Our Disney Trip 2010

When I started “Couponing to Disney”, my original goal was $2000 for 7 nights. But that $2000 was quickly reached, so I added on more and more days and we have finally ended up at Disney for 12 nights! (My husband is on vacation from May 18th to June 8th!!)

It seems like just yesterday I was excited to have saved my first $100 for Disney. And now, 11 months later, I am making the very last deposit:

$54.04 – My math was off on the fund!

$250 – Each week we budget $150 for groceries, entertainment, out to eat, etc etc. Since we will be at Disney for 12 days, we are applying the money to the Disney trip (since we would have spent it anyways if we had been home!).

That brings the grand total to……………………………….. $3223.32!! I am OVER BUDGET!!

Here’s the final breakdown:

$677.38 from Rebates
$253.10 in spare change
$11.97 in interest
$157 by consigning the kids clothes
$516.04 in found money (this is money we weren’t planning on receiving such as gifts from relatives, side jobs, money found in the dryer, etc)
$118 in Disney Reward Dollars
$88 from Lightspeed
$680 from My Survey
$192 from Mindfield
$177.60 from Opinion Outpost
$15 from YouData
$30 via Paypal from Swagbucks
$25.50 from Survey Head
$23.73 check from Viewpoint Forum
$8 from Buzzback
$8 from American Consumer Panel

You can also see all the deposits since the beginning here.

I can’t wait to reset the fund to zero and start saving with you guys all over again!

*please note that about 60% of the survey money from My Survey, Opinion Outpost and Mindfield was from referrals. I will not be including money earned off referrals in my 2011 fund because I don’t think that is very fair. :)

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Can you believe it’s just 5 sleeps until we are at Disney??

I spent the entire day scheduling posts to automatically post during the day while I am at Disney.  I have 13 days worth of posts to schedule…. Scheduling is by far a bloggers best friend. It’s so nice to be able to write a post and have it post while I am way from the computer.

I have got to start packing tomorrow. Ugh I have soooo much to do. My son is at my mother in laws now, so at least I can work hard every day without him underfoot. (God bless his heart).

Tomorrow comes the big, final deposit to the Disney fund! Be sure to look for that.

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One week from tonight we will be exploring Downtown Disney! Anything there we don’t need to miss? We didn’t spend much time there last year…. it was pouring rain the day we went.

I looked over the plans a little bit again today, but I am pretty much done. My mother-in-law is in town for my daughter’s birthday party (tomorrow) and we are hanging out. I have a LOT of stuff to do the first of next week so she is going to take my 3 year old back with her. I am going to miss him so much! But he brings so much joy to her life. But we leave her Thursday afternoon and go to her house anyways, so it works out.

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We only have 8 days! In fact, one week from tonight we will already be at my Mother-in-law’s house. We are driving there first and then we leave for Disney from her house next Friday morning! Oh my goodness!!! It’s getting so close!

Today was my daughter’s birthday! Last year we spent it celebrating with Prince Charming and Cinderella. It was so magical! This year, she had field day at school and then we took her to Target and let her pick out a Barbie guitar. I also got me and my husband one of their reusable Disney water bottles. The kids got new Disney straw sippy cups. We also went to Sams and got my husband a couple new pairs of shorts. They have some big, button pockets so hopefully I can convince him to store items in his pockets.

Tonight I spent time learning how to better use the iPhone. I’m going to be using it in the parks to stay connected with you guys and update on our progress, follow my touring plan, and entertain ourselves standing in line. I also treated myself to the 3 Greatest Disney Hits albums. They are awesome so far!

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9 days until Disney and I feel like the plans are prepared and we are ready to go! I just spent the past 4 hours putting the finishing touches on the plans. I am insane… yes. But I like having a general idea of where we are going to go and when. Fluctuating from the plans is not an issue. I will go with the flow, but I like having this to direct us.

Tomorrow we start packing and it’s my daughter’s 6th birthday.

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10 days until Disney! We finally can start watching the weather forecast. It’s going to be hot, hot, hot! We have already bought hand held fans and water misting fans at Walmart. We also will be breaking everyday from 12:30 – 5 pm. (Family will nap during this time and I will spend about 2 hours working.) Anyone else have tips for me on how to tolerate the heat?

I didn’t have time today to do much related to planning our trip. So tomorrow I have a lot of work to do plus I have to work on details for the trip. It’s all good. :)

Oh and I got to see the first draft of the site redesign tonight and OH MY GOODNESS. You guys are going to flip out! It’s amazing! I can not wait to share it with all of you.

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Happy Mother’s Day to all my awesome readers!

I can’t believe there is only 12 days until Disney! I am so excited. I spent today scheduling posts for during our trip. I love that feature about WordPress software. I could schedule a post for 3 years from now if I wanted to. :)

That’s pretty much all I did today to get ready for the trip.

How was your Mother’s Day?

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I am shocked that it is now just 13 days until Disney! I am still trying to not think about it or I will get so excited that I can’t sleep.

We spent the morning at the zoo “training for Disney”. It was a lot of fun and the kids had a blast playing in their pop jet fountains. While I was at the zoo, I was thinking about how they nickel and dime you, but Disney doesn’t. You pay admission to Disney and almost every single extra in the parks is free. There are a few things that cost money, but you don’t see them! (I’m not talking about the vendors.) You can spend an extra $20 in the zoo letting the kids do the things they see. The Train is $10 for the 4 of us, the Carousel is $5 for the 2 kids, the bubbles are $5 for 2 kids, feeding the Giraffes are $1 each, riding the camel is $5 a kid, mining for gold is $3 a kid, feeding the fish is 25c per handful… It’s crazy! (yes we have a membership.)

I also worked a little more on our Disney plans today. I’m almost finished!

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Yesterday I told you that I was going to take pictures of some of the best souvenirs from our trip last year.

This is the birthday card from Mickey that was waiting in our room for our daughter.

We were chosen as the Pop Century Family of the Day on our first day there! If you tip Mousekeeping, they often leave you trinkets. We also got a towel animal, extra soap and shampoos and everyday when we came back to the room our stuffed animals were doing something cute!

We ate at 1900 Park Fare for dinner on her birthday and she got a personalized place mat signed by all the characters.

We also did the Unbirthday Tea Party with Alice and the Mad Hatter at the Grand Floridian. She had a blast and they gave her this special autographed photo and holder.

What is your favorite free souvenir you brought home from Disney?

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