Williams Family: "How Are You Going To Get That Cheaper?"

"How are you going to get that cheaper?" asked the cashier at the grocery store as I held two dozen eggs that were on sale for less than $1 each.  The question was rhetorical and a jab at my savings record.  She was the same cashier that watched a few days prior as my $100 grocery total went to $60 in a flash due to sales and coupons. At one time I taught a coupon class.  

Now, I'm more about clicking than clipping to find savings.  A recent example is the savings to be had on our personalized t-shirt purchase from Zazzle.  

The initial savings came from a discount code on the Zazzle website, and I knew about the code due to an email alert.  If using Zazzle is of interest for you, sign up for their emails.  Also, you can save your design anytime, then add to the cart for purchase when discount codes are offered.

Before any online shopping, I go to Raketun (formerly Ebates) first and searched for Zazzle.  Voila, there was 5% cash back on Raketun.  I pushed the "shop now" button which took me directly to the Zazzle website and my cart was waiting. 

Raketun pays out in "Big Fat Checks" 4 times of year if your quarterly cash back earnings are over $5.  Otherwise, the cash adds up until the next payout.  The percentages for cash back vary from day to day and store-to-store.  If you are new to Raketun, there are great offers to get you started!

For online purchases, I use our Disney Visa.  For this particular purchase, there was a special offer for Zazzle, that I activated prior to purchase.  10% back as a credit on the Visa balance.  There were 15 different offers that I could activate for the account, but this offer was one I knew I would use.  The  special offers have expirations so be sure to check if they are still active or new offers need to be selected.

In addition to the percentage back on the Visa, I earned Disney Rewards, that translate into Disney Reward Dollars. The Zazzle t-shirt purchase was a 1% back in Disney Rewards.

And, if your email is attached to the Reciept Hog app, you can earn coins/spins.  Whoa!  Saving Receipt Hog for another time.

There you have it.  New matching shirts for the family for upcoming Disney Cruise and at a savings!

This savings thing isn't new for us!

While this post is about Ebates, Raketun works the same.  Ebates-- Get Money Back When You Shop On-Line

Our "Cheap" Lifestyle Supports Our Disney Habit

How A "Couponer" Does Disney

How Many "Loyalty" Accounts Does It Take to Make It Through Summer Vacation?

The Thinking Behind The Wardrobe Selections For Walt Disney World

Packing for a Walt Disney World vacation is no easy task.  There are books/sites with packing lists, reminders, even Disney sends emails to future guests about what to remember.

For us, I make a new packing list every time.  Writing it all down, helps me think about and picture items.  We also have some things perpetually packed, such as the park bag.  But then there are the wardrobe selections.

Let me begin with it is evident that our family tradition is to dress in matching shirts each day of our vacation.  This does make packing somewhat easier after shirts are chosen.  But how to chose which shirt sets AND what day during our vacation will we wear them?

A consideration for wardrobe selection, after weather of course, is what shirts go with certain parks.  We have worn our Zootopia shirts to Animal Kingdom before, something we also try to avoid--repeating shirts at the same park--but the them of the shirts just fits with this park.  Cast Members make many comments and we get asked where we got them.  Answer:  DisneyStore.com right when the movie came out and the shirts were a limited edition.  We haven't seen them since.  If Zooptopia characters were added to Animal Kingdom, wearing these shirts to meet them would be an added bonus!

Speaking of having wardrobe selections to match characters, we had great fun wearing our Star Wars Christmas sweaters on Christmas Day to Disney's Hollywood Studios to meet Star Wars characters.  Chewbacca wanted one in his size!

Since we would be at Walt Disney World on Christmas Eve and the day before that, we decided that some holiday shirts were needed.  Santa and Mrs. Claus got a kick out of our "I Tried" shirts.

Santa was not Grumpy but he did ask about our shirts.

Often, characters recognize our wardrobe selections and make comments--even those characters that cannot talk.  These Olaf sweaters were worn on Christmas Eve Day with our "I Tried" t-shirts underneath.  It was nice to have a warm layer during the cold morning and then be able to take off our sweaters and then put them back on in the cooler evening.  Where do the sweaters go when we aren't wearing them in the park?  In the park backpack.

Guests can find Olaf at Disney's Hollywood Studios at Character Spotlight.  Give him a warm hug--he likes those!

While Olaf is at Disney's Hollywood Studios, Anna and Elsa from FROZEN can be found in EPCOT at their Somerhaus in the Norway Pavilion in World Showcase, not far from their new ride.  Both Anna and Elsa appreciated our Olaf sweaters.

