Travel Tuesday: Side-Hustling to Disney!

Hi, friends! I hope you all had a wonderful weekend! We just got back from a week-long trip in Northern Minnesota with my whole side of the family! It was so much fun spending time with everyone and I will probably share more with you in upcoming posts. 

But in the meantime, I'm excited to share today's blog post with you! This information is always something I get questions about in real life, so I though I'd compile all my information together, in hopes that it will give you some new ideas too- either for earning money for [Disney] travel, or even adding to your monthly income!

I love going on trips to Disney! We've only been a few times, but each time we go, I love it all the more! Our income/current place in life doesn't allow us to be able to go as often as I would like, so I have to get creative in earning money to fund these trips. So far, I've earned enough to pay for about two-thirds of our 2018 trip to Disneyland, and I'm almost to my savings goal for our upcoming Walt Disney World trip! I first got the inspiration to do this from the Facebook group Saving for Disney with C2D. I've gotten lots of tips and tricks throughout the years, so definitely check them out! 

I should let you know too, that the links I have to the following sites and apps are my referral links. You will get a small kickback for signing up through my links and I will get a small kickback too. You can also find a whole list of my referrals here.

Survey Sites

I earn the bulk of my side-hustle money on sites like Swagbucks, MyPoints, and Inbox Dollars. I categorized them as survey sites, but there are lots of activities you can do to earn rewards- surveys, watch videos, shopping, etc. I don't usually spend a ton of time on these sites per day, but I've been using them for years (since 2007!) and have developed a daily routine of activities I do to help earn rewards. On Swagbucks and MyPoints you earn points that you can redeem for different gift cards or even cash through PayPal. I will usually redeem my rewards for cash on my PayPal account, and use that money to purchase Disney gift cards.

Apps

Again, see my page here for all my referral links so you can earn extra rewards at sign-up!

Another main way I earn money for Disney trips are through a variety of cash back apps. There are so many out there, but I generally use the ones that you upload pictures of shopping receipts to get money back. Fetch Rewards, Receipt Hog, Receipt Pal, and Coinout are the ones I use the most. Ibotta, Checkout 51, and Shopkick are others I use occasionally as well. And again, I usually redeem cash into my PayPal account if I can; otherwise I will redeem to a store I know I'm going to shop at, like Target or Walmart, and just move money from the applicable budget line item (like groceries) to my Disney fund.   

Credit Card Rewards

I will preface this section by saying that if you cannot handle spending on credit cards while staying in budget AND paying off your balance in full every month, do not try to do any credit card travel hacking.

We have 2 main credit cards that we use to our advantage when planning for travel. One is the Disney Chase card, which we are able to get 2% cash back on things like gas, groceries, restaurants, and other spending through Disney directly. We can use those rewards on our trips for things like food or souvenirs. They occasionally have larger sign-up bonuses too, so I believe we were able to get an additional $200 account credit when we made $X amount of purchases in the first couple months. If you go to Disney even semi-regularly, I think this card is a good idea; you can even get discounts on some dining and merchandise at the parks!

We put most of our other purchases on a credit card through our bank that allows us to redeem our points at 1.5 times their value for travel- flights, hotels, etc. Since we didn't travel during COVID and before that when I was pregnant with our daughter, we had a lot of points built up; I was able to find round-trip flights for the 4 of us for around $120!

Using these rewards

Once I have this money in my Pay Pal account, I will purchase Disney gift cards, but never at full price! If you are a Sam's Club member, they sell Disney gift cards on their website for a discount; otherwise if you have a Target Red Card, you can purchase [Disney] gift cards at your 5% discount. If you book your trip through the Disney website, you can use these gift cards to pay for your trip! You can also use gift cards for most purchases on the Disney property- food, dining, etc.

I definitely don't get rich by using these methods; I typically earn between $75-100 on average per month through all these different sources. But it adds up! Our last trip was in 2018 and we are planning our next one in 2022; I am on track to pay for this next trip almost completely with this extra money!

Let me know if you have any questions on my methods! I'm happy to dive in further to help you earn money. Or let me know if you'd like another post on tips for saving money on a Disney trip itself. I love saving money!