SAVING MONEY WHILE ON THE TRIP—Souvenirs and other things

 

April 17, 2012

I cannot think of a trip we’ve made to WDW that it hasn’t rained at least one day, so I always purchase several disposable rain ponchos at the local $1 Tree before leaving home.  As I said before they never fit back into the original bag, so I always pack Ziplocs for the ones we think we can re-use in the future.

Rain ponchos are not just for rain, they are great for water type rides and for when you suddenly discover that the temperature is dropping.  Even the lightest of poncho will help keep body heat in and keep you far warmer than doing without. At $1 tree you can get these for 2/$1 FAR cheaper than purchasing a poncho at WDW, although they are lighter weight and don’t have the Mickey icon on them of course.

I also pick up other things while I’m at $1 Tree for the trip.  Often they have cookies or other snacks in Disney shapes.   I also pick up small folding umbrellas, mending kits and glow in the dark necklaces and other glow in the dark goodies.  The need for the umbrellas, mending kits and snacks is obvious. 

The reason for the glow in the dark items are for treats for children either your own or, as we do.  Toward dark in the parks we start watching for very well behaved children.  Once we spot the children we approach their parents and ask if we may give them the items because we want to thank them for being so well behaved.  We never speak to the children without the parents’ permission.   Once we get it we tell the child that we want to thank them for being so good and give them the treat.  Since my husband looks like Santa Claus and we are generally at the park during the holiday season this makes the child feel extra special.

Many a time we’ve seen the children on the next day still wearing their prize and beaming from ear to ear.  It’s a little thing, but those smiles are worth millions to us.

If you are at $1 Tree alone and are traveling with children keep your eye open for special “souvenirs” for the kids.  I know several families that will secretly pack coloring books, stuffed animals, t-shirts and small toys with the Disney Characters that they have purchased at home on sale or from $1 tree.  Then Tinkerbell or some other favorite Disney Character (actually a spouse or older child while the other parent keeps the younger ones entertained) will mysteriously leave the gifts on beds or elsewhere for the kids to discover later.  I personally pick up adult size t-shirts and jackets on sale at home to wear in the parks rather than pay amusement park prices for such items at the park.

Also purchase your bandaids, aspirin/Tylenol, cold medicines, vitamins, Immodium, sunblock, anti itch medication and other similar over the counter meds and first aid kit items.  While you can purchase these at the parks and various resorts if needed while there they are FAR cheaper to get at home, preferably on sale with a coupon.  Plus we’ve found that if we remember to pack them there is less likelihood we will need them.  Kind of like the old saying about it only rains when you don’t take an umbrella.

When you venture to your local Wal-Mart, especially during the spring and summer look for hand held mister bottles with a battery powered fan on those.  Often these are under $5 at the local Wally World.  At Disney World the price will make you gasp and if you are down there in the hot part of the year, well that mist and fan certainly feel good.

Of course you will want to purchase some souvenirs while at the parks, but even that can be kept under control.  Many families I know purchase Disney Dollars ahead of time and designate a certain amount for each person to spend for souvenirs by giving them their amount in the Disney Dollars.  These can only be used there.  It’s a lot easier for a child to see they only have so many of those dollars to purchase things with and when they are all gone, they are gone.

Others I know limit souvenir purchasing to one certain day, that is where we fall.  We generally do our souvenir shopping on the day we got to Downtown Disney and then do all our shopping at the World of Disney store, because the annual pass gets us a discount there.  Some items, however, are park exclusive so if we see something we really like that is a park exclusive we will make an exception to that rule.  Into this category falls passholder exclusives as well. But we do stick tightly to our budget for souvenirs because if we don’t it would be VERY easy to spend way too much on all the delightful merchandise that is available everywhere.

Any items that you purchase in the park can be sent to your room for free from the store you purchase them at on any day but your departure day.  This is an absolutely wonderful service and truly a major perk of staying on site.  In the past we have even sent back to our room our backpack after we emptied it by including it in a sack with something we purchased.  The items have to be purchased by a certain time to be back to your room the same day, but that is generally not a problem.

On the backpack day we would not be needing the backpack the next day, so even though it was late in the day it didn’t matter that it might be the next afternoon before we got the pack back.

