Cash Rules Everything Around Me (especially @ Disney)

Visited Disneyland for the Kid's graduation and Elias (Thing 1's kid) turns 5 in July, so we celebrated that, too!

We just got back from the land of Disney so obviously we have Mickey on the brain. We wanted to give you guys some tips before you go to save you some dough. 

First off, let’s get this straight: you can NOT have the mindset of saving money while on vacation. You can spend your money wisely, but you save money to go on vacation…not the other way around.

We go to Disneyland often (3-4 times a year), and try to go to Walt Disney World every 2 years.  My family and I have Premier Annual Passes to all Disney parks in America, (not to be confused with a Premium Annual Pass that can only be used in just Disneyland/DCA or WDW).  The reason we decided on the Premier Passes was because they were cheaper than buying a Premium Pass at Disneyland and 7 day-park hopper tickets at WDW (which is how many days we were planning on going anyway).

When to go: Time is MONEY! Plan to go in the off-peak season. Usually during September, October, first 3 weeks in November are great times to go for weather, price, and low-crowd reasons. (Except EPCOT- they've got the Food and Wine Festival going on then.)

Transportation: Book your flight within 5-6 months of the trip, if you plan to fly. Wait for deals, and book on a Tuesday or Wednesday. We rarely fly since we live in Northern California, but definitely for WDW. Southwest and JetBlue are the best airlines if you are flying from Northern California. Virgin also recently started doing nonstop flights to WDW from SFO. (BIG Tip: Sign up to get emails from airlines, they notify you of the great deals right when they are posted on the website!)

Hotels: I (Thing 1) touched on this in a previous post, but just in case you missed it:

• "When booking a hotel room, keep these things in mind: distance from the parks, amenities like free breakfast, and parking fees. For instance, if you are going to pay for a hotel room that is just alright, but have to pay 14 dollars for parking, you might as well book the moderate room that is 10 dollars more a night with free parking and breakfast. It'll save you money in the long run. I also use tripadvisor to view the rooms and get traveler reviews." 
• Again, I would definitely go during off-season. I use hotels.com a lot, too. I like them because they usually have great prices. When finding a great deal on hotels.com, always double-check the hotel website itself or call them. Sometimes they have specials and can be cheaper than hotels.com. When calling, mention you have AAA or you are an annual pass holder to see if there are any more discounts. Personally, I like to pay for my hotel room upfront so I don’t have to worry about it when it comes time for the vacation.

My personal recommendations:

• AAA discounts: Tropicana Inn and Suites- The location is amazing! Literally right out of the gates of Disneyland. They have big, clean rooms with refrigerators and microwaves (big plus for our BIG family). The pool is a bit small, but a heated pool nonetheless. Tip: If you will be traveling with a stroller, request a room on the bottom floor.
• Annual Passport Discount: Howard Johnson- They have a DEEP discount for pass holders! The location is awesome and about 2 city blocks from the park. They have refrigerators in their rooms, too. Tip: The pool is AMAZING! It has a pirate ship themed slide and kid area. Very clean and decent sized rooms. Definitely must stay there during the summer!

Side note: On occasion, you can find some pretty good deals with your pass at the resort hotels. But even with the discount, it can be pretty steep in price.

• With no discounts: The Anabella Hotel. We stayed there on our last trip for the first time. The hotel is a bit out of the way, but it is still in walking distance (You can walk behind DCA and enter through the Grand Californian Hotel). The room had a fridge, but unfortunately no microwave. The Anabella has a large pool area with tons of seating and hot tub. (P.S. They have a sick Happy Hour. Try the Citrus Night and ceviche!)

Tickets: Ticket prices just went up drastically! I'm not sure we can afford to buy the annual passes this year, but if you plan on going more than 7 days, you might as well. If you live in California, Disney offers a payment plan on Disneyland/DCA passes, so take that into consideration when you do make your purchase. Also, consider purchasing tickets at AAA. This is the only place now that gives a great discount. (If you don’t have AAA, I'd grab a membership. It pretty much pays for itself just on tickets alone. And really? What if your damn car breaks down?) Other ways can be kinda shady, like Craigslist, eBay or “renting” tickets. When buying tickets, keep in mind to plan long term. If you are going more than 7 days in a year to any park: buy a pass. (Be a thinker, not a stinker.)

