Sarah's Savings Plans & Budget Thread - September 2020

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.

Yep! That’s deffo something I’ve taken into account. I used the rack rate for the calculations in my first post. We’ll be looking at all the offerings that are released for that time to figure out which works best for us as they’re usually more than one for that time of year.
 
There’s a website that keeps track of where to use and how much the various dining and merchandise discounts are. Mouseperks.com

It’s been a helpful tool for me when I’m trying to decide whether to get a Tables in Wonderland card or if DVC, AP and Disney Visa discounts are better.
 
I would drop park hoppers in a hot second. You'll be there so long, with 9-day passes--is park hopping really necessary? It's gotten so expensive... Plus, I find that it eats up a lot of time.
 
I would drop park hoppers in a hot second. You'll be there so long, with 9-day passes--is park hopping really necessary? It's gotten so expensive... Plus, I find that it eats up a lot of time.

Been chatting this over with my wife this morning. I think we're going to do the math with a 10th park day rather than the hoppers to see if it's cheaper. That way we don't have to do the half days. The down side for us, is that it would sacrifice one of our two "down" days, which we really enjoy.

We're not looking for the *cheapest* way to do things, by far. Just the most economical for what we want to spend time doing. If that makes sense?
 


Okay! So the numbers have been crunched, and the 10 days non-hopper is our new ticket plan.

Pros: Saves $100-ish overall, gets rid of the half-days
Cons: Removes one of our "down" days, but looking at our potential schedule we can make up for that time in other ways - like the morning/early afternoon before MNSSHP.
 
I'm the opposite - if it was a short trip (or a first trip) I would definitely drop the hoppers, but with a longer trip I would keep them. We don't usually get hoppers but I could see how by day 7-8 we would have done everything we "had" to do in each park. So the last few days we could go to one park in the morning and go to another at night, even if it is just to Epcot for dinner.
 
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.

It sounds like you definitely won't make it back in less than 12 months (which would make the AP more valuable), but one other thing worth mentioning is that they offer a renewal discount (which might make it a little more valuable IF you could DEFINITELY make it back within 24 month). I think the discount was around 10%.

Oh, and I don't know if you mentioned this, but we paid for APs with Disney Gift Cards. My wife combined several cards onto one. Same strategy could prolly be used for tickets and lodging.
 


Update #1

Our Trip in a nutshell: We're a 2 adult, 1 kiddo family. This is our 3rd trip to WDW as a trio, 6th for me. 14 nights at All Star Music, 10 day non-hopper tickets, Disney Dining Plan, flights on SW from PVD to MCO and money set aside for things like souvenirs, tips, MNSSHP tickets, drinks outside the DDP, Photo Pass and other additional stuff.

Where I'm at for savings:

Total Estimated Cost $9,190.00 (rack rate for 2019, no possible discounts included)
Amount Paid $0.00
Disney Gift Cards $775.00
Vacation Bank Account $1,162.95
Walmart Gift Cards $76.04
Disney Visa Reward Dollars $4.45
Landry's Gift Cards $0.00
Amazon Gift Cards $0.00
Southwest Gift Cards $0.00
Total Left To Save $7,171.56

Other options looked at / changes made so far:


We looked at the cost of three APs, then a single AP versus the park tickets we have. Decided that the additional cost was not going to add any value to the trip.

Originally, we were going to do the 9-day park hopper. We changed that to the 10-day non-hopper. In exchange for the $100ish savings, we lost a 'down' day, but found other ways to make up that chill time.

Going to be looking into the SW credit cards in the next 6 months or so.

 
Last edited:
I'm the opposite - if it was a short trip (or a first trip) I would definitely drop the hoppers, but with a longer trip I would keep them. We don't usually get hoppers but I could see how by day 7-8 we would have done everything we "had" to do in each park. So the last few days we could go to one park in the morning and go to another at night, even if it is just to Epcot for dinner.

The problem with this is, you have to pay for hoppers for the entire length of the tickets (9-10 days, in this case). And they're not cheap. If you could just pay for hopping on the couple-three days you actually hopped, it might make sense.
 
Have you looked into UK tickets at all? We got them for our upcoming trip after realizing that we'd be at WDW for either 12 or 13 days given various family visits combined with Disney. I found that the 14-day Ultimate Ticket ended up costing about the same as a 10-day US ticket. Getting four days and Memory Maker and park hopping for the cost of a 10-day ticket is, well, nice.

