Ways you save

[TamiTaylor]

For Disney. Or other vacations. Anyone have any interesting ways or tried and true ways you save? I thought it would be fun to share.

[lala]

Do you mean save money towards the trip or how to save money when you're planning/booking or there? Or both?

[TamiTaylor]

I guess both.

[krystee]

We go during off season so we can take advantage of free dining, and we stay in a moderate hotel.

[lauren170]

Last year H, my mom and I all opened Disney credit cards to get a total of $600 new customer credit.

We also go in January when it's cheap.

[bunch]

I'm paying for this year's trip all on points. It takes work to cycle through the cc's, but I'm getting a Starwood Amex for the hotel stay, Southwest card for the flights and Chase ultimate rewards for tickets.

In the past I've also done the Barclaycard and Capital One Venture.

While at the park we stayed in a value and a moderate and took advantage of the Play, Stay and Dine combo.

[chicago]

We have a Disney Visa that we've been racking up points on. The rewards we'd accrued covered our food for the week.

[panicked]

I use Digit! I LOVE it. You link your bank accounts and it analyzes them for awhile. Once it gets a feel for how you spend, it starts saving money here and there. It transfers to a savings account and just accumulates. I like it because it saves more when we tend to have more money and doesn't take any at all when we're almost of the next paycheck. We've saved $600 in the past few months and honestly never missed any of the money out of our account. You can set how aggressively you want to save. I check the balance periodically and I'm always amazed at how much it's gone up.

[beantrees]

I get a small thrill out of finding "free" money.

I use Swagbucks and earn $25-$50 in Amazon giftcards each month then save that money.

I save my Ebates checks. And cashback on credit cards. I occasionally sell things on FB groups and save that as well.

I consider all of that "free" money.

I also pick up Disney giftcards when Kroger has 4x fuel points.

[zarapipe]

Jun 28, 2016 19:00:17 GMT -5 bunch said:

I'm paying for this year's trip all on points. It takes work to cycle through the cc's, but I'm getting a Starwood Amex for the hotel stay, Southwest card for the flights and Chase ultimate rewards for tickets.

In the past I've also done the Barclaycard and Capital One Venture.

While at the park we stayed in a value and a moderate and took advantage of the Play, Stay and Dine combo.

Can you explain the ticket thing? That's the one thing I can't figure out how to save on.

[bunch]

zarapipe it's not exciting. I'm just using cash back rewards to pay. Now if I could open a new Barclaycard I'd buy my tickets direct through WDW and then you can use travel credit (twice as valuable as cash back) to pay for them. From what I understand Chase is much pickier about redeeming points for travel.

[TamiTaylor]

Jun 28, 2016 19:00:17 GMT -5 bunch said:

I'm paying for this year's trip all on points. It takes work to cycle through the cc's, but I'm getting a Starwood Amex for the hotel stay, Southwest card for the flights and Chase ultimate rewards for tickets.

In the past I've also done the Barclaycard and Capital One Venture.

While at the park we stayed in a value and a moderate and took advantage of the Play, Stay and Dine combo.

How's the Southwest card? How long does it talk to accumulate enough to cover flights?

[bunch]

Jun 28, 2016 21:17:13 GMT -5 TamiTaylor said:

Jun 28, 2016 19:00:17 GMT -5 bunch said:

I'm paying for this year's trip all on points. It takes work to cycle through the cc's, but I'm getting a Starwood Amex for the hotel stay, Southwest card for the flights and Chase ultimate rewards for tickets.

In the past I've also done the Barclaycard and Capital One Venture.

While at the park we stayed in a value and a moderate and took advantage of the Play, Stay and Dine combo.

How's the Southwest card? How long does it talk to accumulate enough to cover flights?

Easiest of all.  thepointsguy.com/2015/09/how-to-earn-the-southwest-companion-pass-for-almost-two-years/  
My goal is one of these companion passes.  I learned about it very recently on MM.   I should have my hotel points by the end of the month and then this is next on my list.   

[lala]

We pick cheaper times of the year to travel. I always buy tickets at a broker to save a little. We've only done dvc rentals the last 3 trips and that saves us money because we'd prefer those accommodations but only pay moderate prices. The mini kitchenette in the studio & balcony are what really make our trip. We also do grocery delivery to have snacks, breakfasts, milk, beer & wine.

While at home the biggest thing we do that helps with Disney is follow the points guy & credit card churn. We have flown on credit card miles to Florida twice, California once (soon to be twice), as well as 2 European trips. Now that we are 5, that saves at minimum $1k.

We've also stayed at the swan on Starwood points and use those points as much as possible for other trips.

Our trip to California is 5 nights in DL, 6 in San Diego & 1 airport hotel night. So far the only think we've paid out of pocket for is our DL Tickets & 4 nights at the grand California. The rest of the hotel stays & airfare has been on points.

To do that, though, we have to plan in advance & figure out the credit cards, etc.

