What do you sacrifice for Disney?

[fifthdimensiondweller]

I was really interested to see what some other budget conscious DISers have given up to be able to go to Disney. This is a topic I get into with my friends a lot (especially considering we had a DCL wedding and DLR honeymoon this year). People are always astounded that we can afford to make these trips and sometimes I get frustrated because I think- we make sacrifices to do this- A LOT of sacrifices! And we will still be paying off our honeymoon probably until Thanksgiving! (Worth it though). What do you sacrifice for Disney?

For us we sacrifice:
Clothing- I haven't really bought new clothes in years, and the ones I have bought certainly didn't come from a designer brand (or I bought them used)!

Going out- We NEVER go to the movies until a movie hits the dollar theater with 3 exceptions: Star Wars, Harry Potter, and a select few Disney movies. We never go out for drinks with friends like most of our friend do (we're in our mid 20s), and usually only go out for lunch instead of dinner if we go out to eat.

My car doesn't have air conditioning.

We always buy media (books, movies, etc) used.

Don't ever buy new cell phones until they break

If I can make it myself, I do. (Laundry Soap being one example)

We live in a tiny one bedroom apartment (no kids) (buying a house next year though) while a lot of our friends have bigger apartments or bought houses already.

Haven't been to a concert in probably close to a decade.

We have all but given up soda (saves a TON of money going out to eat and not having it around the house saves about $150-$200 a year even for us who only drank maybe a can a day) Added bonus: We lost weight!

We don't use paper towels anymore (though I keep one roll around for REALLY gross spills). Towels do the job!

Time- I spend a lot of time clipping coupons, comparing sales, etc to save money.

Point is, we sacrifice a lot of little things that add up to go to Disney every year, sure. But to us none of it comes even close to the feeling we get when we go to a Disney park or get on a Disney cruise.

 

[havaneselover]

Eating out and a whole lot of my time (earning Swagbucks). I was already extremely frugal so I didn't have a ton to give up.

 

[Marionnette]

I was really interested to see what some other budget conscious DISers have given up to be able to go to Disney. This is a topic I get into with my friends a lot (especially considering we had a DCL wedding and DLR honeymoon this year). People are always astounded that we can afford to make these trips and sometimes I get frustrated because I think- we make sacrifices to do this- A LOT of sacrifices! And we will still be paying off our honeymoon probably until Thanksgiving! (Worth it though). What do you sacrifice for Disney?

For us we sacrifice:
Clothing- I haven't really bought new clothes in years, and the ones I have bought certainly didn't come from a designer brand (or I bought them used)!

Going out- We NEVER go to the movies until a movie hits the dollar theater with 3 exceptions: Star Wars, Harry Potter, and a select few Disney movies. We never go out for drinks with friends like most of our friend do (we're in our mid 20s), and usually only go out for lunch instead of dinner if we go out to eat.

My car doesn't have air conditioning.

We always buy media (books, movies, etc) used.

Don't ever buy new cell phones until they break

If I can make it myself, I do. (Laundry Soap being one example)

We live in a tiny one bedroom apartment (no kids) (buying a house next year though) while a lot of our friends have bigger apartments or bought houses already.

Haven't been to a concert in probably close to a decade.

We have all but given up soda (saves a TON of money going out to eat and not having it around the house saves about $150-$200 a year even for us who only drank maybe a can a day) Added bonus: We lost weight!

We don't use paper towels anymore (though I keep one roll around for REALLY gross spills). Towels do the job!

Time- I spend a lot of time clipping coupons, comparing sales, etc to save money.

Point is, we sacrifice a lot of little things that add up to go to Disney every year, sure. But to us none of it comes even close to the feeling we get when we go to a Disney park or get on a Disney cruise.

I don't think that I would ever go to those extremes just to be able to go to Disney. I guess that vacationing with the Mouse is not that important to me compared to to having air conditioning in my car or forgoing other entertainment throughout the year for one week of vacation time.

I'm like @havaneselover. We have always lived below our means in order to be able to afford things like college funds for the kids and a house without a mortgage. Disney trips have just been a side benefit of that kind of lifestyle. I use my credit card rewards extensively and we did purchase resale DVC contracts a few years ago. That has made visiting Disney a little more affordable. It's so much easier to pay for a trip when all you need is money for APs every other year and the 9/11 fee for the plane tickets you got with airline miles. I earn Target GCs thru SB and Perk and use them to buy Disney GCs to pay our DVC dues, cover our dining expenses and kick toward a TiW card, so I guess that you could say that I sacrifice some of my time in order to earn those.

