A Whole Trip With "Found Money"? A Savings Journal.

[VisitingMickey]

Hi y'all! My partner and I are long-term saving for an upcoming trip and decided to do it all (or most of it) from "found money" from sources like online survey sites, saving coins, gifted money, etc.

Here's the details:

7 Nights @ Coronado Springs Resort: $1,949.65
6 Day Park-Hopper Tickets: $1,183.00
Disney Dining Plan: $1,172.14
Spending Money: $250.00 ($15/day x2 of us, rounded up just in case, we're not big spenders, so this is an overshoot.)
Keys to The Kingdom Tour: $198.00 (probably can get this for less using my Disney Visa, but am gonna use the "overflow" from the budget for other things.)
Afternoon Tea @ GF: $70.00
Airline Tickets: $950.00 (will probably get them for much less, but would rather be prepared )
Additional Expenses: $100.00 (plus any overflow that would apply from discounts I may come across.)
Total: $5,872.79

The idea is to go in Spring 2023 (I know, I know.)
But with this budget and this timeline, we can reasonably set aside $4.60/day, but will most likely do more than that.

I plan to update periodically and adjust as I find out about price changes over the next few years.

 

[VisitingMickey]

Hi again! Today we added $49.00 to our Disney Fund!

7 Nights @ Coronado Springs Resort: $49.00 of $1,949.65 (2.51%)
6 Day Park-Hopper Tickets: $1,183.00
Disney Dining Plan: $1,172.14
Spending Money: $250.00
Keys to The Kingdom Tour: $198.00
Afternoon Tea @ GF: $70.00
Airline Tickets: $950.00
Additional Expenses: $100.00
Total: $49.00 of $5,872.79 (0.83%)

 

[CalDisneyMomof2]

I would add 30% to all Disney related costs now to account for (Disney) inflation.

 

[VisitingMickey]

We've decided that any modifiers to the cost for inflation will come from just our regular pay, just to make the tedious grind of sites like swagbucks a little more tolerable when we're not aiming for another $1,800 out of it! But it's definitely factored in for our master budget, just not for our "pocket change" log.

 

[barkley]

we used (roughly) the same concept to pay off our mortgage years ahead of time and to help pay for our upcoming vacation. all those little amounts add up over time. some of the things we did-

if a fixed expense decreased, be it just for one month or ongoing-it went to the 'fund'. we do a balanced payment plan for our utilities that gets adjusted once a year. if our usage was such that our new monthly amount decreased-it was auto transferred each month to the fund. if we dropped something from our satellite provider that decreased the bill-difference to the fund. got small increases to income (even less than $10 per month)-went to the fund. spent less on groceries than our budget one month-to the fund.

 

[Cruising Engineer]

Good plan. Now to find that "found money" from online sources:
Follow Disney Gift Card Deals (https://www.disboards.com/threads/disney-gift-card-deals.2941964/page-2094) this gives the latest discounts on mainly Disney Gift Cards (DGC) from several sources including RetailMeNot (RMN), TopCashBack (TCB), Rakuten (was Ebates), and Dosh. If you can score 8%-15% off DGC you can use them to pay for most things at WDW/DL (tickets, gifts, food, hotel, etc). Be careful to purchase DGC and NOT Disney Store (Store is only good in the store for merchandise). Start at the last page or two to understand the system of savings. Deals change daily so it's not worth the time to go through the entire site.

 

[OrangeBirdGirl]

Wow that is great goal! Years back we did a goal of a "free" trip. Mostly all came from various credit card rewards (the monthly cash back). I also included any rebates we received throughout the couple years (like my contacts I get $50 for that). Then the remainder came from selling stuff we no longer had a use for. It was a fun goal. One of our banks allows a bunch of separate savings accounts with no fees so I just setup one of them specific for this and put the money in.

 

[DisneyHardin]

Is your $250 spending money also including your tips for the dining plan? Depending on where you eat, you will put a big dent in that $250 with your tips.

 

[VisitingMickey]

We factored tips in with our dining plan math! The $250 DOES include mousekeeping tips though!

 

[hrslvr142]

Fun idea and a long time to plan.

 

[Narnia_girl]

Sounds like you have a great plan in place. Good luck!

 

[saving our pennies]

Good luck with your challenge! You can TOTALLY do it!! I love taking on goals like yours, they really open my eyes to all sorts of "found" money opportunities

 

[StarlitNight05]

This is a wonderful idea! Good luck!

 

[adamak]

Which airline do you fly? Consider getting a credit card for the sign up bonus. I got Delta one, first year annual fee waived, got 70K. That's enough for one free ticket. Repeat next year for your spouse, and there's your free flights. But you'll have to be able to spend the $$ threshold in 3 months to get the bonus. And don't expect to find awards during peak travel seasons.

I average 75 - 100 bucks pp on Swagbucks. If you both can keep up with this amount, you'll get 6K in 30 months. Do-able.

And find legit survey companies that pay out more than SB surveys (I don't qualify as frequently but when I did, they pay $3 each). I can't post referral here. PM me if you're interested. Also try doing in person focus groups. if you live in or near big cities.

Have you considered buying the Park hopper now and not activate them until 2023? The price increase every year so there's your savings. (I don't know if the activation / expiration rules are still the same, please check).

 

[LynnTH]

You should join us on the "I love Credit Cards" thread. Everyone there is so nice and helpful and can get you to your goals. Just on CC Points/Rewards this year I have been on a 7 Day Cruise for 4, 7 Day Disney Trip for 3 and going on another quick Disney Trip for 3 in December.

Next year I have Aruba for 4, Vegas for 4, Alaskan Cruise for 2 and Caribbean Cruise for 2. Mostly all paid by points. Once you start - you will be hooked.