I'll know if it actually works on Thursday afternoon. But all of the fine print states that the ticket may only be sold in the UK, not solely used by UK residents. We'll see...
 
Have you looked into UK tickets at all? We got them for our upcoming trip after realizing that we'd be at WDW for either 12 or 13 days given various family visits combined with Disney. I found that the 14-day Ultimate Ticket ended up costing about the same as a 10-day US ticket. Getting four days and Memory Maker and park hopping for the cost of a 10-day ticket is, well, nice.

I'll know if it actually works on Thursday afternoon. But all of the fine print states that the ticket may only be sold in the UK, not solely used by UK residents. We'll see...

Not looked into it at all since we're US residents. But, my wife has family in the UK, so it could potentially be an option if it works out. I'd assume it looks like Florida pass-holder discounts and you'd need to show ID. Saying that, both kiddo and wife have UK passports...
 
The problem with this is, you have to pay for hoppers for the entire length of the tickets (9-10 days, in this case). And they're not cheap. If you could just pay for hopping on the couple-three days you actually hopped, it might make sense.
Yes, you pay the same price for hoppers whether you have a 4 day ticket or a 10 day ticket - with a 10 day ticket that is $8 a day. Then we could hop any day we wanted to, not just on the last days. With a longer stay our park strategy would be very different than for a shorter trip.
 
Update #2!
Total Estimated Cost $9,190.00
Amount Paid $0.00
Disney Gift Cards $925.00
Vacation Bank Account $1,212.95
Walmart Gift Cards $133.06
Disney Visa Reward Dollars $4.45
Landry's Gift Cards $0.00
Amazon Gift Cards $0.00
Southwest Gift Cards $0.00
Total Left To Save $6,914.54

So with 17 months go to until we want to have our total saved, that means saving $407 a month assuming the fill $9190 cost, or $300 a month if we get free dining.

Nothing much this last week or so as far as savings updates go. I did start a blog about how we're using Swagbucks to pay down a good portion of our trip, which is feeding into my Disney Planning needs. :D
 
Update #1

Our Trip in a nutshell: We're a 2 adult, 1 kiddo family. This is our 3rd trip to WDW as a trio, 6th for me. 14 nights at All Star Music, 10 day non-hopper tickets, Disney Dining Plan, flights on SW from PVD to MCO and money set aside for things like souvenirs, tips, MNSSHP tickets, drinks outside the DDP, Photo Pass and other additional stuff.

Where I'm at for savings:

Total Estimated Cost $9,190.00 (rack rate for 2019, no possible discounts included)
Amount Paid $0.00
Disney Gift Cards $775.00
Vacation Bank Account $1,162.95
Walmart Gift Cards $76.04
Disney Visa Reward Dollars $4.45
Landry's Gift Cards $0.00
Amazon Gift Cards $0.00
Southwest Gift Cards $0.00
Total Left To Save $7,171.56

Other options looked at / changes made so far:


We looked at the cost of three APs, then a single AP versus the park tickets we have. Decided that the additional cost was not going to add any value to the trip.

Originally, we were going to do the 9-day park hopper. We changed that to the 10-day non-hopper. In exchange for the $100ish savings, we lost a 'down' day, but found other ways to make up that chill time.

Going to be looking into the SW credit cards in the next 6 months or so.


To add on about the SW credit cards. If you really want to maximize your points so all 3 of your flights are paid for with points you can wait until closer to the end of this year and open a SW personal card, meet the spend & earn the points. Then open a SW business card (check out the I love credit card thread to get more info on applying for a business card) under the same person. Those 2 bonuses will put you over 100,000 points earned and you will earn a companion pass for the rest of 2020 and 2021 (named companion flies free with you). Once you get those points earned send your spouse a support link from your card, you get support points and spouse will get the bonus points. Use those points for 3rd persons flight.
 
Depending on your child’s age, what about getting them Disney gift cards for gifts? Having family do that as well? Obviously if kid is too young they aren’t going to realize the value. But if older, it seems like a good option vs a toy they’ll be done playing with in a few weeks.
 
