It's hard to find loopholes with Disney to offset expenses. I see Disney as money that "has" to be spent, since I have small kids. So even if it's not the best redemption at a cost per point, it's still saving me $$. One "trick", or way that I paid for our last Disney trip was via AA miles. Going through AAvacations, I booked a 5 night stay at an inexpensive Disney hotel, and lined it up with the dates Disney was running their free dining program. The hotel for 5 nights was around 30K AA miles, but again, nothing fancy. Saved me about $400 for the 5 nights, but I got free food the whole trip. Then the park hopper passes I spent about 80K miles (2 adults, 1 child over 3, and children under 3 are free). I got a 6 day pass, and it would've been about $900. So all in the trip cost me around 125K AA miles, and saved me about $1300 (plus all the free food we got). Not the best redemption ever, but I didn't have a problem with it.
All in we spent about $300 the whole time we were down there, and that was mostly at a Princess Dinner (which wasn't included on our free food), and some souvenirs.
Edit to add: If your dates are flexible, go during the Free Dining times in Disney World (don't have it at Disney Land I don't think), but don't tell too many people! It's a great deal and don't want everyone to do it!
It easily saved us $100-$150 per day. It included 2 meals a day for each ticketholder (so the under 3 don't get it), and it used to include 2 snacks a day. I think in 2012 they changed it to only 1 snack a day. The dates are usually in the off season (Oct/Nov, April/May, etc).