A word to the wise here.  Hands free is wonderful.  While fanny packs and back packs aren’t a true fashion accessory I’d wear either one on any day before I’d carry a purse of any sort.  Purses get lost, and yes even at the happiest place on earth things get stolen.  So keep your traveling throughout the park easy.  If you plan on eating all your meals in park, as on the dining plan, then a fanny pack for bandaids, aspirin and sunblock, nothing else to mess with.  Even the fanny pack can be a bother on certain rides when you must fasten a seat belt.  Keep traveling easy and you will enjoy your trip more.

Do you notice I keep mentioning sunblock?  You will be walking all day on asphalt, which reflects the sunshine and the sun at WDW seems to be more intense.  So slather the stuff on daily, refresh as needed.  If you are wearing shorts and/or sandals be sure and do you legs and feet.  Many a person ends up with a heat rash or sunburn on their ankles and calves when they don’t do this.

The heat rash is very itchy and uncomfortable, so try to avoid it at all costs.

Now for a very important reminder.  Camera, spare chips/sticks for storing the hundreds of photos you want to take, and BATTERIES.  Get these at home on sale and pack them with you.  Put spare batteries and memory chip in your camera case, a hip pocket or wherever  you can easily carry them no matter how good you think the batteries are in your camera.  There are so many things to take photos of the batteries will run out a lot faster than you expect  and batteries are EXPENSIVE at the World.  They sell/rent all sorts of camera equipment at the parks, but bringing it all from home is so much cheaper.

So there you have it, a lot of info on how to save money while traveling to Walt Disney World or any other vacation destination.  I’m certain I’ve probably missed a lot of helpful hints so hopefully some of you will add helpful hints to share with others while reading these posts in the comment sections.

Jan who says she hopes you have a Magical Disney trip in OK

SAVING MONEY WHILE ON THE TRIP—At the parks!—Food, Glorious Food

SAVING MONEY WHILE  ON THE TRIP—At the parks!—Food, Glorious Food

April 17, 2012
There are literally hundreds of ways to save money once you get to WDW. There is no way I could ever post them all here, but I will post the main ones my family uses. 

Food and beverage are the two biggest ways we save money.  So let’s go with these first.

If you are going down in a camper or a tent then by all means eat at least part of your meals every day at the campsite.  We generally eat at the camper for breakfast, and then pack snacks or a sandwich and drinks in a back pack to help cut down the desire to purchase foods in the park.

You can easily pack these foods and keep them cold with the help of a blue ice pack and either some newspaper or a towel.  I put our sandwiches and chips in Ziploc containers to help prevent crushing.  These along with a beverage we have at least partially frozen in our camper freezer and a blue ice are wrapped in a towel or newspaper and placed in the camera back pack. 

Be prepared to have your back pack viewed when entering the park so I generally do not wrap the top of the bundle, but lay a separate small towel or wash cloth over the top that can easily be removed so the inspector can see into the clear containers to see what’s in the pack.  We have never had an issue with taking food in this way.

One note I’d like to make here.  Keep it simple.  Keep the pack be it back or fanny light and easy to handle.  If you don’t want to pack food, then consider fanny packs, if that, only.  You want to keep it as simple as possible.  You are there to have fun, not die of exhaustion.  We pack a very light lunch, and sometimes send the pack back to the camper/room at some point after the food is consumed.

If you are traveling with a child that will fit in a stroller, by all means take your stroller.  Even consider purchasing a small cheap umbrella type stroller just for the trip.  A tired child is a cranky child, a cranky child makes for a cranky adult and then no one in your family, or in line with you is happy. 

This is considered the “happiest place on earth”, but it doesn’t mean it is immune from theft.  So NEVER leave anything of value hanging on your stroller while you go into a show or ride.  It just might not be there when you get back.  Security is great at WDW, lost and found is also REALLY good, but they see MILLIONS of guests a year and they can’t be everywhere at all times.  So be responsible for you and yours.

If you are flying down you can do something similar.  We generally fly Southwest Airlines and make one of our free  checked suitcases be one of those soft sided rolling ice chests.  On the trip to and from WDW the ice chest is packed with soft clothing such as socks or underwear inside clean plastic bags.  Once at the resort we unpack the ice chest and fill it with ice from the free ice machine and foods purchased at the gift shop.  Even though the foods at the gift shops can be a bit high, they are still cheaper than a meal in the park. 

