Hello everyone!! I've noticed that a lot of people have trip reports. I think it's an awesome way for you to get into the Disney spirit. Also, I love reading about everyone's plans and reasons/celebrations for going to the Happiest Place on Earth, or is it in the world? I can never remember exactly, but I digress, you know what I mean.
For me, I must say that reading about everyone's joy and happiness is a pick me up. I'm going to give you the brief history of how/why my DH and I decided to say "to heck with the bad economy"!
When DH and I first got engaged we celebrated with a trip to Disney for Halloween. Well, actually we had the trip planned and he proposed right before we went, but at any rate we did celebrate! While we decided we would come back for our first anniversary and we would come during December since it is supposed to be the most magical time in the World.
Fast forward two years later: we're married almost two years to the day DH proposed. We go on our honeymoon and have the most amazing time. We come back on a Saturday night, on Monday when I returned to work I was laid off. Don't feel bad! It did stink to be let go from my job almost immediately after I was married, but I am a vast believer that everything happens for a reason. I wasn't happy at my job. I was working for a woman who did not believe in marriage and family. She was married and divorced 3 times (twice to the same person [don't ask!!]). She would always make comments like "Oh I'll understand if you just want to do the wife thing" She was extremely demanding of me and my personal time. She was looking for someone who wanted to be married to their job and that just was not me. So in hindsight it was better this way. But it took awhile for me to think like this.
Things were tough for awhile. I did receive unemployment, but as you could imagine it felt like nothing compared to what I used to make. We had spent so much money on our wedding and we kept saying "Oh after the wedding everything will be better, we'll have so much extra money, we'll be able to save so much!" Well life threw us a curve ball, as it often does, and now we just had to find a way to weather the storm and figure out what to do next.
As the weeks grew into months I realized that getting a job was going to be a lot harder than it had been in the past, and even getting "just any old job" was impossible. The silver lining was that my father was helping me get a job at his old company, he is now retired. The down side to that is that it's all very political and while it "will happen", no one doesn't quite know when and you just have to play this waiting game. So at that point I knew I would have a job one day. LOL sort of silly, but the job offered good pay and excellent benefits, which is what was really important. I had a family now, it wasn't just me, I had to think about my husband too. So I would wait.
So now what?!?! I had a job sometime in the future but when? I was going out of my mind at home and the money coming in just didn't seem like enough. Some days being by myself was like poison. I would think about all our bills and me not having a job and I would just cry. Deep down I knew it wasn't as bad as it could be. But when you invite the pity party in, it's hard to kick them out! I was such bad company at one point even the dog would get up to sleep in the other room. The I would think, "Should we cancel our plans for Disney?!?!" DH would not let me even speak of it. He would say that that would just make things worse. We would have spent our first year of marriage struggling and then at the end of it we would have nothing to look forward too.
Just as I was starting to loose hope I got a call from a friend of a friend. He owned a company and his busy season (summer) was coming up and he could use some help. I jumped at the chance. While I am making $10,000 less than I was at my old job, I am making more than I was getting on unemployment. It was almost like I had new life injected into my veins. Disney actually seemed like something that WOULD happen. So to ensure that I put us on a strict budget down to the money needed for gas and groceries every week. Before I knew it we had enough money saved up for airline tickets. So to ensure our fate, I bought the tickets; there was no turning back now
DH and I got creative about saving money. Anything of any value that wasn't serving us a purpose was put on ebay. DH is a computer guy (that's a technical title 
) and started to earn some extra cash with side jobs fixing computers. We cut a lot of luxuries and really tried to stick to a list when food shopping. Any extra cash we came upon went right into savings. Just by budgeting and being smart with our money we had the money to pay for the trip in no time!
The point of this story is not for anyone to feel bad. Please don't feel bad, there is nothing to feel bad about. I told you that everything happens for a reason and even after loosing my job I still had a blessed life. I have a wonderful, supportive, and extremely loving husband. I have an amazing family, I have a dog who is ALWAYS happy to see me, I have a roof over my head, I have food to eat, and I am still so much happier than I ever was at my old job. AND we still found a way to stick to our plan and go to Disney.
I think that main point that I want to make is that where there is a will there is a way. AND when you count your blessings you will find you have more than you think. AND (last one I promise) to quote Mick Jagger "You can't always get what you want, but sometimes you find you get what you need."
I hope you enjoyed a brief history into our Disney plans and the abridged version of how we weathered the "storm." I promise next time I will get into some of the cool things we have planned for our trip.
Thanks for reading and have a magical day!!
