Disney World Dining....

Now about Dining at Disney!!

This trip we went ahead and booked for the dates during the promotion that worked best for us and began trying to decide how we wanted to work out our eating plan.

Last time we were there only for a short time and bought the dining plan so we could concentrate on getting to know the parks and not worry about food. We quickly found that the plan offered way too much food for us, even with us sharing with our little guy (he was too young to be on the plan), and having purchased the plan we felt we had to get our money's worth so we kept eating! Ugh!

For those of you that haven't been to Disney recently, or have never been, if you stay in their resorts and buy tickets through Disney for your stay, you have the option of adding on one of several dining plan options to your trip.

Quick Dining plan gives you 2 counter service meals and 2 snacks a day per person for every night you stay, as well as a refillable drink mug for use at the resort. Cost $29.99 adult, $8.99 child per night.

Reg. Dining plan gives you 1 counter service meal, 1 table service meal, and 1 snack per person per day, as well as a refillable drink mug. Cost $39.99 adult, $10.99 child per night.

Deluxe Dining gives you 3 table service meals per day, 2 snacks, and a refillable mug. Cost $71.99 adult,$20.99 child

What are counter service, table service, and snacks?

Counter service is a walk up and order meal that includes a main entree or combo, a side, a drink, and a dessert.
Table service is a meal usually at a sit down restaurant that includes your entree, a side, a drink and, and a dessert. Gratuity is not included in the plan!

Snacks are usually drinks, pretzels, ice cream, fruit, baked goods, etc. Usually $5 or less.

What we decided to do this trip...

After some consideration and some looking at menus, we think on this trip with our little guy not yet being a big eater, we can probably save money by not purchasing the dining plan. We will be giving up getting a really nice table service meal every day, but trading that for not being so full that we don't enjoy ourselves will be worth it. Not to mention... who can handle all that dessert anyway!

A great place to look at menus and pricing for food is AllEars.net They update their information periodically & you can look at menus by park so if you don't have the park hopper passes, you know where you can eat in the park you chose for the day.

There are lots of options, I'm finding out, for ways to save while eating at Disney ranging from carrying food in (yes, they do allow that to a minimum now), to splitting meals, ordering kids meals at counter service for anyone not so hungry, and eating buffets to get a good fill on occasion.
If you have a car, they say there are a few good restaurants just a few miles away that you can fill up at for less if you need more food than you're able to spring for at the parks. Sometimes it's just nice to get away for a short time too... I did actually say it's good to get away from Disney! We may get out once or twice for something different than Disney...
I will post our experiences eating off plan when we return. I have a feeling we will eat just as well, or better for less than the plan would have cost us and be more satisfied... although it was fun to see how high we could get our lunch bill while we were on the plan!

Saving Money at Disney...

Hubby and I are taking the little guy to Disney World
for our second trip as a family!

Hubby got interested in going again and starting looking at the Disney website. We soon found they were having a promotion where you purchase tickets and your hotel stay for 4 nights and you get tickets and hotel for 3 days free. After crunching the numbers and doing the math, we found a Value Resort room w/tickets for the 3 of us for just over $1,000 for the week, and that was with an upgrade to park hopper tickets!

And.. you won't believe this!! They're giving us a $200 Disney Gift Card when we arrive!

For anyone who's never stayed at Disney, or thinks that they should stay away from the Value Resorts because Value=low end, think again. Although the Value Resorts don't have all the amenities of the Moderate and Deluxe accomodations, they are as nice or nicer than most normal hotel rooms you will find outside of the park and probably at a minimal price difference, if any.

Our last experience at the Value Resorts was great! We had a nice, clean, bright room with just enough space for us and our things, and our little guy loved the themed hotel! We didn't spend much time in our room and knew that would probably be the case, it was nice to have a room on site that didn't break the bank yet met our needs.

I will try and get some better pictures this trip so you can see what's available at a Value Resort at Disney World.

