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Mar 21, 2014

Slowly Saving for Disney World

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Last year, we took the kids to Walt Disney World for their first trip. It was not a cheap vacation, but one we had budgeted for over the span of half a year. At the time, we didn’t plan on visiting the home of the Mouse for another few years.

And then I had the opportunity to go to a one-day conference this year, held AT Walt Disney World. With the conference offering a discounted deal on room and park tickets for several days around the conference, we decided to make this another family trip. After all, Anna and Elsa from Frozen are now at Epcot, and Cordy and Mira would do just about anything to get to meet them.

The hardest part in preparing for the trip has been bracing ourselves for the expenses again. But I think we’ll be ready with most of our trip paid for before we’re even there, and the kids already have their spending money ready to go. How? Gift cards. It’s how we budgeted and saved for our last trip, and the method we’re using for this trip, too.

Saving for Disney with Gift Cards

I knew about the conference back in the fall, and we quickly decided to make it a family vacation. At that point, each time I went to the grocery, I bought a $25 or $50 Disney gift card if we could afford it. I usually go to the grocery about three or four times a month, so that resulted in $75-200 we’ve been saving each month towards the trip. (Plus a lot of savings on gas thanks to fuel point bonuses on buying gift cards from our grocery!) We had to be sneaky about it at first, since we didn’t tell the girls we were going back to Disney until Christmas morning.

We also asked family for Disney gift cards as gifts during the holiday season. My family already does a lot of gift card exchanging at Christmas, so they were happy to give us gift cards towards our trip. The kids received smaller gifts with Disney gift cards taped to the back of them.

But Cordy and Mira have also been working towards earning their own spending money, too. We use a token system in place of an allowance in our family. Daily chores, good effort in school, and going above and beyond at home earn the girls “doubloons” (we bought a bag of plastic gold coins from a costume store) which can be traded for treats, extra privileges, or can be used like cash to purchase things they want. I prefer this system over a cash allowance since they can trade them in for non-cash rewards like staying up late, or a trip to the park when Aaron and I may not feel like going.

Since we told the kids about going back to Disney, we’ve encouraged them to save their doubloons to trade for Disney gift cards. The doubloons are roughly equal to $0.50, so every 50 earns them a $25 gift card. They’ve worked hard over the last three months to earn as many as possible and have added two or three gift cards to their stash. The cards they’ve earned or received as gifts are their own to spend as they see fit: Aaron and I will cover all meals and some snacks, and if we choose to buy them a souvenir it comes from our money, but anything else they want at Disney World is their responsibility.

I really like the gift card method of saving for a trip. While we also have a vacation savings account that has a very small amount of money transferred to each month, the gift cards are a more tangible reminder of what we’re saving towards, and the girls are so proud to hold the gift cards that they’ve earned, knowing they have their own cards to use at Walt Disney World for whatever they want. Whenever we purchase a new one, we pull them all out so the kids can see the progress we’ve all made towards the trip.

If you used this method, you could set your own schedule for when you buy a gift card. Maybe it’s every paycheck, or once a month, or when you cash in a change jar. (You can buy “add any amount” gift cards with a minimum $10 starting balance, too.) The great thing about Disney gift cards is that they can be used in the parks, at the Disney Store (local or online), and can be used for Disney travel, too. So if you’re a family who likes Disney, they won’t go to waste if you happen to have too many.

For me, it’s less painful to save in $25 and $50 increments, and exciting to see how fast it all adds up. I also don’t feel like a failure if we’re short on money and can’t buy a gift card during one shopping visit, since I know it’s likely we’ll buy a gift card on the next grocery trip.

Best of all? It’ll be such a relief to not have a huge credit card bill after our trip.

Filed Under: money, travel ·


Dec 9, 2013

No Really, Check Again

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I appreciate having health insurance, I really do. But the complexity of health insurance sometimes confuses me.

I had an in-office surgery done in June to remove a severe atypical mole from my back, along with much of the skin around it. As you can expect, that wasn’t a cheap procedure.

Since we had recently switched health insurance carriers, I expected there would be a few hiccups in the claims process. The first came with a letter from the insurance carrier letting me know they had contacted my doctor’s office for more information. No big deal, I thought.

Then another letter came asking me for more information. I provided what I could and mailed it all in. Then about a month later, I received a letter from insurance stating that none of it was covered for pre-existing conditions because they didn’t receive any information from me. A day later, the bill for the total procedure came from the doctor.

I didn’t flip out, because I’ve seen this before. It likely was a mix-up somewhere and a phone call would resolve everything. I called the insurance company in mid-September, and gave them all of the claim information. The woman I spoke with was very nice and explained that they needed proof of insurance prior to this coverage in order to process the claim and not deny it for pre-existing conditions. I thought I had mailed all of that in, but they had no record of having it on file.