One of our carryon bags for the flight down is generally a snack bag filled with goodies that will pass inspection by TSA that we’ve purchased ahead of time on sale.  No liquids of course, but things like raisins, candies (no chocolate as it melts so easily), cookies, snack crackers etc. 

This allows us to have a snack on the plane or while waiting for a layover on the flight each way if there is a delay as well as for the parks. 

We also pack a large assortment of Ziploc bags in all the sizes.  These come in handy for a huge variety of reasons that I’ll go into later.

Whether we stay in our camper or a resort we always pack Britta self-filtering water bottles for each person in our party.  Trust me this is something you really want to do.  While Walt Disney World is a wonderful place their water is HORRIBLE! The cost of a bottle of water, generally Dasani, is also quite high.  However, they will give you FREE ice water at all the concessions.  This we put in the water bottles and all is fine. 

You can also take packets of water flavorings with you for a variety of drinks.  Simply put the free water in your bottle, then filter it back into the cup and add the flavorings.  DON’T put the flavorings in your Britta.

We clearly label whose bottle is whose because if someone gets a cold or flu you don’t want to share the germs.  I also pack extra filters in case this happens so we don’t re-introduce then germs to ourselves once we are feeling better.

Carrying a water bottle can be made easier by planning ahead.  We have various bottle carriers we use.  My favorite is one that is on a swivel and slides either over a belt or into a pocket to hang from the pocket/belt.  It is basically a flat stick with a swivel clip on it.

Others we have are Epcot ones we purchased for our “souvenir” on one trip that adjust to any water bottle, narrow strapped ones that have a simple ring on it that only fit certain sizes and carbineer ones.  The only one we have been disappointed with was the carbineer one.  It seems to be that it is only for larger necked bottles.  Ones like Ozarka fall right out of it.  But it works fine for our Britta.

It’s only natural to want to try foods while in the park.  PB&J isn’t near as appetizing when you smell burgers frying. So scheduling your actual in park meals can become a real money saver.  We generally eat at least one meal a day in the parks or at a resort.

Lunches are cheaper than dinners and often they are the same foods.  So eating a late lunch might hold you until you get back to your camper or room to eat, especially if you have snacks in a back pack or fanny pack.  We eat our main in park sit down meal at the end of the lunch period.  That way a burger, hot dog, or salad, that stays the same in price throughout the day will do well for dinner much later in the day if we decide to eat two meals in the park that day.

Staying on site is great for going back to the room to rest, something I recommend if you are traveling with people of all ages who are use to a daily nap. If you do this you can actually schedule all your meals at your camper/room.  However, you will lose time due to the travel to and from the parks  so if you are very limited on time then you need to personally weigh the pros and cons of both.  Many a child has had a nap in a stroller in the parks.  If you are a nursing mother there are nursing stations, baby care locations and family restrooms throughout the parks.  I personally have sneaked in many a short nap in Carousel of Progress (hey, it’s a long slow dark ride in a comfortable seat  in the cool and it does not change from year to year.

Meals other than the buffets can be shared easily.  My husband and I split most of our meals, sometimes purchasing an extra side or a dessert or appetizer, but generally we simply split the meal. 

When considering a burger for lunch or dinner check out the burger places that have a relish bar to go with the burgers, chicken sandwiches and such.  Cosmic Rays is one such place, they have sautéed mushrooms, onions, pickles, lettuce and all the other fixings you can think of.  When sharing a burger meal you can easily cut the burger in half and build it the way you want on each half.  I for one put just about everything on a burger, so a half burger fully dressed is plenty of food to fill me up.  My husband just puts basics on his, but he eats fries and I don’t.  So splitting the meal works very well for us.

If eating at the buffets, which you cannot split,  consider going in at the end of the lunch time period, then you will end up being there as they are putting out the dinner foods and pay at the lunch price. 

Getting free water and filtering it through your Britta will save you considerably on the meal over getting a soda pop or tea, both contain ice made with their local water, which can really change the taste of a beverage.

If you really don’t want to pay the price for a meal at a restaurant, but really want to see the inside of the restaurant then consider going in for a shared appetizer or dessert.  There is no set rule that you have to get a full meal to go into the restaurant.  Trust me some of the restaurants are well worth making the reservations just to soak up the ambiance.