Souvenirs: I buy t-shirts, stuffed animals, and other cool items at Disney Shopping before the trip and hide them so the kids don’t see them. They sell the same products that you would find in Disneyland at least 20% off. Always google “free shipping” coupon codes before submitting your purchase. It's always worth a shot.

Food: Must have food in Disneyland/DCA

• Churros (cart)
• Pineapple Dole whip (Adventureland next to the Tiki Room)
• Beignets (Jazz Kitchen in Downtown Disney)
• Plaza Inn fried chicken (Disneyland Main Street)
• Clam Chowder in a Boudin sourdough bread bowl  (DCA Pacific Wharf  Cafe or River Belle Terrace in DL)
• Chimichangas (Cart)
• Bengal BBQ skewers (Adventureland)
• NEW! Hand Dipped Ice Cream Bar (Clarabelle's Hand-Scooped Ice Cream on Buena Vista St. in DCA)
• NEW! Cozy cones: chili and chicken verde (Cozy Cone Motel in CARSLAND!)

Chili Cone Queso!

Thing 1 (left) and Thing 2 (right) with our cones.
(See? We really are asian!)

Hope this helps! Let me know if you have any questions, comments, and/or suggestions. I would love to hear from all of you.

A dream is a wish your heart makes,

aka Cinder-skrilla &



helped out a bit, as well.

The "Junk in my Trunk" Contest

All right, here's the deal. I am in the process of redecorating my room. I have found so much random stuff. But alas, I'd like to make my random stuff YOUR random stuff.

I was going to start with just sending out an extra Hellogoodbye album that I found in my sock drawer. I purchased a bunch of them when they were on sale for times like these. (It's an awesome summer album! I love them!) But Thing 1 mentioned last night that Justin Halpern of @shitmydadsays recently did a giveaway since he has a new book out, I Suck at Girls. He gave away something like a box of condoms and his new book. Genius.

Now, I'm not promising any prophylactics, but we're turning it into more of a grab bag situation. The Hellogoodbye CD may or not be in this lovely package. We'll value it at $20, I guess.

THE RULES OF THE GAME: 

(will run for two weeks: starting NOW until June 27, 2012 at 11:59 pm)

Un. To become eligible:

- Follow us on Blogger. Comment on any or all posts.

- Share a link to a post on Facebook (tag one of us so we can see it)

- Follow us on twitter and hashtag #thefrugalasians or @thefrugalasians when you link a post.

- Email us at thing1@thefrugalasians.com or thing2@thefrugalasians.com and give us a money-saving tip or your favorite budget-friendly recipe, we'll feature it if we feel like it!

- Pin one or more of our posts. 

- Follow one of our other blogs: Beyondtheballs (Thing 1) and @212degrees (Thing 2)

Deux. Don't be a jerk and email us if you haven't done any of these things. It's just not nice, and I will find out and send you a lump of coal. (HOW'S THAT FOR A GRAB BAG?!?) Friends, relatives, randoms are eligible to play along (mainly because I hate not being eligible to win cool shit just because I'm related to someone…and don't worry, we don't play favorites). Make sure we have a way of contacting you! At the end of your comment, leave your email, twitter, etc.

Trois. Have fun with it! Basically, pimp us out somehow and you could win something fun AND FREE! Pick your fav (if you have one), and let us know what you're up to! I know we're going to have a blast with these grab bags. If this goes well, we'll do another one, and another one…BONUS: Become eligible more than once by posting on multiple platforms, we'll give you double entries. Because we can.

Winner will be picked by opening up the following windows: twitter, pinterest, blogger, email, closing our eyes, and picking a platform first. Then, spinning around ten times then pointing at the screen thus deeming the winner. 