She gave me the fax number for their claims department, and later that day I faxed over the proof of insurance from our prior insurance. I then called my doctor’s office and explained the situation to them, again authorizing them to provide any information needed to my insurance. I considered the issue resolved at that point. It was a hassle, but I understand mix-ups can happen. At least it was done.

Last month, I received another letter from the insurance that notified me they were contacting the doctor’s office again for more information. I had no idea what else they could possibly need, but shrugged my shoulders and figured they’d call if they needed anything else from me.

Then last week I received another set of letters telling me the claim had been denied. So this morning I called the insurance company again, and spoke with another very nice woman who wanted to help make this right. I explained it all to her in detail, and she checked the records for me.

“Oh, I see the problem. Did you have health insurance immediately before this for at least a year prior to coverage with us?”

“Yes,” I responded.

“OK, so we just need proof of your prior insurance…”

I cut her off and explained I had mailed it in once, and faxed it in again. I provided the date that I faxed it in, the number that was provided to me to send it to, and offered to send her the fax confirmation sheet showing it had been received.

“Let me check again,” she responded. A few seconds later, she said, “Oh wait, here it is! Yes, we do have it on file, right where it should be.”

“Great! So…what’s the holdup then?” If they had it, what more could they possibly need?

“We had it on file, but it looks like they didn’t realize we had it, so they continued to deny the claim. I’ll put a note on these claims to have them processed again with the information on file, and it should be completed in 5-10 business days.”

I was so confused by that statement that I could only thank her for her help and didn’t ask any further questions.

I can only shake my head at the thought that they had the information they needed to process the claim but denied it again based on missing the information that was right in front of them. At least I was able to get confirmation that it was received, and I’m grateful for friendly and helpful customer service. Having someone friendly and helpful to talk to makes the entire experience bearable.

Now let’s hope it gets processed this time so we can pay our part of it and be done. The scar will forever remind me of that visit – I don’t need unprocessed claims to further remind me as well!

Filed Under: daily life, money ·


Mar 14, 2013

Surviving Your Disney World Vacation Part 1: Planning

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Surviving DIsney World Part 1: Planning Your Trip

Now that we’re back from our first family trip to Disney, I’ve had some time to reflect on what worked well and what didn’t work so well on our trip.

These are tips that worked for us, and may work for you depending on your situation and how you prefer to vacation. I started working on this list, and realized I’d need to split it up into more than one post, because there is so much to share. So first I’ll share what worked for us when it came to planning the vacation, then we’ll look at tips once you’re at the parks.

Tip #1: Stay on-site.

The Walt Disney World Resorts system is made up of so many different resorts, from value resorts that are often as cheap as or cheaper than budget hotels off-site, to the all-out posh experience of some of the best hotels in the world. There’s something for every price point, and depending on the time of year, there are often sales and discounts when you combine a resort stay with your tickets.

All resorts have some of the same basic features. They all have a food court (or food stands) and a shop for gifts or basic necessities. All resorts provide free, easy transportation to all of the Disney parks. And when staying at any resort, your room key is also your park admission ticket, and you can grant charging privileges to it, too. This is super helpful when you don’t want to carry a lot of cards, cash and an ID with you when going to the theme parks – one card is all you need for admission and any purchases.

Port Orleans - RiversideAt Port Orleans – the riverboat in the background and hotel rooms beyond that.

As a resort guest, you can also request that anything you buy in the parks is sent back to your resort instead of carrying it around all day. (This is also a free service.)  There are pools at each resort, too. More expensive resorts will have upgrades like on-site childcare centers, restaurants, and activities.

We stayed at Port Orleans – Riverside this time, a moderate resort. We’ve also stayed at Pop Century (a value resort) when Aaron and I went together many years ago. Both had the features mentioned above. The rooms were a little nicer at Port Orleans, and the “theme” of the resort is a little more grand. Being on a river, we had a boat option to travel to Downtown Disney instead of the bus, and they also had more on-site resort activities and a table service restaurant. The room quality was a step up from Pop Century, but even Pop Century was a very nice standard room for the money.

Tip #2: Get the dining plan, especially if they offer a discount for it.

When we first booked this trip, I said no to the Disney Dining Plan. I had grand ideas of carrying granola bars and water with us everywhere we went, and looking for the cheapest food we could find while there. As we got closer to the trip, though, I realized I didn’t want to weigh myself down by carrying that stuff all day, and heard positive tales of others who used the dining plan. (Thanks, Erin!) I called Disney’s vacation planners again and added in the plan.

Basically the plan is a pay-up-front discount dining plan that provides you with two meals and a snack each day. There’s an option for 2 “quick service” meals per day (meaning you go to a counter and order it) or 1 quick service and one table meal (table=a sit-down restaurant where they bring the food to you, or also some buffets). There are more expensive options, too, but we didn’t even look at those.