 

[wendow]

I am also already very frugal. I was raised by a single mom who worked as a secretary and made so little money. It was 'drilled' into me ways to save money.

SO, we do pretty much a lot of the same things as you, OP. We also:

Do not have cable tv (cut that out about 12 years ago),
Have prepaid tracfones (my bill is about $8 a month)
Drive older cars (mine is 2001, dh's is 2005)
Buy most clothes thrift or clearance
Cook at home (and typically 'from scratch' type meals)
Do all our own haircuts (and my highlights)
DIY with all home stuff

We do splurge when we want to...like an annual trip to WDW...but also I take my girls, who are both really into theater, to a couple of big shows each year in downtown. We go to the movies on opening day for any new Disney movie we have been anticipating. My kids do lots of classes and activities that all costs plenty!

We give generously to our church or other charities. I feel blessed to know how to save and be smart with money. It seems so many people never learned that. People think my dh must make tons of money since we are able to do so much on one income but he works for a non-profit which pays so little in comparison to the corporate world. But he gets a lot of time off and we prefer that.

 

[fifthdimensiondweller]

Do not have cable tv (cut that out about 12 years ago),

We cut that too! We just didn't see the need for it.

People think my dh must make tons of money

Same here. But like you said we live a very frugal lifestyle. I agree with you that it's so sad that so many people don't know how to manage money. I see so many of my friends wasting their money and not building savings/ paying off debt and it terrifies me! Where will they be in ten years?

 

[Sagginit]

I like to budget out my trips and have the money ready to go when the payment is due. My husband and I both value travel over other things too. We spent almost two weeks on our honeymoon in California last fall ending with four days in DL. right now we want to be able to travel and buy a house so we are saving as much as we can. our wedding was paid for in cash with no debt, no small feat for a NYC wedding (did I mention I was cheap with that too? we had lots of small "hacks" along the way that added up to huge savings). Some things we save/sacrifice on):

-apartment. living in the NYC area as young people we have avoided trendy neighborhoods to save so we sacrifice convenience. we don't have amenities many new apartments come with (no dishwasher, washer/dryer, window AC units, one bathroom, and no outdoor space) but its worth the savings. i actually lived at home to pay off my student loans (and thus had my not so dream job) for 5 years after college. it let me do that and it also let me go to WDW twice with my mother. housing really is your biggest expense so this really is the first place you need to look long term on cutting back.

- car is another area to save big. I drive a 2003 honda, my car before that was sold when it was 20 years old (I bought it when it was 14 years old). we have one car for the two of us as its a after work/weekend transportation only.

-going out to eat. in NYC area many eat out 5-7 days a week. we only do 1-2 nights out a week if that. we don't splurge on super fancy places and we use deals when we can (last night we went to pf changs and with my reward points one entree was free). even on vacation if we get a room with a microwave we bring doggy bags back from restaurants or even have a night in with fancy microwave meals. i have food allergies so i also pack snacks and lunches a lot. my husband bought a thermos to start bringing coffee to work too. all these little savings on food do add up as this is another chunk of monthly budget. i also coupon whenever possible.

- we don't go out for drinks that much anymore. I actually gave up drinking a few months ago for health reasons and my husband will have maybe 1 drink at dinner or meet with friends for just 2 drinks max.

- we do buy clothes, but mostly for work and only when needed. overall we try to keep stuff down, as I tell my mother we are "apartment dwellers for life" so stuff will cost us in the long run. I do spend on investment accessories rather than buying lots of trendy things. I have almost no costume jewellery and handbags are 1-2 nice bags a season at most. I have no problem with second hand or thrifted items, in fact I am trying out ThredUP for the first time to see if I like the clothes I get for trading in my old stuff.

- I realized the other day that I have saved loads on furniture. I bought used furniture or have been given furniture from a few relatives. I am far from pinterest perfect and don't care if my furniture is not modern, country cottage, barnyard salvage or any other trend that is out there. I inherited a china set, stemware, and various glass decorative pieces that I happily use. I did have a wedding shower and stuck to what I truly needed to stock up on practical items (corel dishes, some towels, even a nice doormat). I skipped fun things like fondue sets and ice cream machines as I even value the money other people would potentially spend on me (in fact I registered at Macys in part because people could get things on sale with coupons, I refused to register for everything at BBB as they can be overpriced). Being fully stocked on household items for a few years is nice as we can take that stuff out of the budget.

