I have taken my family to Disney in every way possible as cheap as possible! There are things that I feel makes the trip for me extra wonderful and I try not to skimp if I can find a way not to. We used to pull our RV and stay at Fort Wilderness at such a great rate! The kids are adults now and the RV is too small.
My sister and I split a VRBO now and since we are tied to my parent's (they stay at the Fort in their RV) we are able to book Fast passes at 60 days.
I really enjoy eating at WDW. I don't want to pack sandwiches. That is what we do at home! So, I start really early saving, getting Disney gift cards at a discount, figuring out maybe getting an AP, Disney Visa, etc.. for discount on food.
We definitely don't put hopping on our tickets. That is a lot more $ since there are 6 or more of us. I don't find adding a day or two to our tickets that big of a deal. The amount of an extra day shrinks so much at days 6 and 7...
I am donating plasma right now. My goal right now is to pay for two tickets with donation compensations. If I make it to that amount, I will shoot for two more!
I am doing shopkicks like crazy right now!!! I have really done well the last 2 months. I will use those to buy our
MVMCP tickets. If I can acquire more before we go, I will start to save them for our table meals.
I am also doing swagbucks but pretty much only Best Buy and when I make purchases with Target, Kohls and Disney shopping. Otherwise, I have found the surveys and shop & earn are just to much of a pain. I will use these gift cards for a Walmart purchase for food at the VRBO.
When I created a spreadsheet and figured out every cost down to even gas...our trip for 6 of us from Dec 14-22, 2019 with 8 day base tickets...came out to around $8000.
I started very early saving and figuring out how to pay for this! And, this will be the Christmas present for this year (so that in itself is a savings).
We will have 3 in college this next year so I need to be creative. I find it fun and a challenge though!