How do you save $$ for your WDW trip?

[tinkfan05]

Everyone knows that WDW is expensive...but WELL worth it! Is there any special way you save for your trips to the world? I make candles as a hobby/side job, and sell them. All of my candle money is my "play" money, so this year I've decided to play at WDW!! It may take me 8-12 months to save it this way, but at least I know I've earned every mickey bar! How do you save for your trips?

 

[DISMOM]

Hello everyone from a fellow Disney Visa card holder here.:kiss: We try to go to Disney about every two years and have $500 Disney reward dollars saved up. We hope this will go for food for our next vacation to the Magic. I think that the reward dollars are good for 5 years. My dream would be to pay for an entire vacation with them. Wouldn't that be just the best?? We don't save change because we pay for everything possible with the Disney Visa card and pay it off every month. Good ideas, everybody. Nothing like having a goal to shoot for.

 

[lpet11984]

Nowadays when I am out and about and want to spend a little money on something useless I say to myself "This money could buy a Dole Whip or a Mickey Bar!" and I would put it in an envelope instead. So whenever I got the urge to spend something small I would use that money for WDW instead.

I definitely do this too. Helps prioritize the things you really want from the things that could be buying that Dole Whip Float instead! :slurp:

 

[ThinkTink721]

My husband works an extra part-time job & we use that $ to go to WDW! :wave:

 

[MaryMcMagic]

I play the Lotto! I know, I know, its not the best method of getting money for Disney, but tonight's Mega Millions jackpot is $270 Million. I will admit with no shame whatsoever, that I will put down my $5 with Disney Dreams in my head of what I would do in WDW if I won that kinda moulah!

As a matter of fact, all of us at work that go together in playing have admitted that no matter what else happens with the money, we'll all do a WDW vacation together WHEN (NOT IF-- remember the SECRET? The Law of Attraction...visualise!) we win tonights drawing!

Also, I have my Disney Visa that collects DDRD's...I love those things! We do everything with our card...it works out well for us--we never carry a balance. Last year, we had 1500! If any of you have home based businesses that do a lot of ordering (Tastefully Simple, Mary Kay, etc...) use your cards for payment and pay it off with the payments you receive from your customers...that really worked well for me.

 

[Scooter]

We have a savings account that is designated as our "Disney Vacation Account."

We save money several ways.

1) X amount of money each week goes into that account.
2) Job bonuses go into it
3) Tax refunds go into it
4) We save our spare change
5) all scratch off lottery ticket winnings go into it
6) any left over travelers checks from our last vacation goes into it
7) We use our Disney Visa card a lot and all Rewards go towards vacation meals. We pay the card off monthly so we get the rewards but no late interest charges.

it all adds up!

 

[mickeypal1]

Each spring we do a "clean sweep" and hold a garage sale with the proceeds going to vacation fund. It is a good incentive for our daughters to go thru their stuff and thin it out...we tell them every penny goes to disney.

Also save any rebates or "found" money ($60 just on appliance delivery refund!)

Also do the change thing, and stash what we can thru-out the year....

 

[aj_steig]

Thanks for the response! I will look into getting one as well. Every little bit helps and my wife would love the Disney card.

I can't tell you how much I love my Disney card! I get compliments on it all the time (mine is the Tinkerbell design). I charge everything to it and pay off the balance each month. We had close to 100 Disney Dollars last year for our honeymoon, so that helped us out a lot. In addition, we got a 10% discount at the World of Disney (which was great because a lot of the souvenirs that we wanted in the parks could be found at WOD so getting the discount was a huge perk). We also got 20% discount off of the EPCOT Seas Aqua Tour (one of the coolest experiences we have ever had!!) and we also got to do the Character Meet and Greet at EPCOT. We had a really cute picture taken with Minnie and Goofy, so that was a fun souvenir to take home.

In addition, last year when free dining was offered for the fall, Disney Visa cardmembers were able to book a few days early

Overall, I would highly recommend it!

 

[Tiggerfanatic]

I just thought of another good way to save - for those of you who get paid bi-weekly, February was a 3-pay month. I took out half a mortgage payment from my check, and what I normally pay on bills each payday from hubby's check, and Voila!, a nice chunck of change in the Disney vacation fund, with the same amount of money to get me through until next payday.
If I remember correctly, should happen again in October.

 

[OhioDisneyLover]

We're big into Disney Dollars. We will add them into birthday cards, Valentine's cards, Easter cards, etc. throughout the year. We also save our change (although I hate it when it comes time to rolling it so that we can take it to the bank) as well as $1 bills. Sometimes DH and I have a little "contest" to see who can save the most $1 bills. One year we had around $550 in change in several hundred in $1's. :sohappy:

 

[maryszhi]

my parents and i have the disney rewards card. I also help out by working a babysitting job, this gives me my spending money,,,,,,,,and college since i am a junior in hs, i have to keep saving

 

[danpam1024]

Lastly we create a Disney World Bill and pay it every month just as if it was due. Thats how we pay the bulk of our trip.[/QUOTE]

We have the "Disney Bill" too. Paying it is just like paying FPL...it's not an option. Food, gas, toys, etc...well we can always live on mac-n-cheese and ride our bikes, but we can't live w/o our annual trip to the world:lol:

 

[LoriMistress]

For our trip from November 9th to 15th 2003 we bought our hotel/tickets/airfair through Expedia and spent $1,877.16 (7 PH Water Park & More tickets/ASMu). On top of that we paid $56 for Mears and hand $750 to our name (food/suvineers/etc.) So total on the trip was ($1933.16 if you don't include food/suvineers); $2683.16, which wasn't bad...for a first time.

