Heres a story I thought I would pass on.
My cousin adores Disney. If she has her way, she takes her family to Orlando at least once a year.
However, 3 years ago she and her husband bought a house. That was OK. What wasnt OK were all the unexpected problems they found with the place. In the end they had to take out a major loan and max out their credit cards to get everything fixed. So she and her husband came to a difficult decision for them. No Disney holidays (or any holidays) until the loan and credit cards were paid off.
Like I said, that was three years ago. They still have 2 years to go before they will be free from this unexpected debt. But as you can imagine, my cousin is starting to miss Disney something bad.
Four weeks ago she was over for dinner and I got to talking to her about Disneys free dining plan. My cousin had no idea that Disney did this and was fascinated by the idea of it. (She was also surprised with the magical express they now offer) She asked me a few questions and had me help her go online and take a look how much it would cost to bring her family (two pre-teen boys) really she was daydreaming more than anything. With late August dates we found very cheap airfares. Combine this with a Value Resort stay, the dining plan and some strict budgeting and we figured the 4 of them could go for a week for $2,600 inclusive of everything. The problem, though, was this was about $2,600 more than she could afford.
I didnt think anything more of about this. But last week she gave me a call and told me what she had been up to. I guess this trip was all she could think about. So she decided to see if there was anyway she could swing it.
First off she dug out some airfare dollars she had earned but forgotten about. She and her family had consented to take a later flight when her flight was overbooked. Each coupon is worth $100 and she has 4 of them.
Then she finally decided to count all her change. She has been colleting change since college. She always knew she would use it for something special and now was the time to break into it. It took her an entire weekend even with a coin sorter, but it was worth it when she came up with $900.
So now shes up to $1,300 halfway there. So she really starts to think. Then she remembered the watches. Our grandfather collected watches. When our Grandmother passed away, my cousin got 5 of the watches. Theres no way she would ever sell 4 of them, but the fifth watch doesn't really fit the collection. Its big and gaudy and ugly and no one likes it. So she decided to get it appraised and maybe get a few dollars for it. Then what do you know, it turns out the fake looking gems are real and its worth $1,000 retail. The guy at the jewelry store offered her $800 for it and she took it.
So now she is just $500 short.
This is where I was able to come in. Before my cousin bought a house, she and her husband purchased a pretty nice trailer. It so happens that I need a trailer for 4 or 5 weekends over the next few months (my daughters softball team will compete in a bunch of tournaments.). So I offered $500 for the use of their trailer for these weekends which is a great deal for me. She hemmed and hawed for about half a second before happily accepting.
So there it was, a Disney trip without spending any cash or borrowing any money. She got the money together and booked the trip.
I was just talking to her and she told me about telling her family. She got her family together on Easter and told them the Easter Bunny had brought them a week in Orlando. Of course her boys go crazy. Her husband, though, is fuming. He figured she had broken their word to each other and put the whole trip on their credit cards. But when she told him what she had done he pretty disolved in a pool of tears. I guess he was missing his trips to Disney as well.