Track Your 2018 Vacation Budget Here...

[mjantz]

Not going to Disney but I hope I can play too. We're doing a West Coast Road Trip for Two in June or July. Have a few places to stay along the way (In SF, North of Seattle & maybe 2 more, depending on family & other things) I'm working my Swagbucks for restaurant and gas cards and I have a free hotel night and free dinner and breakfast buffet for 1 night in Vegas through the MyVegas slots app. I'm breaking down the math over Christmas but I'm hoping to cover most of the meals and gas with Swagging. Here's what I have so far:

-$25 GC to Cracker Barrel
-1 hotel night in Las Vegas
-Free Dinner buffet
-Free Breakfast buffet

Going to buy a National Parks Year Pass as soon as my husband gets paid.

 

[kristenrice]

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

 

[Marionnette]

OTUPs are $17 per point. Seventeen points would cost $289, not $51. Three OTUPs would cost $51.

 

[kristenrice]

OTUPs are $17 per point. Seventeen points would cost $289, not $51. Three OTUPs would cost $51.

Duh! I got my numbers messed up! I need *3* points at *$17* per point...that's where I got the $51 from I had the "3" and the "17" right....I just wrote the wrong number down in my summary.

...I'll go back and fix it...

 

[kristenrice]

It's almost the end of the year so I thought it would be a good time to bump up this thread and update my current numbers. I am feeling pretty good at this point. I have put a lot of focus on earning money for this trip, even if it is slowly and in small amounts. My plasma donations may need to taper off for the month of January. They just drew my serum protein level (done randomly every 4-6 months) and I typically come back out of range which defers me for at least 2 weeks. It's a common issue among frequent plasma donors as the process can lower your serum protein levels over time which is why they check. It's typically corrected by taking a break from donating fr 2-4 weeks. I won't have the results until next week which means I can still donate one more time before I find out if I passed. I also have that cell loss hanging over my head which doesn't expire until January 28. That means that another cell loss before then will result in an automatic deferral for 8 weeks. That would be a huge hit at this point. So, if I don't pass the serum protein test, a two-week break at this point would not be the worst thing in the world.

Here's where I am sitting with my earnings...

Gift Cards and equivalent (includes Amazon): $911.35

I have $200 worth of discounted gift cards from Swagbucks, pending in my account (17,600 = (8) $25 GC @ 2,200 points each, 1 x month) plus an additional 1,500+ SB available now. I also have Shopkicks ($5), Target FWP ($15) and Best Buy rewards ($40) all available to be converted, but I'm waiting for larger denominations. In addition, I have $42 in Disney Visa Rewards and my Disney Gift Card balance has $546.35 on it. That's the one that I keep adding to when I convert the other freebies to Disney. I have $25 of Amazon cards available now. In addition, I have points from Fetch rewards ($3) and MyPoints ($25) so I have $48 earned up to cover our groceries.

The only gift card funds that I will actually need before we leave will be for any one-time use points that I may need if I am able to change our DVC reservation. This will be done on or about March 20. Based on my tentative plan, I will need either $51 or $153, depending on our final dates and destination. Other than that, the gift card funds will all be used once we are on-site so I can earn them right up until the last minute, if needed.

Cash earnings: $868.77

As far as the cash I actually have right now, I only have about $800. The other money is tied up in eBates, Discover card rewards and Sunshine Rewards, all pending payout. I will let those numbers build up and cash them out when I get closer to the trip. For the most part, I am earning my cash through plasma and direct deposit ($19 every 2 weeks). My main goal is to have at least $1000 by the end of March. I don't know when SWA will release their October fares but I doubt it will be before the beginning of April. I am *hoping* that I can get our fares for under $175 each way which puts us at $350 R/T. I think I am going to be buying RR points from SWA to "pay" for our trip. I have about 6500 points right now and the girls each have 2000 points. I can pool them all together into my account which would cost me $40 to transfer the girls' points into my account. That would give me over 10K points, plus I will have my anniversary points (3K) coming in March. Although buying points to pay for airfare is never cheaper than paying outright, the fact that I already will have enough to cover some of it means that the overall OOP cost to me will actually be a little less. The bigger benefit is that if the price goes down, I can get those points back and use them next year. In 2019, my dad has offered to transfer his points to us to help cover our airfare so I am almost 100% certain that we will be using points in 2019. Now, I just need SWA to have another "sale" on points. They had a deal where I could get a 40% bonus if I bought 5000 or more points. Unfortunately, I am not going to buy the points until I know that their schedule is going to work for me. If they don't have any flights that are going to work, then we will go with a different airline.

