Marisa shared with the SavEars how she stores her Disney Fund! I absolutely love it, such a good idea!
I started following Couponing to Disney in 2010 when my son was born. I needed to learn how to budget and save on needs like Diapers, wipes and the like. I have couponed successfully for five years but I didn’t get serious about Disney until April 2015. Eleven months later, I’m almost to my savings goal! I have saved aggressively using Swagbucks, Inbox dollars, Shopkick, Mplaces, Ibotta, Savingstar, Checkout 51, Find & Save, Disney Movie Rewards, Recipt Pal, Receipt Hog and Louder. This does not include found money sources, change jars or other sources. I also have several others including my points and crowd tap but I have yet to cash out all of my apps. My goal has been to pay for our entire trip to Disney for a family of four for seven days. (Two adults, one five year old and one six month old) At this time I have our tickets, hotel and two major meals paid for entirely with gift cards. We were also lucky enough to book during a week when will receive one free quick service meal per person for each nights stay. This means I’m saving for twelve meals and snacks as well as gas for a twelve hour trip down and back. When I began to save I started stashing Gift Cards in an envelope tucked into my desk drawer at home. However, my five year old likes to play at my desk and somehow misplaced a twenty-five dollar Landrys card. (I’m hoping it will turn up.) So, I needed to get serious. I bought a two inch wide three ring binder, baseball card holders, page protectors, some Disney stickers and Disney tape. I sat down with my five year old and we decorated the binder together so he could feel like he is part of the planning. Then I printed out a cover page with pictures from our last trip with family. I used additional family pictures as dividers inside the binder. The binder has five major sections. Section I- Disney Cards Section II-Dining Cards Section III-Hard copies of Target E Cards Target GC from special in store sales Section IV- Misc Cards like Amazon Section I After I have amassed enough to begin cashing in for Disney Gift Cards I began ordering them online from Target. Once I receive the Disney Gift Cards I check the amount on each using the site or number located on the back of the card. I do this so that I don’t end up with an inactive card when I need it most. The cards are then stored in section I. When I’m ready to make a payment I combine them using the Disney Gift Card combination site and make my payment online. Section II In section II I have combination of plastic Gift cards and paper hard copies. At this time this includes Landrys and Rainforest Cafe. I plan to include Chick Fil A cards and Subway. These will be cashed out with various sources and be used for the trip down/back. Section III I collected all of my Target Gift Cards using reward sites/apps and in store specials. I always make a hard copy by either printing from the site, my email or a screen shot. It’s also important to write the Gift Card amount on each if it’s not clearly printed. I then place the hard copies in page protectors in my binder under section III. That way if something happens I always have the hard copy. All cards collected through in store specials go into this section as well. I write the amount on the back and tape them into baseball card holders. This way they do not fall out and small hands can’t get them out. Once I use each card I write paid on it so I know that it has been used. However, I keep them until I have completed all transactions and have my Disney cards verified. Section IV In the last section I place miscellaneous Gift Cards that I collect along the way. So far it’s mainly Amazon Gift cards I’ve collected through apps or that I have won randomly. These can be applied to supplies that I will use on my trip later. At this time I use my binder for mainly storing my Funds. However, as my trip nears I will print out my itinerary, reservation information and any other details I may need to keep up with for my trip. These will then have individual sections where they will be stored in page protectors.
