Frugal Disney

Ahhh Disney. Every little child's dream. We have been waiting to go to Disney so that Melanie would be tall enough to ride most attractions. This is THE year. Of course, this is a big trip to us and we know that a Disney vacation CAN BE expensive. I feel that we can do better than most people. I have read a few blogs on the subject of saving money at Disney and I have a little knowledge myself on how to have a great vacation without breaking the bank. Here's how we are getting to go.

Phillip makes a little money each month by updating a website. We do not count this money as expected income. The company was nice enough to pay him for the whole year and I quickly found a condo in Orlando. The condo has 3 bedrooms, 2 baths, living room, dining room, fully equipped kitchen, and there's a pool on-site also. 7 glorious nights for a total of $462..00! Phillip's pay was enough to cover this and more!

We are going to get our tickets through a home school group, so we will be paying a group rate. The kids will also get to be involved with educational classes because of this. We will end up paying a total of $990.00 for (5) 5day park hopper passes. How cool is that? The total for tickets and the condo is $1452.00. Just how are we paying for these tickets? Well, Phillip gets paid 26 times in a year now instead of 24 at his new job. We were used to living by him getting 24 checks, so the other 2 checks are free money to us (except living expenses). We are going to use some of that money to pay for the tickets.

So what expenses are left? We know we will need money for gas, food, and a few souvenirs. We are saving here and there for it. We already have about $100.00 saved up from rebates, and just dollars here and there that we have put back. This does not include the $35.00 that I have made using swagbucks. I will also have $100.00 in gift cards to the Fred's store because of prescriptions and I will get necessities there for our trip. The main thing I'm counting on is recycling cans. Call me crazy, but if that's how we can have spending money and not be on a tight budget when we get to Florida, so be it! We also will be gone a whole week, so the money that we normally have budgeted for a week of living expenses will be used for vacation also. So, how much cash do I think we will need? I'm really not sure, so I guess that will be another post for another day.