- I buy movies used and lots of books used (yay for $1 bins). we have netflix and amazon prime so we don't go to the movie theatre unless its something big like Finding Dory. in fact my husband's BFF is part of the SAG so he gets lots of free movie screenings he can bring a guest too. its a win-win as I don't have to see action movies and my husband doesn't have to pay (occasionally he buys his friend a burger dinner afterwards).

- rarely go to concerts or shows, maybe 1-2 a year, even then its lawn seats or a deal on tickets.

I learned a lot on these boards about budgeting and it helped me pay off my student loans in half the time they were planned out for while creating an ER savings of 6-8 months of expenses, and contributing steadily to a 401K (6% to start and now 10%). I am all about the idea of always living under budget and stashing your cash to make smart financial moves.

 

[fifthdimensiondweller]

we don't go to the movie theatre unless its something big like Finding Dory.[/QUOTE

That's the last movie we saw in theaters too!

I did have a wedding shower and stuck to what I truly needed to stock up on practical items

I did this too. Everyone laughed at "Little Miss Practical" but I'd rather have double of the things I need than a bunch of things I'll only use once a year!

in fact I registered at Macys in part because people could get things on sale with coupons, I refused to register for everything at BBB as they can be overpriced)

We could be the same person- my mindset exactly!

I realized the other day that I have saved loads on furniture

I am far from pinterest perfect

I hear you there! I'm the same way. Looking around my living room right now everything is a hand me down except our TV and my desk (both of which we bought at various retail jobs in college when we had employee discounts stacked with clearance sales) My couch was my aunt's and I know it had to cost her at least $1000 and it's next to brand new!I'm so grateful to her for giving it to us but its amazing what some people throw away!

 

[georgina]

I don't sacrifice anything for Disney, but I have not been there nearly as much as some folks here! I have always been frugal. I don't wear makeup, don't color my hair or get manicures, don't buy clothes much - but all of those things I don't care about. We rarely eat out, and get movies on DVD from the library. We keep our cars a long time. Have lived in the same house 29 years (it's paid off!) That is just who we are, does not feel like a sacrifice at all. Youngest kid is a senior in college so we are loosening up some on our travel budget, which is where we like to spend our money.

 

[wendow]

- I realized the other day that I have saved loads on furniture. I bought used furniture or have been given furniture from a few relatives. I am far from pinterest perfect and don't care if my furniture is not modern, country cottage, barnyard salvage or any other trend that is out there. I inherited a china set, stemware, and various glass decorative pieces that I happily use. I did have a wedding shower and stuck to what I truly needed to stock up on practical items (corel dishes, some towels, even a nice doormat). I skipped fun things like fondue sets and ice cream machines as I even value the money other people would potentially spend on me (in fact I registered at Macys in part because people could get things on sale with coupons, I refused to register for everything at BBB as they can be overpriced). Being fully stocked on household items for a few years is nice as we can take that stuff out of the budget.

Us too! We just celebrated 21 years of marriage and we weren't given hand-me-downs from our parents b/c neither of them really had much. So, we bought new furniture but not expensive stuff at all and since those things have held up fine (even with 4 kids!), we still have all those first pieces of furniture, glasses, dishes, etc. We have had to buy some pieces as we added to our family and moved to larger homes but we still have never spent much on furniture or kitchen things. My Corelle dishes were cheap and I still love them. We have never broken one but if we do, it's not a big deal at all.

I have realized that we live in an age where decorating/renovating your house a certain way is trendy and all over the TV and internet. My neighbor just spent a ton of money having a powder bath done to where it looks like it would make the cover of a magazine. Now she is moving to the kitchen. Says she doesn't care if this trendy look changes in a year or two...but she will...b/c she feels like her house has to have the popular look. They easily spent about 10k on this bathroom...no telling what the kitchen will cost...but she balks at us going to Disney every year. I guess her spending is an investment into her home and therefore she could get some of that money back if she sold. But I'd still rather put that money towards creating amazing memories with my family, be it at Disney or somewhere else.