It pays to do your homework when considering staying on site at Disney.
1) Make sure you do a search online for Disney discount codes before you book.
2) Call your local AAA agent and see if they offer a better rate than you can get through Disney.
3) If you've stayed before, check your email and spam box for any discount codes they may have sent you.
4) Sign up for Disney's free information packet.
5) Make sure you look for any "specials" or "offers" on the Disney site! You could book the same # of days without clicking on the right link and pay much much more!

A couple of great sites I've used to help me save money at Disney are Mousesavers.com & DisBoards. Check them out if you think you may plan a trip... there's lots of great information out there!

I will post later about
1) Food at Disney and our experiences on the Dining Plan last year,
and without the Dining Plan this year
2) Discount tickets -where to buy them if you aren't going to buy a package at Disney.

Amazon Toy Sale w/Free Mr. Potato Head

Ready for Christmas?  

Here's your chance to get your kids toys at a good buy

 with the luxury of being done early and having them delivered to your door.

Buy $25 of select toys, get a free Mr. Potato Head.

Buy $50 of select toys, get a choice of free toys ...

choose from a Rubik's cube, Playskool Magic Tamborine, Fisher Price Learning Phone, or My Little Pony Plush

Buy $75 of select toys, get a choice of free toys...

choose from Transformers Movie Allspark Blaster, Hasbro Baby Alive Sip n' Slurp, Hasbro Playskool Honeybee Hop, Spider Man Battle Car, or Martian Matter Alien Maker Play Set.

 Be sure to add your select freebie items to the cart before you checkout in order to get them.  They don't just automatically show up.

Just use one of my link below to take you to toys and then 

Seems that these deals are a little hard to put together, but worth the effort in savings.  There are lots of toys to choose from, but they are mixed in with regular items.

  Most toys that qualify for this promo also qualify for free shipping on $25 or more 

& a free subscription to Cookie Magazine.

If you don't want the magazine simple print out this form and send it in with your order receipt for a 

$15 refund (the price of the subscription).

The subscription refunds do come... I just got one in the mail from a previous offer.

-I went for an Aquadoodle wall mat $9.46

and some Webkins (lots of these qualify)-

So, the low down....

Purchase $25 of qualifying toys 

get a free Mr. Potato Head

& $15 refund if you choose not to keep the subscription

Total= $10 for $25 in toys and a free Potato Head!!

Seems pretty good to me!

Lots of games qualify...

Hot deal on Magazines including Everyday with Rachael Ray!

At lowpricesubs.com you can get 1 year of
Everyday with Rachael Ray for $1.60!!!


I just did it myself!!

They have several other magazines that you can do this with. Here are just a few examples that all work out to be $1.60 with the coupon code June (there is a note on their homepage about using the code July for 20% off but it didn't work... I had found the code June here and it works perfectly)

Some are 1 year and some are even 2!

Bridal Guide Magazine

Cabela's Outfitter Journal

Car and Driver

Four Wheel & Off Road

redbook

I purchased Everyday with R.R. (1 yr), Family Fun Magazine (2yrs), Wondertime (1yr), and Women's Day (3yr for $5). My grand total was... drum roll please.... $8.80

They take credit card or Paypal for payment and you can expect your publications in 4-16 wks... for the price I'm willing to wait for them. Just printed my receipt and will keep it handy until they all come.

I had never heard of this site before, so this is my first attempt at using them. I did do some research and found that most everyone that has ordered from them was satisified with what they received. I felt like for $8 it was worth the try for me.

Walgreen's 101

Walgreen's, like CVS, is a great place to find deals on anything from the expected drug store medications and vitamins to personal care products, household products and even food.

To start with, Walgreen's always has store coupons in their advertisements that you can pick up in the store or they usually come in your local paper. You can always use a manufacturer along with a store coupon if you have one available. This is called stacking and should be allowed at any store.

Walgreens has recently changed thier rebate program. They used to offer a rebate catalog that also offered coupons. This was called the EasySaver Catalog which is no longer availalble.