For me, I must say that reading about everyone's joy and happiness is a pick me up. I'm going to give you the brief history of how/why my DH and I decided to say "to heck with the bad economy"!
When DH and I first got engaged we celebrated with a trip to Disney for Halloween. Well, actually we had the trip planned and he proposed right before we went, but at any rate we did celebrate! While we decided we would come back for our first anniversary and we would come during December since it is supposed to be the most magical time in the World.
Fast forward two years later: we're married almost two years to the day DH proposed. We go on our honeymoon and have the most amazing time. We come back on a Saturday night, on Monday when I returned to work I was laid off. Don't feel bad! It did stink to be let go from my job almost immediately after I was married, but I am a vast believer that everything happens for a reason. I wasn't happy at my job. I was working for a woman who did not believe in marriage and family. She was married and divorced 3 times (twice to the same person [don't ask!!]). She would always make comments like "Oh I'll understand if you just want to do the wife thing" She was extremely demanding of me and my personal time. She was looking for someone who wanted to be married to their job and that just was not me. So in hindsight it was better this way. But it took awhile for me to think like this.
Things were tough for awhile. I did receive unemployment, but as you could imagine it felt like nothing compared to what I used to make. We had spent so much money on our wedding and we kept saying "Oh after the wedding everything will be better, we'll have so much extra money, we'll be able to save so much!" Well life threw us a curve ball, as it often does, and now we just had to find a way to weather the storm and figure out what to do next.
As the weeks grew into months I realized that getting a job was going to be a lot harder than it had been in the past, and even getting "just any old job" was impossible. The silver lining was that my father was helping me get a job at his old company, he is now retired. The down side to that is that it's all very political and while it "will happen", no one doesn't quite know when and you just have to play this waiting game. So at that point I knew I would have a job one day. LOL sort of silly, but the job offered good pay and excellent benefits, which is what was really important. I had a family now, it wasn't just me, I had to think about my husband too. So I would wait.
So now what?!?! I had a job sometime in the future but when? I was going out of my mind at home and the money coming in just didn't seem like enough. Some days being by myself was like poison. I would think about all our bills and me not having a job and I would just cry. Deep down I knew it wasn't as bad as it could be. But when you invite the pity party in, it's hard to kick them out! I was such bad company at one point even the dog would get up to sleep in the other room. The I would think, "Should we cancel our plans for Disney?!?!" DH would not let me even speak of it. He would say that that would just make things worse. We would have spent our first year of marriage struggling and then at the end of it we would have nothing to look forward too.
Just as I was starting to loose hope I got a call from a friend of a friend. He owned a company and his busy season (summer) was coming up and he could use some help. I jumped at the chance. While I am making $10,000 less than I was at my old job, I am making more than I was getting on unemployment. It was almost like I had new life injected into my veins. Disney actually seemed like something that WOULD happen. So to ensure that I put us on a strict budget down to the money needed for gas and groceries every week. Before I knew it we had enough money saved up for airline tickets. So to ensure our fate, I bought the tickets; there was no turning back now
DH and I got creative about saving money. Anything of any value that wasn't serving us a purpose was put on ebay. DH is a computer guy (that's a technical title ) and started to earn some extra cash with side jobs fixing computers. We cut a lot of luxuries and really tried to stick to a list when food shopping. Any extra cash we came upon went right into savings. Just by budgeting and being smart with our money we had the money to pay for the trip in no time! The point of this story is not for anyone to feel bad. Please don't feel bad, there is nothing to feel bad about. I told you that everything happens for a reason and even after loosing my job I still had a blessed life. I have a wonderful, supportive, and extremely loving husband. I have an amazing family, I have a dog who is ALWAYS happy to see me, I have a roof over my head, I have food to eat, and I am still so much happier than I ever was at my old job. AND we still found a way to stick to our plan and go to Disney.
I think that main point that I want to make is that where there is a will there is a way. AND when you count your blessings you will find you have more than you think. AND (last one I promise) to quote Mick Jagger "You can't always get what you want, but sometimes you find you get what you need."
I hope you enjoyed a brief history into our Disney plans and the abridged version of how we weathered the "storm." I promise next time I will get into some of the cool things we have planned for our trip.
Thanks for reading and have a magical day!!
Even an extra $5 was look at as a savings. It's not just because we wanted to go to Disney, the trip was just an added incentive. I'm calling is "Cheap Chic" 
I am soooo jealous of your december trip!! I would love to go to disney during december, that would truly be a dream come true 
I'm looking forward to reading all about your plans for the next few months and to share in your excitement 
Only 98 days left!!! Funny how little things like that slip by you, and then when you realize they make you so happy.
Your saving tips are great too 
