How to get to Disneyland on the cheap

Disneyland to our family is simply a magical place.  The whole family loves it there.  Not every family sees the magic kingdom in this fashion but we do and we would like to go there as much as possible.  That being said, there's no reason to put Disney ahead of other financial goals.  We just need to make them all work in harmony.  Make no mistake college is coming and we need to save money for that, retirement is coming faster than we think and so are more trips to Disneyland.

Here's how we make our trips to Disney as inexpensive as possible.

Theme #1 Airmiles!

Park passes
You may be surprised just how far a few Airmiles can get you towards your Disneyland vacation goal.  We like to use our airmiles often to buy our park passes.  Those puppies are expensive so that's where we go first with our airmiles.

Rental Car
If you're doing Disney on the cheap there may be some driving involved.  If you didn't bring your car down then why not look at a rental car?  They're really not that expensive.

Hotel
We have not done this to date but if you have your park passes covered, why not pay for your hotel with airmiles too?  You can search out all the details on the Airmiles website but it looks like they do have a few hotels right by the park.

Flights
This one is a bit of a classic, but of course you can pay for your flights with airmiles.  You can also drive to Bellingham and fly on Allegiant Air to LAX those are about the cheapest flights from our neck of the woods.

Theme #2 - Being Thrifty

Shuttle
If you do fly into LAX the Super shuttle will happily give you a ride to your Disney proximity hotel for about $16 a head. 

Disney savings
One of the things we've picked up off of Pinterest in the past year is a Disney savings jar.  We like to plan our Disney trip, talk about the plans over dinner and generally just be excited about the upcoming trip a few months in advance.  In order to keep the topic fresh we often build a Disney savings jar from an old coffee can and decorate it like Mickey or Minnie.  That way as we go about our day to day life if there's a bit of extra money  around we put it in the jar.   Sometimes Grandma and Grandpa come around for dinner and put some money in the jar (its happened). If we feel like we've caught a good sale or made a good buying decision in another area we put some money in the jar.  Or if we've foregone a normal treat in lieu of more money for Disney, we put that money in the jar.  I think it teaches kids to set financial goals and we've been delighted when we take the accumulated cash to the bank and change it in for American spending money.

Park drinks and snacks
The only other things we regularly do to make Disney cheaper is we bring our own water bottles into the park so we don't have to buy drinks there and we stay hydrated in the California sun.  We also bring with us lots of snacks to take into the park. 

If you're wondering how close you are to your next Disney vacation just take out a blank piece of paper and estimate the costs.  You may be closer than you think!