Saving for trip

[belle0517]

I am trying to encourage my sister and her family to come with us to WDW. The trip would not take place until 2009 as her children are currently too young (3m, 2y & 3y). She is a stay-at-home mom and cannot fathom how they will be able to save enough for a trip in 2 years time. Can anyone give me some saving ideas to pass on to her? I am sure that some of you are very creative when it comes to financing your trips. Please help!! It might sound strange (or not-to those true Disney fans) but it really is my dream to share the magic with her and her family. Thank you!!

 

[sbkline]

The way I get most of my money for the trip is by taking out additional with-holding from my paychecks, such that I get a big refund come late February or March. Having it taken out of your paycheck makes you not miss it quite as much. Plus, if she has kids, she should get the 1,000 dollar per child tax credit anyway, so she should get a good sized refund to use for vacation.

 

[tigsmom]

My DH has money taken out of his check every pay and deposited into our vacation account at the credit union, you never see it so you don't really miss it. I'm a stay at home mom too and what we do is save all of our pocket change, recycle money and the kids save cash they get as gifts.
Others have sold stuff on ebay or used the money they raise with garage sales.

There have been a few threads on this subject and you may find some good info if you do a search. :wave:

 

[HoneyMnShawnee]

I save all my change (regardless of how small or big), it adds up very quickly.. I also have savings bonds that are taken off my paycheque.. What you don't see you don't miss.. I also put away as much of my tax return as I can..

 

[coltow]

There are so many ways. For our next trip we are putting a little bit of money aside from each weeks paycheck. We hope to have this cover hotel and park tickets. And we'll figure out plane tickets later.

My sisters have saved money in the past from recycling cans of soda. Also you could get some sort of "piggy bank" and every day dump all your change in it and put in dollars here and there. You could then change it all in when it gets full and either get it all in dollars or buy Disney Dollars with it.

 

[ELopez]

I agree, there are some good tips on other threads about this topic. But I will throw in that the Disney Visa earns Disney reward dollars - IF you can be disciplined and pay it off each month. Also, time the trip before the little one turn 3 so he (or she) will be free!

I encourage you to plan and budget. You don't have to do every park. We go every year for a week and our entire trip usually costs about $1700 (family of 6 and I'm a stay-at-home mom, too!). It can be done!!

 

[Sailor Mouse]

My family has a large coke bottle bank. It's green plastic, and about 2 feet tall. When I was little, we'd put all our change in there, and eventually it would fill up, and my parents would tell me we had enough to go to WDW. Now we still put our change in there, but I know it doesn't pay for the whole trip, we use it to pay for food, or spending money.

One year, as a surprise, my mom picked up on my bad habit of leaving money in my pants pockets when washing them. She would quietly collect all the money I'd left in there, and that was my spending money. I didn't miss it because I'd forgotten about it in the first place. The sad thing is, over the course of a year, I'd washed over $100... :brick:

There are ways to save up. Yard sales are useful, clean house, and sell junk and put the money away.

Good luck with that :wave:

 

[k.hunter30]

Two words - DAVE RAMSEY.

Why would you want to worry about paying for your WDW vacation AFTER you've gone home from the magic instead of immediately saving and planning for another one? In two years time, almost anyone can save for a WDW vacation if the budget and TRULY set their mind to it. Get "gazelle intense!"

 

[belle0517]

Two words - DAVE RAMSEY.

Why would you want to worry about paying for your WDW vacation AFTER you've gone home from the magic instead of immediately saving and planning for another one? In two years time, almost anyone can save for a WDW vacation if the budget and TRULY set their mind to it. Get "gazelle intense!"

I agree!! We try to be a cash only family. We do not carry debt except for our morgage. My sister and her husband feel the same way. They will not go to WDW unless they can save enough for the trip.

 

[k.hunter30]

Then you guys must be familiar with budgeting. I actually used to work for him and would print off his budget sheet every month (actually I still do). Work with her on coming up with a final $ amount. Divid it by the months she has to save and have that be one of the first things she puts in her budget. If that means she has to cut down on eating out or clothes money then that's what she'll have to do. Let me know if you have any Dave questions.

We budget like crazy and once we do, it seriously feels like we have more money that we thought! And to be able to go on a trip like that after saving - it makes the trip that much more enjoyable! It's an amazing feeling! Good luck to her and to you!

 

[DWGIRL]

I use coupons every week at the grocery store and whatever savings I received from the coupons, I add that amount to the vacation savings fund. It's at least $10 a week. One week when it was triple coupon week, I saved $67. That adds up quick. Also, garage sales are a great way to earn extra cash. I have 4 kids and when they outgrow their clothes, I turn a great profit. I have made $800 in one weekend just selling old things. Good luck.

