Budgeting tips

Here are some of the things I've picked up along the way while planning this trip. If you're on a tight budget like my family, these tips will be helpful in making your trip a reality.

Budget:
1. Go through your finances. Understanding where your money is already going will help you to understand what you need to fix in order to save up what you need. It will also help you to have a better picture of what you can afford to put aside each paycheck.
2. Understand the costs. Look at ticket prices, airfare (or gas if you're driving Plan to put a specific dollar amount aside every week (or every paycheck), and hotel pricing. Be real about how much you want to be able to spend on food and trinkets/souvenirs. Our families budget started at $5,000 (we're also doing a day at universal).
3. Do the math. Now that you have an idea of how much you need, and you know how much you could afford to stash away each paycheck calculate how long you'd have to save up for to make this trip a reality.
4. Don't be discouraged if it's going to take you a long while to save up. The journey is almost as rewarding as the actual destination. I promise! It's amazing how good it feels to see the progress you're making.

Tips on how to save money:

1. Buy the tickets! No really, as soon as you have enough money to at least purchase the park tickets, do it. The count down for expiration doesn't start until the first time you use them. So purchase them as soon as you can. Disney raises their ticket prices a couple of times a year so you will really save money if you do it this way.. I bought our family's tickets in April of 2012.. By doing that, I've already saved around $150.00. Imagine how much that will equate to when we actually go in 2014?

2. Drive. If your kids are good at handling long car rides and...more importantly, you're good with being in a car for that long with your kids.. Just drive there and save yourself the airfare. Even with gas prices rising it would be less expensive.

3. If you're going to fly, shop around for discounted airline tickets. My family and I know better than to trap ourselves in a car with each other for more than a few hours... So we're flying. Thankfully, there's an Allegiant  Air within good distance from us and they fly directly to Orlando. You can bundle your airfare, car and hotel with them or just airfare and car (what we're doing). They also offer other add-ons like kids eat free coupons for a certain dollar amount per child... and prices tend to go down the closer you are to your actual booking date.  Right now, if were were to go in May our package would be just a little over 1,300.. I'll let you know if that goes up or down the closer May gets (yes I know we're not going until May of next year... but that's the thing about Allegiant, you can't book that far in advance..which is fine).

4. Buy groceries once you're there. Make sure you get a hotel that will actually have a fridge for you to put food in (doesn't have to be a big fridge, just enough for some basics).  You can bring food into the park so don't waste time buying meal plans or buying the food there. Just get some staples (snacks, poptarts, muffins, bread, the types of things your family likes for sandwiches, some fruit, etc.) and then pack them up in a soft sided cooler or your backpack when you go into the park.

5. Pack light. Make sure you get a hotel with a laundromat. That way you can bring enough clothes for only 1/2 your stay and then do laundry one day while you're there. Much easier than over packing and then trying to figure out how you're going to get all of those souvenirs home. Plus, depending on how long your stay is, you might be able to fit it all as carry on for your flight and that will save you some dough. And even if you can't use it as carry on.. You may be able to fit all of your spouses items and yours into one bag and then your kids into one bag and that will save on how much you have to pay for check bags.

6.  Don't add park hopper to your tickets- It's your call but there's plenty to do at each park for an entire day. No need to hop from park to park. However, if your family really is only mildly interested in any one park then park hopper may be a nice option to spend 1/2 a day at one park and then 1/2 a day at another.

7. Know your resources. Reach out to family and friends. Someone you know has connections somewhere. Me? My mother works in reality and was able to hook us up with a timeshare voucher for around $200.00 for a weeks worth of lodging. My cousin works at Disney world and is able to give me even more tips and tricks (which, I'll gladly share here).There are also plenty of websites and Pinterest boards out there with park information and tips on how to score good deals throughout the year. My favorite is www.allears.net.

8. Don't buy drinks. Seriously, just bring a few water bottles in with you and bring your favorite flavored drink packets. Ice and water are free at the parks anyways and, really, do you need the pop? It just makes you more thirsty.