Does anyone give up something in order to go to Disney?

[LubsPoohBear]

up till last month i was one of them ppl that just didn't undersand
thats years of tell my kids oh ya we can go sometime.after being robbed at gun point and locked in the cooler at work i desided it was time too keep my promise.so away we when i took 11 days of from work and WDW here we come now im hooked i can't wait too go back my girls are already saving for are next trip and so am i

 

[DonaldTDuck]

For this trip, I'm making a different kind of sacrifice. I start an eight day 'vacation' Monday collecting vacation pay so I can work at the Kentucky State Fair to earn a few hundred extra Disney bucks. Plus I get to play around the fair for a week! Then I work 10 of the next 13 days then head south to be at WDW Sept 11-16.

 

[aesalsa]

We sacrifice a bit to go to Disney when we want and to stay at the nicest resort we can afford. I told DH I'd rather a WDW vacation than Birthday, Anniversary, or Christmas presents. . . and we go about every 1 1/2 to 2 years. We also do not spend a lot on clothes, and I am not big on expensive jewelry. We already have our house completely paid, and we have cut our credit card use down to gas and higher priced purchases (for business and Disney ).

We just enjoy and appreciate experiences together more than objects .

 

[Danemom]

For this trip, I'm making a different kind of sacrifice. I start an eight day 'vacation' Monday collecting vacation pay so I can work at the Kentucky State Fair to earn a few hundred extra Disney bucks. Plus I get to play around the fair for a week! Then I work 10 of the next 13 days then head south to be at WDW Sept 11-16.

OT, Sorry - DonaldTDuck - I sure hope you're not driving from Bowling Green everyday to work at the fair!

 

[helenm29]

Well, lets see....We have pretty much quit going out to eat, going shopping and just spending money. Also, the hubby and I have our birthday a week before we go so we are not going to celebrate (as far as HE knows!) it's not easy I tell you! but it's all for a good cause and it's only 7 weeks to go Helen

 

[Tricia1972]

Great Thread!

What am I giving up for Disney?

We Clip Coupons
We Budget Relentlessly
We own a used car
We live in an affordable (small) house
We don't go out to eat much (See Budget)
We never go to movies, and rarely rent DVD's
Vacation - Sounds silly but I am carrying my week from this year to next year. Our trip in April 2007 will be my first full week off since my maternity leave in October/November last year

To me it is worth it. Because of our careful spending in other areas, we were able to buy into DVC (SSR) and are planning three weeks of vacation in Disney next year! How awesome is that?

 

[emma'smom]

I give up a long, cold week in the Ohio snow for a warm, sunshine-filled week in fantasy land! It is a sacrifice...but the things we do for our children! =)

 

[Mom B]

Well, we're giving up the satellite TV next week...REALLY! (I hope...considered doing it before but I know we'll get "zero" TV reception when we do so I hesitated...but no more! because we really need to cut the budget so we can relax on our January trip). Christmas presents...because everybody's getting their park passes for gifts this year (although I'm sure we'll do something small, probably just stockings)...I MAY put off redoing our living room ceiling one more time depending on how it goes...I'm trying to review our cell phone plans and cut down to the bare minimum on other household expenses and economize where we can. We've got most of our trip money put away but you never know...and this trip is a high priority! First one with our new grandson and it could be the last with our older grandkids (sure, that's what we said the last time!) Life is too short and the future too uncertain to put off the important things!

 

[DiszyDeanette]

Just wondering if anyone has made little sacrifices to go to Disney?

We put WDW on the oh-so-convenient layaway plan Disney travel offers. So sending off a few hundred dollars a month doesn't hurt quite as bad as plunking down the whole thing at once. Our October trip was booked in January, so we had 8 months to have it paid off w/in 45 days. If we weren't sending the money to Disney, we would probably go out more, stuff like that. SO we give up our 'fun money' more than anything else. DH & I have plenty of vacation time, so that's not a big deal. (although my job will not allow vacations during the summer, so that's not a possibility) I wouldn't say we give up too much, except maybe all the time we spend on these boards, anticipating the upcoming trip! 43 days until WDW! (not that I'm counting...)

 

[3DisneyKids]

I give up sleep! lol

I work from home, and my "regular" paycheck goes to the household account for all of the monthly bills, etc. And every now and then I pick up some extra consulting work (which I do in the wee hours!) and all of that money goes into our vacation fund. This works out great for us in that we don't have to make many sacrifices otherwise--although I will say that we are generally careful people anyway. DH has always taken his lunch to work, we don't eat out or go to the movies often, etc. That would be the case even if we didn't have this Disney habit, though!

 

[DonaldTDuck]

OT, Sorry - DonaldTDuck - I sure hope you're not driving from Bowling Green everyday to work at the fair!

Nope, my Dad still lives there and I have friends I can stay with on the nights I'm there late. Thanks for the concern.

 

[Skroops]

I'm giving up the idea of being a stay-home Mom. How sick is that? If I have a job then we can afford to go to WDW more. With a lot of purchases I consider, I think in my head "that could be dinner at Crystal Palace", and I put it back...or I think "this will be a cute outfit at WDW", and I buy it....