You can make your ADRs (advanced dining reservations) as much as something like 145 days prior to your visit.  Be aware that some restaurants will require a “charge card” number to make these reservations.  I have used a debit card for this on more than one occasion.  This is because they often have no shows, so you could be charged a small fee if you don’t show for your reservation.  If you call and cancel the reservation—free phones around for you to make/cancel reservations—scattered around, or you can do it from your cell. 

We seldom make dining reservations far in advance when it is just two or three of us.  Generally there are enough cancellations we can get any reservation we want a day or so ahead of time.  HOWEVER, if you are traveling with a large group, a single traveler OR MUST eat in a certain restaurant then I recommend making the reservations early. 

A tip to single travelers.  All the restaurants have a LIMITED number of tables for single diners.  If you call to get a reservation and can’t get one.  Hang up and call back and ask for a table for two, often you can get a table then.  They will not charge you for the “no show” of the second diner.   They will only charge you if you simply don’t show at all.,

Another way to save money is to purchase children’s meals at the fast food/counter locations.  Often the portion is plenty large enough for an adult.  There are also numerous snack food vendors all around the parks, a quick turkey leg or a churro will often be enough to take the edge off your hunger.  By all means try the Mickey Bars. A personal favorite.

There are other ways to get discounts on the meals as well.  One is the annual pass I previously mentioned.  Only one ADULT in your party needs to have the annual pass to get the discount for up to 10 people.  The annual pass discount percentage and the restaurants it is good at are all listed on the All Ears website I listed in a previous post.

They also have a dining card called “Tables in Wonderland”  This gets you a larger discount than the annual pass does and at more restaurants, during different time periods, however it has an automatic 15% gratuity added to it for every restaurant meal, I do not believe it charges it for the counter service meals.  This comes with a fee to purchase it, I believe the current purchase requires and annual pass and $75, but I could be very wrong about that. Again the complete info for this card is listed on All Ears. For two of us eating the way we do this card is a break even for us.  When there are three of us and/or we are traveling more than once in the year that it is good for then it can be a money saver.  For large parties it could be a good money saver, depending on where you eat and when.  You will need to do the math and look at your dining plans to see if it is a cost saver for you.

If you plan on eating at Rain Forest Café, Yak and Yetti table service and T-Rex then you might want to consider getting a Landry’s Select restaurant card, previously titled the “Safari Club”. The card comes with perks like immediate seating when you arrive at the restaurant and points to apply to future meals as well discounts in their gift shops. 

I do not know the current cost of the card as I have had mine for numerous years, even though we have no Landry’s restaurant near where I live we always use it when visiting WDW and now when we go to Branson, MO.  There are Landry’s all over the US and the card is good at all of them.

If you are staying in a resort other than Ft. Wilderness they all have a food court of some sort.  At these food courts you can purchase a refillable mug good for that trip and that resort only.  If you drink a lot of soda pop, coffee or cocoa it is well worth the price to purchase one for each family member. 

It’s been a few years since we’ve been to WDW, but when we were last there the Animal Kingdom had a refillable one day only glass as well.  Travel note: in the past there have been no straws at the Animal Kingdom for the safety of the animals.

Remember those Ziplocs I mentioned packing.  Well one of the many uses for them is for the excess food you will find you have during the day, not from the buffets of course.  Remember I said the portions are large at Walt Disney World.  We often find we have something left over.  Carrot sticks, raisins, a roll, chips, something.  Into a Ziploc they go and we munch on them later in the day.

While on the subject of Ziplocs now might be a good time to mention some of the other uses we take them for.

1.       To corral small souvenirs together to help prevent loss.

2.       Large ones work well to put cameras in to protect them (and other electronics) from rain or moisture on the water rides.  We’ve shot many a photo/movie through Ziplocs in our various trips to the World.

3.       Carrying first dry, then wet socks for the days it rains or you get wet on a water ride.  The fastest way to get blisters is to wear wet socks, avoid blisters at all costs. They can really put a bummer in your trip.

