Saving up for Disney Vacation a Year Long Process

[MIKETFROMRI]

Love Disney...its our passion..but boy its expensive. We usually stay 10- 12 nights....usually me, the DW and DD....don't skimp on meals so need mucho $$. Wish I could just dip into the reserves and just come up with the 5k or so needed ( air,room,food etc) but alsa no can do...soooooo have to save for a year..sometimes sacrificing things along the way. Here are some of the things I do to save along the way and make our vacation less stressful ( knowing everything is paid and not charged)
1) All change goes into huge jar...adds up!
2) Will try to put $20 away every week into special account just for Disney
3) When I have extra ( never know when that will pop up) get Disney Gift cards and put away
4) I teach and coach...so I try to do lot extra things like running intramurals after school..running enrichment programs after school ( diff days)..collect tix at HS football games, work summer BBall camps during summer ( usually after return from disney to be used for next trip
5) Hope and pray get something back from taxes and put some away
6) Used to go to Disney stores locally and and buy Disney Dollars and save them seperatly BUT all 3 have closed!!!!!!
7) Have seperate bank just for SINGLE dollar bills....when I get change I take the singles and put them bank I built for singles
WHAT SOME OF YOUR WAYS?

 

[danpam1024]

I used to work full time just to pay for 3 Disney trips a year. We would "bank" my paychecks (nearly all of it)- that is just ridiculous! We have gotten away from the mega trips at the deluxes and now opt for weekend trips on a whim. Far less stressful and not so much sacrifice (but we are Floridians so it is much easier for us to do). Less of a wait in between. And I don't have to work anymore. We use credit cards to pay for everything that have vacation reward points (and pay them off immediately), DH does surveys for points as well. If I have any money leftover from my weekly household budget, I take it out in cash and put it in a drawer

 

[tare]

Get a cap one card. Charge everything you can. Record each receipt in your checkbook just like you pd for it by chk. You will have alot if $$$ racked up and it can be pd off easily every month by this method. We've done it for years.

 

[MinnieM123]

Having a change jar is helpful, if you normally pay with cash for purchases through the year. Every 2-3 months, I average about $40 in change when I cash it in. I then add $10 from my wallet and buy a $50 Disney gift card at Target. Last year, I had $250 in Disney cards. I also use my tax refund to help pay a decent amount of the trip. The remainder of expenses I charge, but I only stay 4 nights/5 days so it's not a huge bill. Hope this is helpful to you, and I wish you a pleasant trip!

 

[JIMINYCR]

I think you've covered about all my schemes for saving, except I let all the relatives and everyone I know that when it comes to Birthdays and Christmas ideas... I'll always be happy with accepting a Disney gift card. It helps the cause..And it never gets returned because it's the wrong color or size....

 

[sgtmgd]

Heres a thought:

For future trips you can book a room 18 months in advance..100.00 or 200.00 deposit required cant remember which..and there is no minimum payment required each month..however you need to have it paid off 45 days from arrival. Next option Id strongly consider..while booking at 18 months in advance the "specials" packages and such wont be announced yet..BUT Id talk with a CM and base your trip on that current years prices..INCLUDING the Dining plan..whichever you feel best suits your need..(you mentioned not scrimping on food) ...every year in late July early August Disney generally starts announcing the next years "deals" you can always call Disney and get the deals they will make the adjustments for you..if you expect your trip to run 5K and take the full 18 months Disney allows to book in advance you are looking at needing about $277.00 a month to get to that zero balance..you may hit the mother load and get free dining or other discounts..keep a spredsheet with an 18 month ledger..what ever you have saved at the end of each month..call disney and make a payment..annotate if you met the goal or not and adjust accordingly..this way you have the money "sunk" into the trip and you are on your way!

 

[copcarguyp71]

Change jar works well. Also save wire scraps from my shop and cash in every six months for copper (usually about 400lbs each trip), Sell various items we no longer need or use on Ebay, I am self employed so when I work weekends I try to stash a little extra aside instead of paying myself for the hours, I try to take advantage of conventions in Orlando that occur every four years so that my portion of the trip is a write off for that trip.