 

[ELopez]

We've thought about taking a Dave Ramsey course. We don't have any debt, but I am curious about it.

 

[k.hunter30]

We've thought about taking a Dave Ramsey course. We don't have any debt, but I am curious about it.

If you don't have ANY debt (no house mortgage) and you never plan on getting any debt, you can probably skip the class - unless someone gets you the kit for free. The "Buying Big Bargians" and investing dvds are helpful though. or you can start with his "Total Money Makeover" book to get your feet wet, or listen to him on the radio.

 

[Tinkrbell]

I save all of my change. I've only been saving since October & I have clost to $100. Also, any extra money I get from doing extra chores or babysitting has gotten me almost another $200 in about 4 months. The last thing I do, since I refuse to spend any of my change I've been saving, is when I cash my paychecks I ask for a roll of quarters & that's another $10 every two weeks. I'm only 17, but thats going to end up being my spending money when I'm there for my 18th bday in October. By saving along the way, I don't really miss the money.

 

[nibblesandbits]

I do what everyone else has said...I save my change up...and while it sometimes takes a while...after 6 months or so my DH and I save up around $100 (keep in mind...we mostly use debit cards sp we don't have a lot of cash around all the time)

We also sell things at a local flea market (ok...it's my DH's parents store...so it's really not a flea market) but what we do is we buy junk from an auction and throw out the crap, save the "good" stuff and then sell what's left. We can buy a box of junk for 2-3 dollars and make anywhere from 10-20 dollars per box, at least. So that's another idea. Although most flea market type places will charge you a fee to use their facility...but it's one other way to earn some extra money.

And of course we have the Disney Visa and pay that off every month.

 

[mep517]

We do very similar to other posters. I determine how much the trip will cost, then DH and I put ourselves on a reasonable "payment schedule." We put money into our savings account at regular intervals, like we were paying down a credit card or mortgage (without interest, of course.) I usually pad in some additional dollars to account for fare increases. We make extra "payments" with bonuses, birthday money, etc. I keep a running tally of how much we have left. It's fun to see that number shrink as we count down the days to our trip!

For food and incidentals, we will be using pre-paid VISA cards for our trip this year. We set up the budget, then load that amount to the cards. Helps a lot with budgeting and is a lot more manageable than travellers checks.

 

[emmersandjack]

we are also change savers....last year we took an impromtu visit to wdw and in our change bank (a large plastic budweiser bottle and a princess bank) we had close to $500. another great place to look for change is your car...we don't smoke so we use our ashtrays as change holders and if you empty these out, even once a month you'd be surprised at how fast that adds up.

i think that you could also show your sister how many options wdw has. look into the new family suites at one of the all stars or pop century. not sure of the price, but can't be too bad, especially if splitting the cost. if you are driving or renting a car you can go to a nearby store and buy some food and cook some meals there saving some money.

when we go down we usually go for 10 days and get a 10 day pass. we usually end up not using all 10 days and wasting some money. maybe you can plan out your days ahead of time and decide on the right ticket to buy.

when we were trying to convince my parents to go with us, they also kept telling us that they couldn't afford it. i just decided to beat them over the head with disney. i left the planning dvd at their house and played it every time i was there. i showed them online the room we would stay in. i brought old pictures, talked about nonstop and other aggressive manuevers to get my way. in the end it worked...always does with family. we are the ultimate in peer pressure.

good luck in convincing your sister!:brick:

 

[emmersandjack]

For food and incidentals, we will be using pre-paid VISA cards for our trip this year. We set up the budget, then load that amount to the cards. Helps a lot with budgeting and is a lot more manageable than travellers checks.

that is a great tip! i will have to tell hubby about that one!

 

[New2WDW]

There are some great ideas listed! One thing I like to do is plan a vacation and itemize the room, tickets, food, etc per day and whenever I get paid I pay towards one of those items.

Example: I list the room fee per night ($93), Tickets for each individual per day ($29), Food cost per day per person ($39), toll fee driving down ($3), etc. and I will mark off an item as I pay for it and put it in the savings container that my kids make.)

Recycle: We get about 50 cents/pound of aluminum cans, and if you have any copper scraps lying around it is going for about $1.80/pound. But not too many people have that lying around! :lol:

Good luck!

 

[Laura]

We put money into a savings account each month and we generally use most of our tax refund each year for travel. We usually get $5,000-$7,000+ for our tax refunds so it's really a cinch.

Also, different people have different priorities. Some people like designer clothes and new cars. I really don't care about clothes or cars and prefer to invest large amounts of money into family vacations because I those are the things my kids are gonna look back on when they're adults. They won't care what brand clothes they wore!