I grew up in a big family that was always SUPER BROKE (my dad was a truck driver and mom ran a daycare out of our house) but we always took a week-long vacation at Disneyland every year. How? We stayed at the Disney campground (which they tore out to build California Adventure) where we camped in tents... one of which we kept a crockpot in that slow-cooked delicious homemade dinner for us while we were out at the park all day (thanks to power outlets at each camp sight). We also had a HUGE portable fridge/freezer in one of our tents and smuggled sandwiches into the park for lunches and refilled bottles at drinking fountains. For souvenirs we collected autographs from the Disney characters in our homemade autograph books. In fact, I never stayed in a hotel until I moved out after high school.
Now fast forward to NOW: I'm married and have four children of my own (ages 1, 3, 5 and 7) who have never been to Disneyland. My in-laws recently received some unexpected money and are paying for us to all go to Disneyland later this year. They agreed to let me work out the details, with a few requests on their part. First, my MIL is a paralyzed stroke survivor so we have to stay in a hotel and they have a specific one in mind (which is fine because it's in walking distance of the park and serves a full breakfast for FREE... which is amazing for a group of eight people!). We also have to go around late April/early May based on their availability. BUT they are letting me order the hotel, rental car and tickets through my Swagbucks.com account so I earn a percentage back in swagbuck points that I can exchange for gift cards. My goal is to use the gift cards to buy food, clothes and souvenirs for the kids in advance (because buying that stuff at the actual park is only for rich people and professional athletes).
My question is this: Aside from getting points back by ordering everything through travel sights on the swagbucks website, how else can I make money back, cut corners or save money in this process? I already plan to do crockpot meals and pack sandwiches. I've got the kids their autograph books and I'll be using some of those swagbucks gift cards to buy them lanyards and discounted official Disney pins to trade (as souvenirs). I'll also be bringing a few pennies and a handful of quarters so the kids can each get a pressed penny for each day we're there (can't beat $0.51 interactive souvenirs!). But can you think of any other ways to keep costs down? Or other programs to help get money back?
A few things to consider: - We'll definitely be renting a vehicle, even though it's approx. $200 for the week but we did the math and it's cheaper (including gas) to drive there and back in one big vehicle than to fly a group of eight people from northern California. Our own vehicle is older but well-maintained and runs smoothly but we don't want to push it by taking it that far (and over the grape vine). $200 now could potentially save us thousands in repairs later, as far as I'm concerned.
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Another complication to keep in mind: They want us to all stay at a specific hotel which I am not seeing offered on any of the Swagbucks travel sites (or any other discount sites online). Is there any other way to make hotel reservations and save money or earn something like points? It isn't a major chain (no rewards program through the hotel).
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We don't have AAA memberships.
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We DO have Costco memberships.
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Our credit cards do not earn points and we won't qualify for new cards right now. We're in the process of rebuilding our credit after a foreclosure several years ago (following numerous layoffs... 2008 was a crappy year to both have been working in the finance industry. 'Nuff said.)
In closing, I'm a very frugal person and it's been YEARS since we took a vacation ANYWHERE (over a decade actually) so this is a very big deal. Even suggestions for finding discounted Disneyland tickets or saving on spending money to use in the park (we want one nice sit-down meal in the park) would be appreciated. I'm posting in several groups on Reddit asking for help. We want to do this right! Thank you for any and all input.
February 15, 2017 at 10:01PM