 

[scrhsa]

I was really interested to see what some other budget conscious DISers have given up to be able to go to Disney. This is a topic I get into with my friends a lot (especially considering we had a DCL wedding and DLR honeymoon this year). People are always astounded that we can afford to make these trips and sometimes I get frustrated because I think- we make sacrifices to do this- A LOT of sacrifices! And we will still be paying off our honeymoon probably until Thanksgiving! (Worth it though). What do you sacrifice for Disney?

For us we sacrifice:
Clothing- I haven't really bought new clothes in years, and the ones I have bought certainly didn't come from a designer brand (or I bought them used)!

Going out- We NEVER go to the movies until a movie hits the dollar theater with 3 exceptions: Star Wars, Harry Potter, and a select few Disney movies. We never go out for drinks with friends like most of our friend do (we're in our mid 20s), and usually only go out for lunch instead of dinner if we go out to eat.

My car doesn't have air conditioning.

We always buy media (books, movies, etc) used.

Don't ever buy new cell phones until they break

If I can make it myself, I do. (Laundry Soap being one example)

We live in a tiny one bedroom apartment (no kids) (buying a house next year though) while a lot of our friends have bigger apartments or bought houses already.

Haven't been to a concert in probably close to a decade.

We have all but given up soda (saves a TON of money going out to eat and not having it around the house saves about $150-$200 a year even for us who only drank maybe a can a day) Added bonus: We lost weight!

We don't use paper towels anymore (though I keep one roll around for REALLY gross spills). Towels do the job!

Time- I spend a lot of time clipping coupons, comparing sales, etc to save money.

Point is, we sacrifice a lot of little things that add up to go to Disney every year, sure. But to us none of it comes even close to the feeling we get when we go to a Disney park or get on a Disney cruise.

This has been my entire life We were a one income, military family. I have always made most of these sacrifices. As well as never/rarely having a babysitter--mostly used family when they were close by I still make these sacrifices. What I do for disney is if I want to buy something and I know I don't really need it, I'll put it back and then put that dollar amount into savings at the end of the month. I don't buy fabric softener and when I used liquid detergent I would use far less than what was called for. I made my own stain remover. Like you I don't pay full price for clothing. I shop at Goodwill--though I really don't have a good one where I live now. I love books but I will use the library or the 2nd hand bookstore--I have over a hundred dollars banked for selling most of my books back to them( we homeschooled for awhile so I had a LOT of books). I buy off brand items at the grocery store--though there are some things I won't skimp on I used to cut my own hair, now I go to the place in walmart. I still cut my girls hair. I use sun-in instead of paying for the same color my sister gets at the salon.

 

[Milhouse_]

I would consider myself fairly budget-minded, but at the same time I will spend on things that improve my standard of living:

• $200-ish every 8 weeks for haircut and highlights.
• Beauty treatments before a trip or big events.
• Decent clothes that will last for years (mixed in with cheaper stuff).
• Good shoes, a single decent purse, a nice wallet. Again all should last for years.
• 1 take-out a week as a treat (also helps with the diet!).
• Vacations, plus smaller trips to visit friends.

To cut costs for holidays and just life in general:

• I rarely eat out. If friends want to meet up I will usually push for a 'coffee' instead. A lot of my friends easily spend $100+ a week on restaurants, lunches, fast food and bars. That's nearly a whole yearly vacation right there!
• Share Netflix and Hulu accounts with relatives. Why pay to see a film when you can watch it at home in your jammies 4 months later??
• Similarly, I don't buy new media, or spend money collecting items.
• Use co-worker's Amazon prime account to order stuff and have it delivered to the office.
• Dollar store for cleaning/household supplies and basics.
• Keep an eye on store sales and shop accordingly.
• Milk credit card travel rewards.
• Buy presents throughout the year. I'm very generous but only because I get good deals.
• Leftovers! I hate throwing food out anyway so I take it as a personal challenge to eat everything up before I do the next shop.
• I don't own a car (helps that I live in a city, obviously).

I would never live a life of misery for a few weeks of pleasure, but keeping an eye on the pennies makes sure that my money goes towards tangible experiences, rather than just being frittered away mindlessly.

 

[ellie05]

I don't really feel we really sacrifice things for Disney we do save when we can. We always been a one income household so maybe that is why.
We have cable, HBO now when game of thrones is on and Netflix we share with my sister.

