arn't we lucky.

[Natasha&Matt]

I have been loving this thread

 

[higgy66]

The first time I went abroad was 1980 and I was the only girl in my year who had been abroad! We went to Corfu and the Geography teacher didn't even know where that was!!

Holidays have always been the most imprtant thing to my parents so that we all spent quality time together and he installed this into us all. My parents have been retired for years now and still go on several holidays a year.

Since 1980 I went abroad every year with my parents and as travel became more popular and cheaper when I started work I often went twice a year as I only paid £10 board so the rest went on my travels. (I was so obessessed with travel I ended up leaving my job in the bank and going back to college to study travel and tourism and work in a travel agents for a while and then did a short spell working in Greece.)

The first time I went to Disney was in 1988 with my friend and it cost a small fortune. I worked full time but took a part time job to help pay for it. Even though Disney is still expensive it at lot cheaper then it used to be!

Since meeting my DH we've ploughed all our money into the house and then 3 years ago we started to go abroad again and now have the holiday bug.

I'm really being tight at home to pay for this years WDW with the girls and I can't wait. We haven't told them we're going yet and as they're still young I wouldn't really expect them to understand how lucky they are as they don't "compare" what they have to others and I'm happy about that - as this can work both ways!

We had a major extension last year and every night when I get into our fab superking bed I go to sleep with a big grin on my face as I really do appreciate how lucky I am!

 

[Tinks1984]

Thats lovely Rachel, I hope my girls turn out to be as kind, thoughtful and well rounded as you clearly are
You certainly don't come across as "spoilt", as distant family members of mine seem to think my children will be. When our girls ask us when we can go back we remind them how we're saving all our pennies and that can take a long time

Poppy - thank-you for your kind words, it's all down to my parents & grand-parents that we've both turned out this way.

I'm sure your children aren't 'spoilt' at all, you're just enriching them as much as you possibly can before they grow up, which as we all know, happens so quickly these days.

That's a great thing to tell your children when they ask if/when they're going back, that way it gives them hope that they'll go back one day, yet it teaches them that it takes a long time to save to get back there.

 

[Beth__WDW23/6/02]

I definately agree we are very lucky given the current climate.
Our children fully appreciate our holidays..We said after last year's that was it for a while but as usual we booked again This one is a suprise both girls dont have a clue at all,our DD is bad atm with hip problems and is looking at surgery after summer,So this holiday is extra special.

 

[wifey]

We are fortunate too, we both work hard I do half of the hours DH does and he's always tired out each day. That said we pay our bills and save like crazy for our holidays in Orlando, DH first took me in '98 and the culture shock hit me hard but that was a belated honeymoon 5 years down the road.

When DS was tiny we decided to take him for his first birthday which is still a very memorable holiday for us. Since then we've saved and gone back 5 times and each time we've loved it more and more. We don't always stretch the budget to stop on-site but we've been happy with our choices and had a wonderful time there.

We don't have a car, don't smoke or gamble and we don't go out often maybe once or twice a year and we are not big drinkers a couple of glasses of wine on a Saturday night is enough for us. Films and books (preferably pre-ordered to get a good price or bought at a discount book shop) keep us occupied on weekends when we are not busy with other things. We appreciate the time we get together which isn't a lot. We do have the odd take away but we don't live on them it's more of a once a month treat sometimes less. We've managed to bring our mortgage down when we switched to a repayment one a few years back so hopefully by the time our DS is leaving comprehensive school the house will be all ours.