Sarah's Savings Plans & Budget Thread - September 2020

TJsMomSarahJane

WBC in Dec 2022
Joined
Feb 23, 2016
So this thread is a balance of me holding myself to our savings goals, and to share how I manage to get up the funds to go to WDW.

We're a family of three - two adults and one Disney kiddo. My wife and I both work from home, which lets us do a lot of the savings apps I mention below. We started saving for this trip right after kiddo went back to school after Christmas break.

Here's our expense list, based on rack rates for the approximate same time this year:

9-day Park Hopper Tickets $1,612.00 10-day Non-Hopper tickets $1519.00
14-nights All Star Music - Standard $1,960.00
Photo Pass $150.00
14-nights Disney Dining Plan $2,510.00
PVD to MCO RT Flights on Southwest $900.00
Merchandise $700.00
Alcohol $420.00
Tips $325.00
Pre-Flight Hotel Room $90.00
Tours $90.00
3rd Party Stroller Rental $100.00
MNSSHP Tickets $250.00
Touring Plans Subscription $16.00
Travel Insurance $160.00

So that adds up to just under $9300 $9200.


Discounts are potentially looking at:
The time we're going is historically a time for free dining - if we do get that deal, we'll be upgrading the plan from the QS to the DDP. This will reduce the overall cost to just under $7500 $7400.

Last time, the travel agent we used gave us a free subscription to Touring Plans, so that's another $16 off.


Here's what we've saved so far:

Disney gift cards - $575 (All earned by converting Swagbucks into Walmart gift cards, then using them at Sam's Club online to get their Disney gift card packs.)

Sam's gift cards not used yet - $133 (Waiting to hit $143 so I can get the 3x$75 DGCs from Sam's.)

Vacation savings account - $1113 (A high-interest Synchrony account that pulls $50/week from my checking account, going on and off since our last trip in 2018.)

Total earmarked for Disney so far - $1821

I track everything in a spreadsheet (image linked here).


Plan going forward:

Continue to earn Walmart cards through Swagbucks, to convert at Sam's to DGCs.

Cash out some Swagbucks for Amazon cards. Use those cards to buy Southwest Airlines gift cards. Use those to buy our flights as soon as that date range is released.

Purchase discounted Landry gift cards through Raise.com, and use these for tips at Yak & Yeti, T-Rex and Rainforest Cafe.

Purchase discounted Uber gift cards for the 3-4 Uber rides we take during the trip. (Usually for when we are having a meal at another resort and don't want to do the 'bus>park>bus' thing.)

Use our Target credit card (or other high-rewards credit cards) to purchase more DCGs at a 5%+ discount if needed.

Request not to have mousekeeping during the trip when we check in. Last time, this banked us about $120 in DGCs and paid for quite a few pins, slushy drinks in France, and face painting for little guy.

Update #1
Update #2
Update #3
Update #4 - Officially Booked!
Expense List Update
Update #5
 
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Are you aware of Dosh? They offer cash back on Sam's purchases with a linked credit card. Sometimes they offer 8%-10%. Good alternative to Target. They seem to always offer 2%.

Happy savings!!

I've got it downloaded, but I haven't played around with it yet. Thank you for the tip!
 
I've got it downloaded, but I haven't played around with it yet. Thank you for the tip!
Because my Sam's and Walmart are so close, I've actually been running in to get Sam's gift cards to spend at Walmart before going to Walmart. Last night, I paid our straight talk phone bill and got pull ups for my kiddo at a 2% discount. It isn't much but it adds up fast.
 


Hello from R.I.!
Just a thought, would it be cheaper to purchase an annual pass? I am not sure what the price is now, but I thought it was a bit cheaper than what your 9 day pass is

Probably more expensive if everyone gets an AP. But if 1 adult gets an AP, it would include the memory maker, plus discounts on merchandise & dining not covered by the dining plan. Also possible discounts on the party tickets & tours. Something to check into.
 
