Another Disney frugal post - Dining!

Okay, so you're finally on your vacation at Disney. You've got your room, and you're heading to one of the parks. Then you realize you are hungry! That's when it hits you. Disney doesn't just want to take you out of the real world to play, they also want to take you out of the real world when it comes to food prices.

I'll be honest. We don't even BUDGET for food at Disney. We just have a spending money budget and go from there. But we've been enough times to know how to play the game.

1. The Disney Dining Plan - Ah, what a beautiful thing. Kind of. I love the idea of prepaying for your food, and Disney has started to provide more options for those who just want the quickie meals all the way up to those who want to have a sit down meal 3 times a day, every day.

We have been using the standard dining plan, which Disney calls Magic Your Way Plus Dining (you will learn that EVERYTHING has a Disney-fied name very quickly!). This currently includes 1 table service meal (entree, non-alcoholic beverage, dessert and tax), 1 counter service meal and 1 snack a day for each night of your stay for $40 per adult, $13 per child ages 3 - 9. While the prices haven't gone up on this much in the past several years, the value has declined. Three years ago, the table service credit included an appetizer, entree, dessert, non-alcoholic beverage, tip and taxes!! Then they dropped the tip, then this year, the appetizer. You can use them in any combination - if you have the credits and want to eat three table service meals in one day, that's fine! It's not a per day allotment, that's just how you buy the credits.

But still, we find it a very budget friendly option. I like knowing that I already have paid for a lot of my food prior to my trip. We like the table service options, and they can certainly add up. For example, my entree alone at Le Cellier (filet mignon with mushroom risotto) was $36. It's easy to get a good value for your money with little effort. You just have to make sure you actually use all of your credits!

2. Bring your own food - Sounds kind of obvious, but if you are flying, is this something you would do? We fly, and yes, we pack food and drinks for the kiddos. This year, I brought Capri Sun-style drink pouches, as well as just little snacks that fit great in both a suitcase and diaper bag and yet won't crush. When E Belle got thirsty in that hot Florida sun, I didn't always have to go run and get her a $2.50 bottle of Dasani. I just pulled out the drink pouch.

3. If on the dining plan, figure out what your cheapest meal of the day will be, then use cash - For us, this was almost ALWAYS breakfast. The exception was our character breakfast at Chef Mickey's. All other breakfasts were eaten at the quick service area in our resort. We're not big breakfast eaters anyway, so we were happy with things like bagels and a drink. Even so, breakfasts ran close to $15 just for simple breads.

4. Get the resort mugs - If you stay in property, get one for each member of your family who can drink from a cup (we didn't buy E Belle one). They're about $13 a piece, but you can use them to refill your drink the length of your stay in your resort's quick service area. When drinks are running $2+ a piece, this is a quick money saver. In the end, you take home the mug. I still have mugs from about 15 years ago when they were new and smaller. Technically, you aren't supposed to use these at different resorts, but I'll confess - when we were staying at the Polynesian, we did use our mugs at the Grand Floridian when we ate at their quick service one day for lunch. Disney's really made doing this pretty easy because the mugs no longer are resort specific, meaning the one you get at the Conteporary is the same that you get at Pop Century. I really hate this because I liked having the resort specific ones, and Disney's made it easier to abuse the system. Not promoting doing this, now, but it is possible. *Note* you cannot use these mugs in the Parks.

Disney on Ice discount code!!

I'm probably in Charlotte WAY too much, but I just love going down there. It's the benefits of living near a pretty big city without having to deal with the negatives, KWIM?

Anyway, I got this discount info for Disney on Ice for their 10/8 - 10/11 shows. If you think it's just for girls, you will be pleasantly surprised! Little Man went last year and had a blast. This version of the show also has a Halloween element as well!

Here's the 411:

**The coupon code is be ‘MOM’— four tickets for $44 for weekday shows Monday-Friday and $4 off all tickets for weekend shows. Any additional tickets beyond the 4-pack for shows during the week are still priced at $11.

**The tickets can be purchased from http://www.ticketmaster.com and by entering the MOM code in the “MC promotion” box when purchasing tickets.

**Offer not valid on Rinkside or VIP seating.

**Cannot be combined with other offers.

**Service Charges, facility & handling fees will apply.

Making clothes

I like to shop. No, scratch that, I LOVE to shop. And I really like shopping for kids clothing! The downside - the price. Little Man's pretty much outgrown the good stuff at consignment sales, and he wears a husky size pant, so I almost always buy new for him now. E Belle is another story - I can't stop buying for her! But this season, I've only bought new if I have had a coupon, and I've managed to pick up a few cute used items along the way. Yet E Belle has managed to be short on dresses.

Last year, I bought several Chez Ami dresses. Once I got them, I noticed that they had a handmade feel to them. Not that that's bad - it's not! But it got me thinking, maybe I could do that?

So, I've learned to sew. I've made a few household items, and now I've moved on to clothes. I'm on PJ bottom pair #3. Next project - a minky dot swing dress for E Belle!! There's one very similar to it on the Chez Ami website for $60. My price today at Joann for the fabric, pattern, extra needles, interfacing and string - $28. Not a real cheap-o deal, but way cheaper than the boutique version!

I'll get some pictures going once the projects are completed.

Another Triple Coupon Week

I was just looking at some of my old posts, and I saw one from a few months ago on my first Triple Coupon savings day. Well, here's the results of this past Monday, which was my latest Triple Coupon day:

Spent: $78
Saved: $71.88 ($46.58 in coupons, $25.30 in shopper card savings)

Woohoo!!! My couponing has gotten better - our weekly budget for groceries has gone from $140 to $120, and as you can tell, I spent well under that. In fact, I've spent less than $100 each week this month.