Note:  It's easy for guests to travel back and forth from Disney's Hollywood Studios and EPCOT using the boat launch from the front of Disney's Hollywood Studios and EPCOT's International Gateway.  The trip takes about 25 minutes as the launch makes three stops at resorts.  The ride is a great way to rest, re-charge, and take a break from the parks.

At EPCOT's Character Spot, we met the mouse himself, Mickey Mouse and took the pose of him from our shirts.

On another day at Disney's Hollywood Studios, we wore our Carsland shirts from Disneyland.  Reason?  I knew we would be meeting Cruz Ramirez a character from Cars 3.  As a note, other guests and Cast Members inquired about our Carsland shirts.

Since the boy's favorite character is Stitch, we have at least one set of Stitch shirts.  We wore them to meet Stitch at 'Ohana's on another trip, but this trip, we wore the shirts to Disney Springs.

While at Disney Springs, we enjoyed the Christmas Tree Trail, where each tree has a different Disney theme.  We found the Stitch tree AND a Disney Photopass Photographer who was taking photos along the trail.  Voila!  Pictures of all us in front of Stitch's tree wearing Stitch shirts.

Yes, I do have these types of experiences and photo opportunities in mind while planning and packing.  Although the Stitch tree with the Stitch shirts was a bonus!

We see various versions of our strategy while on vacation such as girls changing into Princess dresses to eat or before a character meet and greet or boys wearing Buzz and Woody attire prior to meeting the Toy Story friends.

For anyone thinking that making wardrobe selections specific to parks or characters might be uncomfortable/embarassing for adults or older children, let me ease your worry right now.  The boy continues to be excited about our family's tradition, even making wardrobe suggestions.  And, DisneyBournding, where folks wear clothing in colors or designs that are a tribute to their favorite Disney character is all a rage.  This is Disney folks.  We come to play and have fun!

I have written about this before with another post:  How Do We Decide What Matching Shirt Sets to Wear?
It's a fun post and contains photos and shirt sets from a few years ago.  My, how the boy has grown!

And, here's another post:  Do You Wear Shirts to Match the Characters You Meet?
Again, more fun pics of the boy and the family!

"Is There A Red Jacket For Me?"

“Is there a red jacket for me?” asked the boy while we were getting ready for our next trip to Walt Disney World in the early morning at the hotel across from the airport as he watched his dad put on a red fleece Mickey jacket.

“Of course there is,” the husband and I replied as we motioned to the third red fleece Mickey jacket waiting to be worn.

I turned away to continue gathering our belongings smiling.  Why?  Because there has been speculation that there will come a time when he won’t want to match; to wear matching shirts when we are either at Disney or traveling to and from.

A photo from our first trip to Walt Disney World.--November 2006

You see, wearing matching shirt is one of our “things.”  Our first trip to Walt Disney World was almost ten years ago now. . . more like 9 ½ to be exact.  We had one set of matching shirts during that trip and we enjoyed wearing them.  As the years have gone on, we’ve added more sets of matching shirts, updated sets as the boy has grown out of his, retired some sets due to a growing boy, and even added jackets.

We wear matching shirts for a variety of reasons, but here’s a good summation—click here to read more.

But beyond the reasons of why we wear matching shirts, it warmed my heart that the boy still wanted to and was asking for it.  Even his tone indicated that he wanted to be included.  But isn’t that we all want?

As for the matching shirt tradition ending anytime soon, I say no.  While we were at Walt Disney World, we bought two more sets of matching shirts, with the boy’s help no less. 

Two New Sets of Matching Shirts--Fun and a Great Deal!

 When the husband and I were changing the sheets and making our bed this morning, I asked him if he would wear a red t-shirt with Mickey Mouse heads all over it.  He not only said “yes” but that he would be proud to wear it.  That’s all I needed to hear!

The day before I had been walking in our local mall and JCPenney store and saw the Disney inspired t-shirts.  The shirts were on-sale but not all of the sizes we needed were available in the store, but they were on-line.

It must have been serendipitous that I wanted to order the shirts today as I scored a great deal.  The t-shirts were on-sale for 50% off.  And, I started my on-line shopping at Ebates.com which had a 10% cash back offer for JCPenney.  And, there was an additional 20% off promo code!

So, we now have 2 more sets of matching shirts for our next Disney vacation!

Want to know why we wear matching shirts?  Click here to read more.

Matching Shirts For Summer 2014 Vacation!

