This question comes from one of my amazing readers…
My husband is in the military and has block leave this Christmas. We want to take our 3 young kids to Disney World as their Christmas present (2 of our kids are under 3 so we do not have to pay for them). We need about $1,000 for our fund to pay for the trip by early November. Do any of your readers have creative ideas on how we can earn/find this money? We have already saved $923 by using all the fabulous tips on Couponing to Disney.
Try looking into whether prepaid cell phone cards would work better than a cell phone plan for your family. That’s what we did last year, and we’ve saved a lot.
We used to pay about $50/month, I think, for the two of us. (That’s without texting or any sort of data plan, and including my company discount. It would have been more otherwise.) That’s about $600/yr.
Now, we use about 2 – 2.5 $100 phone cards per year for each of us, and we always buy them when there are deals. (For example, there was a “buy a $50 phone card, get a $10 restaurant gift card” deal at my local grocery store last year.) So we end up spending about $450 or so over the course of the year.
I would recommend contacting Shades of Green which is the military resort at Disney. If there are any additional discounts available to active military throughout the parks they would know.
I don’t know where you are planning on staying, but if you are going to stay off-site you can save money by looking up Armed Forces Vacation Club, they rent out condo’s and houses for sometimes $329 a week or less. I know that when I was looking into this, it was cheeper than Shades of Green, plus you can get into Sea World Free! Also like said before buy your tickets at your base or shades of green – where they have the park hopper tickets for a little over $100. That saves alot of money! You can also look into renting a stroller and things from Orlando, my girlfriend is renting one for like $100 a week, and we are renting one in San Diego for $60 a week, plus they offer a military discount!
Hope this helps! But if your husband has been deployed recently look into shades of green — they did offer a free or bigger discount
Also take breakfast items like small boxes of cereal, pop tarts, bagels, etc..and eat breakfast in your room. Even though we can afford to eat breakfast at a restaurant, it takes up valuable morning time. We like to get to the park at rope drop to make sure we get to ride our favorites.
Most rooms are not equipped electronically or ventilation for cooking in the rooms, so unless you have a villa for the sake of your neighbors and your safety-no cooking appliances except a coffee maker are advised.
I disagree about automatically assuming that the dining plan will save you money. The quick service meal plan is over $35+tax and includes 2 snacks (that run about $3-4 each), two counterservice meals witch run about $15 each (includes drink and dessert) and one refillable mug-$14. So you might get the equivalent of a free snack per day and the mug. If you will already be eating this much, and like to prepay..ok. But we find that drinking water with a meal and sharing (the counter service meals are quite generous) and going without dessert at every meal is a lot cheaper. The regular dining plan is a better value, but again, only if you will normally eat one sit down per day and one counterservice-per person. The best deal is if you go during FREE DINING and stay at a value (free quick service or upgrade to regular) or a moderate resort (free regular dining plan) Since there are only two paying diners, this may not even be the best value. This really works out well when you have 4 in a room, since all dine for free. Your little ones eat from buffets free until they are 3, so that would be something to consider. You can get a lot of budgeting/deals information from a discussion board called “Disboards”.
When we are in a money crunch, we temporarily change the tax withholdings on our paychecks. We are a family of 3 and have it the withholdings set at 0 thru the year and change it to 10 during the money crisis time.
Good tip. We try to always maximize our withholding allowance. Why give the government an interest-free loan?
craigslist!!! anything can be basically sold on craigslist!! Check out to see how much a table will be at a flea market i did that once paid $25 for the table and left with close to $300!!! Donate plasma (close to $300 a month). military are always having specials at disney world!!
As young as your kids are, I would consider going without souvenirs altogether. My nephews were about to turn 3 on our last trip and they didn’t really ask for anything.
Also, do you own a home? Mortgage rates are insanely low right now. If it’s worth it to you to refinance, most of the time that also involves skipping a monthly payment.
focus groups and market research are a good way to get extra money, around $75-100 per visit, but you are limited to how many times you can do this. google market research and focus groups with your city name.
yard sale paid for my daughter to go to camp. Get rid of your junk, you will be glad when you have your next pcs
rebates!!
ask your parents to give you disney cards or cash towards your trip or to pay for some of the tickets as their Christmas gift to you. never hurts to ask!
my kids walk dogs in the neighborhood to earn their spending money. One family pays my daughter $160 per month. ask around, their might be folks who would love some help with their pets, and you could take the babies for a walk at the same time. Also, since you have young kids, let other parents know that you can babysit.
if you are eating out, stop!!! you can eat out at Disney.