4.       For carrying spare clothing for small children.

5.       To pack snacks in a back pack or fanny pack.

6.       For a small first aid kit for the packs.

7.       To repackage a rain poncho after you use it—they NEVER fit back in the original package.

8.       To pack dirty clothing in for the trip home.

9.       To pack detergent in if you choose to do laundry while there, be prepared to have your detergent powder inspected at the airport if you take it with you.  Far cheaper than purchasing it from the vending machines at the laundry (available at all resorts and the campground). I always pack ours in an outside pocket that I’ve put a zip tie (we use a zip tie on all zippers on all luggage when flying—don’t forget to pack extras for the trip home AND to have some method to cut them open in one unsealed pocket on a checked bag) on that the TSA could easily remove to inspect the “white powder” in my checked luggage.

10.   We pack all liquids that travel in our checked luggage in double Ziplocs to prevent leakage in luggage.

11.   For placing foods in the ice chest in a hotel room.

12.   Food storage for things like donuts purchased in the gift shop.

13.   Homemade wet wipes for sticky fingers and faces throughout the day.  A damp paper towel or wash cloth in a Ziploc is very handy to have for those little oops in life.

These are just a few of the ideas we use them for, but you get the general idea.  Ziplocs are essential when traveling on any trip, and especially WDW.

Remember when planning your trip to do a price comparison from purchasing your meals a la carte and the complete dining packages, sometimes the complete package is far cheaper.

Remember, no one says you have to eat at a certain time while on vacation.  Make your meal times flexible and avoid long lines at the eating establishments. 

So now you are fed.  On to my next savings suggestions.

Jan who loves to try at least one new restaurant each trip to Walt Disney World in OK

PAYING FOR YOUR MAGICAL TRIP

January 31, 2012

So now you’ve got a rough idea of how much this trip will cost you and maybe a little bit of panic is setting in. Maybe the total was more than you thought it would be, but you REALLY want to take this trip, or a trip to anywhere, or maybe you just want to get debt free (just had to slip in a plug for that, because once you live debt free then you can travel all you want) but you don’t want to take out a loan or use charge cards for the dream trip (especially not if you want to live debt free). HOW in the world are you going to pay for this trip, because boy would it be fun to go!

The answer is simple. Two ways, cut the costs and save for it and pay cash for the entire trip. This post is about paying for it. The ideas here will work not only work for playing for a vacation, but for getting debt free, or buying any number of things. My next post(s) will be about ways to cut costs. There are hundreds of ways to do both ways, both on the trip and at home. First the cash, because the sooner you start on it the faster you will reach your goal.

You can start right now. Find a solid heavy jar, or that cutesy bank you picked up somewhere, a tin can whatever and put it where you can easily get to it. Maybe you would want to decorate it, or let the kids if you are letting them help you plan right now, Do something to remind you that any money that goes in this is for the trip (or debt reduction).

Now go to your purse, shake your pants pocket, dig in the sofa cushions, dump the coins out of the car ash tray, frisk the washing machine, look in your coat pockets, look everywhere you know you usually deposit pocket change and put it in the container. The clinking of those coins hitting the once empty container is Tinkerbell’s twinkle sound, do you hear Walt Disney World calling you?

While that doesn’t look like much right now it will grow and grow and you will soon be off on your trip of a lifetime. But just like those of us that are on the Dave Ramsey plan talk about feeding the gazelles, you need to feed Tinkerbell too.

You’ve done the first step, now start paying for everything you can in cash, dollar bills to be exact. No coins, because every coin is going to go into your vacation fund. I’ll call it Tink’s fund for now. Each night, drop all your coins into that bank and listen for Tink telling you thank you. You will be surprised how fast that fund is going to grow as time goes on.

Our first trip to Walt Disney World we paid cash for the trip for four of us, so have a few of the trips between then and the one we are currently saving for now using the methods I’ll be telling you. It took us exactly 9 months to save for the trip just out of pocket change and coupon money for the four of us. The more you do to feed Tink the faster you can get there.

So where are you going to get the cash to feed Tink? Let’s start with a simple one. Coupons. Don’t go running screaming into the woods at the sound of that. I’m not telling you to become an extreme couponer , although that wouldn’t hurt, I’m saying just incorporate a few coupons and discounts into your life. It doesn’t have to be a major production like you see on tv, it can be just one or two here or there. The volume you do is up to you.

Think outside the box, need an oil change, check the yellow pages of your phone book, often there is a coupon there for oil changes. Do you eat out often (we’ll discuss this more later)? Check to see if your favorite places you eat at have a free online club or a loyalty card. Because if they do you should sign up for them, and net the benefits from them.