For our Dec 8th to 19th 2007 Vacation:

* Our airfair will be free since my parents are paying for our roundtrip flight for a Christmas present.
* Two Adults 10 Day PH Tickets for $529 through undercovertourist.com
* Four PI tickets total $68; Two DQ tickets total $58 through ticketmania.com
* 11 night stay at Pop Century $65.60 per night; total $811.80 through AAA.com
* Cirque Du Soleil® La NouBa two adult tickets total $152 through ticketmania.com
* MVMCP (total four adult tickets) $170.20.
* Sunray Transporation (RT total including tax etc.) $82
Total costs (not including food and suvineers): $1871!!!!

Though, we ate at least at least 2-3 restaurants a day. We also purchased a CP package as well.

I know that I could have saved even more money if we just went with the AP instead of purchasing our tickets through undercovertourist.com but we still got a great deal; so I'm not complaining.

 

[scpergj]

Saving change is a good idea, and I also save $1 bills. You tend to think twice before breaking a $5 rather than a $1.

I started saving them for my hurricane fund, but over the years I've accumulated enough to buy a generator, small refrigerator, lots of battery powered fans, tarps, plywood, etc and any other durable supplies I could think of, so I keep a few hundred for last minute supplies, plus ready cash. (I also have $50 worth of quarters for laundry, in the hopes that I can find one with power)

The rest goes into a vacation fund once a month.

Ha!! I do the $1 thing too! I heard it on a nationally syndicated radio show (nope...not telling which...my politics have gotten me in enough trouble on this board), and I thought it made sense. I was able to save for all of the food and drinks for when I took my wife on a Mommy and Daddy trip last year. It was really easy to do...until my wife found out I was doing it! Then she always wanted cash for various kid things...I made her "buy" it (traded a $5 for 5 $1's)

Works really good. I save change, too.

Another thing we do is that my wife and I both kept our old accounts at our credit union (from before we were married). They weren't doing anything (had about $10 in each), then we started using them for "special savings". We put rebate money, our change (when we fill our change containers), Pinecone checks, my local travel reimbursement checks (I drive a Honda Civic, and my company pays me 51 cents a mile or something like that...so I get a $30 or so check every three or four months), that sort of thing.

Kevin

 

[Mufasa's Pride]

If your not going to spend much time in you hotel room, try out Pop Century. Although transportation is a bit of a problem, you surely get the most bang for your buck at this resort.

 

[k.hunter30]

We just save the old fashion way... cut back on certain spending for a month or two and put extra money aside for the vacation.

 

[teej]

Easy...I stay in and don't go out..lol..me and my friends have lots of DVD nights lol..I don't need to spend money so I can put most of it by for Disney i am lucky that I can do that though..I know a lot of people can't.

 

[disneygoer2000]

what sites do you use? i was looking at doing some processing rebates from home but am alittle hesitant because i am not sure if they are scams? do you mind emailing me the names of who you use?

 

[FigmentFreak]

I "pay" myself whenever I get paid, depending on how much overtime I've worked at the very least I "pay" myself $50 and go up from there.

This year Uncle Sam will be contributing a nice big chunk with his, we care about you lowly people rebate. So I'll do my duty to my country and spend it.


Figment Freak and her little Freakettes

 

[santa's surpriz]

what sites do you use? i was looking at doing some processing rebates from home but am alittle hesitant because i am not sure if they are scams? do you mind emailing me the names of who you use?

I work in banking and we just completed our 2008 Fraud Awareness Training and surveys and work at home schemes are included as red flags. If banks have pegged these as fraudulent red flags there is a good reason. Please be
careful.

 

[Shere_Khan]

I notice alot of you save your change in a jar and roll it all up before the trip.
I want to make a suggestion. I roll mine up about once a month or as needed and deposit into a vacation only savings account. I figure you might as well be getting interest since the money just sits around your house, why not have it sit around in the bank.
Just a tip.

Lastly we create a Disney World Bill and pay it every month just as if it was due. Thats how we pay the bulk of our trip.

That is such a great idea. Thank you for sharing. I am going to start doing that now for my upcming trip.

Also save any rebates or "found" money ($60 just on appliance delivery refund!)

I also do this with found money. One time I switched phone services and the old service sent me a credit because I must have not used the entire month that I paid for. Instead of putting that check into my checking account, it went right into my vacation savings. Any checks like this that I would not have otherwise go to vacation savings.

I can't tell you how much I love my Disney card!

I also get so many comments on mine! I have the Bambi card and Bambi is not even really my favorite, but the picture is kind of vintage looking and it is really adorable. I normally choose princess everything and they had an Ariel one but I had to have Bambi. And I get people at stores all the time saying how cute it is.