I thought I would do a little updating...
First things first...the current budget. Here's what I am budgeting for my
GIFT CARD BUDGET ($1275)
...Food: $1000 for actual food, $150 for the Tables in Wonderland Card, but once the ADR window gets closer, I expect this will increase since we are already talking about eating at places like Sanaa, Jiko, Artist Point and the Hoop-Dee-Doo Revue. With all of those TS meals, coupled with the fact that the trip expanded from 5 to 7 nights from when I originally planned it, I think I will need to up my budget. Fortunately, my saving has been going well so increasing it shouldn't be a problem.
...Groceries: $50 for an order from
Amazon Prime Now
...One-Time Use points: $51 for 3 points which I might need to complete a 6-night reservation at a different resort, not sure which one yet. I may not need any points at all, but 3 is probably the maximum I would need and if I do, I will have the gift cards available to pay for the points. (Actually, I might need 9, which would be $153, but I will update that later, based on availability...I'll know in March)
...Ticket upgrade: about $24. The girls' only have 5-day park-hoppers and I will probably upgrade them to either 6 or 7 days, depending on when our flights arrive and depart. We may decide to do the
MNSSHP too in which case the gift card budget will jump substantially.
ALL of these gift cards have been earned for
FREE. No money has been spent out of pocket to acquire these gift cards. They were all earned from Swagbucks, Best Buy Rewards, Disney Visa Rewards, Target Free With Purchase, MyPoints, Fetch Rewards, etc.
Now the
CASH BUDGET ($1800)
...Airfare: $1200 for flights, seats, luggage and EBCI, all which depends on which airline we end up flying. SWA won't be releasing their schedule until March or April so I have plenty of time to save up for airfare. I won't make any final decision until their schedule comes out. I've already found a few itineraries on American and Delta that will work and fall within my budget, but they are on the high end and I am not committing to a non-refundable airfare at this point when all of my options are not even out on the table yet.
...Hotel: $280 for the Hyatt Regency on Friday night. This is optional at this point and will depend on what we decide for flights and what our final itinerary will be. I have enough DVC points to stay Fri-Fri at AKV. If we do that, we could spend our check-out night at the airport and fly home on Saturday morning, depending on the cost of flights. If we are able to stay in a different resort, we might not stay at AKV on the night we arrive and opt to stay at the Hyatt that night instead. It so variable at this point, but I want to make sure that I have the funds set aside, just in case. I already have reservations secured for both nights ($265 for the first Friday, $285 for the last Friday), but it will only be one or the other, not both.
...Miscellaneous Expenses: $300 to cover things like tips, Uber rides, and other stuff that always seems to come up.
So overall, the budget has gone up $75 which is due to the one-time use points and the ticket upgrade.
Here is where I stand with my earnings...
GIFT CARD EARNINGS: $836.35 / $1275
CASH EARNINGS: $ 829.54 / $1800
TOTAL EARNED: $1665.89
TOTAL NEEDED: $1409.11