Disney every year...

[comicguy]

We just save money for the trip through yard sales, ebay, not eating more than once a week, returning soda bottles, direct deposit of 25/ week from each of our checks to savings and other things that may come up to save money.

We usually go every other year but we were able to go this past Jan. for twice in 2 years then some "found money" appeared and Disney was offering free dining so we went in August this year with very cheap airfare so we went twice this year with an eye towards going this Jan. But I had to quite my job to go to Grad school full-time, so maybe depending on how the finances go between now and then.

 

[disneysteve]

We've gone at least once/year since about 1990. Before DD was born, and even after she was born but wasn't in regular school yet, we were going twice a year. By driving down, staying offsite and buying annual passes, two trips didn't cost any more than a lot of people spend on one trip.

The past 4 years, we've only gone once each year. We still stay offsite and drive down, which saves a ton of money. We can easily do a week at Disney for $2,000. And we could trim that if we had too, but fortunately we don't need to.

Disney is not our only vacation, though. We always do a week's vacation during the summer. This year it was Vermont. Last year it was actually 2 weeks in California and Vegas. Before than it was a Carnival cruise, and other trips before that.

We live pretty frugally and well below our means. Travel is one of our spending priorities. We happily do without fancy cars, fancy clothes, lots of dining out, premium cable, big screen tv and a lot of other things that other folks prefer to spend their money on.

This year, we will spend rougly 5% of income on travel. That's fairly typical for us. We have no debt except our home. Our cars are paid for. We pay our CC bills in full each month. And we save about 28% of income for the future. so we are perfectly comfortable indulging our love of Disney each year. We're just sorry we can't go twice a year like we used to.

 

[rparmfamily]

Travel is one of our spending priorities. We happily do without fancy cars, fancy clothes, lots of dining out, premium cable, big screen tv and a lot of other things that other folks prefer to spend their money on.

This is us too. With the exception of our DVC membership as our big splurge in life, we drive modest cars (both used Hondas) have a modest/small but nice home, no cell phones, no cable, no new fancy anything. (TV's,etc) We rarely go out to dinner. We also carry little debt.

Travel is a big priority with DH and I, so we make it work.

 

[disneynewbee]

We are also a one income family and we have 3 kids. Dh claims 1 for taxes throughout the year and it makes for quite a large tax return at tax time. We use half of that for vacation and the other half for household expenses/ repairs. I guess if we used it all for house and bills we could really get ahead but life is too short and I would go nuts without a vacation. We went for the 1st time in 04 and realized it wasn't much more expensive than the normal wk we would spend at the ocean and 10x more fun so starting this year we plan to go yearly. Once the kids get a little older we plan to switch on and off with some cruises and more exotic locations.

 

[bettyann29]

For me I put family time and vacation time as a priority.. I currently have 2 kids in braces but luckily one of them is paid off and the others will be paid off in February.. We try to do a family vacation every other year, but recently its come into every year.. We did a cruise last year and then this year we went to WDW in March.. I currently am looking at going in March again with all of us going and then doing a Disney cruise the following year.. Unfortunately our kids are getting older and we realize that we dont have many more years vacationing as a family so we are trying to get it in while we can.. We do adults trips at least once a year sometimes two.. the kids understand and are ok with it, as they get the family trips..

Boy we could have alot more money if we didnt vacation so much, but we enjoy it.. The only thing now is that we just bought a house in May of this year, so we may have to start settling the vacation down to just once a year so we can do updates and do things to the house that we want to..

I started looking at DVC so that might be an option for us.. If so we would be guaranteed a trip to Disney every year..

 

[SetzKitten]

We go several times a year. It's the most important thing in our lives, for DH and I to spend time together at our (mostly his) favorite place. We get there by living frugally day to day. We reuse and recycle whatever we can, we have old cars with low insurance payments, no cell phones, basic cable, basic phone service. We make an effort to save water and electricity whenever possible. I love to cook, so we always have good, inexpensive meals at home. DH is handy around the house so he does all repairs and renovations himself. All the little things add up to huge savings for both the environment and our wallets.

 

[Harvest02]

We are also a one income family and we have 3 kids. Dh claims 1 for taxes throughout the year and it makes for quite a large tax return at tax time. We use half of that for vacation and the other half for household expenses/ repairs. I guess if we used it all for house and bills we could really get ahead but life is too short and I would go nuts without a vacation. We went for the 1st time in 04 and realized it wasn't much more expensive than the normal wk we would spend at the ocean and 10x more fun so starting this year we plan to go yearly. Once the kids get a little older we plan to switch on and off with some cruises and more exotic locations.

