Coupons Clipped, Money Saved, Disney Cruised

There are many stages of coupon use.  Some people clip coupons out of necessity while others clip coupons to do something fun with their saved money.  I am naturally frugal.  My brother calls me a tightwad in the most endearing brother-sister relationship sort of way.  Paying full price for items makes me cringe.  At the beginning of my marriage my husband and I clipped coupons to pay off our debt.  We now clip coupons so that we can do something fun with our saved money.

We also have a tendency to overpay our taxes despite adjusting them every year (but that’s a whole different story) and we receive a tax return each spring.  This year we decided that we were going to do something  FUN,  like super fun with our tax return.  We decided that a Disney Cruise was what we wanted to do.  The girls are 4 and 5.5 and the perfect ages.  They are obsessed with Peter Pan and enjoy Princesses.

We looked for the best Disney Cruise price possible.  There really are never deals on Disney Cruises.  We found a 6 Day, 5 Night Bahamian Cruise for a total of $3,400 during the middle of May and booked it.  We living in Georgia which is within driving distance to Port Canaveral so our travel costs to the port were minimal.  The prices of cruises jumps up tremendously once school gets out and we were very fortunate to be able to book our trip the week before school ended.  If we had to wait our cruise would have cost around $1,000 more.  Yikes huh?

To prepare for the trip I made the girls a few Disney outfits (see their Mickey shirts and skirts above).  My husband found a place to park our car for less than $7 per day…with a free shuttle to the port.  We are always trying to save money…..even on vacation!  The shuttle people said we saved at least $100 by parking in their lot rather than at the port.

For those of you wanting to know more about our cruise and why it was so awesome I will post more soon.

Coupons are a great way to keep money in your pocket.  If you are clipping coupons because you have to I applaud you!  I have been there and it is HARD.  Keep it up and you will dig yourself out.  One day you will be clipping coupons just to save money!