We have six new sets of matching shirts for our upcoming grand summer vacation!  By "set" I mean three shirts that match to wear on the same day.  It's our thing. . . our tradition.  If you want to know why we wear matching shirts--click here.

We plan to wear these new "Cruisin' With The Mouse" shirts the day we head to and board the Disney Fantasy.  Oh, and there will be photos to mark the occasion!  This shirt was custom made at Zazzle.com.

Another Zazzle creation features the gang from Lion King.  We will be wearing these shirts on our day at Disney's Animal Kingdom.  No worries. . . the day will be great!

The shirt featuring Olaf on the beach was a must do design at Zazzle.com for our day at Castaway Cay, Disney Cruise Line's private island in The Bahamas.  After me made and ordered the shirts, we found out Olaf greets guests on the island.  Can't wait!

Another Olaf design from Zazzle.com that we originally planned to wear to EPCOT.  But then Anna and Elsa relocated to the Magic Kingdom.  Now the plan is to wear these shirts to the Magic Kingdom on the day we are there all day.  Looking forward to Anna and Elsa's reaction to our shirts.

Another new set of shirts, this time from Disney Store.com features Mickey.  These shirts are packed in the Walt Disney World bag.  Purchased with a discount, we can't wait to wear our favorite pal!

Yes, I will be wearing a Captain America t-shirt.  These shirts were too purchased with a discount code at Disney Store.com and were originally planned for our day at Universal Studios.  Then, we learned that Captain America greets guests on the Disney ships.  So, these shirts are packed in our Disney Cruise Line bag.

All of these shirts along with enough matching sets for each day of our vacation including the days we fly to and from Orlando are packed and ready.  Let the vacation commence!

Olaf From Disney's FROZEN Greeting DCL Guests at Castaway Cay!

That settles it!  We are definitely wearing the shirt featured above on our day at Castaway Cay!  Why?  Well, the name on the shirt helps, but since Disney's FROZEN has become such a huge hit and, I might mention, won two OSCAR's, fans just can't seem to get enough.  Us included!

And, Disney Cruise Line is helping guests get their FROZEN fix with the following:

• Anna is on-board the Disney Fantasy and Disney Dream
• Olaf greets guests at the post office on Castaway Cay
• Guests can watch Frozen in the theaters on all four Disney cruise ships

Did you read that?  Olaf greeting guests at the post office on Castaway Cay!  Hip, hip, hooray! Oh, I can't wait to get photos and tell him that I like warm hugs, too.  And, that he has definitely found the right place for "chillin' in the sunshine"; his own bit of paradise.

Did we know about this before designing our shirts?  No, we did not.  I just found out today about Olaf on Castaway Cay and the shirts arrived last Friday.  I'm innocent, I tell you. 

Bonus--we will also get to meet Anna!  Then, when we get to EPCOT, we will hopefully get to meet both Elsa and Anna!  It's going to be hot in Orlando in July, but for us, we will be a bit FROZEN!

A New Set of Matching Shirts!

Zazzle had a 4-hour sale with a 50% off code which meant. . . another set of matching shirts!  Can't wait to pack these for our Summer adventure.

Thinking these would be great on an EPCOT day to meet Anna and Elsa in Norway!

Want to know why we wear matching shirts?  Click here to read more.

Just ONE More Set of Matching Shirts

Zazzle.com had a 50% code.  I couldn't help myself and ordered just ONE more set of matching shirts for our July 2014 summer vacation.  Told the husband I was done.  Then I told him that iff Zazzle comes out with one more design--Olaf from FROZEN on the beach--all bets are off.  Click here to read more about why we wear matching shirts.

I asked Zazzle if they had the image and they do not. . . yet.  I also tried to make a design using other Olaf images that Zazzle does have and each time the white of Olaf changes to the color of the shirt, rather than staying white. (Yes, this makes a difference for me and I have informed Zazzle of the issue.)

Right now, this Olaf on the beach is available as a beach towel at Disneystore.com.  Hmmm. . . I've got a discount code coming from pre-ordering FROZEN--click here to read more.

A New Set Of Matching Shirts For Our Next Disney Vacation

This shirt has been in our Zazzle.com "cart" for a while.  One day last week, Zazzle released a 35% off code via Facebook that was good for one day and we missed it.  Total bummer!  Then, over the week-end, a 50% off code was released but not for t-shirts.  That's when I commented. . . something about extending the code to t-shirts as I had missed the 35% off code earlier in the week.  Zazzle then asked me to message them with the email that was attached to our Zazzle account.  No problem.

