Tag: budgeting

Lockdown Shopping Syndrome

Em

I’ve no idea if that’s an official term, but if it’s not, I’m coining it now. And I’ve been suffering from it. I know I’m definitely not the only one either! My best friend and I also call it #AddToBasket. It’s definitely an issue!

In the absence of other things to do / places to go, my poor bank accounts have taken a massive hit with perhaps some of the most random items I have ever purchased in my lifetime! (At the start of lockdown I bought a cello… A CELLO! I still intend to learn it properly, I just haven’t had the motivation)

A lot of the items I’ve bought though have been Disney related. Some have been just fun things, some have been for planning purposes and some have been little things that I think will be useful on a trip! So i thought I’d share a few here.

1. Loungefly Bags and Minnie Ears

I started my Loungefly backpack collection a little while ago, and keep adding the odd one. Some really cute ones have come out since lockdown began such as this Mulan one

this Cinderella anniversary one

and this fab light-up Tangled bag.

As for Minnie ears, I totally blame Molly from All Ears for my obsession! I used to have two pairs. Now I have MANY. From Disney store, from Etsy…. I just keep seeing cute ones! Agh! Help!

2. Minnie Mouse Main Attraction Mugs

The Minnie Mouse Main Attraction mugs (try saying that five times fast!) are part of a bigger collection of Loungefly Bag/Ears/Pin set/Mug/Minnie Plush, one of which has been released each month since January each based on a different Walt Disney World attraction.

After attempting to get an occasional backpack or set of ears (and I 100% mean attempt because these items going on sale at 8am and are typically sold out by 8.03am!) I decided on the mugs. They are stackable, but I decided to keep them in their boxes because they look really nice.

Minnie Mouse Main Attraction Mugs (and in front, wax melts with scents from the Magic Kingdom from SeillanMórShop on Etsy)

3. Walt Disney World Transportation Planner

I spotted this on Etsy and thought it would be really helpful when planning how to get between the parks or to different restaurants.

This was, of course, before park hopping ended, but I still just love it, especially as my husband has a fond love for London Underground style maps.

From Etsy seller WDWFocus

4. Disney Dinner Plates!

This dinner set from George caught my eye and now it’s our main dinner set! Even my husband likes it and I thought I’d have to talk him into having Mickey on his plates! (Note the hidden Mickey I made for my Instagram pic 😂)

Disney dinner service from George at Asda. Photo from my Instagram @gibsonsdodisney

These are just a few of the things we’ve bought! Have you found yourself shopping more? Found any lovely Disney things? Share your purchases!

Shout out to my Travel Agent

Em

I want to give a MASSIVE shout out to my travel agent, Peridot Harrison.

Actually first of all, let me give a shout out to ALL travel agents. I can’t imagine the hassle they must have been getting since the start of the lockdown in March. I know Peridot has had some really crappy people essentially blaming agents for things that could not be any less their fault.

Unprecedented is a big buzz word at the moment, but it’s certainly a correct one. Nobody could have predicted this, and the effect it would have on global travel. Everyone I know has had trips cancelled or postponed, but just about everyone I know has also been very gracious about it with the people who have helped book those trips.

Peridot has been on the receiving end of so many emails from me as I rescheduled our family trip so many times, or worried about whether we should move it again. And every time I apologised for bothering her, I was met with her reply saying that I wasn’t. She has done her absolute best for me and the family for several years now and is brilliant.

Peridot is a Travel Counsellor. If you have one, hooray! If you don’t, I highly recommend ours. She works from home and you don’t have to be close by, as she works over the phone and by email, so you could literally live at the other end of the country from her and still be her client.

As with all travel agents, you pay her nothing, but she gets commission from the places you book with when you book through her.

Check her out. She is (with the help of her business partner and best friend Claire who specialises in cruises) exceptional.

https://www.facebook.com/PeridotHarrisonTC/

Budgeting / Saving

Em

Obviously everyone has their different way of saving up for a Disney trip. There is no doubt about it, Walt Disney World – and everything once you get there – is a costly endeavour. There are ways to budget, and ways to not spend the earth, but if, like us, you’ve decided that a few extras are on your itinerary or you just want to find a way to save up, I wanted to share the way we’ve been saving up.

Stephen and I opened up a joint Monzo account. If you are not familiar with Monzo, it is an digital bank account (there are others available such as Starling and Revolut) within which you can separate your money from your main balance into pots for your various spending/saving needs.

  • Example of a pot***
*** tips to be talked about in another post

We have both had individual Monzo accounts for just over a year now and we have been together for 19 years, married for almost 17, and this is the first time in all that time that we have been able to effectively manage our money. Previously we have nearly always used overdrafts, credit cards or just generally been in debt. Now we are OUT of debt and managing our money really well, so I want to just put that out there first things first! (This is not sponsored by Monzo, I just wanted to say why we use it!!)

So we opened up the joint account and all of our spare money each month (WE HAVE SPARE MONEY THAT HAS NEVER HAPPENED BEFORE!) goes into this account. Then I have made pots for each individual thing that we needed to save for on the trip. The great thing about the pots is, once the money is in there, it can’t accidentally be spent. You have to physically move it to the main balance to spend it. Also, you can lock up a pot until a fixed date too so that you can’t even move it for a while.

So, for example, here are the things we are saving for. There were some other items on the list but as we have already saved up and paid for them, we’ve deleted or renamed those particular pots.

We are hoping by doing this, we shouldn’t come unstuck when we arrive. We have put away a little spending money for ourselves and the girls too, but what we love is that the girls have their own little savings accounts which work in a similar way and they have been putting a little of their own money aside too, by saving a bit of their own weekly allowance! They are already doing better than us!