while at the parks! I also stock up on batteries at home!

Just my way of doing things!

 

[Goofy36]

One thing I try to do is never leave the house with anything smaller than a $5 bill. When I come home at night if I have singles or change they all go into the trip savings. The most important thing to do though is get the money into the bank as soon as you can otherwise like me you might be tempted to spend it, not to mention the banks give you free money towards your trip in the form of interest!

 

[New2WDW]

Amen!

and she is much smarter about what she wants to buy at WDW when it comes out of her wallet instead of mine.

This was a great turn around in my girls thinking when they had there own money to waste or use wisely!!!

 

[bkw86]

Thanks for all the great ideas everyone

I better get to saving!

 

[WDWfreak89]

Thanks so much for your ideas! Im starting to sell stuff on ebay that I have laying around the house. I like the rebate idea too. I might do that. Thanks again!