To add on about the SW credit cards. If you really want to maximize your points so all 3 of your flights are paid for with points you can wait until closer to the end of this year and open a SW personal card, meet the spend & earn the points. Then open a SW business card (check out the I love credit card thread to get more info on applying for a business card) under the same person. Those 2 bonuses will put you over 100,000 points earned and you will earn a companion pass for the rest of 2020 and 2021 (named companion flies free with you). Once you get those points earned send your spouse a support link from your card, you get support points and spouse will get the bonus points. Use those points for 3rd persons flight.

Bookmarking this, thank you for the rundown!!
 
Getting a package is the way to go, and if you go during free dinning, then upgrading to DDP would be a great way to hit those character meals... I will say that you need to be open to different resorts as sometimes the one you might want, might not be available for that promotion, so being flexible with resort is a important factor...

I might suggest a clean out the house garage sale... we normally make around 250.00 to 500.00 depending on how long its been since the last one...

Another thought is a Kid to Kids shop... We have one here and they buy your kids stuff and pay out cash money or double the amount for in store credit....so no consignment shop waiting game...

Not sure if you will or would want to get in the coupon game... DH and I use them all the time... not just at the grocery store or Wal-Mart or Target... for shopping, dining out, dry cleaning... our cleaner about every couple of months will offer 2 for 1 - for every 2 items you pay for you get one cleaned for free... so I wait till they offer the coupon to get some of my shirts or dress, even a coat cleaned for free... when I take in DH's Shirts... car maintenance like oil change, fluids, tire rotation I got the works ... I got a half price coupon and saved me around 50.00 dollars... Every little bit helps....

We switched to BJ's warehouse store... Not only do they offer in store coupons, you can use manufacturers coupons to stack for more savings... they also have discounts on gift cards including Disney...

On Landry's if you become a member it's 25 dollars to join then you get the 25... back on your first visit towards the meal... then you earn points... as well you get 25.00 automatically for your birthday... and you can walk up and get seated right away, at T-REX and Rainforest as a Landry's member... you will have to show your card or a valid number to the host or hostess... So I would check on Landry's restaurants in your area and see if this might benefit you.
 
On Landry's if you become a member it's 25 dollars to join then you get the 25... back on your first visit towards the meal... then you earn points... as well you get 25.00 automatically for your birthday... and you can walk up and get seated right away, at T-REX and Rainforest as a Landry's member... you will have to show your card or a valid number to the host or hostess... So I would check on Landry's restaurants in your area and see if this might benefit you.

Oh, and Landry's also owns one of our favorite haunts, Yak & Yeti restaurant (Animal Kingdom)
 
Last edited:
Update #3!

Our Trip in a nutshell: We're a 2 adult, 1 kiddo family. This is our 3rd trip to WDW as a trio, 6th for me. 14 nights at All Star Music, 10 day non-hopper tickets, Disney Dining Plan, flights on SW from PVD to MCO and money set aside for things like souvenirs, tips, MNSSHP tickets, drinks outside the DDP, Photo Pass and other additional stuff.

It's been a while, but we've been chugging along with our Swagbucks > Sam's Club > Disney Gift Card conversions. We've narrowed down which parks we want to do for how many days, and a working list of which restaurants to hit up. We're thinking packages for 2020 will be released next month - so excited!

Total Estimated Cost $9,370.00
Amount Paid $0.00
Disney Gift Cards $1,550.00
Vacation Bank Account $1,267.38
Walmart Gift Cards $30.02
Disney Visa Reward Dollars $45.45
Landry's Gift Cards $0.00
Amazon Gift Cards $0.00
Southwest Gift Cards $0.00
Total Left To Save $6,477.15

The numbers are slightly off, as we've got $150 Disney Gift Cards in transit, not accounted for on this breakdown.

Our Estimated Cost has gone up slightly, as we added in things like the higher-end souvenirs we'll probably get, Landry's card, and the new magic band designs.

With 15 months go to until we want to have our total saved, that means saving $431 a month assuming the full $9370 cost, or $312 a month if we get free dining. This has increased since we posted last. I think it's a mix of the increase in overall cost we're budgeting for, and being a bit slow on the Swagbucks this month.
 
Last edited:

GET A DISNEY VACATION QUOTE

Dreams Unlimited Travel is committed to providing you with the very best vacation planning experience possible. Our Vacation Planners are experts and will share their honest advice to help you have a magical vacation.

Let us help you with your next Disney Vacation!






Top