I am feeling pretty confident at this point. Everything is on track and, even though I feel "rushed", I have to remember that I still have almost 10 months to save! I feel like the trip is right around the corner, but in reality, it is still quite a ways off. The kids are still not excited. For them, the vacation is too far away for it to be a reality. It is still just a concept to them. I imagine that they will start to get excited about it about 3 days before we leave.

GIFT CARD EARNINGS: $911.35 / $1275
CASH EARNINGS: $ 868.54 / $1800

TOTAL EARNED: $1779.89
TOTAL NEEDED: $1295.11

 

[pinkxray]

I am trying to get us to WDW in either Nov or Dec for 7 days.
We have 2 kids in daycare and our DD13 is getting her braces put on next month so this trip needs to be the most budget trip I've ever planned to Disney. I am trying to use mostly credit points/cash back and swag bucks for the majority of the trip.

Hotel- $800-1400? Currently have enough points to stay at a value resort for free. Will stay at a value if needed but would like to bump up to moderate if I can get enough points.

Tickets-$1600 Currently have $225 towards tickets that have been saved through bonus money- change jar, redeeming cans once a month,etc. Bought the gift cards at BJS for the discount. Plan on adding to this using misc bonus money and any cash back through using my Discover card making use of the 5% back categories.

Flights- have about 70,000 SW rapid rewards but not sure how much I'll need for our family. Estimating between 80-100,000 will be needed. Currently getting about 1000 a month doing E-rewards surveys. Might have to cover one persons ticket OOP.

Food- budgeting about $1000. We will only do a few table service meals since I'm not sure how the little kids will react to those. Not sure how I'm covering this yet. Thinking it might just be OOP. Will see how much I save over the next few months. Should have some extra cash back from credit cards to put towards it.

Rental car- points ($500)

Extras- hoping to do the xmas party for me and DD13 but it will depend on our final dates.

 

[Andrea1975]

Well my sister just put a crimp in my planning by announcing she's making a rare trip with her family to the East Coast next summer (overlapping with the time I was planning to take the kids to Disney). It's great that she's coming--my kids will be thrilled and we'll have fun but I need to figure out a whole new plan now. We may just end up delaying a year (boo!) which I guess gives me more time to save up money and maybe splurge on something (I will divert some of the vacation money to do something else this summer but it won't cost as much). I hadn't booked anything yet anyway, so at least there's that. On the positive side of waiting--my son will definitely be tall enough for the 40" rides and being a year older both kids should have more endurance.

My goal was $3800-4000 by August.

I realized I may be able to swing a shorter visit either right before or right after my sister's family visit. It will cut us down to 5 nights (from 7) and to 4 or 5 days in the parks (from 6), but of course that means I can do it for a little less money. I won't be able to book until my ex and I settle on dates for the kids (he has another month to decide and has first pick this year, but he knows about the family visit and he's usually pretty reasonable so I'm hoping it works out. If it does-I'm estimating I'll need about $3500.

Right now I have:
$907 in my vacation savings account
$293 in credit card rewards
$86 in interest in my online savings account that I haven't transferred yet
$35 worth of swagbucks (as of 1/1 when I can get another discounted card)
$10 in shopkick credit
$2 on mturk

That's $1333 or 38% of my goal. I pretty much took the month off on swagbucks, and I hear January is usually pretty tough for swagging so I'm not expecting great things. I should have another $700 automatically from interest and credit card rewards though before August which gets me to $2033 (58%) without any other effort or windfalls.

In a couple of weeks I should have all my tax documents and if all goes as expected I'll have more than enough to cover a Disney trip and then some. I just did a preliminary run through with turbo tax using my final pay stub and bank statements, and while I'm not convinced I entered everything correctly, it's telling me I have well over $4000 coming my way. That's twice what I was expecting though, so I'll believe it when I have my real info to enter.

