Creative Financing

[Penny McMouse]

How do you funnel money into your vacation fund? Is it a set amount per pay check? Is it merit based? Some other method? We set aside some each week but have the ability to “earn” more money everyday we hit our exercise goal which adds up to roughly another 150 per month.
I’ve thought about suggesting the money saved by using Raise gift cards and such be moved into a Disney specific fund.
So what’s your method?

 

[debster812]

Flat rate sent via direct deposit to an account in a bank 45 minutes from home, with no card access. That way I have to work to get the money out. Once a month, if we have an extra, we’ll transfer that over as well. Very easy and we never miss it, but in an emergency the money is still accessible.

 

[Forevermarypoppins]

When I was working, it was a bi-weekly deposit into VACATION Savings. I did it myself, it wasn't an auto deposit. Therefore I made about 20 deposits out of 26 a year. I also was good at getting Disney gift card deals at our MEIJER store. I also save change and one dollar bills and deposit that into the Vaca Sav.
*** so I cancelled my May 2020 trip and now "still have" about $3000 in those gift cards and no trip definitively planned.

 

[lsutigers03]

I donate plasma twice a week which nets around $330/month. I also look out for deals on Visa or MC gift cards. With those I buy BJ's gift cards and buy discounted Disney gift cards. I also signup for deals where you open a checking account and meet the requirements for a cash bonus. Right now Wells Fargo has a deal if you signup in July you'll get a $400 bonus if you have $4,000 in direct deposits over 90 days. I'm doing that for my wife and I which will net $800 into our Disney account.

 

[Andrea1975]

I put all my "extra" money into a separate account. So that's things like interest on bank accounts, rebates, money earned from things like swagbucks or ibotta, gifts, credit card rewards, etc. Really big items like tax refunds or a cash award from work I usually split up between vacation and other purposes. But even the smaller stuff usually adds up to several thousand a year.

 

[DisneyHardin]

My DH and I both have "side gigs" for our vacation/fun money. I sell clothes from thrift stores/yard sales on eBay and he is a police officer who works some off duty, private security jobs.

 

[easyas123]

Flat rate sent via direct deposit to an account in a bank 45 minutes from home, with no card access. That way I have to work to get the money out. Once a month, if we have an extra, we’ll transfer that over as well. Very easy and we never miss it, but in an emergency the money is still accessible.

This is pretty much our MO as well.

 

[QueenIsabella]

Well, our method won't work for everyone...

My late MIL was a big fan of education and travel. Since she died in 2017, DH is required to take out distributions from her (now his inherited) IRAs. We use that money for travel. It's a good chunk of money, but we're a family of 6. Generally, we do a major trip, every other year. Unfortunately for us, this was the year--we were scheduled on a Baltic cruise (now cancelled) to visit 6 countries. We can't do a big trip next year due to conflicts, so we'll likely roll the money over and have a blow-out trip in 2022. Maybe even attempt the Baltic cruise again, but it's too early for me to seriously look at booking it. We'll have the 2021 and 2020 money to work with, though, so that should be sweet! Assuming travel gets back to some sense of normal...

I know not everyone can count on a nice inheritance for travel money, but our thought was, if we used it for regular budget stuff, we would just get used to a higher level of spending. This way, we're doing something specific with the money, that helps the kids to remember their grandmother fondly.

 

[easyas123]

I think that’s great! Travel is a wonderful experience-

 

[tzolkin]

We used to use a Disney fund as a way to encourage saving in other areas and as a way to teach our kids about budgeting.

Our method was to keep all receipts in a basket throughout the week. We created envelopes for different categories and once a week we would put the receipts into their corresponding envelope and tally up the spending. (Ex. One envelope would say "GROCERIES $600" at the top and then we would write -$57.20, -103.13, etc) At the end of the month we would see what was "left over" in each category, add them all together, and then transfer that exact amount into our vacation account.

It was a good learning experience for the kids because it showed them how the money could easily add up. If we weren't keeping track of it and watching the vacation fund grow, we would definitely not have been as motivated to make cuts in other areas. It was good for the kids to learn that just because you budget $200 for dining out, doesn't mean you need to spend that much. And also to see how it's important to prioritize how you want to spend your money.

