I Went To Disney & Came Home With Money

OK - my friends know how much I LOVE Disney World. We go every year. Here is how I save some money so I can shop, shop, shop.

1. My husband has a conference down there in the fall - this year it was an awards conference for Six Sigma at a Disney hotel (which is on the property but not owned by Disney - confusing, I know). We pulled the girls out of school and DROVE down - yes, I said it, DROVE 11 1/2 hours with my girls.

How does this save money? His company would pay for him to stay there and for the transportation to and from. We tack on the additional nights and that reduces our out of pocket costs. Also, driving, while it might seem downright horrible, saves us over $500, as the cost of gas versus airline tickets for 3 is just obvious (plus, if you travel for work, some mileage could be included). This is one of those time versus money things each family has to consider.

2. We booked a package online. Since we go every year, we had a special offer emailed to us and I jumped on it - free dining plan. The more you go, the better your email offers from Disney become! Many people got this dining offer but only after the coupon code people booked theirs (I know this because my friends Paige and Krista got the public offer about a month after I got my code). As a matter of fact, I got an offer to book our 2010 trip before we left and get free dining AGAIN!

How does this save money (besides the obvious)? Even Disney is a bit hurt by the economy, in that every quarter it seems they are offering a new package to lure people down there. Last spring it was buy 4 nights, get 3 free. Then it was get a dining plan for free this last quarter (depending on the room cost) - now it is back to buy a few nights, get a few free (though check the website if you really want to know). It seems that 2009 is the best time to go - I've never seen more offers by the Walt Disney company in my years of trekking down there.

3. I have a Disney VISA by Chase. This helps you in a few different ways:

A - if you buy a Disney vacation package, you get 6 months with no finance charges
B - it is a rewards card to I set it up to pay our bills with it and gas for my car and rack up money in the form of a gift card to be used either toward the package, to buy tickets, or in the parks
C. it has a 10% off any $50 merchandise purchase all around The World.

SOOOO - we had my rewards gift card AND I made sure that we didn't nickel and dime spend but bought it all together so I could use the 10% off as much as possible

4. The Disney Dining Plan - there are four different plans now but we get the basic one, which is one sit down meal, one fast food meal and one snack. I use this even when it isn't free because we like character dining AND we get tired of eating fast food all the time.

Here's how I decided to do the dining plan - add up the number of sit down/character meals you plan to have. If it averages out to one a day, get the meal plan. A character meal is about $100 for a young family of four; the cost of the meal plan is less than that.

This is an iffy one and some families don't use it or need it and that is totally FINE. But we don't eat with characters every day, as WDW has some of the best food out there. And even with the dining plan, we brought juice and water and bought milk and a resort mug (free refills) to save because when it is 95 in Florida you sweat and 3 drinks a day just doesn't cut it.

5. Staying on-site saves us time and $14/day in parking fees. Add that plus the cost of gas to your room and you might find that it is reasonable to stay on-site. Plus you get more bang for your buck, like enjoying the park before and after hours for on-site resort guests only. So unless you have hotel rewards coming out of your ears, consider staying in The World.

6. I have many other tips to share but will save them for another time... like bibbidi bobbidi boutique, making a budget, etc

SOOOO - with my rewards gift card and saving 10% with the VISA and using my beverages wisely, I got to keep the money I saved... and bought myself two new tops, pajamas for the girls and me and some princess treats for the girls.

Anyway, these are the things I do to save money, and I hope they can help you, too!