 

[AlohaNow]

Hi everyone! We recently made the decision to go to WDW for Christmas 2018. Nuts….I know! DS15 was recently accepted as a Rotary exchange student and will be spending his sophomore year in Argentina! Therefore, I decided that I cannot be at home on Christmas morning with only half my kids, so the rest of us need to go somewhere! My first choice was a Disney cruise but I just cannot stomach the premium for being on the boat over Christmas. Close to $5,000 for the sailing we wanted, which I cannot do at the moment. Then I looked at WDW and the price for a package for 2 adults and a 12yo is as low as $1,742 if we stay at an All-Star for our dates. I know that does not include food, whereas a cruise does, but I have been churning gift cards for a while now and know that by the time December rolls around I would have enough to cover meals. We fly for free on SWA because we use the RR credit card for everything, so flights are covered. Then I started looking into renting DVC points for a studio so that we could maybe be at a monorail resort rather than a bus only. We will have to decide how important that is to us, because it is really just a glorified hotel room and I am looking at around $1,500-2,000 total for five nights. Well, playing around with four or five nights at this point. And that would have to be paid immediately upon the reservation, which we would need to do in January to secure Christmas week. For those of you in the know, if you rent DVC and do not already have your own Magic Bands, do we just buy them? We haven’t been to WDW since 2008 so a lot has changed! It’s fun to read about everyone else’s plans on this thread!

 

[kookiekat02]

Hi everyone! I am excited to join this thread. I currently have 2 vacations in the works:

#1---April 14-21, 2018
Washington, DC---10 of us all together, 3 hotel rooms. Every room is responsible for their own hotel, food, & metro fees.
--My hotel is paid for by my sister for watching my niece after school and assorted overnights ($805)
--Metro cards will be about $40 for each person for the week = $160/ $0 saved
--Gas & tolls $200/ $0 saved
--Planning on food budget of $600/ $0 saved
Total Needed: $960
Total Saved: $0

#2---August 2022
Disney World for graduation present for my friend's daughter. It's a few years away which is great because I have a lot of saving to do. There will be 12 people going (3 rooms of 4 people). My food budget is for QS and snacks while the grocery budget will supply the bulk of our meals there. Once the hotel rooms are paid for I plan to start saving gcs to offset the food budget.

---Value resort rooms: $1800 per room (hoping for 12 nights)
Hotels.com gcs from swagbucks $150 saved
---Tickets: $2000 per room (9-10 day) / $0 saved
---Food: $1000 per room / $0 saved
---Groceries: $500 per room/ $0 saved
---Flights: Southwest RR Goal 132000 (12 RT flights) / 42200 saved
My goal for this vacation is less than $1000 oop!

 

[CayBoo]

You all are an inspiration to me haha. I love being organized, but managing money and savings is definitely not my strongest gift.
The hubby and I were given 3 day tickets to Disneyland on Christmas, so we're just starting our plans for next year's trip.
We currently live in CO, so driving out to CA is much cheaper than flying. The whole roadtrip there and back will probably cost around $200 as opposed to the $500 I've spent on flights in the past.
With it only it only being the two of us, food expenses wont be a huge issue, we'll buy food at a neaby grocery store on our way there. And I'm anticipating our biggest splurge will be dinner at the Blue Bayou.

I love the idea of buying Disney gift cards with Target gift cards! I get gifted those a lot, and never thought to just use them towards Disney trips!

So far what I've currently got is:
Travel: $200
Food: $300
Merch: $100
Total to save: $600
We're still trying to figure out where we'll be staying, hopefully on site. But that will add another $1400 or so depending on what deals we find.
I'm hoping to save up an extra couple hundred just as a cushion or to be ised as emergency cash in case anything should happen.

 

[AlohaNow]

And I'm anticipating our biggest splurge will be dinner at the Blue Bayou.

Totally worth it! We loved BB!

Also, really look around at the hotels on Harbor and Katella. Such a quick walk to the main gate from so many of them and that adds up to a huge savings. If you have your heart set on one of the three 'on site' hotels, I get it. I really do. But it is worth a look-see at the hotels just across the street. I like your travel plan....sounds awesome! Once you start buying Disney GCs with Target GCs you can quickly become addicted to it and then it becomes a challenge to see how little you can pay for each one!

 

[Marionnette]

For those of you in the know, if you rent DVC and do not already have your own Magic Bands, do we just buy them?

You will get Magic Bands just like any other onsite guest.

 

[CayBoo]

Totally worth it! We loved BB!

Also, really look around at the hotels on Harbor and Katella. Such a quick walk to the main gate from so many of them and that adds up to a huge savings. If you have your heart set on one of the three 'on site' hotels, I get it. I really do. But it is worth a look-see at the hotels just across the street. I like your travel plan....sounds awesome! Once you start buying Disney GCs with Target GCs you can quickly become addicted to it and then it becomes a challenge to see how little you can pay for each one!