We are very similar to your post! I have been a SAHM for 9 years with 2 kids. This year, my youngest started 1st grade, so I now have a 1st grader and 4th grader. I have started substitute teaching this year, and LOVE it! A large part of my income from that will go in my ING account for my vacation money. I also have another part time retail job. I feel the same...life is too short, and traveling is one of the things I enjoy doing. Unfortunately, my DH is not a big traveler. He went with us for our June trip to Disney, but not sure if he wll go with us on our next one. My kids love it though, so we are going to go in October next year for the Halloween party. We have never been that time of year so looking forward to it.

Anyway, to be able to afford Disney(which is what I am so addicted to now), we don't go out to eat more than once a week, I save my teaching money, sell on e-bay, and don't spend my "me" time going out shopping all the time! I also put some of our tax refund in our vacation account(although don't know if we will be getting a huge refund in coming years since my husband just got a 7% raise, and will be getting other one soon). I agree that Disney is not all that expensive when you look at all the entertainment that comes with it! We went to Gulf Shores Alabama for a week 2 years ago, and spent $2000 for that week mainly just laying on the beach!!! It takes cutting back in other areas, and living a simple life.

 

[turnlisa]

We make pretty good money and live as a family with a moderate income. We could afford a bigger house, bigger tv, nicer cars, etc. but that stuff doesn't mean much to us. We take 2 vacations a year -- one to Disney. My DH also gets sales commission checks (few and far between) that we set aside for vacation. I think the trick for most families (from what I am reading) is choosing priorities. For us the week together is much more valuable than the huge house or the plasma screen tv. I just booked our next trip yesterday -- yahoo! You are going to have a wonderful time and it will be totally magical! Enjoy it and so glad that your DH is doing well! Make sure you write a trip report to tell us all about it.

 

[barbeml]

We are THINKs...Two Healthy Incomes No Kids.

We go at least once a year (we went three times in 12 months the year we had APs).

Part of the fun for me is leveraging our various rewards programs to get the best vacation for the lowest price. This year I used Marriott Rewards for two adult hoppers and an overnight in Savannah (we are driving this time because we need to make several stops to visit family & friends). I have earned a bunch of Disney Dollars from Creations Rewards and gas cards from MyPoints. I have used AAA rewards for plane tickets and Space Center tickets.

I always save change and singles (dollar bills come in handy at Food & Wine Festival), and I have a dedicated savings account (I automatically add $300 per month) for current and future vacations. I do some survey and product test programs, and all those checks go into the vacation account, along with rebates, expense checks and other "found" money.

 

[Kteacher]

We have 3 kids 19, 16, and 14. My husband has a very successful contracting business, and I work a p/t job in addition to my full time school job. My retail job pays for our vacations We're trying to squeeze in every last bit of family vacation time we can now that our kids are getting older. DD14 and I are going for a long weekend in October, and we will probably do a 5 day trip next August as well. We don't go out a lot the rest of the year, lived for almost 18 years in a small house with only one bathroom, have cars that are paid for , and other than college tuition ( I started saving for this when the kids were all in preschool ) , don't have any major expenses- yes we are lucky

 

[sandy6879]

We are a family of 3 - me, my DFi, and DD9. We have gone I think the past 4 or 5 years in a row. Each time, the Disney part of it costs me around 2k - this year was great with free dining we're getting the package for about 1200 and we do NOT buy souvenirs. Plus, my disney visa gave us about $500 toward the cost so it was really inexpensive this year.

Airfare is always the question mark but never more than $700 or so for the three of us.

Next year we won't be going since DFi and I are getting married and having a honeymoon - however, the company I now do direct sales for gives out credits that can be spent on travel dollars once a year - so far, I am at over $1500 in free travel for next year to go wherever I want

My parents could never afford to take vacations when I was little, and they couldn't get away from their job (they own a restaurant). It was VERY important to me that my daughter be able to go on vacations with us as a family and I'll find the ways to cut back on whatever we need to so that we can go.

 

[melissac]

This one may not be the smartest way but it works for us. We usually take one major trip per year and use our tax return to pay for it. We claim 1 or 2 deductions when we could claim 4 or 5 and they take out a lot more money that way but, you get it back in the end and because we have always done this you don't notice what you are missing and the return checks are nice. We don't save very good so this works great.

 

[blanq]

The question posed by the OP comes up frequently, in various forms, on the DIS Boards and I always get a kick out of it. This is not a slam to the OP. You can look at any lifestyle indicator and ask the same question. For example, how can my neighbor afford a Hummer, or a $700,000 home? No matter the issue, it seems to come down to this:

1. The person makes a lot of money, or inherited a lot of money, and can do what they want with it.
2. The person can't afford it, charges it, and is in debt up to their eyeballs.
3. The person values it (vacations, big homes, cars, whatever), so works their budget, and maybe cuts back in other areas, to make it happen.

