About 2 months ago one of my girls, Sarah (15) said, "Mom can we wear matching shirts one day at Disneyland?" I told her I'd think about it and see what I could come up with. I looked up "Disneyland iron transfers in JPEG" on Etsy and found HUNDREDS of designs to choose from. I found the one above for $4. I chose the JPEG format instead of premade transfers so that I could adjust the size. The original print is a large one and I wanted a pocket sized image.
I then went back to Sarah, showed her this design and asked her what color shirts we should put it on. She immediately said, "lime green." I went to the Hanes website and found that they were having a sale, 40% off orders of $100 or more. I also found free shipping code. I started thinking about souvenirs. My kids all love wearing hoodies in the fall and winter and I knew they would love to have one from Disneyland, but my research showed that they cost $60 in the stores at the park. Yikes! I decided to try to make my own. I found another 2 designs on Etsy that I liked and let the kids choose which one they wanted. One had 5 Mickey heads with the traditional characters and the other had 5 Mickey heads with the princesses. They also chose the colors for their hoodies and whether they wanted pullover or zip up. I ordered the 10 t-shirts, the girls got polyester (I love the dri weave!) and the boys got cotton, which is why there is a slight variance in the colors, and 8 hoodies for $151. Way cheaper than buying them at the parks!
We put pocket sized transfers on the front of the zip ups and larger transfers on the front of the pullovers. With the cost of the transfers and transfer paper and hoodie, each was a grand total of $12! The green t-shirts were $4 each. We love the designs too!
The lighter colored shirts and hoodies work the best with the homemade transfers!
I am going to share a few of my ideas for saving money on vacation. Keep in mind that this is all relative to me! Everyone has different ideas on saving money and it is always value based. By that I mean, what is of value to you. I have done vacations on a dime before and they are not my favorite way to travel. I am kind of an "all or nothing" person. I would rather take one really nice vacation every 2-3 years, than a cheap, no frills, skimp by vacation every year. That's just me! I don't really want to cook or eat fast food or sandwiches for every meal and I don't want to cram 10 people into a small hotel room. There are a few ways that I like to save a little money though, so those specific to this vacation I will share. The first one pertains to meals and drinks. I do not buy soda for my kids very often and I rarely have any at the house. I do, myself, like to drink Dr. Pepper, but only from a fountain, so I don't have cans or 2 liters at home. This is my one "do as I say, not as I do rule" for my kids. Bad example, I know. Having said this, for this trip I have purchased about 12- 12 packs of different sodas for the kids to drink. I will keep a cooler full in the van and one in the hotel room. They will be allowed to drink them pretty much whenever they want. Because they will have access to this special treat in the van and hotel I will encourage them to drink water while we are in the parks. The cost of a small soda in Disneyland is $3.19 Yikes! I think the kids will go along with this idea, especially since they will be on a budget, which I will explain later.
Everyone will have a fanny pack, terribly unfashionable, but extremely practical.
We don't need a stroller and I am NOT carrying everybody's
crap stuff all around Disneyland, California Adventure, Sea World and Universal Studios! So everybody will have to wear one of these. They can put their electronics in a plastic bag to keep them dry on the wet rides and still have them to play with during the long line standing we will be doing. Snacks, sunscreen, sanitizer, water bottles and as you can see, a $20 bill. One of the ways we are saving a little money is by staying at a hotel that has a hot breakfast buffet included with the rooms, along with free parking, and it is close enough to walk to Disneyland (2 blocks). We will eat a good breakfast in the morning and then plan to stay open to closing at the parks. Each person will be given a $20 bill for food for the day. The snacks in the fanny packs will help stretch the money and we will encourage the kids to share orders and eat smaller, more frequent meals during the day. $20 is not much per person for 2 meals and snacks in these places! I know, I have all the menus! :) A Dole Pineapple Whip is almost $4 and I plan to eat at least one of those. I feel that $20, along with the snacks they can carry, is a reasonable amount and by giving the kids the money to hold and spend themselves, they will be more responsible in their choices. We can always adjust after the first day if we need to.
These are a couple of creative ways I choose to save money. It may not be a large amount saved, but it is what works for me to still enjoy my vacation!
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