A Facebook message came the next day with two discount codes that I could stack and get a great deal--good only for that day.  No problem and now the shirts are on their way to us!  Another set of custom shirts for our next Disney trip!

Zazzle.com is our "go to" for designing custom t-shirts--this was our 10th order.  I appreciate that I can design at any time and then put the shirts in the "cart" and wait for a sale or discount code.

I even have an idea for another set of shirts--Olaf from FROZEN.  There is a print "out there" with him on the beach.  Zazzle doesn't have it yet, but they do have other FROZEN images for customization.  I asked Zazzle to let me know if they get that image--hoping they will.

If you want to know why we have carried on the tradition of wearing matching shirts when we travel--click here to read more.

The "customized" back of our shirts.

Here are some of our other custom designs from Zazzle.com:

New Shirts Ordered--For One Of Us!

With another Disney trip on the horizon, I took the liberty and ordered some new shirts to continue with our tradition of wearing matching shirts.  But this time, instead of ordering a set of 3, I ordered only 1 shirt in the designs below.  Any guesses as to who they might be for?

 You see, the boy has grown. . . is growing.  When he outgrows his shirt of the matching set, well, then we have 2 matching shirts that we can wear, not three.  This presented a dilemma.  Do we order or shop for a set of 3 new matching shirts for all of us, or attempt to replace the outgrown shirt? 

At least for these two shirts, we are attempting to replace the outgrown shirt.  Enter Amazon, which has a selection of Disney shirts.  And, I got them for FREE!  How?  You might ask.  Well, using Swagbucks to earn Amazon gift cards and then using those gift cards to make the purchase.  I even earned more Swagbucks for buying the shirts!  If you want to get started earning Swagbucks--click here.

So, as you can see, a new Navy Mickey polo is on its way as is the gray Mickey t-shirt.  Though, the boy's Mickey is going to be reversed as compared to ours.  Will anyone notice?

 You can see that the shirt has lasted through multiple trips.  Above is November 2010 and below is July 2013, so it had a good run.

Wearing matching shirts while traveling, and now for other occasions, is one of our family traditions.  Click here to read more about our matching shirts.

Do You Wear Shirts To Match The Characters You Meet?

“So, do you wear shirts to match the characters you meet?” asked a colleague who just learned about my love for Disney and was looking at pictures I had on display at work.  Well, short answer, “yes, sometimes.”

Longer answer. . . there is much more planning and thinking that goes on behind that magical picture of us meeting Ralph wearing shirts with Ralph on them.  In order to have our shirts and characters match, we have to know what characters are available to meet.  Having met Ralph and Venelope before at Disney’s Hollywood Studios—click here to read more—and knowing that they were still going to be there for our upcoming trip, it was a safe bet to custom design shirts featuring them—click here to read more.  Of course, that has to be done in enough time prior to a trip to get the shirts made and shipped.

A short cut, would be to make a stop at Design-A-Tee at Downtown Disney and have shirts made that day to wear during the rest of our trip.  Click here to read about Design-A-Tee.

Once the shirts have been designed or bought, then there is the making sure you are wearing them the day you are going to the park that features the characters.  Again, Ralph and Venelope are only at Disney’s Hollywood Studios, so we wore our shirts on a day we went to that park. 

Then, there is the finding and meeting of the characters.  Checking the Times Guide to find out when the meet and greets take place; making sure you know the location.  This is about precision, not chance.

Of course, we took it another step farther.  We also had shirts featuring Mike and Sully, so we wore those shirts on another day we visited Hollywood Studios and made sure we met the characters.

Why do we do this?  It is fun!  It gets recognition and the characters love it.  Characters we have met have very much enjoyed seeing themselves featured on our clothing or pins.  While Disney characters try to spend time making guests feel extra special during the interactions, the character’s reaction to seeing themselves is definitely extra special.  Other guests enjoy our shirts as well.  We get questions and comments and are happy to respond. 

So, do we try to match our shirts to characters?  Yes.  And, we try to match the shirts to the occasion as well.  We donned our Mickey polo shirts when dining at Chef Mickey’s and then proceeded to Magic Kingdom to meet some Princesses and other characters.  Our preppy prince was a hit with the ladies. 

When we had breakfast with Stitch, we wore our Stitch shirts.

Spirit of Aloha dinner?  Mickey Hawaiian shirts were packed and worn for the occasion.

For me, it is all just part of the fun of planning for a magical Disney vacation.  And, it makes packing a breeze, too!

P.S.  Thanks to Disney Photopass Photographers for capturing all of our magical moments!