I can definitely see how saving up those GCs can be! I have a Disney Visa and I've used those rewards for gift cards too! And my family usually always stays at the Candy Cane inn right down the street. It's a charming hotel, but my husband tends to get overwhelmed when with large crowds, so being right on property makes walking to our room and back so much easier. But if our budget doesn't work out, the Candy Cane will be our backup.

 

[margievis]

Hubby and I have a Food&Wine trip planned for Labor Day weekend,and it is a splurge trip for sure... we booked a bounceback trip at Animal Kingdom Lodge, with free dining, so I upgraded it to Deluxe Dining...so we can do a few signature restaurants. Total package price: 2880.11. So far, I have paid 922.83 with Swagbucks, Ibotta, Shopkicks, etc. Remaining balance: 1957.28. I am hoping to get my SW rewards points up to take care of the flights, but we’ll see on that. I have a trip at the end of June with my twin daughters for their eighth grade trip(we are fundraising and making payments for this trip) to New York. Cost for the 3 of us: 2700. Amount paid as of now:1500. Amount remaining (not counting spending money): 1200. I am adding in an end of May/early June beach trip for our whole family, so that will take priority in my swagging/ and saving for now. I will need probably about $3000 our family of 6 for a week. I love the idea of putting it all in one place here to keep track.
So, in summary:

May Beach trip:
Needed: $3,000
Saved:$25
Still need: $2,975

June New York trip:
Needed: $2,700
Saved/paid: $1,500 (OOP and fundraising)
Still need: $1,200

August Disney Trip:
Needed: $2,880.11
Saved/paid: $922.83 (No OOP- all swagbucks, Ibotta, and other savings apps)
Still need: $1,957.28

I will update as I bring these totals down!

 

[Debbie Torres]

You all are my inspiration . I am working on doing better with budgeting and trying to pay off my Alaska cruise in cash by March 18th . I will be joining everyone on this journey . I need to sit down and get serious about numbers and then I’ll be back

 

[margievis]

Hubby and I have a Food&Wine trip planned for Labor Day weekend,and it is a splurge trip for sure... we booked a bounceback trip at Animal Kingdom Lodge, with free dining, so I upgraded it to Deluxe Dining...so we can do a few signature restaurants. Total package price: 2880.11. So far, I have paid 922.83 with Swagbucks, Ibotta, Shopkicks, etc. Remaining balance: 1957.28. I am hoping to get my SW rewards points up to take care of the flights, but we’ll see on that. I have a trip at the end of June with my twin daughters for their eighth grade trip(we are fundraising and making payments for this trip) to New York. Cost for the 3 of us: 2700. Amount paid as of now:1500. Amount remaining (not counting spending money): 1200. I am adding in an end of May/early June beach trip for our whole family, so that will take priority in my swagging/ and saving for now. I will need probably about $3000 our family of 6 for a week. I love the idea of putting it all in one place here to keep track.
So, in summary:

May Beach trip:
Needed: $3,000
Saved:$25
Still need: $2,975

June New York trip:
Needed: $2,700
Saved/paid: $1,500 (OOP and fundraising)
Still need: $1,200

August Disney Trip:
Needed: $2,880.11
Saved/paid: $922.83 (No OOP- all swagbucks, Ibotta, and other savings apps)
Still need: $1,957.28

I will update as I bring these totals down!

The just paid $75.00 on the Disney trip from Swagbucks, so,

August Disney Trip:
Needed: $2,880.11
Saved/paid: $997.83 (No OOP- all swagbucks, Ibotta, and other savings apps)
My goal was $1,000 by Christmas- I came really close. I started using Swagbucks earnings for Christmas though.

Still need: $1,882.28

 

[Marionnette]

I haven't been keeping up because I was so busy over the holidays. As previously mentioned, Brother#3 has booked 2 treehouse villas at SSR and invited all siblings to visit Disney during F&W this coming fall. So, thanks to his generosity we have very nice accommodations already covered. He also intends to rent a large SUV to chauffeur anyone who would prefer to not take Disney transportation (he accrues a lot of points because he travels weekly for work). That means that we won't need to rent a car and can take DME from MCO.

I took $1200 in Disney GCs and I purchased 2 Platinum Plus AP vouchers thru DVC for myself and my husband.

I have about 50K SWA RR points to cover our flights. My husband has about 45K as well. We should be in good shape for the trip unless SWA raises their prices dramatically. 9/11 fees ($23) and EBCI ($50) will cost me just under $75 from my cash reserves.