It's been worth it to start couponing. I do get funny looks sometimes when I'm walking around the store with my 3 ring binder in my hand, but I've saved nearly $700 in the past six months with coupons and shopper card savings. I only count the shopper card savings because I've started actively shopping the sales, but it all counts! It's all money saved!!

How are you doing?

Looking for savings? Check your insurance

We got the insurance bill for the next 6 months for Dear Hubby's car the other day. It's almost $400. He has no points, no tickets, no anything, and he drives a 2002 SUV. We know that my bill is right behind, and it is closer to $450. I, too, have a perfect driving record, and I have a 2007 minivan. $1700 for a year just seemed high.

So, I started snooping around. Sure enough, we're paying about double what other name brand companies are charging!! We're in the process of switching. Not only is our new company cheaper, but their payment options are much easier on our pocketbook. The current company requires payment in full or half payment now, the other half in a month. Our new company allows you to pay monthly, quarterly or biannually with very little price difference.

If you haven't reviewed your insurance lately, it's definitely worth the time and hassle.

Deals on photo prints

I realized the other day that I have over six years of memories stored with Shutterfly.com. Kind of scary! And yet, I've only ordered a small fraction of these pictures, mainly because of price.

Right now, my task is to complete the Disney photo albums for the kiddos. E Belle's holds 80 pictures, while Little Man's holds 100 pictures. The thought of spending upwards of $35 just to fill these two albums does not sit well with Frugal Mama right now.

One of the best non-photo plan prices around right now is about 15 cents on Shutterfly, 19 cents if you pick up your pictures in store at places like Target or Walgreens. But, I've discovered an even better plan.

I've gotten on CVS.com's and Walgreens.com's photo email lists. They run some seriously good specials! I've gotten free prints before at Walgreens, and today, I cashed in on their current special - 30 prints for $3.

Shutterfly also gives away free prints. I think most people know that you get 15 free prints for inviting friends, but you also can get free prints for making a Share Site. This is simply a website where you can post photos, and you can invite people to come look at them instead of sending out a sildeshow email. I did this for our family after our Disney trip, and Shutterfly rewarded me with 50 free prints! All I had to do was pay $3.19 in shipping and tax.

So, I've gotten 84 photos thus far for the grand sum of $7.20. Not bad!

In defense of Deluxe Level resorts at WDW

So, trying to be frugal means trying to not spend a lot of money, right? But it also means getting the most bang for your buck. At Disney World, this is an even bigger game than in every day life.



For those who don't know, Disney has three resort levels - Value, Moderate and Deluxe. Value resorts are a steal, as rates usually fall between $80 - $110 depending on the room, season and number of people. The downside - ginormous resorts, tiny rooms, all bus service, tour groups, etc. The next step up, the Moderates, are still ginormous, but the theming is more toned down. Rooms are slightly larger, but it's still all bus service. Then there's the Deluxe. Some are serviced by the monorail, others have boat service, but there are some places where bus service is mandatory. Rooms are much larger, have interior coridors and are overall just nicer. However, they come with a hefty price tag.



On our last three trips, we've stayed at Deluxe resorts - the Wilderness Lodge (cheapest), Polynesian (most expensive) and Contemporary. But why would we do this when we're trying to get out of debt? Now, I'll admit that the rack rate for our room at the Contemporary in the tower this year was $390, but we certainly didn't pay that much. I would pass out to think of paying that much anywhere in the 'normal' world, but that's pretty standard for WDW.



While we are open to staying in a lower priced resort, we feel like we do get a lot for our money.



*We like our space and large beds. Our largest room ever was at the Polynesian, and it was about 490 square feet. That's huge! Deluxe resorts also feature queen sized beds, while almost all of the Moderates and all of the Values have doubles.



*We go back to the room every day. Some argue that they are happy staying in a Value resort because they don't use the room except to sleep at night. We don't. Our kids need a break! So, we spend several hours in the afternoon in our rooms, on top of the nights and mornings.



*Ease. At the Wilderness Lodge and the Contemporary, we stayed in the same building as all of the amenities - front desk, quick service, sit down dining, etc. It was nice to be in the room, jet down to the quick service for a drink, and be back upstairs in less than 10 minutes. Not all Deluxes are like this - this same trip at the Polynesian would have taken closer to 20 minutes! But if you are at one of the other level resorts, it's a guaranteed walk to everything.

*Transportation. By staying at a monorail resort, we have been able to get to the Magic Kingdom, Epcot and back again much faster than if we were traveling by bus. In fact, you can even walk from the MK to the Contemporary, which saved us time when leaving at peak transport times. Why is faster better? That means we're spending more time in the parks! We're not having to wait 20 minutes on a bus, then spending another 10 - 20 minutes on the bus back to the resort, then traveling within the complex, then spending 10 more minutes getting to the room. We were able to go from the gate at the MK to our room in 20 minutes!

I could go on, but I think you can get the picture. When staying at Disney and looking at prices, those numbers don't tell the whole story. You've got to look at what you are getting. Now, if your budget calls for you to have to stay at a Value resort, stay there or look to stay off property. I'm not saying at all that you HAVE to stay at a Deluxe resort. But I just hear so many people on the Disney fan boards scoff at the Deluxes based on price alone. I've never felt ripped off when it comes down to it.