Saving Money at Disney World

::Cough, Cough, Cough::  All of that coughing you hear, is from the dust on the blog from the distance between posts.  I really got burned out…really burned out…..and then with “life”, I took a LOOOOOOOOONG blogging break.

 

Many of People have asked about our recent (last week) trip to Disney and how to “save money” there.  Now, Disney how you put it can be VERY expensive….thousands and thousands of dollars expensive.  There are people who spend that and are okay with that kind of money, but we are not.  So people have asked about tips, money saving deals and I told them I would  “blog” about it…so here it goes.  BTW for those of you who are being "lured" by Disney's offer to GIVE you a free meal plan for your family?  You really think that Disney is THAT generous?  Are you kidding me?  NOOOOOOOO!  Don't worry!  They "pad" your accommodations (which are inflated) with that amount.  Don't kid yourself.....they will get you either way....Remember you are paying for the Brand name!

Accomodations:

The best times to go is “off peak” seasons (non holiday/summer time).  Not only will the crowds be better but you will love the weather and your stay will be MUCH better.  We prefer by leaps and bounds to stay OFF of Disney Property!  There are many reasons why:

 1.  It is MUCH cheaper,

2.  You get full accommodations, like laundry (free) facilities, many times your own pool, full kitchen: so you can cook your own meals (which saves BIG $$), and

3.  Separate bedrooms for the kids and adults

There are keys/tips for finding your accommodations:

1.     Use www.vrbo.com .  Hands DOWN this is our FAVORITE site.  We have used it MANY times.  Many times during off peak season we can get a 3-4 bedroom house, fully furnished for $85/night.

2.       Use someone else’s time share.  We have friends that have 3-4 weeks of timeshares.  I called her and found out that they were willing to sell us a week of their time share for $425 for the Week.  That is 8 days/7 nights.  That included all taxes and fees….we couldn’t have rented a house, during summer/high peak season for that!!!

3.       You can also do discounted rates for exchange for a timeshare but we don’t recommend that.  First of all, it is only a few days and secondly if we are going to be involved in taking a time share then we are going to do it for free tickets.

Tickets: 

You can try many things to try to get free or greatly reduced tickets into Disney.  Their now “going rate” is $79/day/per park.  Extreme Home makeover has been advertising that if you volunteer at anyone of their locations, then you get a free ticket.  This is a terrific way not only for your family to do some community/volunteer work, but for you to get a free ticket into the park also.  Also for those of you in “corporate America” there is www.ticketsatwork.com.  They offer pretty good rates on tickets.  There is also www.undercovertourist.com.  Also when you get down there to Kissimmee, there are SEVERAL places on International Blvd. Last I heard, you can take tours with Holiday Inn and Wyndham and they will either give you $ or free tickets to get into the parks.  Now do not quote me on this.  Some places (like Westgate where we stayed) has changed their policies.  Now let me WARN you on somethings.  There are places that sell “used” tickets.  Not only is that “illegal” but those tickets are linked to the original person’s fingerprint.  Not only will your fingerprint NOT match theirs, but the Disney parks can take you into custody and “grill” you as to why you have someone else’s tickets, etc and pretty much use up valuable time that you and your family could be using to enjoy the parks.   This method is strongly discouraged!!

Groceries/Food:

We took a bunch of food with us and even went grocery shopping while down there.  The reason I like to have a full kitchen, is because I want my family to have a FULL and BIG breakfast before they go into the parks.  I am talking, eggs, bacon, sausage, biscuits….the whole nine yards.  You think of all of these sugared filled cereals, pop tarts, etc….they go through my children in a matter of a few hours…by the time we enter the parks, they are hungry.  Not only do we eat our own lunches in the park, we eat a “delayed” lunch.  Why?  Because we go at opening time and we stay until the park is closed.  We eat a “delayed lunch” so that when we sit down for whatever special show is going on, we can eat dinner then.  We did NOT eat one food item in the park….I know you guys think that park “meal ticket” is a good deal, but it is NOT…FAR from it.  When we were at Epcot, we saw a sign for a dinner “special”.  It was $34.99 for each adult and $16.99 for each child (which we didn’t have any).  That would have been $174.69 for ONE MEAL!  I have heard the average meal (a lunch) in the park is $50+ (for a family of 4...we are a family of 5!)!  Not only is that almost what we spend for ONE WEEK OF GROCERIES, but we have 5 not 4.  If you are planning on going in the near future, be on the look out for “prepackaged, convenience foods” (with coupons of course).    Here is what we did for our lunches that might be helpful to you (I know some of you will cringe, but oh well):