We opted for the quick and table service plan, especially when we learned that character meals (where you have a meal and get exclusive meetings with Disney characters) was included in the table service options. With the meal plan, you order your food, hand them your card – the same one that’s your room key and park admission – input your PIN, and go on your way. Super easy.

Seeing a price tag of $700-ish for a week of meals for four looks outrageous at first. But now that we’re home, I added up the receipts of what we would have spent on all of those meals and snacks, and realized we saved A LOT of money. Theme parks aren’t cheap for food, but we also thought the food quality was excellent and still have great memories of the two princess meals we were able to get in on. Portion sizes are also very large, so you may find yourself using your snack credit for a light breakfast in the morning or saving some of your meal for later.

Sharing a cupcake at DisneyDessert comes with each meal, too.
My cupcake was too much for me to eat, so Mira helped.

Also? If you have a child who occasionally is too excited to eat, it’s better to pay the discounted price for a meal she’ll demand and then take two bites of and say she’s not hungry rather than the full price. (That would be Mira, for anyone wondering.)

Tip #3: Make your dining reservations early – BEFORE your trip.

Whether you’re using the dining plan or not, if you want to eat at certain locations make sure you have reservations or you may have no chance of getting in. You can call Disney or make reservations on their website up to 180 days before your trip. Want to have dinner at the new Be Our Guest restaurant in Fantasyland? Good luck – it filled up so fast we weren’t even able to get a reservation.

The character dining also disappears super fast, and you’re better off making reservations for any table meal rather than hoping for a table with a long wait and cranky kids. We did reservations for all of our table meals and never had to wait more than five minutes to be seated. It means you have to be a little more committed to a schedule, but for us that was better than the alternative of long waits or not getting to visit the restaurants we wanted to eat at.

Meeting Ariel at breakfastMeeting Ariel while eating breakfast instead of standing in a long line?
Multi-tasking win!

Side note: if you have food allergies, tell them when you make the reservations. Aaron is gluten-free, and I noted that on all of our reservations. And for each table service meal, the chef personally came out to speak with us and let us know what was safe for him to eat. (Yes, really!!)

At the Sci-Fi Dine-in Restaurant, the chef made gluten-free croutons for Aaron so he didn’t have to have a Caesar salad without croutons. (The chef insisted that the salad would be lacking without croutons!) And at Cinderella’s Royal Table, the chef prepared gluten-free rolls with an herb & olive-oil dip just for Aaron while the kids and I had regular rolls and butter. We were so impressed that Disney goes out of their way to help those with food allergies feel welcome and well-fed.

Aaaaaand…that’s enough for one post. I’ve got another set of tips coming for once you’re in the parks, including a big recommendation for those who have kids with special needs.

Part 2: Tips for at the parks.

Filed Under: family time, memories, money, travel ·


Jan 31, 2013

Home (Mis)Adventures

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Remember back in March when I had all these grand ideas of getting domestic and making some much-needed updates to our house? It was all good intentions, but other than clearing out a bunch of clutter, nothing else has been done.

Don’t get me wrong – clearing out the clutter has been a HUGE undertaking alone. It’s amazing what nine years of “just put that there and we’ll deal with it later” can do to every closet and corner of your house.

Example? This is only part of what came out of our hall closet:

The box in the foreground is STUFFED with reusable shopping bags.

I found my BlogHer ’07 swag bag at the bottom of that closet, along with business cards from several bloggers from years ago. The majority of the closet was reusable shopping bags. Forget the plastic bag crisis – we now have a reusable shopping bag crisis. Where’s the Pinterest boards for recycling your reusable shopping bags into something decorative or useful when you don’t need the hundreds of bags you have? Even my Costco trips don’t require that many bags.

The closet looks a lot more empty now. Considering we have no basement and that closet is the only safe spot in the house in the event of a tornado, it’s nice to know we won’t have to throw five feet of bags and junk out of it just to fit inside.

The swanky red plaid hunting jacket needs to be returned to my mom.

But every other project I had planned was stalled due to a lack of time and money. It helps that we’re now back to two full-time incomes (yay!) but the debt left behind from previous periods still has to be addressed.

A few months ago, I looked into refinancing our house to free up some extra money. We had an FHA loan and I learned about the streamline FHA refinance program, which is supposed to be an easier way to refinance the mortgage, with fewer requirements and relaxed standards. Seeing how the value of our house has declined as we paid down the mortgage – to the point that it’s worth about what we still owe – it sounded like the perfect program for us to lower our interest rate and payments.

Believe me, folks, getting a mortgage is nothing like it was in 2003. In 2003 we filled out an application and then went to closing when our house was ready, signed some papers, and received money back at the closing. Our down-payment was covered, and there was practically no verification of anything. It felt like a relaxing day out with a new house at the end of it.