If you read my Week #1 post on menus you will see we went to Ghengis Mongolian Grill for my birthday meal. I belong to both their online club and have a loyalty card. As a result the three of us ate for 1/3 of what the bill would have been normally. I got a free meal because it was my birthday, and we’d eaten there enough that we’d earned another free meal. So our nearly $50 meal cost us $16 including the tip (we paid our server a tip based on the $50 because we had extremely good service). The difference went into the trip bank that night.

Every way you can save with a coupon OR a discount of any type, use the money you saved to “feed Tink”. Save $.10 with a grocery coupon, put it in that bank. Get a discount because of a loyalty card, a student or senior citizen discount, put it in that bank. You will be amazed at how fast that money will add up.

Then once a month, or when you mystery shop your personal bank (I’ll explain this in a minute) deposit all but a few coins from your Tink fund into a regular bank into an interest bearing account. Even if it’s just $10 put it in the real bank. Because the sooner you do the more you will earn in interest and every penny interest is that much closer to your dream trip. The reason I say leave a few coins in the Tink fund bank is because I consider it “seed money” If it’s empty it’s too easy to leave it empty, but if you see coins in there it’s a lot easier to add a few. It’s a mental thing.

Now let’s look at cutting expenses. You saw how much we saved on that birthday meal, but what if we’d all drank water with lemon, which is free, instead of three $2 each drinks? At that one meal it would have been a savings of $6 plus tax for the three of us. That’s roughly $6.50 more to feed Tink with. Or if we hadn’t eaten out at all that night…you get the idea.

Do you REALLY need that double low fat whatever latte on the way to/from work? Could you make it yourself at home, or skip it one day a week even?

Of course coupons are a big saver on groceries too. So is the menu planning I write about in other posts. Don’t forget to mail in your rebates. All that cash goes into the fund. As the fund grows you will find more and more ways to save because you WANT that trip!

Around here when we are saving for a big trip we often equate what we are saving by either not buying something, using a coupon or getting a discount with what it will buy at WDW. One of us will often say “that’s a coke at Disney World.” Or if it’s a bigger savings “That’s a burger, a one day ticket, a night’s stay etc at Disney World.” And it all adds up.

My granny always said “mind your pennies and your dollars will mind themselves.” You see a penny in a parking lot, pick it up and feed it to Tink, it only takes 10 pennies to make a dime and 10 dimes to make a dollar. So don’t pass up that penny.

While we no longer use charge cards due to our personal decision to follow Dave Ramsey’s path to Financial Freedom, when we did we had one that paid a cash back bonus. We paid this card off pretty religiously so using it was another way we earned cash for our trips. We paid for everything with that card and then as soon as we had enough “cash back” built up we could withdraw it that money went into the Tink fund as well.

When it came time to take the trip we made certain we had enough money in the savings account to pay off the charge card when the bills from the trip started rolling in and then used that card exclusively for the trip-so we earned cash back for those expenses as well, for the next trip. The Tink’s fund stayed in the bank earning interest until the bill hit, but the minute the bill hit we withdrew from the bank enough to cover the bill in full and paid it off.

This plan works well as long as you don’t get a Murphy hit and can’t pay off the charge card. Then the interest will eat your lunch and you will have the stress of an additional bill. We made the conscious decision to do without the charge card at all. Because we learned the hard way that Murphy is just one knock at the door away at all times. But if you choose to use charge cards that is your personal decision and you can use it to your advantage to pay for the trip IF you pay the bill off in full each month.

A note about using a charge or debit card while at WDW or any out of town trip. Notify the company the card is issued from ahead of time when you are traveling, because if you don’t you might find your purchases denied, even when you have the cash there to cover it.

In this day and age of identity theft many companies will shut a card down if they see it being used outside its normal travel area. We had that happen once while at WDW and it was VERY embarrassing. A simple phone call straightened it out, but that was time away from our vacation and a bit of embarrassment we could do without.

Also, one of my bank debit cards will not let purchases from certain states go through on the debit card because of identity theft period. It’s a small local bank and there is no discussing it with them. Certain states are on their no go list. Another debit card has a daily limit of $1,000 they will let go through, unless you make prior arrangements before your trip or large purchase. So it’s better to find out BEFORE you go if you have a similar situation rather than get several states away and find you don’t have access to your cash. Be sure and check on that daily limit because when staying at the WDW resorts you will be issued a “room key” that will be used like a credit/debit card in the park and resort area and they will run a large total through on your account at once. You can tell them ahead of time how much you to allow at a time and then they will need to notify you of when they are running the amount through.