Wondering if it might be better to rent DVC points...even for a studio you could eat breakfast in your studio, or make a sandwich....have a drink....why the parkhoppers....? just wondering with a little one...
 


I love Swagbucks, is your wife signed up? I have my husband as a referral and he usually manages to do $50-75 a month plus I get the 10% referral. I also do other sites but don't spend nearly as much time on them as I do on SB. There are some sites that you just take photos of your store receipts and you get points - I use the same receipts for all the sites. I also do Bing, you do searches (on computer and phone) to get points. For Bing I usually get $10 a month (I know, not a huge amount but there is very little effort involved). They have a bunch of different cards (WM, Target) including Starbucks. I am not a coffee drinker but I use them for water, soda, snacks etc.

Perk (and their sister app WatchBack that credits into your Perk account) is another one that has videos that will run on their own - I try to get $25 per month on it and they have Uber cards.
On MyPoints I save for Landry's cards - this was my first reward site and while I do not make as much as on other sites I keep it for sentimental reasons ;)
 
Probably more expensive if everyone gets an AP. But if 1 adult gets an AP, it would include the memory maker, plus discounts on merchandise & dining not covered by the dining plan. Also possible discounts on the party tickets & tours. Something to check into.

We did look into AP for all three of us, and it ended up working out to be around $1k more. I think it's time to look at the calculations for just me or the wife getting it!
 
Wondering if it might be better to rent DVC points...even for a studio you could eat breakfast in your studio, or make a sandwich....have a drink....why the parkhoppers....? just wondering with a little one...

We usually stay at POFQ, but we let our son pick this time, and it was ASM. But, for our next trip (probably 2022), we are absolutely looking into DVC at either Animal Kingdom or Boardwalk.

It'll be our first time getting the hoppers. The main thought was that last time we went in 2018, our son was really OK with staying out late as long as we had a late morning the next day. We want to try hopping to the park that has extra magic hours in the evening. That, and when we were talking about how many days to do in each park, we're looking at doing 2.5 at one, 3.5 at another - that sort of thing. We're not rope-drop folks - more like park-closers.
 
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I love Swagbucks, is your wife signed up? I have my husband as a referral and he usually manages to do $50-75 a month plus I get the 10% referral. I also do other sites but don't spend nearly as much time on them as I do on SB. There are some sites that you just take photos of your store receipts and you get points - I use the same receipts for all the sites. I also do Bing, you do searches (on computer and phone) to get points. For Bing I usually get $10 a month (I know, not a huge amount but there is very little effort involved). They have a bunch of different cards (WM, Target) including Starbucks. I am not a coffee drinker but I use them for water, soda, snacks etc.

Perk (and their sister app WatchBack that credits into your Perk account) is another one that has videos that will run on their own - I try to get $25 per month on it and they have Uber cards.
On MyPoints I save for Landry's cards - this was my first reward site and while I do not make as much as on other sites I keep it for sentimental reasons ;)

Yep! The wife is signed up and she's my referral - those sweet, sweet bonus SBs! I'll look into those other apps as well - can never have too many.
 
I agree with focusondisney, an AP for 1 of you would be a really good idea. The memory maker and 20% discount on souvenirs, plus 10% at a lot of TS places is great. If you do the DDP, it doesn't matter in that aspect.
 
Are you looking for accountability/suggestions or both?

My unsolicited suggestion would be to consider getting a Southwest credit card for one or both of you. With the sign-up bonus of at least 40,000 points (if you have time to wait, it can go up to 60,000) and then get a referral bonus for the second card, you can save some serious cash that way. I adore booking with SW points because I can book the flights as soon as they are released and then check back regularly and, if they go down, rebook and the points go back into my account. Yes, they will issue a travel credit for the difference, but those can get complicated to use. On my January trip (two tickets, but each for different flights), I re-booked nine times before they finally stopped going down.

If you're not looking for suggestions, simply ignore me!
 
The quick math I've done makes it look like a single AP isn't worth it? Maybe my math is off?