Now? There are a lot more hoops to jump through. And they’re smaller. And possibly on fire, too.

Despite this being a streamline refinance, with no appraisal needed and fewer requirements from us regarding income and debt, it was not an easy process. I think it was easier for Aaron to get his military security clearance than it was for us to prove our employment and income.

We went through our current lender because they offered us a discount on closing costs. After filling out the initial application and mailing it back, we were told that a few forms were missing and asked to fax them back immediately. I remembered filling those forms out, but whatever – I faxed them in again.

A week later we were told additional documents were missing and they needed them ASAP. Funny, again they were forms we had already filled out, including one that I had sent back twice already. Fill out, fax, repeat. This happened another round as well.

Then there were issues documenting my employment and income. Now understand: we were using our current lender to refinance to a lower interest rate so we could pay less for our mortgage each month. We have a perfect record of (higher) payments for our mortgage, so why such concern over our ability to cover the lower payments?

Finally, a closing date was set, 83 days after the application started and 7 days away from losing our rate lock. Even two days before closing, another hoop was placed in front of us, as they demanded to see that we had the closing costs in our checking account before they could finalize everything (this was never mentioned before), and so money had to be shifted around and a method of proof found.

This morning, despite my fears that they’d find another reason to make it not happen, we signed all of the paperwork and closed on our new mortgage. We’re saving over $200 a month on our mortgage now, which will mostly be used to help finance all of the improvements we want to make around here. I’m almost giddy at the thought of picking out paint and getting estimates on the breakfast bar I want to add to the kitchen.

I’m definitely not a DIY blogger, but I’m planning to detail some of the changes we make to the house going forward. Or at the very least it’ll be a “what not to do” series.

Filed Under: domestic zero, home, money ·


Nov 12, 2012

Making A Home Out Of Our House

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We’ve lived in this house for over eight years now. It’s our first house, and the only home our two daughters have ever known.

So why, after eight years, do we have only ONE room painted, and still have nothing hung on walls? Remove the furniture and it’s builder’s standard white through most of the house.

I have no actual answer for that question. We were in such a rush to move in once the house was ready that we didn’t take the time to paint before we moved everything in. So the only room that was painted was Cordy’s room, since I was pregnant at the time and it was the one room that had no furniture at first. I also didn’t want to hang anything on the walls until they were painted.

We also never planned to stay here this long. During the big housing boom, it was common to buy a house and sell it for a profit within four to five years. We bought a house that fit our modest budget, expecting our salaries to go up, and to make a profit on the house, so we could trade up to a better neighborhood.

Ha. Sometimes fate likes to kick you down a notch. Four years after we signed the mortgage agreement, instead of looking for our next home, we were struggling to make payments for this home and keep our family together.

And now four years later, we’re still here. We didn’t lose the house (thank goodness!) but at the moment we also have no ability to sell it without taking a loss. Most homes in our neighborhood are selling for far less than their original prices. To make it worse, there’s this immediately behind us:

Still getting uglier every day!

I think we still haven’t made any changes over bitterness at not being able to leave. The house has become a prison, reminding us every day that we’re stuck here and not going anywhere anytime soon. We were lucky enough to not lose it through the recession, but now we find it also won’t let us go.

I’ve gone through the stages of grief over being stuck in this house, and I may have finally reached acceptance, or at least a temporary acceptance. I still have no intention of staying here beyond another few years, but I’ve also hit the point where I’m ready to live here, not just subsist here.

All of our walls are still white (except for Cordy’s room). Nothing has been hung on the walls. The house still looks like we’re apartment dwellers afraid to do anything to the standard built-ins for fear of losing our security deposit. But this is our home. It’s time to start treating it as such. There’s no need to keep it neutral in decor unless that’s what we want.

We’re refinancing the house using a new refinance option to cut down our monthly mortgage, freeing up a little more money each month. We’re no longer in that dire situation from four years ago, so we can spend a little money on simple updates to the house.

And now I have home remodel fever.

I want to paint, to hang cabinets, to install a backsplash in the kitchen, to put in new faucets…the list goes on and on. Pinterest DIY boards are now my unhealthy obsession.

There’s only one teensy-tiny problem: I have no talent or skill in home remodeling.

I also can’t seem to find anywhere to learn these skills. Some of the home superstores offer workshops on limited projects, but I need the absolute basics.

I guess I have a little time before I need to figure out how to use power tools. Because before we can begin many of these projects, we also have to clear out a LOT of clutter. About eight years worth of apathy clutter in this house. Starting with the garage.
 

 That’s the real, unedited, garage mess. And that’s also after several hours of clearing out a large part of it and sending six boxes to Goodwill.
I’m writing all of this out here to hold myself accountable to begin these changes in our house. It’s time to make this place a home.
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Filed Under: daily life, domestic zero, me me me, money ·