Trip Report: The Budget

While I specialize in planning affordable WDW vacations, our most recent trip was an exception to my generally-frugal rule. It was my 40th birthday--I did not intend to skimp. Still, I can't stray too far from my frugal ways, so I set our budget at a reasonable $2680. (I like to over-budget, so that I can be happy when we come in under!)

Let me start by saying that had we paid full price for everything on our vacation, it would have cost us over $3625! But, of course, we never pay full price. We used food coupons, gift cards, Disney Rewards Visa dollars, and even bought merchandise on clearance. When it was all said and done, our out-of-pocket cost for the trip was right at $1750--a savings of nearly $2000, and about $900 under budget!

Subtracting what we had already put down as a deposit on our resort stay and the amount of the tickets we purchased several months ago (adding up to around $1050), as well as the nearly $300 in cash that we had saved specifically for the trip, we took only about a $400 hit to our bank account...barely noticeable in the scheme of things.

All in all, despite making a few splurges, we still managed to save a lot and keep it pretty frugal. We're already beginning to collect spare change for our next trip in our Disney Fund.