Due to the problems of identity theft and theft in general we actually have an electronic use only free checking account with a Visa debit at a bank other than our main bank set up. We use this account strictly for our online purchases and travel. Only the exact amount of money we need for the purchase/trip is put in this account prior to the purchase/trip. That way if theft does happened our main accounts are safe and our liability is limited. We keep the account open with just a required small amount in there at other times.

Another big fund raiser is sell stuff. Run a garage sale, list on ebay, sell media items on half.com or amazon.com, Craig’s list, upillar.com, your local cheap cycle the list goes on and on of places to sell things. Someone recently said they “only got $.75” for a book they had purchased years ago. I responded “that’s $.75 more than you would have had otherwise and now your bookshelf is cleaner and you aren’t paying to heat/cool that book. “ If I’d been talking to a family member I would have said “That’s almost half of a Mickey Ears ice cream bar at WDW.” I always have things listed on half. com http://shops.half.ebay.com/ladydressmaker_W0QQ_trksidZp2919QQmZbooks as an ongoing fund raiser for whatever our current goal is.

Older kids often can earn their own vacation souvenir/spending money by babysitting, doing yard work and similar jobs for others. Whatever you do the more you do the more you can save.

Consider mystery shopping and saving all of the income from that, above your expenses of doing so, for your trip. For more on mystery shopping check out my previously posted articles on the subject.

WHAT DO YOU NEED TO BECOME A MYSTERY SHOPPER, FURTHER EXPLANATION ON MERCHANDISING, ARE REINBURSEMENT SHOPS WORTH THE INVESTMENT?

 

. Remember me saying that I put the Tink Fund money in a bank I mystery shop at. Well I make that deposit when I do a teller shop and use their coin counting machine to count the Tink Fund then make the deposit, as required by the mystery shop. File my paperwork and I make anywhere from $5 to $25 depending on the bank and the time of the month for making that deposit. Then the money I make from that shop goes directly into the bank via direct deposit when I get paid for the shop.

Because I schedule my mystery shops to coincide with my errands I’m not out any extra expenses for fuel to do the shop so the whole amount goes into the Tink Fund. If it was a mystery shop that I had to make a reimbursable purchase, like a nice meal out, for I deduct how much I spent for that meal from the check and only the profit goes into the Tink fund.

Make gift giving time part of preparing for the trip time. It might be the perfect way to tell family members about the trip. Disney or other gift cards, Disney cash, tickets for the parks (you can buy them ahead of time because the time on them doesn’t start until you actually use them). Special clothing for the trip, stuffed animals, Disney movies (often have rebates on them) reservations etc all make good gifts. Plus they are part of your trip budget so you kill two birds with one stone.

Speaking of gift cards it’s time to speak about mypoints and similar programs. These are programs where you click on emails or ads and you get points. These points are saved until you have enough to redeem them. While mypoints does not have Disney gift cards that you can redeem for they do have Wal-Mart cards, fuel cards, restaurant gift cards and various other gift cards that you could use while vacationing OR to use at home and put the cash you saved by using them in your Tink Fund. They are basically free money you can earn in just a few clicks. I personally use the mypoints tool bar and get bonus points every month by using it to do the numerous google searches I do each month anyway. No extra effort on my part once I installed the tool bar (which I got bonus points for doing) and it’s free money. Oh if you shop online you can also get bonus points from the various places by doing the shopping through the mypoints (or similar websites). Not a member of mypoints? I’d love to refer you, I get points for referrals too. Just e me privately and I’ll refer you.

Another bit of info on gift cards is to purchase ones from Sam's Club or Costco.  Their cards are sold at a discount.  Often $5 off of every $50 purchased.  I purchase gift cards there not only as gifts, placing the saved money in the Tink Fund, but to purchase Disney Gift cards and Southwest Airlines gift cards when flying.  These cards are used to pay for air fare, meals and accommodations at WDW.

