A down economy? If you were in Disney World this weekend, you would never know it. The place was packed and people were spending like there was no tomorrow! Yeah, great for the economy, or Disney for that matter–but I hope people were not whipping out the credit cards and getting into debt while there.
As for us, we enjoyed spending time together, but honestly, I am glad it is over. It was just too packed to be enjoyable. We go to these events to bypass the crowds, not get caught up in them. Apparently other families who are watching their budget are realizing this is a cheaper way to enjoy Disney too. It was just too darn crowded and hot! I never thought I would say this, but I am so done with theme parks for a while!
I will admit though that the hotel I was so nervous about staying in, turned out to be thee best! Wow, my frugality totally paid off on that one! Word to anyone who wants to stay at a nice hotel for cheap– check their prices online at the actual hotel website, but also check the discount travel sites. I used Hotels.com and I was very impressed. I got an awesome deal and will use them again–that’s for sure.
As far as our budget, we spent a little more than I thought. Actually we went over budget because of food. We ended up eating at Disney World and since we forgot to bring our bottled waters, we ended up buying lots to drink there. It was so hot and this was at night too. We also ended up having breakfast at the hotel which I never do. First of all, I have never stayed in such a nice hotel (and for cheap!). We smelled the food as we were checking out and we had to eat–we were starved! lol Of course, when they don’t put prices on menus, you know it has gotta be expensive. So I remember my husband asking “how much could pancakes really be?” Ha! You know, it wasn’t that bad but I am use to the “$5.99 are you outta your mind” deals at Denny’s or McDonalds Drive-Thru.
I did enjoy this breakfast a lot-even though it was about $15 each for us to eat-yeah each. I think I would have enjoyed it more if I wasn’t so anxious to get the bill to see just how much these pancakes were gonna cost! For some, this may not be much, but for me it was a budget buster. It was awesome food though and we were full all day.
When we returned, we picked up our dog from the Vet. Her costs were actually a lot less than what we budgeted for thanks to a coupon that the girl who works there offered us. I thought that was pretty nice.
Now we are back to our normal schedule and things are good. I plan on really busting my tail the next month and a half to work and contribute more to savings. I am not feeling too bad about the little extra we spent. We rarely go out of town anymore. It has been a year since our last trip. We only got to go for a whole day but it was wonderful to spend time with the family. The way I look at it is–we don’t spend money on habits most people have like: drinking, smoking, and eating out, which are HUGE budget busters. We work our tails off… why not splurge every once in a while on a family day?