One of the best tips I ever got for doing Disney with kids is this – plan to pack a lunch each day in the park. Then each child can eat when they want to eat (say when you are waiting line to cut the boredom) and the kids will be much less whiney. The friend who told me this has lots of money, it was not an economy move for her but more like a way to keep the kids happy, but it really saves you money in the parks! Also, I know everyone is wild about Disney, but if you are taking a longer trip, Daytona Beach is close by. Last trip we went their on our arrival day because my DH was worn out from driving and did not feel like he had the energy to do the parks. We had a picnic and this was essentially a “free” day, the next day he was rested enough to enjoy the parks.
Have you considered doing online surveys? I have been banking at least $20 a month on cashing out of my survey sites and to be honest- the last two months I’ve pulled down about $60 each month.
http://www.uniquerewards.com/cgi-bin/main.cgi?cmd=newref&refid=147845
There is a link to one- I hit “Click cash” and just click each ad every day. It builds up quickly.
I’d appreciate any use of my referral link :). If you want to contact me at [email protected] I’d be very happy to send referrals to my favorite sites!
Also, if you need to buy something at Walmart that you don’t need right away, go through ebates! I bought our new phone that way- we didn’t HAVE to have it immediately, so I got 2% cash back via walmart.com through eBates.
If you can write, you can make a bit of money with textbroker or demand studios.
Also, I think that Swagbucks has a $5 prize that will go into your pay pal account.
I know you are looking for ways to make extra money now and there have been tons of great suggestions! I wanted to share a way that you may be able to piece your trip together and save tons of money using your Military Discount.
Disney offers military discounts on hotel rooms and I believe on the dining plan as well. You should also be able to buy tickets through the base. We went 2 years ago with my sister’s family…her husband is in the reserves. They purchased 5 day tickets with park hopper for $125 each, we got a 30-40% discount on our rooms, and I used my credit card rewards to purchase 4 of our 6 airfares. We had to do a lot of the leg work and purchase each piece separately rather than as a package from a travel agent, but it was totally worth it…we were able to take 4 adults & 2 children to Disney for 5 days, with 2 rooms, airfare, and dining plan for $3,000!
I hope you have a wonderful trip to Disney & thank you for your service!
We are planning our Disney trip and to get extra money I am donating Plasma, not only is it helping people it’s helping me to earn money. Where I am I will make about $150 a month, some places make more, and some centers even have daycare! (I wish mine did!) another military wife
Hi Joleen,
I want to thank you Joleen for donating plasma! I was very sick after my first son and had many, many plasmapheresis treatments. It literally saved my life. You have no idea how much your donation means to patients! THANK YOU!
Really consider getting rid of things like cable tv, downgrading you cell phone plan. Shop around on your car insurance, you might be able to save a bundle there. Buy your kids clothes at second hand stores, or don’t buy them at all. If you have a washer and dryer how many outfits do your kids really need. This summer I decided not to buy my kids any clothes unless they really needed. The only things I bought for them was sandals, swim suits, and flip flops this summer. Surprisingly they had more than enough clothes. I am also doing that for school. It is still hot here for 2 months so I only bought them each a couple of new t-shirts and shoes for each child until the weather cools off. Good luck! We will be there in December as well. We have been saving forever for this trip!
If you’re already a couponer and stockpiler, try eating out of your pantry and freezer and shopping only the best deals to fill in the rest. Don’t go out to eat. The food budget is the most variable expense for every family so you can cut a lot here.
Maybe turn a hobby into a money maker. Do you have a craft or a skill that you could market to friends/family/friends of friends/family? My neighbors daughter makes duct tape wallets and sells them for 7 bucks each. I took a class at a local craft store and now I make fancy fondant cakes and sell them. SOmetimes I may not make so much but it helps pay for the supplies for what could be a costly hobby. In this day of fancy cake shows its not hard to get started. Everyone wants at least one fancy cake. We know you coupon ,so could you get extras? SOme people sell sets of coupons on ebay. (whole inserts or single coupons) Good Luck !!! Have fun at disney
one way we have some extra “unknown” money every week is that we use CASH to pay for things. so when our bill is 25.68 and we hand over 30.00 we take the 32c from breaking the dollar and put it in a container. at the end of the week, we cash it in. we’ve had as much as 20.00 every week in spare change. you can cash it in every week or just put it in a big bucket in your closet and cash it in a few days before you leave for your spending money. i’m doing that to help pay off our debt. after this next loan is paid off, that spare change will become my “painting” fund for painting our new house :D trust me, it adds up WAY FASTER than you think it does :D
There is a military special going on where you can get 4 day tickets for $138 with the park hopper or water parks and more option, or you can get both for $165 you can go to the Shades of Green website to find out more about it. There is some blackout days for the Magic Kingdom with these tickets.
Some ideas to get extra money would be collect alluminum cans (have friends collect them also) and turn them in to the scrap yard. Sell some things you no longer need at a yard sale or consignment shop. If you make crafts, maybe your base has a craft show that you can get a booth at. If you do any sewing you can maybe get work sewing on patches on uniforms. (That is if you have the patience for that- I couldn’t stand sewing my husbands patches on his uniforms, but I did it to save money).
