Originally Posted By t1lersm0m Yep Tom, I've brought quickie breakfast items too to have in the room. Just because people find ways to "save" money, doesn't mean a trip to WDW is out of the question.
Originally Posted By DVC_dad The spending limits can be increased, based on what resort you stay at. Boardwalk will give us $2500, and you can "reload" that by calling the front desk and asking them to go ahead and move whatever balance you have to your credit card.
Originally Posted By DVC_dad Personally I LOVE room key charge cause when I get home I only have three or four amounts to put in my check register instead of 93 !
Originally Posted By Labuda "and you can "reload" that by calling the front desk and asking them to go ahead and move whatever balance you have to your credit card." Exactly what Eric & I do! Also, we've done traveler's checks and applied them to the room on arrival - did that on our honeymoon and ti worked great - we'd just call the fornt desk every evening when we got back to the room to find out how much credit we had left.
Originally Posted By cape cod joe Values have a $500 limit and AKL et al have a $1500 limit. That means that they have to call the hotel (even as you're standing in line waiting to buy stuff) and approve another 500 or 1500. My way around that is to have them take out a grand up front so I get the 1000-1500th dollar available to charge on room key. I also take about 1500 in greenbacks and credit cards as backup.
Originally Posted By RoadTrip We always charge everything to our room key... that actually helps me keep track of our budget. Before each trip I set up an Excel spreadsheet with our budget on my handheld computer. I use the categories Food, Souvenirs and Misc. Other things I don't worry about (airfare, limos, etc.) since I know the cost of those in advance and they are not variable expenses. Every evening I take all the charge slips and punch the amounts into my handheld. I have the spreadsheet set up to show daily totals by category, overall budget balance by category, and projected end of trip budget balance by category based on my present rate of expenditures. Yea. I know. I'm a geek. What can I say? But it does keep me on track. We have a savings account that is specifically for Disney Vacations. By preparing a budget and keeping track of my expenses I'm able to make sure that our vacations are covered by savings -- no balances carried on plastic. We pay our room charge with American Express, but then pay it in full when we get the bill.
Originally Posted By t1lersm0m <<But it does keep me on track. We have a savings account that is specifically for Disney Vacations. By preparing a budget and keeping track of my expenses I'm able to make sure that our vacations are covered by savings -- no balances carried on plastic. We pay our room charge with American Express, but then pay it in full when we get the bill.>> LOL, that's all WAY over my head! Spreadsheets, expenses? LOL You're too funny.
Originally Posted By Coachbagfanatic1 We do the same thing RT. Use the Amex as it has to be paid in full when the bill comes in. But then we bring cash with us as well. We get a $1500 charging limit at the GF but then we can have them transfer the balance to the Amex if need be. But normally we are pretty good and don't have to result to that as the cash is used first.
Originally Posted By cape cod joe Man Trippy--people (some people) give me credit for discipline i.e. working out etc but I have NONE with money and wish I did what you did (if I could with the esoteric computer stuff). We just spend, spend, spend!
Originally Posted By RoadTrip <<Man Trippy--people (some people) give me credit for discipline i.e. working out etc but I have NONE with money and wish I did what you did (if I could with the esoteric computer stuff). We just spend, spend, spend>> When you work for a public university you know you are never going to get wealthy from what they pay you. If you are going to accumulate anything it has to be through disciplined money management. It would be fun to be more freewheeling, but if I want to meet my financial goals I can't be.
Originally Posted By cape cod joe You are full of it so stop the humble stuff. You just have a lot more abilities than most people PERIOD> I thought all people over 50 were stupid with the high tech stuff? like ME! I wish I had time to learn as I'm just trying to learn Portuguese and Spanish to keep up with my clients.
Originally Posted By Kennesaw Tom Its neat charging to my Am Ex. That way I have all the shops at Disney stores and restaurants up on my Quicken.
Originally Posted By vbdad55 <Cash. The expression is probably only familiar to those of us over 50. < no wonder I didn;t have to ask
Originally Posted By Lake Nona Kind of late for this thread, but for those first or second timers to go to WDW to save for meals, etc... <a href="http://www.mousesavers.com/meals.html" target="_blank">http://www.mousesavers.com/mea ls.html</a> <a href="http://www.mousesavers.com/otherwdw.html" target="_blank">http://www.mousesavers.com/oth erwdw.html</a> My wife got me a 100 dollar debit gift card from AAA for my birthday, we have done travel checks before, but this year's trip we will do the gift card route. I believe AMEX does a gift card also.
Originally Posted By jazzfan4 You can set your own limit to charge with the key. They will set it for $1000 at a moderate but when asked I set the limt at $500 knowing I could authorize more if needed, it was not.
Originally Posted By Liberty Belle I take travellers' cheques and a small amount of cash (normally only $500-$1000 for a whole four-week vacation) as well, but use my room key and credit cards interchangably for other things, as I can't use my debit card internationally, so it's travellers' cheques or credit.