What we do to keep expenses low
- buy discounted GC to buy dog food save about 20% we try to stock up when they send extra 10% coupon too.
- I buy our laundry detergent only when they have sale going on and stock up then. We use good home co so it is expensive, but they do have 40% sales.
- We also buy discounted GC for restaurants.
- We don't change our cars often DH still drives his car from high school 2002. He loves the damn thing and still runs really good so . He only uses it to go from work and back so it doesn't have a lot of miles for its age we broke the 100,000 only a few months ago. And it works perfect for his job he can throw all is dirty nasty gear in it and we are not concern. Also my car is 9 years old, but we are replacing it this year.
- I do use coupons when I can but don't go out of my way or buy things I wouldn't buy otherwise.
- DH always packs lunch.
- the majority of our clothes comes from sales it is very rare we buy something full price. I do go every time they change the clothes for different season and get stuff for the following year. For example DH sperrys were looking old so I got out of the closet the sperrys I bought on last year clearance at the end of summer. I paid $35.99 for gold cup sperrys if I would have waited until he needed them I would have easily spend over $100. I only buy classics that we can easily use without looking outdated. Like linen shirts for DH etc. it is more difficult a for women's clothes. You can get really good deals on brand names.
- We use Disney GC to pay for our trips.
- I plan our meals so we don't waste food.
- We don't go to the movie theater ever, but we have a home theater at home (not a big tv but 120 inches 3D projector). To be honest I am not sure we have saved any money on it yet, but the convenience its great and I am sure we will save money eventually.
- I give DH haircuts. This started mostly because we moved and the nearest barber screw up his hair. The other ones are just too far. He is in the military so he needs hair cuts weekly.
- I buy presents through the year.

To be honest I know many people are surprise by our standard of living. We like nice stuff, but with a little effort you can always find things discounted. We have very nice furniture including some Chippendale's wingback chairs, that I found at an antique store. After we had them reupholster we end up paying $700 for the pair! We have pottery barn, restoration hardware, ballards design furniture and linens and we never paid retail price. We gotten most of he stuff at the outlet or on clearance. Especially with furniture you can get huge discounts for silly stuff. Like our buffet one of the knobs was missing at it was marked down 60% off. I bought the knob on eBay for 5.99.

@Milhouse_ i agree 100% that we won't sacrifice so much in our daily living for 1-2 weeks a year. Our biggest sacrifice is made with DH job and deployments. All has been made possible, because he didn't pick and easy job in the military, but that comes with extra rewards as faster promotions, extra pay and big re enlistment bonuses. When it is all said and done he will have retirement at the age of 38 and will leave the military with a degree and no debt.

 

[momof2gr8kids]

We're not high maintenance people in general, so I don't feel we sacrifice too much to do Disney or other things we enjoy.

We are a one vehichle family, we shop often at 2nd hand stores for some of our clothes. We don't need to have the latest "things" or fanciest furniture, etc. We enjoy doing things that don't cost a lot of money. I'd rather go for a hike than sit in a restaurant or walk around a mall. We rarely eat out or go to a show. Most of our friends also enjoy hanging out at a back yard bbq rather than going out to a fancy restaurant so that helps.

 

[OrangeBirdGirl]

I don't feel like we "sacrifice" anything to go on vacation. I'm happy with how our life is and I wouldn't consider sacrificing something for vacations. But these are some of the areas I see where we save money over our friends....

We don't like to go out to eat. We enjoy cooking and know how the food is prepared when we make it ourselves. Other then on vacation, we probably only eat out once every couple months. When we get home from work, we like to be settled in for the night. The last thing we want to do is leave the house. On the weekends we are too busy usually and have other stuff we'd rather do. I could make us a great steak dinner with good sides for under $20. Eating out for a comparable meal you are looking at $60+ and I think our homemade tastes better.

Movies - we don't go to the theater. We have a nice home theater setup and buy the movies (new on release day). So you are looking at $18-$22 for the movie depending if we get in 3D or not vs $50 for the movie and popcorn and soda at the theater. We do not have HBO or Showtime or any other movie channels. Fortunately one of our good friends also has the same movie philosophy as us, so when we each buy a movie you usually get the Blu-Ray and DVD combo pack. We give the other one the DVD of the movie we just bought.