 

[Goofyernmost]

Every once in a while I purchase (or at least did in the past) a 10 day PH, Non-Exp. Ticket. I probably won't anymore because it's to damn expensive and I'm old and may die before I get a chance to use it. Anyway, I have had a ticket at the ready for years now. I, fortunately, live just 600 miles away. I jump in my car at 6 AM and arrive just outside the gates by 4 PM. When I visit I usually don't really know I'm going to until about a month or less ahead of time. When I decide to go I go on line and find, on one website or the other an offsite hotel for, on average, about $50.00 per night. I'm not talking about the Taj Mahal, but a comfortable, clean room with frig. and microwave and usually a free breakfast. I go for usually 4 days/5 nights. So $250.00 for lodging. About $225.00 round trip for gas. The single highest cost is for food which on average is about $30.00 per day so including travel days...$200.00 (rounded up). So figuring my admission is prepaid what I need to make a Disney run is about $700.00. Don't have to make dinner reservations, can come and go whatever day I chose, no worries about wrapping FP's around my dining plans cause I don't have any dining plans. And I get to see the exact same MK, Epcot, DHS and DAK as everybody else. I use the KISS method! Keep It Simple, Silly!

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

We have a change jar too. Also whenever I use a coupon to save on my groceries we put that "saving" into our Disney fund. So if I used a total of $2 in coupons I put $2 in our Disney envelope. If you use a lot of coupons like I try to do this can add up to a tidy amount.

 

[DJMoore2011]

Our First Trip was in 2011 our Second Trip not till 2015, so about 4 years for us to save to go. But my Dear Hubby is the only one working while I stay home and take care of our Special Needs Daughter.

We do the change chair about $40-$50 twice a year and we always round up to the nearest $10, like if the change jar was 40.52 I deposit it into checking then Dear Hubby will add money to make it an even $50 into savings. We put money away every week and from Tax returns and any bonuses from work. When we take recycle in most of it also goes into the savings account.

In 2015 We will have the house paid for so hoping after that we wont have to wait as long for trips maybe every other year but will have to see how things go.

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

Oh yeah, our recycle money from aluminum cans goes in our trip fund too.

 

[worldtraveler]

Being a single w/out kids, the process for me is a bit different. I do everything a la carte. I buy hotel room separately first. So i pay it off my cc then attack the plane and tickets. So when I'm down in the world, all I have to pay for is food and souvenirs. Makes it a little more manageable. This gives me piece of mind knowing I can handle a nice trip to the world.

 

[LucyK]

We book as early as they allow us to, this year was July for our November/2014 trip, and pay for it monthly just like it was another bill. I set aside a part of my paycheck specifically for Disney expenses and let it gain interests.

We also have a pig bank and add to it weekly. We made a game out of it, every Saturday we'll open our wallets and get the highest bill we have and put in the pig bank. It also holds our daily change. For this year's trip we had over $700 on the pig bank when we finally opened it!

Oh yeah, our recycle money from aluminum cans goes in our trip fund too.

We started saving cans to recycle and it does add up quickly! It's a double bonus for us, we help the environment and get some cash back! We now call them Disney cans!

 

[LaunchPadMcQuack]

My wife and I have a seperate account. 10% of my income goes into this account for a vacation fund.

Try to book the vacation as early as you can to start paying it down. As Sgtmgd mentioned, if you can book 18 months in advance it's ideal.

Closer to our travel date we make a few sacrifices fir that extra little cash boost. This year we are giving up:
Wine
Starbucks
Dining Out

The sacrifices make the rewards even better!

 

[CrazyDisneyLady]

I have a couple online sights that I do really well with for Disney savings, and I am Canadian so there is less to do for us. You could probably fair quite well with them. Quickrewards and Swagbucks. If you'd like I could send you a link to both and you could be my referral. I make about $300 in Disney gift cards from QR in a year and another $300 on swagbucks that you can either put in a PayPal account and transfer to your bank account or use for Starbucks cards for MS bakery. I am very frugal and love Disney so I find anyway I can to get there.

 

[Stu29573]

Tax refund checks have always worked for us. Also, we now have a Disney credit card...Use it like cash and pay it off at the end of every month...