Hey, this is serious business and fair is fair.

 We will be in touch with the winner shortly after the deadline. I'm sure there's legal mumbo-jumbo that's suppose to go here, but we'll keep it light and fluffy for now. Oh, no purchase necessary. (Right? That's always at the beginning of the fine print!)

Happy cooking/shopping/pinning/tweeting whatever you're doing today!

(May the odds be ever in your favor.)

(Yeah, I just quoted The Hunger Games.)

Sincerely,

Thing 1 in the hizzzouse! Holla!

Wuzzzup? Wuzzzup? Wuzzzzzzzzup!

Let me take the time to introduce myself. I am Thing 1: the older, louder, embarrassing Frugal Asian. I have 3 children with my husband of almost 10 years, 2 sisters, and a brother. We all live together! One BIG happy family! As Thing 2 has already said, we feed hella folks, but don't like to skip out on taste and quality. Same goes for what I will be posting: I like to have fun and have fairly nice things, but I don't skip out on quality of items/activities.

 I just don't want pay FULL price.

 I will be posting random tidbits of money saving tips. Some of them you may already know from just talking to me or following me on twitter, but bear with me, we have some newbies and I want them to save some dollars, too. :)  Let the money saving commence!

Tip # 1: Read EVERY post of this blog. Follow us on twitter @thefrugalasians!

I don't make dollars. I just make sense,

Best Summer Purchase EVERRRR

Popsicle molds!!

 My niece, Camryn, helped make watermelon popsicles a while back. It's so fun to do family projects, insanely cheaper than the boxed ones...AND BETTER FOR YA! Plus, the popsicle molds were really cheap (less than $8/pack of 6 and 4) and they're reusable.

Watermelon Popsicles

1/2 medium sized watermelon (like the size of your head), diced

1 lemon, juiced

2 tsp. sugar to taste, optional

Popsicle molds

Patience

Now, I'll tell you, this could've been a lot easier to do. Like, a lot freakin easier than I made it. I could've pulled out the blender and thrown all the stuff in and hit the puree button. But guess what?

THAT'S A WHOLE BUNCH OF NO FUN.

Camryn wanted to help, and in omitting the blender altogether, we made that possible. Our friend, Monica, was over and helped her "juice" the watermelon (pressed it through a collander into a bowl).

They had a lot of fun doing this, but I'm pretty sure they were incredibly unsanitary…I saw them sneaking bites. Brats.

As they pressed the watermelon (like you would grapes for wine), I added lemon juice. I ended up adding two lemons, but I went overboard. I should've tasted after the first one. Rookie mistake. (Sidenote: here's where you add the sugar if you want.)

Throw the tops on…(Goofballs)

Important things to remember:

Tip: Use a funnel and ladle to fill the popsicle molds. No one likes a messy and sticky kitchen. Also, make sure the lids are on tight and pour slowly!

Et voila!

Here are the molds we used: Rockets and the other ones were ice cream cones! SO. FRIGGIN. CUTE. Toss them in the freezer for at least 4 hours, but overnight would be better to ensure they're firm enough to stand on their own.

The half watermelon had tons of juice so we saved some for the next batch. (If I had to guess, it was about a quart and a half)

So, I'd love to show you a picture of the finished product, but wouldn't you know it- our damn refrigerator broke that same night! They never froze! So bummed. In other news, I'm pretty sure my little brother drank the juice even though the bag said not to. Cool.

We're gonna make them again once we get a new fridge this weekend. It's so hot outside, these things are necessary! 

Total for 25ish popsicles (that we would've made with the extra juice): $2.50! If we would've used the whole watermelon, we definitely could've made at least a million. Just saying. 

Enjoy your weekend, all! We are up in the few hundreds in views- so awesome, thanks! 

Sincerely,

Thing 2

P.S. Don't ever leave Mon alone with my phone again.

P.P.S Don't worry, Thing 1 is working on her posts…I think.

P.P.P.S Maybe this was a bad idea…Should've made it thefrugalasian.com lol