Do you have vacation money and Disney vacation money?

[MommyBoo!]

We're not going to Disney this year. :( DD6mo is NOT a good traveler and, among other things, we cannot imagine taking her on a plane full of people. So, we decided to make next year's trip extra long. :teeth:

So, we are going to the Dells this year. We are going to stay at a resort with an indoor and outdoor waterpark. There's a lot of other fun things to do there as well (including a mommy/daughter spa treatment that I am taking dd7 to).

Anyway, we have a vacation fund. This is funded by surveys, rewards programs, rebates, windfalls, ebay, etc. We pay for our vacations with DH's bonus and this fund helps us use less and less of that each year. I asked dh if we were using that money or if it should be only for Disney. He said don't use it, it's for Disney, ummm, unless we really need it. Since we are only going to the Dells for 5 days, the money I have set aside in our savings from his bonus is more than enough. I just thought it was funny that we were not using our vacation money for our vacation. :teeth:

[hockey mom]

I also put money aside just for Disney and don't dip into it for any other vacation. When I plan a trip to Disney though I start at the top of my itinerary and put money in envelopes for each day and event. For me that means exchanging it into American first then sealing it up in an envelope- that way ensuring it never gets used for anything else.

[travelbug]

I have separate travel funds, one for Disney trips and one for other travel. It works well for me to build both funds, and I'm really motivated to do so. I LOVE my Disney trips, but I also LOVE traveling other places. ::yes::

[newholiday]

to me vacation is vacation - my weekly "extra" goes into the same vacation fund
I save up about the same for those 5day mini-vacas that I take as I do our yearly Disney/FL vaca
(we're DVCers so our room is already covered)

[macs4us]

We have our Disney vacation fund separate from our other vacations (usually National Parks). And then we have our anniversary trip fund...that pays for places like NOLA and Vegas...

[TEK224]

I use separate savings for WDW and other travel plans. Because I like to make short, frequent trips to WDW, that fund never seems to grow as high as the regular fund.
One of these months (years?) when my 5 gallon water jug is filled with change, I'm gonna have one doozy of a trip somewhere!:teeth:

[Julia M]

I have multiple savings accounts:

1. my "general" savings

2. for Xmas

3. for our timeshare expenses (annual maintenance, exchanges, etc)

4. for ortho (my two oldest kids have been "paid off", but my youngest will need to start in a year or two and they give you a discount if you pay up front)

5. one is for tuition (my dh pays for private school, but I also have a "secret" account, in case dh doesn't have quite enough, or there is something I want the kids to be able to do

6. one is for the celebrity lecture series I attend and the broadway musical series dh and I have awesome seats for

7. one is for dd's baton (going to Nationals in the summer)

8. FINALLY, one is our vacation account. However, I also try and save cash in my nightstand drawer or save it when someone reimburses me for an expense, or if I do a survey or other "unexpected" money. When I accumulate enough, I buy travelers checks. Then, I try and use the credit card when we vacation and pay off the expenses with my regular checking account, so I can "save" the travelers checks for another vacation.

We just got back from WDW, and I am going to have to use all our travelers checks, as well as my vacation fund (it's killing me!!!!!!!:mad: ) But, we got stuck with the hurricane, and it cost us an extra $2300 to get home! We'll get $600 from Southwest, but have to come up with the rest. I guess we could have stayed the extra 3 or 4 days, but we wanted to come home, and the kids and I start school on Monday. I'm just so bummed that my entire vaction fund (travelers checks and savings) will be gone.

I know I'm a bit over the edge, but it works for me. Believe it or not, I also have a savings account for two other parents in our club. They have a hard time saving, so they write me checks every two weeks and I save the money for them. Then, when we need to pay for the hotel, or car rental, or airfare or entry fees, I pay for them. We call it "Bank of Julia"

Julia

[Rhonda922]

I save for Disney and Disney only. I have a change jar going and I must say that I'm doing very well with it. I'm even throwing in some bills here and there. I empty out my change purse every two or three days and throw the money in the jar. I'm very proud of myself because I haven't dipped into it yet and hopefully I won't need to.

[MommyBoo!]

I wanted to try the envelope thing but I would be too nervous that they would get misplaced. Even though all of our wdw paperwork goes in one cubby on my desk and that's all that goes in there, I still check every so often to make sure that everything is in order.

Jullia, I'm so sorry that happened. I hope you get an unexpected windfall to make up for it!

I also have multiple savings accounts. I have one account that money automatically transfers to at the beginning of each month that is for nonmonthly expenses. Some of our utilities here get billed every two or three months and I have other bills that are payed twice a year or yearly. I just divided the expenses to figure out how much I need to save each month and it goes into that account. It's really nice to have that when the car insurance bills come three weeks apart!

We have an old champaign bucket that we throw our change into. Every so often, I'll cash it in at the bank and transfer the money into our wdw account.

It's interesting to see how everyone saves. I want to plan a big car trip for the year after next. Somewhere other than wdw, for some reason flying just seems the best option for there to me. We used to go on long car trips when I was a kid and I have a lot of fun memories from them. I was thinking up North or out West. DH wants to fly to Vegas with me one weekend too. Well, wherever we go, I'm sure we'll still have our Disney account going. :D

[karemore]

I am always glad to learn I'm not the only one!

We're going to Germany in 38 days, yet I am still contributing to the Disney Fund, for our trip which isn't until April.

All the cash bonuses I make at work ($20 each time) go into the Disney fund. Money for the Germany trip will just come out of my bank account.

Karen

[hulabird]

My ING account is nothing but Disney money and other trips come out of our regular savings.

[diznee25]

I also use my IngDirect account for Disney Trips! My husband knows whatever money is in that fund goes directly to Disney World vacation.

My savings account at my local bank is used for other vacations, and Christmas fund, etc.

If I didn't have a separate account for just Disney vacations, we probably wouldn't go that often. I can't go more than 3 years without a Disney Fix! :earseek:

Diznee25