This past summer we took a family vacation to Disneyland! It was the first time we've taken our kids as well as it was my husbands first visit. I did a lot of research before our trip, there's tons of useful tips on many blogs and websites. Doing all the research before hand really helped me wrap my mind around the park layout and what were the best places for us to start with little ones. What they might be attracted to most, what "lands" were most age appropriate for them as well.

Right away we knew this trip to Disneyland was going to be done on a budget. Disneyland is just like any other travel venture you might do: It's as expensive as you want it to be.

With that in mind we kept things about making memories and not about how much stuff we could bring home, or how much money we could spend on eating and treats. Besides the money we spent on tickets and hotel we brought $200 cash into the park. We used this money for food and souvenirs. Keep this number in mind as you read.

Here's how we did Disneyland on a budget and saved money from my family of four!

We booked our Disneyland tickets through Getawaytoday.com

First I want to say I'm not affiliated with this company we just found them very useful in planning our Disney trip and helping to save money. We saved $60 in tickets through this website, and we didn't have to pay for Zane because he was under 3, so he was free. We also saved 30% on our hotel booking through Getaway Today instead of through the hotel directly.

2. We stayed at a hotel with a free shuttle to Disneyland

Our hotel was 5 miles from Disneyland, I know there's a lot of debate and pros to staying onsite at Disneyland or across the street from Disney, but when looking at our budget and what we wanted to spend this didn't fit into our plans. We stayed at a hotel that had a free shuttle service, we could come and go from Disney and use the free shuttle service as many times as we wanted to. This ended up working out really well for us and was very convenient for our family. We saved $34 by using the free shuttle and not parking onsite.

3. Bring your own snacks & water bottles into the park

This was a tip I read on just about every website I found, and it's a good one! We bought about $40 worth of snacks, dry cereal and water to bring into the park each day we were there. Disney allows you to bring your own snacks, strollers even wagons into the park. Fill them up with snacks and water so that you aren't running to a snack bar every second for food! There are water fountains all around the park to refill your water bottles, also all of the dining places will give you free cups of cold water with ice that you can refill your bottles as well. Take advantage of this.

4. Limit the amount of meals you eat in the park

We planned on eating only a few meals in the park, and a few snacks. We ate lunch one day in the park and then next day we ate dinner in the park. Both times we choose quick dining options instead of sitting down at one of the park restaurants. My kids shared meals since we had brought snacks in, and I even ate a kids meal as well since the portions were pretty big. We stayed for fireworks one night and had ice cream and shared a few larger snacks.

5. Limit the number of souvenirs and extras you buy in the park

Let me also say that during this trip we did not take part in any of the character dining experiences. This being our first trip we wanted to see how much of the experience we could get in before doing any of the extra stuff that costs more money. What we found out is that we got to see a lot of the Disney characters and Ava was able to interact with many of the Princesses and Fairies that paying extra for these experiences weren't needed. We also limited the amount of souvenirs. We decided well before going that we were only going to buy our kids 2-3 souvenirs each. We stuck to this number and tried to find things that would be lasting as part of their memories and not just trinket toys that would break easily. Each of our kids got a pair of Mickey ears (no personalization), and a clothing item.

I hope you've found these tips helpful in planning your next trip! We had so much fun on our Disney trip and we're already looking forward to when we can visit Mickey again! Disney really is such a magical experience for your family.

Andrea Worley