Haven Broady documented the way that she saved up $2,500 for her family’s end-of-summer Disney World trip
Credit: Courtesy of Haven Broady
NEED TO KNOW
- Haven Broady found a clever way to save extra money to put toward her family’s end-of-summer finance trip
- The mom of two — a speech-language pathologist in a school during the year — was looking for a side hustle or gig to earn her some extra cash that wouldn’t subtract from her summer time with her daughters
- Ultimately, Broady was able to raise the $2,500 she was aiming for by doing this one extra thing
As a speech-language pathologist working in education, Bowling Green, Ky., resident Haven Broady was looking for ways she could occupy her and her family’s time over the summer.
Back in May, Broady, 39, began clicking through the deals Walt Disney World was offering for vacation packages.
“We had started looking at those and trying to figure out ways that I could work but still have the girls with me,” Broady recalls. She tells PEOPLE that, in her free time, she often enjoys watching content from gig workers who find niche ways to make money. “I was like, ‘I feel like I could do that. I feel like I’d be really good at that.’”
On Mother’s Day — “of all days,” she laughs — Broady decided to apply to a bunch of “side hustle apps,” including DoorDash. She was approved “almost” instantaneously. The first time she went out to DoorDash, Broady took her husband Jeremy with her and the pair parked in the McDonald’s parking lot — dubbed a hotspot by the app — and waited as orders rolled in.
Credit: Courtesy of Haven Broady
“I was able to do several that night, and I think my ADD was like, ‘Ooh, this is a video game. I can do this. It’s very task oriented.’ And I was hooked from that point on,” she says.
The DoorDashing fit nicely into all the “little pockets” of time within the family’s life.
Broady adds that she filmed the whole endeavor during her first time DoorDashing. “My husband thought I was crazy,” she laughs.
Broady’s timeline was laid out pretty linearly for her from when Disney World allows people to reserve their trips by putting down $200. “We were always leaving. We’re leaving Aug. 2, and we’ll be there from the 3rd through the 8th. So I did have that timeline in the back of my head. I’ve got to get this money ahead of that trip. And I didn’t really think that that was going to be attainable.” For the trip’s entire cost, Broady says she was hoping to make a total of $2,500 to cover the entire $2,400 package cost.
Broady admits that, in the past, her strategy for paying for vacations would be to just “put it on a credit card.” However, this time, she says, the family was looking to be more “intentional” about how they paid for the trip.
Credit: Courtesy of Haven Broady
“It’s so much easier to just put it on a credit card. And we have definitely done that. So I don’t want to make anybody feel like that’s a shameful action because we have definitely paid for vacation through credit cards,” she says. “But then that puts our family in a predicament of fitting it into our budget later and makes it harder. So we were hoping that, by making the money ahead of time and doing it in a way that can make memories, it would change our mindset about the vacation.”
Broady was looking for ways to involve her girls in the process of saving up money for the trip and her wish was certainly granted.
“Even about how we spend money on the daily, the girls will be like, ‘Oh, I didn’t realize you made $40 today doing DoorDash, but we just spent $40 at dinner.’ So I think they’re starting to understand the value of a dollar a little bit more,” she says.
Broady began taking her daughters along with her for the DoorDashing missions, and tells PEOPLE that her girls, aged 10 AND 11, came to enjoy the experience so much that they would frequently ask when their next DoorDashing trip was.
“In fact, just last night they were like, ‘Are we DoorDashing tonight? Let’s go,’” Broady says. “And I was like, ‘No, not tonight. We’re not.’ I think that’s the fun. They get more time with us as a family.”
“Other than that, we’re also singing and doing car karaoke,” she says. “And I think that I’ve taken them in to help me do shops and things like that and just to let them get the experience.”
Along the way, Broady documented her experience DoorDashing for Disney (or Dashing for Disney, as she named the series online), gaining a loyal following of viewers.
Just 34 days after she began the challenge, Broady hit her goal.
Credit: Courtesy of Haven Broady
“Day 34, we finished it up and it was in the sweetest way ever,” says Broady. “I was about $50 short of a goal of the whole goal. And I was like, ‘Oh man, if I could just stay out a little bit longer.’ I was like, no, I’ll just save it till tomorrow. It’ll be fine. And another mom had DM’d me on Instagram and she sent our family a gift card of $50. And I was like, ‘You just sent us over our goal. Thanks.’ It was crazy.”
That, along with being able to spend time with her family, were some of the best moments of the process. Along the way, Broady says she interacted with individuals who brightened her day.
“I haven’t even got a lot of grumbly customers or anything like that. I know that sometimes you get horror stories, but everybody that I’ve dealt with has been super nice,” she says.
Credit: Courtesy of Haven Broady
“One lady even left a note. She left a note on her welcome mat for me to pick up when I delivered her groceries, thanking me and then [it] had a scripture in there. It was the sweetest thing. So she was super kind and I was like, ‘Thank you, Lord, for bringing her.’ I’m glad I accepted that one.”
Broady and her family loved their experience so much that they didn’t stop “dashing” when they hit their goal. “I never stopped,” laughs Broady.
“I decided I was going to keep doing it and school doesn’t start back until the middle of August. So I’ll be back into full-time rhythm, full-time working throughout the day,” she adds. However, with the flexibility of DoorDash, Broady expects she will be able to hop in her car on the way home from school and “make a little money to pay for my gas.”
Credit: Courtesy of Haven Broady
Broady’s initial quest to make $2,500 also included the cost of gas, which she made sure to factor into her journey, which many of her commenters sent in questions about.
She also shares that she learned a lot of hacks about DoorDashing that she hadn’t known before. For example, while it may be obvious that mealtimes are a popular time to pick up orders, another more unique popular time is during rainy days.
Credit: Courtesy of Haven Broady
Since her foray into DoorDashing, the mom of two has applied to other services like GrubHub, Uber Eats, and more, in an attempt to keep the momentum going. And while the delivery driving job remains a fixture in the family’s life, they’re also looking ahead to their trip to Disney World, come early August.
“I hope it’ll make them more appreciative of this vacation, knowing that they helped work towards it,” she says. The girls have even decided already which “Disney bounds” they are going to do, says Broady, referencing a term that refers to a practice of dressing in character-inspired outfits during visits to the Disney Parks.
“My 11-year-old did a Canva presentation of her dad wearing a little silly outfit and mom wearing Mike Wazowski, so they’re really into it,” says Broady. “And I think part of it’s just the great age that they are. But I think the other part is we’ve built the anticipation of getting to work towards Disney. So it’s not just the destination. The journey has been fun too.”
Read the full article here