Everyone here at the DIS is so diplomatic and polite, but I would really love it if someone would respond to one of these posts "I make a crapload of money, so I can go to WDW anytime I want", which likely is the case with some. Anyway, for me, it's #3. I value vacations, so I build them into my budget.

 

[KirstenB]

I'm a SAHM, we have 2 dds. I worked until 3 yrs ago. We bought into DVC back in 1993, when points were around 55.00 each. At the time we didn't have children, so it was an easy purchase. I wanted a way for us to be able to go to WDW every year, and at the time, the inexpensive resorts didn't exist. We drive down, and eat breakfast in our DVC room. We've gone every year fairly inexpensively.

 

[dvcgirl]

The question posed by the OP comes up frequently, in various forms, on the DIS Boards and I always get a kick out of it. This is not a slam to the OP. You can look at any lifestyle indicator and ask the same question. For example, how can my neighbor afford a Hummer, or a $700,000 home? No matter the issue, it seems to come down to this:

1. The person makes a lot of money, or inherited a lot of money, and can do what they want with it.
2. The person can't afford it, charges it, and is in debt up to their eyeballs.
3. The person values it (vacations, big homes, cars, whatever), so works their budget, and maybe cuts back in other areas, to make it happen.

Everyone here at the DIS is so diplomatic and polite, but I would really love it if someone would respond to one of these posts "I make a crapload of money, so I can go to WDW anytime I want", which likely is the case with some. Anyway, for me, it's #3. I value vacations, so I build them into my budget.

lol....well, I think you make a valid point. It's never a good idea to compare yourself with anyone around here because you don't know their story. Sure, they may be going to WDW four times a year, and they could be up their eyeballs in debt. Or they could be very frugal with a million the bank and make vacations a priority.

 

[crisi]

The question posed by the OP comes up frequently, in various forms, on the DIS Boards and I always get a kick out of it. This is not a slam to the OP. You can look at any lifestyle indicator and ask the same question. For example, how can my neighbor afford a Hummer, or a $700,000 home? No matter the issue, it seems to come down to this:

1. The person makes a lot of money, or inherited a lot of money, and can do what they want with it.
2. The person can't afford it, charges it, and is in debt up to their eyeballs.
3. The person values it (vacations, big homes, cars, whatever), so works their budget, and maybe cuts back in other areas, to make it happen.

Everyone here at the DIS is so diplomatic and polite, but I would really love it if someone would respond to one of these posts "I make a crapload of money, so I can go to WDW anytime I want", which likely is the case with some. Anyway, for me, it's #3. I value vacations, so I build them into my budget.

I've said it before and have gotten into trouble for it, but we make a crapload of money. We inherieted money as well.

However, we still live in a modest house, drive modest cars, send our kids to public school, shop for bargains, don't wear designer clothes, and only go to Disney every other year. While we could go more often, we'd rather take other trips as well and we need to budget time as well as money. I have other things to do with my money than Disney trips - like I have other things to do with my money than live in a million dollar home.

The other factors - some people have pointed out they don't have kids - traveling with kids - particularly by air, is expensive - and the kids themselves add a lot of expense. Some people live close enough to drive - we'd probably go more often if we could go for three days, but with a four hour plane trip, it isn't doable. Some people take really cheap trips - some take expensive ones. Some people here have worked very hard to get themselves debt free - for people who don't face $500 in credit card minimum payments every month, life is a little different than people who do - and get rid of that mortgage and its even more different.

 

[NY Disney fan]

Would love to go to Disney every year...but my DH thinks its lame...Grrrr!!! So I have a completely different problem LOL!

 

[runwad]

We went once for that once in a lifetime trip with our kids when they where 5, 7 & 9. Came back and we were hooked. Started reading the DIS religiously and learned all kinds of ways to do it cheaper. Bought my 10 day no expiry tickets, got cheap condos on SkyAuction and of course we drive but we can do a trip for under a grand for 7 days..we really can't afford to spend any more than that and remain debt free, but we do it and love it!! Where there's a will there's a way.

 

[golden1]

Because I live so far from Disney, I couldn't afford to go every year even if I were working. When you have to fly vs. drive, it adds a lot to your cost. It is a 21+ hour drive and with 2 young children, I couldn't survive.

 

[TENIA66]

Would love to go to Disney every year...but my DH thinks its lame...Grrrr!!! So I have a completely different problem LOL!

that's when you say you think that cooking, cleaning, and uhmmm...you know are LAME.......just say the magic mountains are closed due to lack of interest!!!