WARNING #1:  Southwest airlines will only let you use a certain number of payment divisions to pay for each ticket.  They count each gift card as a division.  We did not know this when we made our first flight using gift cards for the flight.  Our cards were in $50 denominations, the limit was four forms of payment.  So we could only use 3 cards and a debit/credit card for the ticket.  In order to use all the gift cards we had we had to book each direction of the flight for each person separately.

This means for our party of two I had to book four separate tickets.  The cost was still the same, but it meant on SWA our boarding groups were sometimes different.  How we handled this was the person with the first boarding group took both our carry-ons, boarded and saved a seat for the second person.

WARNING #2: This one is not that big of deal, but it is something you should be aware of.  Disney will not let you pay ahead or use the gift cards for automatic payment of charging to your room key.  You can charge to your room and then pay on your bill with the gift card, but if you are set up for an auto payment via your debit/credit card when you reach a certain limit before you go pay on your bill with the gift cards the amount will go to your debit/credit card.

We handled this by keeping track of our charges and going to the front desk to pay on the bill with the gift cards before we hit the automatic debit/credit card charge.

This required a little extra time on our part, but because we had so many of the gift cards it was well worth the effort.

Blogging is another way to earn bits of cash here and there. See the ads in and around my blogs? Every time you or anyone else clicks on one I get a penny. (all clicks appreciated) and that goes into my Tink Fund.

The whole idea is to save for the trip, so every penny you save or earn it goes into your Tink Fund. Our first trip cost right at $3,000 and that was when there were four of us going, now I only pay for two as my son always pays for his own expenses if he joins us. We still pay right around $3,000 thirty years later for our first trip of the year from OK when we purchase our annual pass, and then far less for the remaining 1-3 trips for the year.

That first trip there was one park, the Magic Kingdom, there are now 4 parks, 2 water parks and a large shopping complex. Plus to us the campground, called Ft. Wilderness, is an adventure in itself. There is a lot to do at each of the resorts as well. You can spend a whole day easily just going from resort to resort to see the differences and enjoy the ambiance of each resort. While pool hopping is frowned upon there is a lot to see as each resort is done in a different theme. We particularly like doing this during the various holiday seasons to enjoy the decorations on a “crash and burn” day.

One other thing to consider is what we did one trip we went down. A dear friend had moved from Oklahoma to Mississippi and had left a lot of their stuff in storage here. They paid for our fuel and the trailer rental for us to bring a trailer load of their items from OK to Gulfport, MS. This gave us not only fuel for those first several miles, but a place to stay one night and a nice home cooked meal. This was of course a big savings for all involved. So if you have a similar situation, or you do animal rescue transports on a regular basis you might try to schedule one for part of your journey to help cover the transportation costs. Or plan your trip when a family member has to travel that direction for business and just journey on from their first destination to WDW at a discounted rate.

We did this last one a few years ago when my husband was sent to AutoCad University in Las Vegas, NV in December. We combined the travel time with vacation time and used his travel expense account for paying for the part to and from Las Vegas, as well as lodging and meals while we were there. That left the rest of our nearly four week trip to travel parts of the western US on our private money. Since Vegas was our furthest point west on that trip it covered a good deal of our fuel consumption. If we’d had the time we would have gone on over to Disneyland from there, but alas we didn’t have the time.

Other ideas for saving money, or earning additional income can be found in the Tightwad Gazette books (I, II &; III) by Amy Dacyzn, The Total Money Makeover book by Dave Ramsey, various yahoogroups, and various frugal websites. For legit work at home jobs consider checking out ratracerebellion.com and volition.com websites as well.  You might also considering linking over to my other blogs.  Each one has a frugal theme.  Mind Your Pennies, is how to save money in day to day living without feeling deprived. Patterson's Princess Plan is how to go about decluttering all aspects of your life, including financial matters. At Patterson's Pantry I am planning out a year's worth of basic home cooking menus with the recipes for those menus at Patterson's Pantry Recipes.  At the last one you will find a lot of recipes for making your own conveniences mixes.

Whatever you do save your profits and you will have a vacation that you can be proud of without going into debt. Speaking of debt, consider all these ideas and more for becoming debt free because then as Dave Ramsey says if you “Live like no one else now, later you can LIVE like no one else.”

Jan who is using all these ideas and more to not only become debt free, but to take a celebration vacation trip to Walt Disney World when she is debt free in OK