We bought a CASE (for $3 for 24 bottles) of water bottles (they are $3 EACH in the parks).  We froze them the night before so that they were our “ice” and we didn’t have to have ice in the cooler.  We also put sodas (stacked) and Capri suns on the top (because they are flexible).  One thing I also found helpful was that we bought the big tall cans of Pringles potato chips.  A full canister was more than enough for our family for lunch, but we also had some for snacks.  It fit nicely In our cooler and that way, our chips did not get crushed.  We packed in the front pocket of our cooler, breakfast bars, Gummies (Walmart has Toy story ones from .50-$1), Rice Krispies (that I bought on sale, actually free w/ coupons) and cookies.  We packed in a bag our sandwiches (don’t forget to take Ziploc baggies with you! You will need them!!)….I took my homemade bread for sandwiches (my family won’t eat anything else J), and we put lettuce, cheese and lunch meat (Naturals) on top.  I stocked up on our favorite sauce, Chick fil A’s Honey Roasted BBQ sauce and put some in the front pocket.  They have condiments in the parks.  You don’t want to put the condiments on the sandwiches because they will get soggy.  Also we took extra snacks for the “mommy I am hungries”.  You want to be prepared for those.  We found these great little meals @ Walmart with Chicken salad/Tuna Salad and crackers in them.  They are $1.29/each and great and convenient to take with you.       

Souvenirs:

*Deal Alert* Check your local Dollar Tree.  They had a TON of Walt Disney toys, snacks, and odds and ends there.  They also have Disney light up pens there (for the autograph books).

Autograph books:  We bought the smaller sketch books from Barnes & Noble/Borders for $3 each.

Buy your kids disposable cameras ahead of time.

Trading pins:  You can get them CHEAP from ebay!

Look ahead of time for tshirts, etc from your local Thrift store!

There is a SuperTarget near Disney off of Hwy 192.  They have a HUGE Disney section.  They have trading Pins for $4.99 (they start at $6.99 @ Disney and go up to $11.99), they have Disney  tshirts (@ $9.99-10.99 each.  They are $17.98 in the store.)  I am talking about the Disney 2010 shirts and others.  They have ALL kinds of Disney stuff for a whole lot cheaper!  That is also where we bought our groceries that we needed (milk, eggs)

Odds and Ends:

Even though our boys are 16, 15 and 11, we went to the local thrift store and invested $3 in a baby stroller.  Why you may ask?  Well several reasons.  First of all, when we go, we take a backpack with cameras, ponchos and snacks, etc in it.  We also take a cooler.  Those all get very tiresome and heavy when carrying them through the park.  Not only that, it is VERY difficult to take all of these things on the rides.  When we were there in 2006, a single stroller rental per day was $10 and a double was $18.  Now the rental is $15/day for single and $23.  To buy a stroller at a thrift store for $3 as apposed to spending $105 for 7 days at the parks, is a HUGE savings.

Parking:  When we were there in 06, parking in the parks was $10 per park.  It is now $14/day.  Blizzard Beach has FREE parking, but you have to be gone by 8 pm.  Also, you can go to Coronado Springs (check them), or you can go to the Contemporary and tell them you are having dinner with the characters, then you can park there for free.  That saves you $98 over the span of 7 days.

**I HIGHLY recommend Walt Disney World for Kids book.  They have it at your library or it is SO worth it to purchase it.  It was our map and our “bible” while there.**

Take your own pictures!  The camera men/women will take it FOR you!  It will save a TON!

