DD – Ways to Save for Disney

This week’s Destination Disney topic is

Ways to Save for Disney

It ties in really well with last week’s topic which was
Tips & Tricks to do Disney on a Budget

The difference in the two topics would be that last week’s topic focused more on ways to save while actually AT Disney, while this week’s is sharing things you can do at home – when planning for a Disney vacation – to save up for it.  (Hope that makes sense!)

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Here are some of the things we do to save money to fund our Disney passion:

• We have a Disney Visa.  We love it because it gives us 1% of our purchases in Disney Reward Dollars.  Those are good for ANYTHING Disney – even the Disney Store. 
  We’re actually Charter Members (we have the pin to prove it!), so we’ve earned quite a few points over the years.  Brian does the Accounts Payable and his employer is kind enough to allow him to charge some of their bigger bills on our Visa, so we rack them up quite quickly too.
  In the past, we’ve used them to purchase our Park Tickets and pay for Character Meals.  This past trip, we had enough to spend 3 nights at the Port Orleans Riverside Resort, with enough left over for 2 Character Meals, plus all our food (at the resort and in the parks). 
• We also have a Discover Card. 
  I must confess, I was not thrilled with getting another credit card – after all, I was pretty loyal to my Disney Visa.  But, the nice thing about Discover is that each quarter they offer extra incentives.  For example, right now, we can earn 5% back (instead of 1%) on all grocery store purchases. 
  Brian keeps a close eye on what the current extra incentives are, and we use our Discover for all of those purchases.  Then, we save up that money earned to use for extras on our vacations – things such as hotel stays traveling to and from, and even the kennel fees for our dogs.
• We use our MyPoints to purchase gift cards to restaurants.
  Do you use MyPoints?  If not, you’re missing out!  You earn points simply by clicking on links in e-mails.  It takes seconds, and the points can add up pretty quickly.  In the past year, between Brian and I, we had earned enough points and collected gift cards for 4 restaurants.  That helps tremendously!
  If you’d like to sign up for MyPoints, please e-mail me so I can refer you (I’ll get some extra points, and so will you!)
• We save our quarters and other loose  change. 
  I once read about collecting pennies and quarters in m&m tubes – then you have them for making pressed pennies.  This is a great idea and we keep several tubes of quarters handy for paying things like road tolls, etc. 
• Our kids each save their own money throughout the year, so they’ll be able to buy the souvenirs they want.

Hope you’ll find some of these ideas helpful.

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How do YOU save for your Disney trips?  Have some secret that might help the rest of us?  Or do you simply put all that loose change somewhere ‘til it adds up?  Either way, we want to know about it!

So, post on your blog, then come back here and link up (Please use a DIRECT link to your post).  Thanks!

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