Rebates are still offered at Walgreens, just now as many or in the same fashion. Now you will find a few items marked with red tags throughout the store with tags noting the rebate amount and dates. So far the only items I've come across with rebates since they changed the system is seasonal items. I don' t know if you can still get teh 10% bonus for putting it on a gift card or not, but this use to be the case.

Another great thing that Walgreen's offers on a regular basis is something called a register reward (RR), sometimes also called a catalina. RR's are coupons triggered by a purchase at the register. Sometimes they are coupons for a $ off of an item, other times they are good for cash off of your next purchase.

Sales with RR's are often advertised, but at times are a surprise. They are often triggered by purchasing a certain number of a particular product. If you know what triggered a $ off of your next transaction and wish to do the order again, keep in mind if you used the RR you received for purchasing the items won't be triggered if you use it on the same deal again.

For example... say a $2 RR is offered if you buy 3 Crest toothpaste or Scope products.
You buy 3 toothpaste and receiver your $2 RR
-If you use the $2 RR and purchase 3 more toothpaste or Scope you won't receive another RR.
-If you pay with cash and don't use the $2 RR you will receive another $2 RR.
It's best in this situation to pay with cash each time and use the RR on a different brand item that is offering a rebate or a good buy on something else you need.

Most stores are only allowing you to redeem 1 RR per transaction now, so keep that in mind when figuring each order. Many times it benefits you to do multiple transactions anyway, but sometimes the limit can be frustrating as well. Just keep it in mind and if you want to use more than one in a transaction that they may not allow you to and you may have to cancel your order and refigure how you want to do your orders or be willing to pay the difference out of pocket and use the RR another time. Sometimes a store will limit you, sometimes the cashier will and you may find that if you frequent one or two stores you know their quirks.

Some have reported that their stores have allowed them to use RR to purchase or reload a gift card and then they make another RR purchase and are able to "roll" their RR this way. Some stores allow this and some don't- YMMV (your mileage may vary). I have never done this as there always seems to be something I can use my RR on before they expire.

Those working at the cosmetics counter often have coupons and samples to share just for the asking and are very willing to help you. They love to have you come to their registers to check out and receive bonuses for having certain numbers of customers. If you are a regular at any Walgreen's try to use the cosmetics counter when you can and you will most likely be rewarded with a nice familiar smile and help with coupons if they have any for the products you are purchasing.

Important!!! You can't have more coupons/RR per transaction that you have items! If you have 3 coupons and a RR and you only have 3 items to purchase, the last coupon/RR will not scan... you need to add a filler item (something inexpensive or on clearance is fine, or purchase something you would need to buy anyway) and the coupons will all go through fine.

Walgreens is a great place to shop for deals on household items, meds, and sometimes groceries. If you combine sales, Walgreen's coupons, manufacturer coupons, register rewards, and rebates you can often spend just pennies on the dollar for your purchases or even come out ahead.

-----------------------------------------

W Card

Meant to be a prescriptions savings program, but gives the advantage of 10% back on most Walgreens brand purchases & photofinishing. There is a $20 individual fee, or $35 for a family. You can enroll online or in the store.

You also get $50 in Walgreens coupons just for asking about the program.

Kohl's Sale

Kohl's is having one of their special buy $50 in merchandise get a $10 in Kohl's cash.

The sale starts now and goes through Monday, August 25th.

If you purchase $50 or more in the store you receive the coupon at the register. If you make your purchases online you receive your Kohl's cash in an email on August 26th. The coupons will be good from August 26th-September 6th. To see all of the details click here.

If you find things in clearance or on a good sale this could make for an even better deal!

I was also able to find this coupon code if you're quick enough on this deal...
Save 10% off any purchase code is NEW7796 Exp 08/23/08


Again... I'm a fan of BigCrumbs! If you haven't checked them out, you should! Earn $ shopping online. Here's a link to my profile if you want to see that it works. Kohl's is one of their stores so a good time to sign up! You can also earn $ shopping on ebay!