 

[QueenGoblin]

I'm like many of you who have already posted, there is no one thing we sacrifice but we keep an eye on our budget throughout the year to be sure we have enough for fun and emergencies. We don't go to movies very often (maybe 1 or 2 a year at the most). We get most of our movies/books for free from the local public library. We do all of our own housework, buy cars that are known to be economical and reliable and then keep them for as long as possible, and don't spluge on lots of consumer items. We bought a modest house for our income. None of these things feel like sacrifices to us personally, because I think we prefer a low key, simple lifestyle, but I certainly have friends and relatives that would see it as making sacrifices.
We are lucky in that DH's job gives him plenty of vacation time, a benefit that seems to be dissappearing for many. I work P/T but I am given lots of flexibility to make up time before and/or after a vacation and I can even do some work from home. to those of you who really have to budget your time and money to have a WDW vacation. I hope your trips are always magical.

 

[eliza61]

We spend an average of a month a year at DW.

It is the other 11 months that are "wasted".

We only come home so that we can tell the difference between DW and the real world.

Slightly Goofy

Boy, do I so agree with you. I tell people all the time, work is what I do the rest of the year until I can get back to Disney! Generally, I have to rein in my uncontrolled spending if I want to go the Disney but giving up starbucks is a small price for me to pay.

 

[Dina]

We could buy a bigger house, but instead, we stay in our smaller house because we like being able to afford Disney trips. Seriously one of my biggest fears is, if we move-- no more Disney money. My friend keeps telling me that I could move near her (in a bigger house with more land) if we stop taking so many trips to Disney. I'd rather go to Disney. That's a pretty big sacrifice-- but I don't mind our small house-- it seems to bother other people (my dad, and some of our inlaws) more than it does us. It's cozy and really cute and we love it.

 

[sherreis]

We recently started giving up eating out as much and I can't believe how much more money we have.

I can't give up our lawn mowing this year cause we have a contract, but, I'm hoping to start doing it myself again next year. I couldn't do it this year - had surgery. That's $30/week.

We're driving our cars until they die. They'll be paid off next year. They both have approx 90,000+ miles on them.

We're doing a lot of our home repairs/remodelling ourselves. All the painting even painting the kitchen cabinets. We're going to learn how to lay a laminate wood floor so we can save money that way.

As for holiday gifts, someone mentioned they didn't know what they were going to do about that cause they get home 2 days before Christmas.... I overheard DS11 tell DS6 to not plan on Hanukkah presents this year because of our DW trip. What he doesn't know, is that a lot of the souvenirs we're going to say "no" to while we are there, are going to be their Hanukkah presents. They just won't see them until the holiday gets here. I told DH that's the advantage of staying onsite - is that we can buy something and have it delivered to our resort. This way the boys won't know we bought it.

We're also going over Thanksgiving week so I only have to use 3 vacation days to have a week off.

We're also giving up the luxury of flying (it's really the cost - not the luxury). It would cost us over $1200 to fly Thanksgiving week. So, we're driving from Maryland. I don't want to put the trip off another year to be able to afford flying.

 

[Fitswimmer]

I don't feel like I'm giving anything up. I've set my vacations as a priority and if that means I cut costs in other areas of my life-so be it. I have a special savings account just for my vacation money that I don't touch for anything else. I don't eat out, I bring my own lunch and my own coffee to work every day. I found a piano teacher that I can barter with-I clean her house in exchange for lessons. I don't buy DVD's or video games, I use netflix and gamefly and if that gets to be too much on the budget, that will stop too. I plan my vacations around holidays so I can save on vacation time and shop for flights to get the best price. I worked out a deal with my director to work 2 days a week at home, which helps me save gas. I'm continually re-evaluating my budget to make sure that when I need the money for WDW it will be there.

It all comes down to priorities, if you choose WDW trips as a priority then other things will become less important.

 

[ainmama2001]

Yeah. I give up lots of money!

 

[kkmcan]

We also drive used cars, trying to cut down our eating out to once every week or two. Also staying out of the grocery store in between weekly shopping. That kills me every time I go in for milk or bread and come out with $30 worth.

Kids didn't get new backpacks this year. Their old ones were still looking good.

Got the least expensive cell phone plan. Would love to get rid of it but dh says no.

People in our lives do not understand when we take 3 vacations a year and one of them is always Disney (usually Disneyland though). Vacations are definitely a priority in our lives over new furniture, decorator homes and new cars. I could really care less about having the perfect house or the latest clothing styles.

We have so much more fun than they do and our kids will always remember all the family time spent on vacation. That's all they talk about anyways. The time we went here or the time we did such and such. And how much fun it was! Those are the memories I want them to have.

 

[sherreis]

Vacations are definitely a priority in our lives over new furniture, decorator homes and new cars. I could really care less about having the perfect house or the latest clothing styles.

We have so much more fun than they do and our kids will always remember all the family time spent on vacation. That's all they talk about anyways. The time we went here or the time we did such and such. And how much fun it was! Those are the memories I want them to have.

I was saying the same thing on another thread yesterday. I'm hoping to provide opportunities for my children to alway remember. When we first started planning this trip, DH kept saying "that is a room of new furniture for the family room." My response was that when they grow older, they aren't going to remember the furniture in the family room, but, they will remember their first trip to DW with Mommy and Daddy. He doesn't say it anymore.