 

[Starport Seven-Five]

Set amount as part of our monthly contributions to the "joint expenses" account. The vacation fund is a separate savings account so we can see at a glance how much we have.

I like some of the "reward" ideas above. Our goal has been more on the net worth side so our extra funds get funneled into there but now I'm debating if we shouldn't put the money somewhere else (where the payoff is bigger than numbers in a spreadsheet).

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

We have Ally savings accounts for short term goals. They allow multiple savings accounts under one log in and each one can be given a nickname so I designate one of those savings accounts as Vacation. (others are Christmas, Escrow, Car Ins, Sewer. etc.) It really helps to keep me organized. I don't always keep money in it but when we want to travel I funnel our weekly savings to that account.

We are currently booked on a DCL Panama Canal cruise in February and have $8000 in our Vacation account. Also, I bought $2000 in Disney gift cards last December when they were on sale at BJs and put that $ down for additional deposit. ( I will NEVER do this again.)
I'm hoping to be able to cruise and crossing my fingers there is a vaccine available by then but of course we can't predict the future. I am sometimes tempted to just cancel and put the savings toward our mortgage but with my luck they'd release a vaccine the following week. The cruise is sold out and when there is occasional availability, it's much more $ than when we booked, so booking last minute is not ideal.

 

[QueenIsabella]

Cruises are so iffy right now! I mentioned that we had a Baltic cruise planned this year--we took the full refund over future cruise credit, since I wasn't comfortable on what cruising might look like next year (and we had family availability issues). Who knows what 2022 will look like! But, we'd love to try the cruise at some future date. Bummer about the Disney gift cards.

Back to your regularly scheduled thread.

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

Cruises are so iffy right now! I mentioned that we had a Baltic cruise planned this year--we took the full refund over future cruise credit, since I wasn't comfortable on what cruising might look like next year (and we had family availability issues). Who knows what 2022 will look like! But, we'd love to try the cruise at some future date. Bummer about the Disney gift cards.

Back to your regularly scheduled thread.

We also did for our short March cruise. We've had the Feb cruise booked since last September. No money is due until late October so for now we're just waiting and seeing how things go. DCL recently changed their policy so that after the final payment due date, they keep our $ and we have up to 2 weeks prior to sail date to decide if we want to cancel and have a credit for future use. The only way to get a refund is to cancel before the final payment due date which is a whopping 4 months before the sail date. That is a long time to require a commitment.
At least with a 3-4 night quickie, we are not likely to get very ill while still onboard but this is a 14 nt cruise so that has me even more concerned.
Sorry to hijack. Continue on mateys!

 

[Dumbo777]

How do you funnel money into your vacation fund? Is it a set amount per pay check? Is it merit based? Some other method? We set aside some each week but have the ability to “earn” more money everyday we hit our exercise goal which adds up to roughly another 150 per month.
I’ve thought about suggesting the money saved by using Raise gift cards and such be moved into a Disney specific fund.
So what’s your method?

Is this an app that you use or just something you do yourself?

 

[lorimt]

We invest a portion of DH’s income in his company employee stock purchase plan. We sell the stock later and use a set percentage of it for vacations. This method works well for us because the money comes right out of his paycheck so we never really see it.

 

[OrangeBirdGirl]

Each time we are paid a chuck is deposited into a vacation account and just save that way. It usually covers our travels, if not I pull the difference out of regular savings. And, with no travel plans the rest of 2020, and us continuing to put in the same amount each check, the account will sure be well funded whenever we can travel again.

 

[Penny McMouse]

Is this an app that you use or just something you do yourself?

The weekly deposit is automatic into an account at a bank we have to drive to if we want to get to the money. The daily work out rewards gets tracked in a "envelope" on an excel spreadsheet that we use for small savings amounts that remain in our checking account. If the amount of savings gets high enough we'll transfer it to a second savings account that is easy access should we need money asap.

 

[tvguy]

I donate plasma twice a week which nets around $330/month.

If you are getting paid is it really donating plasma?

 

[tvguy]

Never had a vacation account. If we don't have the money in savings for a vacation, we don't book it.