We went to Disney World over Spring Break this year. I'll admit that I was totally and completely against this trip. Mia was only 9 months old and I didn't think Jack would actually remember it. I wanted to wait until the babies were a little bit older. Lilli and Drew had just went over Christmas break with my mother-in-law. I really didn't want to go. I wanted a beach vacation. A vacation of doing nothing but sitting in the sand with my feet in the water, watching the kids play. Steven had other plans. He REALLY wanted to go to Disney. To keep from having an argument, I agreed. The drive was exhausting. There is no way to test your air conditioner in your vehicle in Indiana in March. We found out the hard way that the a/c in the van was broken. My van is a little older and only the front windows role down with the very back windows open to vent. Everyone was miserable by the time we actually arrived at Disney. So we parked the van and used the buses for the whole trip. By the end of the trip, I was already planning to come back. Yes, the person who didn't want to go, was already making plans to return.
So I came across Disboards.com. LOVE THIS SITE! I found several posts about different websites people use to help earn money. I signed up for every single one of them! I have since found my favorites and have $611 saved towards our next Disney trip. We are planning on going again in October of 2011. This will be Lilli's last year of elementary school and we really wanted to do something special for the kids.
So here is the Disney breakdown so far:
$150 Swagbucks (to spend in the disneystore.com).
$200 Quick Rewards
$50 Visa from Mypoints
$96.70 from Opinion Outpost
$98 from selling out-grown kids' stuff at Once Upon a Child
$8.30 Refund check from overpaying on my credit card
$8.00 from Mindfield
TOTAL = $611.00
We were under the impression that we could use the $25 Disney e-cards to book our reservation. They can only be redeemed online. So since Steven had already made the reservation, we just took the $150 out of our savings to apply it to the balance. (You only need $200 to book the reservation). The checks that I've received from Opinion Outpost, Mindfield, the refund check, and the money received from OUAC have all been deposited in a CD at my bank. That way it will gain a little interest and if we deposit at least $5 every week into the account, we are put into a drawing to win a gift card. That CD will mature in May and we can then apply that to our balance. My goal is to have $1,500 saved from Surveys for our trip. I'm really hoping to do that!
Now since we were unable to use the Disney e-card to book our reservation, or even to apply to our balance, we decided to use it for Christmas gifts. I had already had $25 from every paycheck put into a special Santa Savings account. I knew I couldn't save the money without the help from my bank. With this, we were able to save $350 to be used on my kids' Christmas.
We found out in September that I couldn't use the e-giftcards to be applied to our balance, so I started cashing my Swagbucks in for Amazon.com giftcards. I have earned $70 in Amazon.com giftcards from Swagbucks! We decided to use the $150 in Disney ecards for Christmas presents for the kids. I was also able to redeem my Pampers gifts to grow points for a $20 Sam's Club gift card. So on top of the $350 we had saved, I also had $240 in giftcards to help with Christmas! My kids are all bought for. We just have some stocking stuffers left to finish buying.
I decided that my swagbucks account would solely be for Christmas presents and everything else will be used toward our Disney trip.
You definitely won't be rich by doing online surveys, but it will help a supplement your income a little bit.
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