Other than that we don't really have any tricks. We are lucky that dh's company still gives bonuses that are decently reliable so that usually funds some of our vacations. Otherwise we try to just pay out of regular savings.

[lala]

Jun 28, 2016 21:22:50 GMT -5 bunch said:

Jun 28, 2016 21:17:13 GMT -5 TamiTaylor said:

How's the Southwest card? How long does it talk to accumulate enough to cover flights?

Easiest of all.  thepointsguy.com/2015/09/how-to-earn-the-southwest-companion-pass-for-almost-two-years/  
My goal is one of these companion passes.  I learned about it very recently on MM.   I should have my hotel points by the end of the month and then this is next on my list.   

This is how we flew 4 of us to both Florida & California in 2014. Cost like $50 on fees? Plus free checked bags & drink coupons! 😀

[spaghetticat]

I got a Chase Sapphire card to pay for our flights. Then I use Raise to buy Target cards and use those to buy Disney cards. I also put all swag bucks earnings to vacation.

[jeaniebueller]

The last two times we have gone, its been in February and we stayed at a value resort, which was totally fine for our needs! I am bummed that with DS getting older, pulling him out of school for an entire week really won't be an option anymore.

[miss1180]

we go the end of August and deal with the heat, because the prices are lower that time of year. ALSO this year, i just paid for the trip all with Disney gift cards that i bought for 5% off at Target with my Target RedCard.
AND to save even more money, i bought discounted Target GC from Cardpool.com (at 5% off) THEN used those discounted target GCs to buy discounted Disney GC. :-) it sounds confusing... but once you do the first couple its easy.... and it ends up saving about 10%, which adds up!!
I also did my research and found a travel agency that buy rooms at a bulk/conference rate, then resells the rooms for a great price. we're paid $2500 for 6 nights at the Polynesian, plus 5 day park hoppers for 2 adults and a child... not a bad deal for the Poly :-)

[ssmjlm]

I know someone was saving up all the free target gc's and then cashing them in for Disney gc's and something with the 5% discount helped as well.

[ilikedonuts]

We own DVC? Lol I like to ignore what we paid initially and just focus on our annual dues ($1100 a year basically for our 1 bedroom suite for 7-9 nights).

I save up all our discover dollars along with ebates and that usually covers all our food and extras. We also buy APs (discounted DVC APs) and get two trips out of them. DH has enough hotel rewards from traveling that our hotels on the drive there and back are covered if we drive.

When we've flown, I have the trip right before DH's conference in Orlando so his flight and airport parking are paid for.

[spaghetticat]

Jun 29, 2016 8:57:52 GMT -5 miss1180 said:

we go the end of August and deal with the heat, because the prices are lower that time of year. ALSO this year, i just paid for the trip all with Disney gift cards that i bought for 5% off at Target with my Target RedCard.
AND to save even more money, i bought discounted Target GC from Cardpool.com (at 5% off) THEN used those discounted target GCs to buy discounted Disney GC. :-) it sounds confusing... but once you do the first couple its easy.... and it ends up saving about 10%, which adds up!!
I also did my research and found a travel agency that buy rooms at a bulk/conference rate, then resells the rooms for a great price. we're paid $2500 for 6 nights at the Polynesian, plus 5 day park hoppers for 2 adults and a child... not a bad deal for the Poly :-)

Can I get more info about this agency?

[wesleycrusher]

I do a lot of what others do- we use the southwest card for the flights and credit cards points for some extras.

One thing I haven't seen mentioned is a change jar- we have a few throughout our house and save up all our change and some bills, too (for example I have one on top of my dryer and any cash that I collect from pockets doing laundry goes in there). I convert it to a gift card for tip money for restaurants.

[arch01]

ssmjlm that was me! Almost all of our shopping is done at Target, I'm up to $525 in free GCs in the past 13 months plus whatever is in my wallet.

I've been gift card churning-it takes time and patience, but so far I'm up about $250 with ebucks, cash back and coupon codes from eBay. Unfortunately it's getting more and more difficult, so I'm not sure how much longer it will last. Ultimately when it gets close to cashing out for our final payment I'll put the Target GCs toward Disney GCs online with the 5% off for the RedCard as a default payment.

[skwcm80]

Our trip was so last minute that all I did was buy Disney GCs from Target. A June 2017 trip is in the works so my plan is to learn to use swag bucks, and set money aside monthly.

[Mrs. ChanandlerBong]

Jun 28, 2016 23:31:43 GMT -5 spaghetticat said:

I got a Chase Sapphire card to pay for our flights. Then I use Raise to buy Target cards and use those to buy Disney cards. I also put all swag bucks earnings to vacation.

Is this as straightforward as it sounds? Reading the disboards thread on raise was giving me anxiety. But if it really is just this "easy" I'm going to start doing it. We haven't bought our tickets yet for our next trip, I'd like to defer that cost as much as possible.

[lala]

Raise is super easy & legit. I used it all the time for gap/old navy.