We do our own lawn care (fertilizing). Our cost is about $200 annually versus $700 to have a service do it.

If I see something on sale at the grocery store I will stock up a little bit, not stockpile. I have found in the past stockpiling ends up going bad (or a better sale comes up before it's used up), thus I will buy just a couple extra of something. But I do shop Costco a lot to buy the food in bulk to save a little bit.

We enjoy a lot of outdoor activities on the weekend which are at no cost; disc golfing at municipal parks, hiking, bicycling, swimming. A lot of people I know have to pay money to find entertainment.

We are not big drinkers and would never go out for a drink.

We don't buy anything used, which is the contrary to what many people would do for saving money. I want to know I'm buying something new with a warranty. I don't know how someone else took care of something. This goes for everything; cars, clothes, sporting equipment, electronics, etc.

We are pretty set in the things we have and they don't need replacing, but when something does need to be replaced, I don't skimp. I want to get something of good quality that is going to last a long time.

 

[agavegirl1]

Ascends Soapbox.....

We are spending our children's inheritance since we don't believe in them getting one because we paid for their college education. We live fairly frugally because travel is our addiction. We go a lot of places..so, we prioritize travel. We have a lot of assets we keep for future vacations. But here is my list...

I am very low maintenance. No manicures or pedicures unless my child is getting married. No haircuts for either of us, hubby wears a ponytail as well. I color it once in a while with grocery store color. Our clothing budget is about $500 per year. We buy only replacement clothes for worn out items. I also shop at Goodwill on wednesdays with a senior discount I get a new travel purse every two years and use it until it dies. I use it for my normal purse as well. We have two vehicles. Mine is 9 years old and paid for. DH had to buy a used truck to replace his 2004 truck but we still have that one as a backup after repairs.

We are savers and use every opportunity to save our money. Any extras from rebates, weird checks for $11.29 for a class action lawsuit I signed up for ...anything goes to savings. We have a vacation savings account that we put $50 per week into. We put as much as we don't use from our incomes into our two savings accounts and have a family meeting if we decide savings transfers might be required (major car repair).

When we have to spend, I use my Disney Visa. Our last trip I had over $600 worth of credit and I went home with $13 left after using it for nine days. I bought an Olaf plush with the rest for my grandaughter.

We are remodeling my lake house now so we buy a lot of supplies and do all the work ourselves. Sweat equity shoul not be belittled

In short, it is amazing what you can save when you don't care what other people think and learn to remodel or fix stuff yourself. Also, if you prioritize travel, then each family member knows that you can't put a price on memories and in the end, that is what matters. Oh, and pictures

Leaving Soap Box Now

 

[DawnM]

We live somewhat frugally, but not necessarily because of Disney, just because that is how we are.

We even do Disney frugally!

 

[halfpintpeggy]

We live somewhat frugally, but not necessarily because of Disney, just because that is how we are.

We even do Disney frugally!

I'm curious as to what your opinion is on doing Disney frugally? Would love to hear!

 

[MillauFr]

I don't consider it sacrificing but I did get rid of my car 15 years ago and ride my bike to work. Great exercise and don't have to spend money for a monthly gym membership.

 

[wendow]

I don't feel like we "sacrifice" anything to go on vacation. I'm happy with how our life is and I wouldn't consider sacrificing something for vacations. But these are some of the areas I see where we save money over our friends....

This is how I would put our life too. I don't consider anything we do a sacrifice for Disney. It's just a smart way to live, imo, and living the way we do allows us to do a lot of things, including taking some pretty nice vacations. I wouldn't live any way all year long that I wasn't comfortable with just for a week or two vacation.

 

[Happyinwonerland]

I don't really give anything up for my vacatioms, but I guess everything's a trade off. The money we spend traveling could have gone to house remodeling, clothes, cars, etc. We choose to spend it on making wonderful memories instead. The house is still slowly but surely being remodeled, we are fine with our Toyota instead of a Lexus, and we have nice enough clothing.

I tend to work a few extra shifts throughout the year to pay for our trips. 3 or 4 overtime days will pay for a week away so when we get the travel itch, that's what we do.

We also vacation on the cheap. We drive, stay off site in a condo, eat half our meals in the condo, spend very little on souvenirs, and buy tix through Parksavers and bridge to AP, using gift cards purchased at Sam's club to cover the difference.