Some people save for years to be able to take one trip of a lifetime to the happiest place on earth. Disney is expensive, there is no way around that. However, there are ways to make saving a little easier and less stressful.
VACATION ACCOUNT
Setting up a separate vacation savings account and putting a daily or weekly dollar amount into the account helps, because it is not a huge lump sum that you are putting aside all at once. It adds up over time and you will have a decent amount saved by the time you go on your trip.
Another form of this idea is to put money into the vacation account each day and the amount is equal to the number of days you have been saving. So, for the first day you put in $1, the second day $2, the third day $3, and so on. It makes saving easier and it doesn’t seem like such a hit to your bank account since you are not taking it all out at once.
Disney has the Disney Vacation Account that you can sign up for to help you save for your vacation. To get started, click here.
COIN JAR
Believe it or not this is a pretty good way to add money to your vacation account. If you are someone who always has loose change, instead of keeping it in your wallet or in a dish at home you should make a jar designated for coins for your trip. We do this and by the time it is full we usually have a couple hundred dollars in there.
One thing I want to note with the coin jar idea is that if your bank has a coin counting machine use that instead of something like a Coinstar machine. The Coinstar machines will take a percentage out, but the bank machines will not. Plus, if you use the bank machine, you are already at your bank and you can deposit the money into the vacation account right away.
DISNEY CASH FOR KIDS
This is helpful when you have kids who are old enough to do chores and who like buying their own souvenirs. You can make up a chore chart and put a Disney dollar amount next to each chore on the list. Once the child has done the chore, to your satisfaction, you can give them their Disney cash. Some people design their own Disney cash and give it to the kids when they have completed certain chores. When the trip gets close, find out which of your local stores sells Disney gift cards and get Disney gift cards in the amount that the child has earned from the chores. This way they will have a budget for the trip. The kids will have so much fun having their own Disney money to spend!
GIFT CARDS
This is one of my favorite ways to save. I love going to Disney World with a bunch of Disney gift cards! You can buy Disney gift cards online or at select retailers. I know Target and Walgreens have the cards around where we live, but I don’t know if they have them at all of their stores.
When birthdays, anniversaries, and gift giving holidays roll around, during a time when we are saving for a trip, my family will usually give me Disney gift cards. I just save all the cards we get and use them for food and souvenirs while we are in Disney. It’s great! Plus, it’s an easy gift that they know I will use and enjoy.
These are just a few ideas of what you can do to help save for Disney. Trips to Disney are not cheap, so saving money along the way to use for food and souvenirs helps. When you go to Disney with spending money already saved, you don’t have to worry about how to pay for all the things you will need extra money for while you are there. Thinking about the whole picture and how much the trip will cost can be scary. Saving spending money for Disney along the way will make the trip more enjoyable for everyone. Happy saving!
Thanks for reading!
*Liz*