Based 2019 prices for my dates:

AP cost: $894

9 Day Park Hopper for just me: $495
Photo Pass: $150
Savings on MNSSHP: $30-ish
Savings on tour: $18-ish
Savings at Magic Strollers: $5

So $676 if I went the ticket way versus the AP way. Assuming I get around a 15% discount on merch (some seem to be higher, some lower), that means we'd have to be spending $1300 on merch to make the additional $195 worth it. (And that'll be NO!) We're doing the DDP, so the restaurant discounts don't do much for us.

Am I missing anything? I mean, if I could convince the wife to go again the NEXT year, I'd totally be doing it for all three. But, that's just not happening.
 
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Are you looking for accountability/suggestions or both?

My unsolicited suggestion would be to consider getting a Southwest credit card for one or both of you. With the sign-up bonus of at least 40,000 points (if you have time to wait, it can go up to 60,000) and then get a referral bonus for the second card, you can save some serious cash that way. I adore booking with SW points because I can book the flights as soon as they are released and then check back regularly and, if they go down, rebook and the points go back into my account. Yes, they will issue a travel credit for the difference, but those can get complicated to use. On my January trip (two tickets, but each for different flights), I re-booked nine times before they finally stopped going down.

If you're not looking for suggestions, simply ignore me!

Suggestions are totally welcome. The credit cards are something we looked into last year, and didn't end up jumping in. It's something to add to the 'look at this' list for this trip. Thank you!

We played the 'get the price lower' game with out last tickets, and it worked out well because I was able to use the credit for a work trip. :)
 
The quick math I've done makes it look like a single AP isn't worth it? Maybe my math is off?

Based 2019 prices for my dates:

AP cost: $894

9 Day Park Hopper for just me: $495
Photo Pass: $150
Savings on MNSSHP: $30-ish
Savings on tour: $18-ish
Savings at Magic Strollers: $5

So $676 if I went the ticket way versus the AP way. Assuming I get around a 15% discount on merch (some seem to be higher, some lower), that means we'd have to be spending $1300 on merch to make the additional $195 worth it. (And that'll be NO!) We're doing the DDP, so the restaurant discounts don't do much for us.

Am I missing anything? I mean, if I could convince the wife to go again the NEXT year, I'd totally be doing it for all three. But, that's just not happening.

If you're doing the DDP the AP probably doesn't make sense, but in my opinion, you're throwing money away (at least the way I done) by getting the DDP. Have you actually checked to see if you would spend less money without it? If that doesn't matter to you and you just want it for the convenience, then it wouldn't make sense to get an AP.
 
We use to have the SW CC, we could book free flights, but in the end, it took so much to earn miles and in the end we would charge monthly about $3000 to get roughly 6000 miles which sometimes doesn't even cover 1 leg of flight. We decided to save our money and stopped using CCs. I am much much happier without it and have no problem paying out of pocket for the flights because we have more $$$ in the bank.
 
If you're doing the DDP the AP probably doesn't make sense, but in my opinion, you're throwing money away (at least the way I done) by getting the DDP. Have you actually checked to see if you would spend less money without it? If that doesn't matter to you and you just want it for the convenience, then it wouldn't make sense to get an AP.

Yep - we've used that calculator online to figure out what you pay OOP on average for the restaurants we to go, and ran it against the cost of the DDP. The difference was less than $100, which for us, the convenience makes up for. That, with the probability of getting the QS plan free for our trip, makes the DDP worth it for us.
 
Yep - we've used that calculator online to figure out what you pay OOP on average for the restaurants we to go, and ran it against the cost of the DDP. The difference was less than $100, which for us, the convenience makes up for. That, with the probability of getting the QS plan free for our trip, makes the DDP worth it for us.
Don’t ignore the fact that *free* dining requires you to pay the rack rack for your room. So, it’s not really free. It’s just a marketing ploy that makes people think they’re getting a great deal. It may still be a better deal for you but make sure that you’re taking everything into consideration.
 

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