Tidbits on EACH park (Get there to enter the park @ 9am(I was FLOORED by the number o f people that paid $79/EACH/per day that didn’t get there until NOON!  What a WASTE of money!!).  If you are in line by 10 am in any ride in the park, they will let you on!)  Beware that the parks will only let you get a fast pass every 2 hours, just an FYI!:

Magic Kingdom: Space Mountain should be ridden first and get your FP for it.  A new show that can be seen during “off times” is the Monsters Inc comedy show.  It is SOOOOOOOOOO funny….when you watch it…you will be amazed that it is ALL controlled by a PS3 controller and is interactive.

Hollywood Studios (formerly MGM):  Learning from lessons from our recent trip, here is how we would plan stuff out.  Go to Rockin Roller Coaster and get a fast pass and then head over to Toy Story Mania.  It is a NEW 3D ride and it is FABULOUS!  Check the times, but go ahead and get a fast pass.  We didn’t know this and they were out of fast passes by 11 am!  We had to RUN from Fantasmic to get in line and to get on.  We did NOT ride Tower of Terror but that is another one you need to get a FP on.

EPCOT: When you get into the park, IMMEDIATELY go to Soarin in the Land area…..Not only that but get a fast pass BEFORE you get on.  The ride tends to rack up the times quickly and the fast passes will be gone by noon.  As soon as you are done with Soarin, head over to Test Track.  Ride that.  When you get off, check your Soarin FP, and get a FP for Test Track!     

Animal Kingdom:  Immediately head over to Mt Everest and get a FP BEFORE you get on!  Ride it and then go and do what you want…..

I hope you will find something in this blog that you will be able to save on…or that you didn’t know.  Even if you have never been, or you have been many times, may you find this helpful.  

My CVS (and Grocery Shopping) Trip yesterday

I pretty much consistently save ATLEAST (minimum) of 50% or more on my groceries. I use sites likes Coupon Mom and The Grocery Game to be able to "stack" coupons, be on sale and even double my savings on top of that. Well, while watching Money Saving Mom I was intrigued about the savings that can be had at CVS. I knew there wasn't one on our exit, so my FIRST chore was to even see where the nearest one was, to see if it was even feasible. I found out that amongst our 4 exits for our town, the CVS was located 2 exits down from us. It is a fairly new store. SO, my plan was to really start the savings. Before I get to the "nitty gritty" it didn't take me that long. The thing that took me a little time, was figuring out a "strategy" of what to buy when and buy things in 1-3 products at a time to be able to use my Extra Bucks. You can see my picture at the top.

**Drum Roll Please**

My total at CVS was $219.90 (before ANY savings)
My total OOP (Out of Pocket) was $36.37

What did I get for all of that. Now, I will go into detail. The one thing I did before I left the house, was to write out which products I would divide up into separate transactions (1-3) to be able to turn around and use my Extra bucks. Basically they give you money in a paper receipt format and you can use it on a separate transaction, so that is why you divide it. First of all, I signed up my card and logged in online, and they sent me a certificate for $4 off of $20 purchase. BTW, my store said, as long as I use it in separate transactions and trips, I can use as many as I want, so I saved it in my email. Secondly, I used $2 off of $10 purchase on each of my transactions. Thirdly, there is also a sale on some of their cold and flu remedies with bucks, so I stacked another coupon like $2 off of $10 Flu/Cold Coupon HERE which gives you $2 off of $10 for colds and flu meds. Now my CVS told me as long as the certificates have different numbers on them, you can use more than one in a transaction. I also noticed that your total needs to be more than your ECB bucks. IF you need more clarification or details on things, you can head over to Money Saving Mom's post on CVS 101.

Also, on another site that I love, I found out that you can get a free glucose monitor (my dad is diabetic). On that site it said that you get $20 in ECB bucks, BUT THAT IS NOT TRUE. But what I DID find out, is that the Breeze 2 is regularly $59.99 and was on sale for 14.99. In the pharmacy is a diabetes magazine for $50 OFF of a the Breeze 2 or Contour. (They adjusted the coupon for the price of the monitor). Now to sweeten the deal, there was a sticker on there, that YOU GET A REBATE. It says up to $40, but I have been doing rebates for a while, and I know they are going to give me the price that I paid ($14.99 before coupon). So basically I will make $14.99 on this deal

If you click on THIS BLOG, you will figure out how to get your Christmas pictures (or any) for FREE. I was only able to figure out how to do 60 on each card(I have two cards), so I got 120 pictures, FOR FREE. I just uploaded my pictures online to their photo center, and sent it to them. I picked them up when I arrived. I was very pleased with the quality and I saved $22.80!!! .

