Thrifty Thursday: Souvenir Savings

If you're driving to Walt Disney World you may want to swing by the area Walmart for some inexpensive Disney souvenirs. They have a large area full of merchandise ranging from shirts and beach towels to key chains, magnets, photo albums, cups and more!

You can find this Walmart Supercenter at:
3250 Vineland Rd
Kissimmee, FL 34746

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Vacation Shoes

I don't know about you, but I'm a flip flop kind of gal. As long as there's not snow on the ground you can usually catch me in a pair. I do tons of walking in them, the zoo, car shows, just every day stuff. They're what I'm most comfortable in. With those being all I really wear (aside from some heels when needed) my feet are used to them. For a trip in 2008 I packed various flip flops, and my hubby insisted on buying me some tennis shoes (I rarely wear them so the only ones I had were pretty old and worn out). With the new white Reebok classics- I like clean and simple- I was all set.

Now I knew there was going to be a lot of walking, but whoa! By morning 3 of our stay my feet had had it! Lucky for me Disney thinks of everything. They were selling Crocs all over the place. Now, to be honest, not a fan at all (this was before they started designing them in other styles). My husband and I have a bit of a shoe problem, and we're okay with that- We like the look of shoes, comfort comes in second, lol... that being the case, my feet had never even seen a pair of Crocs. Due to my condition at the time though I wasn't in a position to be picky; I was willing to try anything. I'm sure by now everyone knows or at least has heard how absolutely comfortable these things are, and I'm here to tell you, it's true!! Sadly, I am now the owner of a pair. It was like walking on air. The only consolation to buying them, aside from the immediate relief to my little piggies, was the fact that instead of the little holes in the tops, they had little Mickey heads. That, and I was able to get them in my home team's colors of red & black (Go CARDS!).

I am one of those people who match their shoes to their clothes, or vise verse,
so I think this was the most awful part...

With the experience I've just shared, it goes without saying that I now know how very important proper footwear is for the parks. A lightweight, flexible walking shoe with great support is ideal. If you have a good, trusty pair of shoes that fit the bill, great! If you have to buy new shoes I definitely recommend buying them far enough in advance to break them in properly.  In recollection, I think I had worn my flip flops on the first day and when my feet were so sore I decided to wear my new tennis shoes. And when I say new, I mean like a week old. These of course gave me blisters in no time. All that walking in one day in a new pair of shoes will surely do that to you.

Also, it's great to take at least two pair of tennis shoes. You can rotate them to give your feet a nice fresh start each day.

Whether you buy new shoes or not, I do recommend purchasing new socks. What good do the new shoes do if you're still wearing the same old worn down socks? And if you're using your old shoes, new socks will be a nice treat. Try some athletic, moisture-wicking socks to keep the moisture away from your feet, thus preventing blistering.

I'm not saying you can't bring your flips flops or sandals. They're great for days spent outside of the parks, or to head out for dinner and a relaxing evening. I just wouldn't count on them being your main park touring shoes.


Savings Tip: Check out the athletic shoe stores and see what fits, what's comfortable, etc., but before you purchase head over to Kohl's, or your nearest dept. store and see if they have something comparable, if not the same thing. They run sales more often than the mall shoes stores and are always offering coupons and other promotions, Kohl's especially


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Thrifty Thursday: Ways to Save for Disney

Thrifty Thursday

Ways to Save for Disney

I've got another Way to Save for ya this week! If you've missed the others so far you can find them all here. Most of you will be familiar with this one, or at least most aspects of it. I do have my own little twist on one way to get these little beauties though...

Use Disney Gift Cards

Gift cards are an excellent way to save for Disney, and you can get them for just about anything!

• Don't really have any big wants or needs this year for your birthday (Mother's/Father's/Grandparent's Day, Anniversary, Christmas... you get the gist)?? Ask for a Disney gift card!
  
• House-sit for someone who wants to give you a little thank you? Mention Disney!
  
• Give your children gift cards in place of their allowance or "treats" for special tasks or achievements as the trip gets closer.
  
• My work gives out gift cards for certain crowning achievements, does yours or maybe another group you belong to?... If you're comfortable with it, and you know you're due for one, ask them to make yours a Disney GC. (For example, we have a walking program at my work. When a person reaches 2.5 Million steps, according to their pedometers, they get a $50 gift card. As my milestone approaches, I'll ask that mine be a Disney GC!)
  
• Enter to win them through all the fabulous blogs you follow. You often see contests and drawings for Disney gift cards in various denominations- take the time to enter!!
  
• The list could go on and on!

As for my own little twist on a way to get these gift cards, I suggest getting them with refunds! Not sure what I mean? Well let me tell you... Say you get a cash refund at the Disney Store, or a place like Walmart, Kohl's, Kroger, or wherever else has the gift card centers carrying Disney gift cards- turn around and use that cash to purchase a gift card!! The money was already spent anyway! By turning that cash into a Disney gift card you've guaranteed that that money is now solely for Disney.

You can use the gift cards as payment on your vacation package, on purchasing tickets, on buying Disney goodies before your trip, as spending money while there, or for anything really! 

For what occasions do you get Disney gift cards? How do you use them?

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Thrifty Thursday: Ways to Save for Disney

Thrifty Thursday

Ways to Save for Disney

I'm back this week with another way to save for Disney. If you missed my previous articles you can check them out here. This week's may not be a new one to you, but if you haven't tried it yet, I definitely recommend!