I had to raid my GC stash to pay my own DVC dues (more than I care to confess to-- I own over 600 points at 3 different resorts). I planned to do this, so it's not an issue but it still hurts to see my balance plummet every January!

So, going into 2018 I have made an accounting of what's left:

Disney GCs - $4,900+
Target GCs - $45 (plus $50 pending from Perk and $25 pending from SB)
Best Buy GCs - $450 (plus $45 bonus certificate coming on 1/21 and enough BB Rewards points for a $30 certificate)
Landry's GCs - $90
Starbucks GCs - $205
Wolfgang Puck GC - $50
Earl of Sandwich GC - $25
Chase UR Points - 708K+
Disney Visa Reward Dollars - 22
Shopkicks - need 781 more kicks to redeem for a $25 Disney GC
Mickey Money (cash in my CapitalOne360 account from EarnHoney, iBotta and SB) - $239

 

[kristenrice]

Whoa! This thread fell all the way down to page three! Time to bump it up

Unfortunately, I don't have a lot to update. As I suspected, my serum protein test came back out of range. I can go back this week for a retest and then the results take about a week to come back so that means I will have about 2 weeks without any plasma "income". I have a few soda cans to return which will add $5-$7 to the cash fund, but other than that, the cash flow is currently at a standstill.

The gift card fund is still moving forward...slowly, but surely. I was able to score some points with the Fetch app so that was a nice surprise. I now have a total of $25 in available Amazon gift cards and another $25 available between Fetch and MyPoints to redeem for Amazon so my grocery budget is now completely covered. Swagbucks is progressing slowly but surely. I have $200 in "pending" gift cards...2200 points each month through September 1 will get me a $25 gift card...and I currently have over 18K points. Between now and when I leave, I can redeem for 9 more $25 gift cards at the discounted rate of 2200 SB. I have about $300 in gift cards that I still need to earn towards my goal of $1275 which already takes into account the $200 that I have "pending". That means I need about $30/month between now and when we leave. With my BestBuy card offering 2% back on gas, groceries and dining, I am pretty close to getting $10/month right there. I also manage at least one $5 FWP gift card per month from Target so that takes care of half of what I need without any real effort. That means if I can average about 50SB/day, I should be able to make my goal.

 

[margievis]

The just paid $75.00 on the Disney trip from Swagbucks, so,

August Disney Trip:
Needed: $2,880.11
Saved/paid: $997.83 (No OOP- all swagbucks, Ibotta, and other savings apps)
My goal was $1,000 by Christmas- I came really close. I started using Swagbucks earnings for Christmas though.

Still need: $1,882.28

Bought a $25.00 Disney Gift card with money from Walmart savings catcher. Which takes my Disney numbers to:
August Disney Trip:
Needed: $2,880.11
Saved/paid: $1022.83 (No OOP- all swagbucks, Ibotta, and other savings apps)
Balance remaining: $1857.28

I have also cashed in to Ibotta, Swag bucks to PayPal, and saving star to put money in the savings for the beach trip. Totals:

May Beach Trip:
Need:$3000 ( I have been doing a little research, and I may actually need more than this…)
Saved so far: $241.00
Still need: $2759.00

 

[WDW_fan_in_TX]

I love this thread because it gives me some accountability to make sure I stay on track with our trip. Our dates, right now, are April 7-14, although we might stay a day later depending on the price of our return flight. As of now, we have a MYW package. But we're thinking about switching to room only and buying APs because we're thinking of going again at either Halloween or Christmas. So, here's the total as of now and having a MYW package.

Package price: $1,800;
Food: $800;
Souvenirs: $500;
Flights: $400;
Rental car: $254
Travel (drive to Dallas and stay at hotel night before trip), $200;
Total: $4,154

Amount saved/paid:
DW's bonus that she gets Feb. 15 will cover package price and either flights/rental car/travel or food
Change jar: $114.99
Disney GCs: $115
Paypal: $24

Obviously, there's still a long way to go (and a short time to get there). But we're on track to where we need to be. I've recently signed up for swag bucks and have gotten 900 SB in the last 2 days. Will continue to build those points and use them on Disney GC (or possibly Walmart GC and use those at Sams to get a bit of a discount). Also signed up for ebates as well as Shopkicks, Quickrewards and a couple of others. So trying to build our fund to buy GCs.