$50 – I took $450 from the fund and turned it into $500 in gift cards at Winn Dixie. They were running a promotion where you got $5 off a $50 gift card. So I did it 10 times and ended up with $50 extra for the fund. The manager didn’t even know there was a sale on gift cards that week. I guess I am the only person in Trussville, AL that looks for them.
$10 – I got a Publix gift card in the mail. I used it to pay for my groceries last week and took $10 in cash out of the grocery budget to deposit to my fund.
$3.92 in spare change
$63.92 added to the Disney fund. $599.20 saved since November 12th, 2011. My goal is $3,000. No trip date set yet.
I want you to learn how to grow your own fund too! If you are new to couponing, start with the Getting Started Couponing Series, followed by the How To Start Your Fund series. Remember you can use these savings principles to save for anything you want from Disney trips to paying off debt to buying a new television. As the great Walt Disney said “If you can dream it, you can do it!”
Is $3000 absolutely necessary? Do you stay at the Disneyland Resort? Also how many people are you paying for and what is included in your Disneyland budget?
No, $3000 may not be necessary.. Check out these posts here on setting your budget http://www.couponingtodisney.com/the-disney-world-training/
We had the same thing here in So. Cal. last week. Purchase $50 in gift cards, get $10 off your next shopping trip.
My son (9 years old) and I started collecting pennies back in August when we realized no one cared about them. Everyone would just throw them on the ground or just leave them. We started asking everyone we knew (mostly family) if we could have the pennies they didn’t want and ONLY if they didn’t want them. Over the last few days I collected all the pennies we have in the house and counted them. We have approx. 8700 pennies, which is $87 toward the fund! We are military so our bank has a machine (like coinstar) but I believe it is free to use. If not, we will have to see what it offers. =)
Wow, this is so inspiring! I also collect my lose change at the end of each week.
If the people at the store don’t even know about the sale, how do you find out about it?
A thing I have been doing is to take advantage of the local yard sale pages on facebook. By getting rid of unwanted things in my home ,this week I have added almost $200.00 to our April trip Disney Fund.
I have a question and I’m crossing my fingers someone will be able to answer. Is there a difference between the Disney gift card and the Disney Store gift card? I like to buy discounted gift cards online and I’ve found a few for Disney Store gift cards, but the description states that they can only be used in stores, not at Disney Parks or the Cruise Line. I just wanted to make sure before I go crazy buying them only to find out that I won’t be able to use them, haha. Thanks for any help!
They might be Disneystore.com gift cards. I looked at the Disney Store online under gift cards and they showed the different gift cards you can get. One is actually a certificate that is redeemable ONLY on Disneystore.com. Here is a link: http://www.disneystore.com/gift-cards/mn/1001265/
The Winn Dixie in my area was running the same promotion. I went a few times since I didn’t want to split a lot of transactions. Not 1 associate was aware of them being on sale. It was just odd to me since I work at Publix & I always glance over the ad before it even starts!
I too started saving in August of 2011 and have a little over 500.00 towards the trip. I cant wait to see how much I can add from a childrens consigment next week. Hopefully Ill be close to a 1,000.00. My goal is 2000.00 so we wont have to spend but about 1000.00 out of our own pocket. Congrats to all who are saving without breaking into there budget. Im not quite as thorough as Kristin, But Im thankful for finding her blog and leading me to my Disney Trip as well.
My husband and I decided to take the family to Disney this Fall the 1st week of Jan. Since then I have deposited $575 to our Disney fund from found money. I went through the house pulling stuff we haven’t used in forever and listed them on the various local Facebook yard sale boards. I still have a ton more that hasn’t sold yet and then the local kids consignment sale coming up. And your blog was the whole inspiration to finding found money, thanks! If not I would have just take the money from savings, but I so like looking for money instead when it’s right there under your nose.
If you use your Target Red Card (debit NOT credit card) to purchase Disney Gift Cards they take 5% off…..so if you purchased $1000 in Disney gift cards you would also get an extra $50 for your fund! Target is a little more readily available, so I though I’d share the info. I plan on using all the cash I would have paid for my vacation and converting it into gift cards first and then paying for our vacation with the gift cards. In the NW, usually Safeway will give you extra points (right now it’s 4x the points, which is awesome!) on your reward card when you purchase gift cards, and the points will take anywhere from $.10-$1.00 off per gallon of Safeway gas. And if you wanted to take it a step further, you could take the money you just saved on your gas and add it to your fund as well. Just another example of getting more for your money!
Good ideas :)
Add the Target Red Debit Card discount of 5% to their pharmacy rewards 5% and you can actually get 10% off. This is what we have been doing. ;-)
You are so lucky to have grocery stores around you that have gift card promotions like that. I see them occasionally at a drugstore.
@ Amber: You can pay for anything at Disney with Disney gift cards, including your hotel room. And no, there is no limit.
Thank you Audrey! I don’t have a Winn Dixie near me unfortunately but thinking about asking for GC for Christmas/Bday.
I’ve seen you talk about the Disney gift cards a few times. Can you pay for hotel etc. with gift cards? Is there a limit on the number you can use per vacation package?
Is it just Winn Dixie running that promotion? The only sad thing about this is there are no Winn Dixie around me. :(
Is there a possible way to take several giftcards and put them on to one? I have a gc from Disney store that has a limit of 1500, but there is only 10 on that one and then have another from a different source and so on, it says they can be used at Dis store so trying to find out if I can make it a little easier and have it all in one place.
Oh and by the way awesome job! Wish the grocer’s where I live did that!
I don’t think there is… but I’m really not sure..