Saving for your trip About This Page:

[Prince&Princess]

In what ways do you save money for your trip? I need ideas for saving

[Her Dotness]

We found it built up almost painlessly and more rapidly than we expected to buy a Disney giftcard every two weeks when DH gets paid. I usually bought a $50 one but sometimes less or as much as $100. They never expire, so you can start saving this way well before your trip payoff date or departure date.

We only did that just to build up fun money, but quite a lot of people buy Disney giftcards every so often and then apply them toward paying for their room. Many like to use them only for food so that they have their own personal pre-paid dining plan.

[DopeyGirl]

We save by buying Disney gift cards at Target or Sam's Club then, rather than keep a stack of gift cards around the house, we add the gift cards we purchase to our Disney Vacation Account, which we use to pay for our trip.

With the Target Redcard, we save 5% when we purchase the gift cards with our Redcard. At Sam's Club, they sell a pack of 3 $50 cards for around $142.50.

[cattailmarsh]

I also save Disney cards ... primarily I save all those "get a free $ card with purchase" from target & when I get $50 worth I use those to buy a Disney card. Primarily I get those from laundry products, paper products, & diapers. I find Target quite competitive regarding pricing so it is like free money. I also try to use what I save in coupons and put that towards Disney cards.

We also have a couple piggy banks with art work that we dump all our extra change in. That goes straight to Disney cards also so that it is not spent on foolish things.

[dwonderz]

We do a number of different things to save money for our trips ...

-We collect all of our change and cash it in every month.
-We use "Swagbucks" and some of the other cash-back/survey online sites. We then cash the points in for either Disney Gift Cards or $$ and put that into our fund. There are some great guides out on the web on how "maximize" those sites.
-The Disney Vacation Account - mentioned above - is a great tool. It gives you $20 for $1000 you save as long as you have the account open for 4 months.
-We use a "rewards" credit card and pay it off in full every month - we get 2% cashback and we put that toward our fund as well.

[Hugmonster]

We do both the gift card trick and saving all change.
Every time I am in the Grocery Store I buy a minimum of a $25 card.

I keep all of the cards in my Disney purse, but I think I need to add them all to one card soon.

Any change goes in to coin sorter and when it fills a roll it goes in a zip lock for Disney. About a week before the trip I cash those in for cash for the trip.

[Mares75]

We buy a set amount of gift cards from Target every month. I have a Target RedCard debit card which gets 5% off. Then I enter those into our Disney Vacation account and use that to make payments on our trip. Right now with the Disney Vacation Account for every $1000 you spend on a vacation, you get a $20 Disney gift card. Might as well get some money back just by taking the extra step of entering the gift cards to a vacation savings account. The account is very easy to use and everything is fully refundable at any time back to the original form of payment made.

[DsnyDiva]

Disney gift cards here too, I purchase one weekly starting when I book the trip. I do the 52 week challenge (google it) it will show you what to do. I also save change and return soda bottles and I use a vacation club at our bank that we contribute to weekly .

[Goofy's Gal]

We put all spare change in a Disney Savings jar. We also add to this any $$ we get back from bottle deposits. Have a Disney Visa that we used to pay for everything. The balance gets paid of every month. The rewards earned generally cover all meals and souvenirs for our trips. Last, I collect those Target gift card deals...once I have a bunch of Target cards they get cashed in for Disney Gift Cards.

[MayraLR]

This is what I'm doing:
- We have a big popcorn tin which is sealed and our spare change goes in there.
- I'm doing the 52 Week Savings Challenge. This is done with dollar bills, in increments each week. For example: week 1 - $1.00, week 2 - $2.00 and so on.
- I'm also doing the 365 Day Savings challenge. This one is with pennies. It's done like the above challenge but this one is daily.
- My husband and I usually pay with whole dollars and the change that is given goes into the savings bucket.
- My bank account also has a feature in which it rounds our purchases to the nearest dollar and that change goes into our savings account. (the account is divided into check and savings)

[HollyH]

I have a rewards credit card that I use for all my daily purchases. I pay it off in full every month and use the rewards for my airfare.

As a DVC member, my accommodations are paid for with my points, and I have my dues automatically deducted from my checking account each month. You could do something similar by having a certain amount automatically transferred to a savings account each month.

[joelsmom]

Based on a suggestion from someone on these boards, we started saving all our $5 bills. We just act like they are not money, put them aside, and when we collect $100, we take them to our credit union. This is our second full year doing it, and we are on track to have $2,000 by vacation time.

I've suggested this system to friends, but so far none of mine have been able to wrap their heads around it as well as we have. The trick for me is to make no exceptions. We never spend a $5 bill. We never dip into the stash. I know it's just semantics, but when we need it, I go get cash from the ATM. We have other funds, so those $5 just don't count.

[ath334@aol.com]

We do alot of the above mentioned but I also clip coupons and whatever I save with those also goes into our savings.

[Happymommy]

I make a budget and then take the amount I need and divide by the weeks until our trip and take the amount I need to save weekly and put it in savings....then I buy Disney gift cards through my sons' scrip account at school (3 percent of each card is put into the marching band trip account---it will pay for their competition trips including one to Disney in 2018).We use those for all of our expenses while on vacation, though I buy our tickets through undercover tourist. We don't need to pay for hotel because we have DVC (which will be paid off in a few months --yay!) That was a great investment. We do have a change jar that we cash in before the trips for extra souvenir money etc.

[Lemonie]

I do a lot of these things mentioned above! I have a spare change jar, and any change/found money goes in there. Bottle returns go directly into the Disney fund. I buy Disney gift cards with my Target gift card and save 5%. Once they had a sale on gift cards at Target, if you bought two you got a free either $5 or $10 gift card. I could only find the $50 at my store, but still an extra $5 or $10 + 5% off? It was a sweet deal. I always ask for Disney gift cards for Christmas, birthdays, and Mother's Day. When I get my monthly budget money, I immediately transfer the amount I need to save for my vacation into my designated Disney savings account. This is not a true Disney account, just in case there is ever an emergency and we absolutely have to get to that money, I want to have it accessible. I also use coupons and shop grocery store sales to help stretch what is remaining in my monthly budget. Some months I'm barely getting by, but I make it because I really want our family to go to Disney!!! You could also get a Disney visa and that can help add extra money to your savings, if you're good about paying it off every month, if not, don't do it. I've been able to save up for at least 4 or 5 trips this way.