Other Ways to Save a Buck, Disney Style

So, as I said in a previous post, Mr. Bean, lil' Bean and I are doin' it Disney style this weekend. I'm SOOO excited because it is Lil' Bean's first trip and I never in a million years thought this day would come. As my original readers know, Mr. Bean and I are Disney fanatics, having gone twice while dating, on our honeymoon and almost every year since. But, with all of our fertility issues, on my part, we never thought we would get to share the joy with our very own child.

So, now that this day is finally here, we can't wait! In true discounting style, we are going now because we get free dining. That's right folks, all of our food is FOR FREE! This is actually our fourth year doing this. It makes life much easier not having to worry about paying for meals. We get one table service restaurant meal (which includes entree, drink and dessert), one counter service meal (sandwich/salad, drink, dessert) and one snack, which we usually use for breakfast (what is it about vacations that make you hungry for all three meals?). It's more food than you could possibly ever need, and still free!

Second, a couple of other discount things I have done this trip:

1. I need water for Lil' Bean for his formula and for us to not dehydrate. Florida water is YUCKY; but I don't want to pay $2.50 per bottle at Disney world. So what did I do? I ordered 24 1/2-liter bottles from Costco and had it delivered to my resort Wilderness Lodge for the low price of $7.80, including shipping!

2. I'm packing his formula, diapers, wipes and food in the suitcase so I don't have to buy it there.

3. I joined a group who pitched in together for the Disney Photopass CD so we could have the special Disney photographers take a zillion photos of us as a family in front of Cinderella's castle and more. So instead of paying $100, I only paid $16.99. And I can print as many or as little photos as I want. Even better, I was able to get in on a special photo session at the Disney Resort we are staying which is 30 minutes with a photographer with our family and only had to pay $25 instead of the normal $75 they charge because we bought the photopass CD early.

4. And my most fun project of saving items: I made some of our clothes and other items! You see, for Lil' Bean's first trip, I wanted to make some special disney t-shirts, onesies, bibs, and pillow cases to commemorate the event. So I had some great help from my friends at the Disboard create awesome designs so we could have "family" outfits for pictures at Disney I talked about in paragraph 3.

I then bought (1) 6 onesies for Lil' Bean for $2 each at Wal-Mart; (2) a light blue pillowcase for $2.50 from Wal-Mart (for characters to autograph at the Liberty Tree Tavern, Chef Mickey and Crystal Palace character restaurants); (3) 4 t-shirts for Mr. Bean and I for only $2 each at A.C. Moore when they had them on sale; and (4) I bought transfer paper from A.C.Moore, five sheets for $5.98, reg. $10.98. I bought 3 packets, in case of mistakes as this was my first time. I also cheated and had some designs given to Cafe Press who made me two bibs for $8 each and one really nice pillow for $15. The rest I made myself, using a regular printer and a cheap iron. It was surprisingly easy to do in spite of my initial fear in making them and ruining a shirt or something.

So, see how they turn out in the next post!