Here is my list of what I got:
120 4x6 Christmas pictures (free)
Glucose monitor (reg 59.99 and I will MAKE $14.99)
2 pkgs of Jumbo size 1 Pampers (I have two friends having babies soon! These are for gifts)
1 pkg jumbo (dbl pkt) Huggies Wipes
2 bottles of Oasis Mouthwash (free after ECB bucks)
2 Gillette Fusion razors (FREE after ECB bucks)
6 cases Pepsi (I don't drink it but dh does. After coupons and ECB's I paid $1.08/case of 12)
2 boxes of Garnier hair color
2 tubes of Cover Girl Lipstick (It was already b1g1 and I had a b1g1 manf cpn so they were BOTH FREE)
2 double pkgs of Charmin bath tissue
2 boxes of Theraflu strips
5 pkgs of cough drops
1 box of children's cough expectorant

That is not all my friends, after looking at the weekly sales for this week, I decided to go to Publix. Now other than eggs, the rest I did with using The Grocery Game. My total at Publix (we have double coupons BTW) was $51.83. My total OOP (out of pocket) was $15.63. Now here is a list of my items:
2 1/2 doz. eggs (non coupon item)
2 LARGE Publix pizzas (got them for .02)
3 boxes of Totino's pizza rolls (on sale for 50% off, had a .40 cpn that doubled. Paid .20 each box)
1 bottle of high end shampoo and conditioner (paid $1 for shampoo and $0 for the conditioner, it was FREE)
2 revlon nail clippers (they were on sale b1g1. Reg price $1.49, which is about .75 each. Had 2 Manf cpns for $1 off each one, which I MADE .50. Make sure you know that you can use 2 $ off on b1g1)

6 boxes of Uncle Ben's Wild Rice (it was on b1g1 and I had a manf b2g1f)
4 bags of Marie C. Croutons (look out in those Publix coupon fliers! These were.60/bag)

I am not done. I hope to go to Kroger later this week. It depends. I know CVS is great for HBA, but I also like to save at the grocery store too!

Hope this helps some of you and encourages you. I would love to her comments or questions! Don't forget our 30 Days of Joy Box going on right now. I will post on that one again in a minute.

Southern Belle

Now is for another time where we talk about going to the grocery store. Before I forget, one of my recent blogs that I love is Money Saving Mom. I used her in combination with The Grocery Game and Coupon Mom. The Money Saving Momis helpful and insightful in her posts. One of the things that I didn't know and learned is that P&G will load your Kroger card with coupons. You pick the ones you will use and transfer it to your card. That is it! It is important to remember that sales run in cycles (4-6 wks) and it is best to stock up during that time. That is just what I did. Also remember that there are TWO times of year to get really good deals on turkeys and hams. One is Thanksgiving and the other is Easter. We plan on getting three turkeys and freezing them, cooking them one at a time. I thought I would throw a reminder out there. Both Kroger AND Publix doubles coupons up to .50! Some non-perishables, we go to Aldi's or check and see if you have a Save a Lot near you. If it is within 20-30 miles or so, it is SO worth it!

Here is my run down:

Kroger

TOTAL $165.41
Coupons/savings: 65.06
Final total $100.35

Walgreens

Total $26.95
coupons and savings $24.46
Final total $2.49

**A little note here. I WOULD have had THEM pay ME money, but I am making Thanksgiving blessing mix (check blog) and they had Hershey's kisses 75% off from Halloween in fall colors. The $2.49 is for 4 bags of Kisses! The things to remember at Walgreens, is not only do they have a monthly rebate program, but they will alot of times run specials with store coupons and allow manf. coupons on top of that. So this week they had their PRO line from Vive on sale (shampoo and conditioner) for buy one get one free. Now I have noticed a trend. ALOT (majority) of stores will split the cost in 1/2 for buy 1 products. Walgreens does one at full price (4.99) and the other one free. I had manf. coupons for buy one get one free, so I got 2 bottles of shampoo and 2 bottles of conditioner, FREE. They also had the Purell santizer foam for $3.49-store coupon (in book at store) for $2.50 off, then I added in my manf. coupon for $1.50 off, which means product was FREE!

