How you save

[Bonnet]

Does anyone have some great trips on how you save money each time you are planning a trip to WDW? Sometimes with a family and all it can be hard to save enough!

[mritty]

There are some standard answers to this question, any or all of which may or may not apply to your situation:
* Go during Value season
* Stay at a Value resort, or even off-site
* If onsite, use Magical Express instead of renting a car
* If you're going to do table service meals, make your big meal lunch, and get counter service for dinner
* Use your AAA membership for a hotel discount
* Consider one person buying an Annual Pass, after determining if the AP discount would work out in your favor
* Buy your own bottled water and take it to the parks with you
* Carefully figure out what you want to do before you go, so you know whether or not you *need* park hopper and water park fun & more
* And most importantly - visit MouseSavers.com - Disney Discount Source - Disney World Discounts, Disneyland Discounts, Disney Cruise Discounts on a regular basis to find out any discounts or bargains that might help you.

[princessariel]

I don't do little things to save BUT I make sure I'm saving my money a little bit at a time.

My last trip we knew when we were going....and opened up a special savings account. I put $100 a month into this($50 each check). I hardly notcied that ammount being gone each pay check and when the trip came to I had lots of $$. In this ammount I budgeted my spending money and food money.

I also have a set budget every week for groceries. I play a game with myself to keep the groceries under that ammount. What I dont spend I get to put in our travel fund.....some weeks it may be $10....I've had weeks where it's been $100.

[MandaBella]

Since we're DVC members, we save by taking advantage of our kitchen in our room. We end up eating several breakfasts, lunches, dinners, and snacks in our room all courtesy of Publix. Eating several meals in our room allows us to eat a few nicer table service meals in the parks or at the resorts. That way we aren't relying on counter service the entire week to each cheaply.

[liljam]

I have a hard time saving for anything and that was one reason that I rarely took a vacation as an adult. I had gone to WDW about 20 times from birth to 13 and then I stopped going with my family. Last May, I had gotten the Disney bug and craved a vacation before starting a family. We had a good lump sum of money come in at one time and that was what made it possible to go since I don't save and I plan horribly! We loved being back at Disney and knew we'd want to raise our children with annual vacations. We purchased DVC during that trip and it's a huge plus for us. We figure, we don't have to "save" for the hotel part of our trip now which is a good portion of the cost to even go to WDW. Second, we also plan to take advantage of the kitchen in our room (especially since our baby will be about 3 months old this May when he takes his first trip to the mouse!) We'll do breakfast and dinner at the room most nights with maybe one dinner out. Lunch will be counter service at the parks. This should help us save a good bit since we ate at least 3 purchased meals per day last year. We have plenty of family going with us so we plan to do about 300 to 400 in groceries for all of us. that being split by 3 incomes is great compared to the 500 or 600 we used last year on food and drinks alone. I planned and will plan our trips around tax refunds as well. We always spend our returns on "fun" stuff anyway, so this is a perfect plan for us. DVC isn't right for everyone, but its definitely great for us. Also, we can always take friends or family and charge them $500 for the week and that puts a little extra spending money in our pockets. Also, don't plan to buy a ton of stuff at the parks for the kids. Instead, take them to Walmart or a Disney store before hand and let them pick out Disney items to take on the trip - that way they have the shirts and items like other kids in the park, but you're not spending as much money there! Lastly, you can always do a vacation club, but they don't work for me because my bank lets you draw them out at any time lol!

[Tmntrans]

One way I do it is that I go 2 or 3 times a year. I fly down there and watch the fares DAILY. Also if staying on grounds, if u have a pass like I do, its 49.00 for Value and 99.00 for moderate resort. I pay 1 nite when I book and 1 night every month so its paid for before I even leave. Another hint when you watch Priceline expedia etc....DO NOT book flight, room, rental car together. My flight were 120.00 a piece through Southwest wanna get away program available on line. I booked a Payless economy rental car for 8.50 per day. Also if you keep on top of it depending when u go, you can stay within 3 miles of Disney for 27.00 to 34.00 per night if u catch it right . All this depends when U go of course.

[Tmntrans]

You can also buy a discount card for 20 % discount on all food with an annual pass. Also another way we save is...EVERYTIME you buy something , don't use your change . Just use the paper currency and put the change everytime in your change jar. You will not beleive how quick you can fill those little coin sleeves. My wife pays for our cruises that way. Never hurts.

[catiebug]

I set up a "vacation" savings account with one of the high interest rate banks (not sure if we can talk about those), save my change and all low dollar bills (like $1s and $5s), and lastly I do surveys and put all the money i earn from those into my disney fund. It adds up after a while.

[Disney05]

One of the easy things I do is at the end of the week whatever cash I have left in my wallet, whether it's a single or a twenty, I put in an envelope (away from my wife) and use it for spending money at WDW.

[liljam]

One of the easy things I do is at the end of the week whatever cash I have left in my wallet, whether it's a single or a twenty, I put in an envelope (away from my wife) and use it for spending money at WDW.

I wish my husband would do that lol!

We've also decided that this year, we'll have a huge yardsale before we go for a little extra cash. We cleaned out our closets and between the two of us we managed to get rid of 7 garbage bags full of clothes plus we have a shed business where people frequently stop paying or leave stuff behind!

I enjoy getting ideas on ways to save because now that we have a baby coming we knew we would have to cut out some of our spending. Also, we're not flying - we're taking two vehicles between 10 people and at least half are driving in turns. This actually saves for us because everyone will chip in on gas and it will be less than $200 plane tickets per person. It is a 15 hour drive though!

[I heartpeterpan]

I took in a bunch of Clothes that i dont wear as much any more to a used clothing store for example - Platos Closet if you have one ?
and i got about $100.00 + easy or take some movies or CD's in to a store where they buy used DVD's and CD's you'll be suprised what you get !!!

[gohogs34]

We use our Disney visa for everything we can and pay it off each month. If I don't have the cash, I don't buy it. If I have the cash, I put it on the visa and pay it off at the month end. We had almost $600.00 in rewards for our trip comming up in three, did someone say THREE days.

[ohiodisneydad]

I'm thinking about going the Disney VISA route and paying my monthly utilities and paying them the next month. I also collect our own aluminum cans and drop them off when the bag gets full. The money I get goes right into a high yield interest savings account (anyone want referred let me know I get a bonus!) to save for gas money. I also do the spare pocket change and I only get gas at Speedway here in Ohio for the rewards points which can be turned in for free gas on our trip!

[StarsNStripes]

I like the Plato's Closet idea....
We save all our change....last trip, it was enough to cover all of our meals for the trip

[catiebug]

~We have a change bank for loose change and a cup for all dollar bills -> when we have extras they go in there.
~I also have a vacation saving account that I put a little bit in each month for any vacation I want to go on.
~We bring out lunch everyday to work so we don't have to spend $6 on lunch each day.
~Value season at a value resort is what we aim for
~I have started cutting back on how much I am buying each week at the grocery store and have been trying to get through my pantry. I am a horrible overbuyer at the grocery store and have way too much in my pantry.
~ That said I was also a name brand snob and I have since started to buy store brand food - every bit helps!
~ We joined a few survey panels online to help earn spending money. Its not a lot at first but $1.50 a day adds up