How do you save up for a WDW trip?

[AmandaChan]

I know people who spend their entire tax returns on trips (we've done so ourselves in the past )

But I was wondering how do you go about saving up for your trips??? Do you have a special account set aside for the savings? I am just curious on everyone's response.

[Dopey's Girl]

I don't have a special account for Disney (I do for Paris), but I keep track of what I deposit into my savings acct for Disney. Mainly I save change and $1 bills. You would be surprised at how fast that adds up. I have been saving about 9 months and have over $400 just from that!

[DVC2004]

In the past we'd always used our tax refunds. After we joined DVC though we have a large expense cut out for us so we put a little extra aside whenever we can for tickets/air/food. I don't have a seperate savings for it, I just keep it in with the rest.

[sassafras]

My credit union will let you name your own accounts, so I have one named Disney! Each time I get paid, I put a certain amount of money back and it adds up pretty quickly.

[Jillirose]

My husband works some 'side' jobs to save up. If it works out, we go. We only go if we can pay cash for everything ahead of time.

In the past, we used tax refunds, but have less and less left over.

[AllDisney]

Our first 4 or 5 trips was tax refunds. After awhile I put money into a savings account and we used that. Now we help pay for our WDW trips using the Disney VISA Reward card. As of right now we have enough rewards that it will pay for 1/3 of our upcoming Fantasy Cruise in 2012

[Gregandmel]

Our first 2 trips (2008 & 2010) were paid for pretty easily, however, with our older son now in college and many many home repairs/updates needed, it's not quite so easy to come up with the approximate $5000 for our trip (airfare, moderate resorts, etc... for 4 people). We aren't sure when we will be able to go again (hopefully in the next 2-3 years) but in the meantime, we are saving change (have about $400 in change so far!! Been saving for over 18 months) and about $300 in Disney points. In addition to that, the first $500 of our tax refund for the next 2 years will be put aside, as well as a weekly $5 bill in our Disney jar starting in January. I know that sounds like a LOT of steps in small increments, but it has to be relatively "painless" in the wallet for us (don't notice it) otherwise - it's not going to happen for us. We won't go until we have all the $$ saved for it. I also buy a $25 gift card to Disney every time I'm at the Mall to set aside. The small steps will hopefully end up making it happen for us, and still allow us to pay for our son's college as well as the numerous home items we need. It feels like it will take forever to get back, but the little weekly & daily setting aside of $$ keeps the dream alive!! Here's hoping to a future trip!!! (SOON!!)

[gaffz70]

I have a separate account for vacation money that I transfer $ into every week. It's not enough for Disney, so we will also use some tax $ or take a side job to make up the difference. The other thing that helps is we buy everything on our Disney visa card and pay it off each month. I have $600 so far in Disney rewards money to use for spending!

[BrerGnat]

We book everything separately, so we just buy stuff incrementally. We buy airfare when we have that much money saved. Then, later, we will buy the tickets. We always do room only, so we pay the one night deposit, and then save up the rest until the trip, so when it's charged after arrival, we pay it off immediately (the credit card). I budget about $1000 to be placed on our room charge for a week's stay, and that just gets charged to our AMEX that we use for everyday spending. We pay it off when the bill comes. It's a lot easier to handle it in stages than all at once.

[MarkC]

Ditto on what a couple of other posters stated, especially BrerGnat about paying for separate things over time. Also, if you go frequently DVC is a huge money saver, at least it has been for us. We usually plan 2 trips and buy annual passes, so the first trip costs a little more but the 2nd trip 11 months or so later is really cheap because we have free room and tickets.

We do use our Disney visa and charge absolutely everything we can to it, including any bills possible. That can really add up over a couple of years time.

I have $15 out of each paycheck go into a separate 'vacation fund' that is separate from our normal savings. You can save for a trip, but it takes some planning and dedication.

[SallyMcQueen]

This past January we knew we wanted to go in February of 2012. We set up a separate savings account with a small bonus my husband received. Then I started putting a set amount each paycheck in the account and so did DH. Any extra funds we got we put in there as well. Additionally we have a five gallon water jug that we throw loose change in that we all call the "Disney Fund." Not sure how much is in there but we've been slowly filling it back up from the last time we went in 2008. My guess is we have close to $300 or better in there. This is the money we will use for souvenirs etc. This strategy worked well for us. We were able to save up for the full cost of the room and tickets and also for our drive down.

[jillluvsdisney]

Overtime.

[Jayna222]

I actually went out and bought a piggy bank just for park spending money and I start putting money in there far in advance

[Hair_Razor]

Every year I think, oh we will go this year, but not next year.....well I just can't help myself!

I filter part of my paycheck into savings every week. This time i used my skymiles for all our flights. But I keep wishing for this mythical "tax return" you speek of...

[WDWCrazyKaren]

We stagger it out over about a year. We don't go more often than once a year, and we will book and put down our $200 deposit as soon as we get back from one vacation, and then make monthly payments. Similar to putting it into a savings account, but with no interest. Because that would make too much sense.

We leave next month, but DH just advised me that January 2013 will be Las Vegas, so I'll be Disneyless for 2 whole years!

[twinboyz]

We always go once a year and pay cash for everything. We ear mark some of my year end bonus and some of the tax return $$, but often it's cash gifts we request from relatives at Christmas time. They know were always saving for next trip! We also save our change and any extra$$ we come up with hits the savings account.

Since we bought DVC property it seems much easier to get away. It's all in the perception, but it still always gets us there!

[MOJoe]

Tax return? I annually return a few thousand of my hard earned dollars to the US Treasury. The 1040 form is my anti-savings plan.

But my Christmas bonus and "vacation fund" will normally cover at least half the cost of a Disney trip. The rest i put on plastic and pay off in a timely manner.

[Hair_Razor]

Tax return? I annually return a few thousand of my hard earned dollars to the US Treasury. The 1040 form is my anti-savings plan.

Here, here

[iheartdisney]

We have a weekly budget. Anything left over? We squirrel away as much as we can for our next trip. Our 7 and 8 year old are known to say "Can we skip McDonald's today and just put that in the Disney fund? Let's just eat at home!" You'd be surprised at not only how fast it all adds up but the creative ways you can find savings as a family if you have a common goal. Lucky for me, my kids love WDW as much as I do!

[Mom to a Princess and a Prince]

I also have the vacation bank account with $15 a week direct deposited from my paycheck. And we charge absolutely everything on the Disney Visa. When we went in 2010 we were able to pay for almost all of our meals with Disney points. We have a a big water jug to save our change, but we earmark dimes for Disney and put those in a special piggy bank. The kids even contribute their "Disney dimes" while hoarding their other change! And I dabble in eBay sales and anything that ends up in my Paypal account gets transferred into the vacation account. It takes awhile, but those savings, no matter how small, definitely add up!