Publix

Total: $58.92
minus coupons/savings $36.24
Final total $24.02

On Publix, they had Kelloggs cereals for B1G1, which made them $1.84 each (they split it in 1/2). I had $1 coupons off of EACH box (I use 2), which made my total for each box, .84!!!!!! With 3 boys and in our house, I stocked up. I don't just buy a couple. With a sale like that, I got as much as I had coupons for (because if you run out, you will be back in the store, probably spending $ you don't have or you will go over budget).

Now, MILK prices are driving me NUTS! $3.50 is NOT a sale! NOT! $5.69 for MAYFIELD's? You kidding me? Milk has been a budget buster-So I went on a search for not only REAL powdered milk but one hopefully without any hormones, antibiotics, etc. We found Grandma's Country. We bought the 25lb pail. It has NO additives, anything and the cows are all natural too. I will get approx 46 gallons of milk from my pail at a cost of $1.73/per/gallon! Now friends, IF I were to pay the 3.50 SALE price or even reg. price at 3.99 (the prices I am talking about, 3.50-3.99 is from Kroger): (Walmart is 4.29/gallon?), my savings is a bracket of 81.05-103.59 NOT including tax! That is JUST on milk! It took about 10 days for us to get our milk but it is SO worth it in the long run! When I did our budget for last month, some of our overages are from Walmart (which we have cut dramatically, to almost nothing) and late night runs for milk (which end up usually being more than JUST milk, lol)!

Hope this helps you. God Bless
Southern Belle (Beth)

MORE BANG FOR YOUR BUCK!

Well, I have always tried to be frugal and a good steward of our money and have pretty much tries to get the best sales and/or prices. It wasn't until we moved to GA and I was excited because of DOUBLE coupons, I have been doing things a little different. I have gone to ALDI's and I love it, but I also love couponning and wanted to do it, but obviously my stacks of coupons were piling up and the daunting taks of going through them was well, sometimes overwhelming. The FIRST thing I did, was to grab a box that allows for hanging folders in it. I grabbed some left over hanging folders, and took address labels and put GENERAL categories on them (like Dairy, Breakfast, Frozen, etc) I then filed the coupons under their genreal category. Also I have folders for the ads of the main stores and then a folder for coupons for those stores. I have been using Coupon Mom and The Grocery Game. The difference is that Coupon mom is Free and helps remind you to take extras to help feed the hungry. The Grocery Game, turns it into a game and helps you realize that there are cycles in sales and when they are at their lowest or free, to stockpile and build your own Grocery Store in your own home. The Grocery Game does cost but it is minimal and you can try it for the first 4 weeks for $1. This week, I was determined to get a handle on things and be a better organizer of my coupons to cut down on my time. This last week, I used both of these and planned my trips.

Here are my totals:

Kroger $119.59 MINUS 60.31 in coupons, store specials and doubled coupons, equals 61.85 after tax, which is a 50% savings.

Walgreens $62.17 MINUS $46.09 in coupons, store coupons and specials, and my total after tax was $16.08 (2.36 was tax).

Publix $45.75 MINUS $32.48 in coupons, double savings and sales, and my total after tax $13.27.

My total shopping trip totals are here:

Total amount in groceries is $228.04

Total amount in savings with stacking, coupons, doubles, sales: $138.88

My total paid between the three is $91.20



While that is all great and I am EXCITED that I saved so much money, the thing that excited me the most, was how much product I got FREE! Here is what sales and coupons will get you:

1 24 ct. Excederin

1 3 oz pkg Sunkist Tuna

13 cans of Purina One dog food

14 boxes of Crest Toothpaste

2 boxes of Quaker Oatmeal granola bars

Not only that but the toothpaste has an extra tube of travel toothpaste and floss which will be put in bags for the homeless this year that we make up. It is worth it to do this and the savings are tremendous!