I am a college student and always on a budget. I use Inbox Dollars to help earn extra cash. It’s easy to join. You earn $5 just for signing up. All you have to do is “read” AKA click on the e-mail and you get credit for each email. (download the toolbar for easy access and also earn a bonus $1). There are also other activites you can do like print coupons, watch ads, take surveys, etc. I reccomend this website to all. Hope this helps :)
http://www.inboxdollars.com/?r=ref9078548
I put all my change in a jar we have labeled “Disney fund.” We just had a yard sale and all the change went into the jar. Do rebates at Rite-Aid and Walgreens and put that money in your fund.
If you have a relative or friend who works at Disney you can get tickets really cheap!
Watch the ground for others “lost” money
For souvenirs, go to dollar stores ahead of time for cheap disney items. We bought tshirts before hand at walmart and gave then to the kids when we got to disney. i also bought lots of disney pins off ebay. We divided these up (cost about a buck a piece in the lots) then let them trade all they wanted–they loved trading pins!!
Have a yard sale! I just had mine today, and was able to add $141 dollars to our disney fund!!!! :)
Yay!
If I wanted to come up with cash, I would sell what I did not need on ebay. Books, collectables, kids clothes, kids toys, purses, shoes, you name it… you can sell it on ebay.
Also, I would really buckle down on my spending. Look at how you spend your money. Cable, expensive cell plan, Starbucks, etc. Cut out all of the unnecessary things, and you will have a lot more cash.
Eat some seriously frugal meals (beans and rice and veggies,seriously). Good luck, and keep us posted!
I agree with selling stuff but do craigslist rather than ebay. Ebay’s fees are insane anymore, and there’s no shipping if you sell on craigslist. Meet somewhere public like a mall.
My children, now 6 & 9, earn Disney Spending Money with their chores. Great incintive.
Sell any broken gold jewelery. You will be surprised how much you can get for things just sitting around! Good Luck and have fun!!
I have done this too, but I don’t wear a lot of jewelry so it was only about $50 but heck it was still $50 that was just sitting broken in my jewelry box.
Consign your kid’s outgrown clothes or have a yard sale. Kid’s clothes are hardly used before they’re outgrown! Also buy Christmas gifts NOW and use the money that you save by stockpiling Christmas gifts for friends/family. I start Christmas shopping for the next year on Dec. 26 and save a lot by buying “after Christmas” sales and saving things for the next year. Anything I save over my budget for Christmas gifts goes into our “fund.”
I have done this. Kids stuff sells great so do any DVDs.
Yeah one good tip I hear a lot is buying your disney “souveneirs” off disney property, like at walmart. I hear it’s much cheaper.
i suggest buying your souvenirs ahead of time and having them ready when you go to the hotel like kristin does. you can find them on ebay or also at the disney store website. then you dont have to worry about spending all that money when you get there on them..also you could budget a small amount per child or person so if there is something that they want they can purchase that one item when you are there.
DITTO on buying souvenirs a head of time! The Disney Store Outlet near my house is one of a few Disney outlets that actually sells Disneyland park merchandise at reduced prices (Potomac Mills Mall – Potomac Mills/Woodbridge, VA – right off I95) . So my family is stocking up on Disneyland (yeah I know we are going to DisneyWorld but at up 90% off….I am willing to overlook the obvious ;-). We got lucky with Disney Mickey monogramed polo shirts for $9.99 ($29.99 at the park). We scored big with matching Disney MM t-shirts for $4.99 a piece ($19.99 at the park). Those light up windy things …that the kids go crazy for when the lights are dimmed and either a parade or fireworks are about to begin….they have them at the store for $3.99-$4.99 compared to $10+ at the park. We got actual MM ears (ranging from Lightening McQueen, Disney Pricess, Hallween ears, etc) at $1.99 ($14.99 at the park).
~Denise
My tip for saving money is to stockpile your Christmas presents. Since you are going during Christmas, either buy your gifts before time or consider the trip their gift. While you are there, be sure to make a budget. Plan what you are spending on either gas/plane, souvenirs, dining, hotel, and tickets. I would buy the dining plan because it would save a lot and you would already know your cost. I would pick a disney hotel if you can afford it because you would get free transportation and a lot of discounts. I would also set a budget, like 2 souvenirs for each member of the family or $30 for each person. I hope this helps you!
Try buying your park tickets a Shades of Green. They have really cut rates on ticket pricing and lodging for military families. You can go to the Shades of Green website and click on “special offers”.
You might be able to ‘find’ it literally! Check the state treasurer’s office websites in every state you have lived in, including your current one. Don’t forget to check under your maiden name as well, if you changed it.
Great tip! I haven’t done this in a couple of years.