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.

New: Coupons.com Saving Center Added

As you may know, I have long been a proponent of using coupons to save money--and especially to help save toward a Walt Disney World vacation. (Read this post about the many simple ways to start saving today!) I'm such a big fan of using coupons (last year I saved $4,648.81 on groceries for my family!--yes, I tracked it), that I decided to open a "Savings Center" on my site to link readers with one of the best coupon sources on the web, Coupons.com.

You can now click the "Coupons.com" tab in the upper right corner of this page and access dozens of printable coupons that will get you started saving for your next trip to the Happiest Place on Earth. And by using Affording the Mou$e as your gateway to Coupons.com, you help me afford to keep writing this blog! (That's a win/win, right?)