Round Up/Down in your Checkbook Register

I've been using this method to save for a couple years now. There's little effort required on my part and the savings add up quickly.


So, how does this work? Well, it's pretty easy once you train yourself to do it. You simply round your transaction up to the nearest whole dollar. Dinner was $26.32? Record $27 in your register, and you've just saved 58 cents! I'm also rounding down with my deposits (deposits or refunds). Say I'm depositing $100.98, I record $100. There's another 98 cents!


Periodically you can move your "savings" to a Savings account. I typically do this when I start a new checkbook register. I take the balance according to the bank and subtract any transactions that haven't cleared yet. From that total I subtract the balance I have recorded in my check register. I move the difference to my savings account and make a note on the cover of the register. Not only does that give me a little bit of a paper trail, but it shows me how much I saved in a certain time frame. 


For example, for one register that lasted me about 6 weeks, just by rounding up or down, I  saved over $60!! That $60 goes to the savings account and is there when I'm ready to make a payment for our trip.

I don't bank with them, but Bank of America offers a program that does this automatically. It might be worth checking into if you're interested.


Does anyone else do this? Has it worked for you?



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Thrifty Thursday: Ways to Save for Disney

Thrifty Thursday
Ways to Save for Disney

Last week I shared with you an interesting way to save for Disney, a Flexible Spending Account. Not quite sure how that can be used to save for Disney? Well, check the article out here, and let me know if you have any questions!

I thought I'd share a couple more ways to save over the next couple weeks. Some of them I'm sure you already do, have heard of or thought of on your own, but in the event a new Disney traveler stumbles upon my blog, I'd like to have the info here for them, too. Today's Ways to Save are definitely some of the more common...

• Yard Sales
  Cleaned out those closets lately? Yard Sales are a great way to save for Disney. Go through the house room by room. What does Oprah say? If you haven't used it in over 6 months, let it go (unless of course it has sentimental value or is collectible or whatever... you know what I mean). Go through old clothes, books and movies your children have outgrown, movies you've outgrown or lost interest in, kitchen gadgets someone gave you for Christmas or your housewarming party how many years ago that you still haven't used, clean out the garage... you get the idea. Have your yard sale and stash the money away for Disney! Have leftovers? Donate them to a local church, shelter or organization in your area. Not only have you saved for Disney, you've de-cluttered and will feel great!
• Craigslist
  This is basically the same concept as that above, but works in a pinch if you don't want to mess with yard sales, live in an apartment, or just have a few items here and there. Remember to use caution and common sense when going this route. I've used this for several years and haven't had any bad experiences. Just use your head... and remember to put the money away for Disney!

There you have it, two pretty simple Ways to Save (aside from the work of putting a yard sale together, of course)! Have you done this before? How did you do?

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Thrifty Thursday: Ways to Save for Disney

Hello there! I'm starting a new blog series for Ways to Save for Disney, so Thursdays around here will now be known as Thrifty Thursday!

There are several ways you can save for your next Disney trip, but to get this series started I'm going to give you a pretty unique one- one you may not necessarily have thought of. And if you have, well, you rock because clearly you're on the same crazy brain waves as me! So, here we go...

I use my Flexible Spending Account to save. While I have currently used it to save for Christmas money, you can easily use it for Disney savings!

You can read more about an FSA through this link, but please check with your own employer about the details of the plan they offer. I'll give you the gist in short though to tide you over. Your employer may offer an FSA, an account in which money is pulled from your paycheck each week, pre-tax, and put into this account. The money is for medical or dependent care expenses. You may use the money in the account to pay for co-pays, coinsurance costs, prescriptions, and prescribed over the counter meds, or daycare costs. (Please be sure to check with your employer as guidelines for medical and dependent care are different. Also, in most cases, what you don't claim at the end of each year is lost, so be sure to use what you've set aside!) They give you a debit card that you may use throughout the year to make these payments/purchases, but they will also allow you to turn in your receipts and reimburse you.

What does this have to do with saving for Disney, you ask? Well, I currently use mine for Christmas money, but it would be excellent for Disney, too! As a matter of fact, I may just switch to that. Anyway, here's how it works... Rather than use the debit card all year, I simply pay for our medical expenses out of pocket as I normally would. Just before Black Friday (the biggest shopping day of the year, the day after Thanksgiving), I gather all of my receipts for the year and turn them in. I usually have a check or direct deposit in a matter of days. Just in time to do my Christmas shopping!

You have to spend the money on the doctor bills and prescriptions anyway, why not set up the FSA, save your receipts and cash them in right before paying for your vacation package, or cashing in right before the trip for that spending money?!

Simply assess what you spend each year on co-pays and scrips, glasses/eye care count, too, (or the daycare expense, but again this works a little differently) and decide how much you want to pull out from your check. I'll give you an example... I counted up our scheduled visits- a wellness visit for each of us per year, a couple special condition check-ups, and factored in some sick visits. Then I counted the co pays for my medicines taken monthly, and threw in a couple for those sick visits. At the end of this, I was comfortable saying we spent at least $500-$600 a year in medical expenses. To make it easy on myself I only designated $10/wk be taken from my check, giving me a total of $520 for the year. I may have undershot a bit, but like I said, if you don't use it, you lose it. At least this way, I know for sure I'll get enough receipts to cover it all.

That's a guaranteed $520 just in time for Christmas each year... or DISNEY!

Well, there you have it, my not so conventional tip for Saving for Disney! I've done this four years in a row now, so if you have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask!

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