Our next big adventure of camping is going to be a trip to Disney World. I will be the first to admit that this is one of the reason that I agreed to buying the camper. I thought today I would share some of the ways that we are saving money on and during this upcoming trip.
The camper is the biggest savings for several reasons. First the cost of a campsite is approximately half that of a resort room that would hold our family. The campsite also allows us all the perks of being on property except for one thing which is clean towels. We are fully expecting and planning to need to wash at least towels twice during our upcoming trip but even with this cost factored in the savings are huge! When we take into consideration the additional gas needed I will still venture to say that we are still saving at least 1/4 the cost of a resort room. The second reason is that by bringing the camper we are not limited to what items we can bring. I am planning to bring a fully stocked refrigerator, we will be able to carry water and drinks in the parks which is also a huge saving. We will not be taking in many snacks because we prefer to enjoy all the good food that Disney has to offer. But at $4 a bottle, even bringing one water a day per person is a saving of $20 a day or $100 for the week! We will also be bringing 4 or 5 days of breakfast with us. We typically spend about $65 for a resort or even a quick breakfast at the resort. With the camper, we will be shopping and bring our favorite breakfast including lots of fruit and yogurt. So it will still be a huge treat but just a much cheaper treat. We will also plan to eat our favorite breakfast meals as well so no hurt feelings here.
The next way we are saving is gift cards. We were actually given gift cards at Christmas and I have rescued several old unused ones as well.
A great way to save is by purchasing gift cards at Target, you automatically get 5 % off so you get an instant savings. I currently have $150 in gift cards for myself! Depending on what happens in the next couple of months, I would ideally like to have $2000 on these type of gift cards to cover all of our “restaurant meals”
Along the same lines as gift cards is my Disney Credit card. I earn “Disney Dollars” with each purchase. I have been using this card for our trips and paying it off immediately. I also pay for this trip on the card and then pay it off. Currently I have $379 on this card. I anticipate around $500 to be on this card before we actually head to Disney!
I talked about purchasing food for this trip earlier. My initial plan was to use the grocery money for the month of April to cover the cost.
However, we will be receiving our Costco Cash from our Costco credit card in March. This should cover most if not all of the food expenses.
IF I do need to use some of the grocery budget it will allow me to stick to $200 or less in April instead of $600!
The final way to save money on our trip to Disney is to make the kids each responsible for their wants and “needs” At around 100 days I started reminding the kids that they will want to have extra money for Disney. I typically only buying Christmas presents for each kid at Disney. I do purchase all the food and drinks they want but just by not buying say a shirt for each kid saves at least $500 on the overall trip cost.
Simple ideas that stretch the budget!
