How do y'all afford it?

[madhttr]

Just out of total curiousity, and Im probably getting a little too personal, but...

How do you guys afford these vacations? I went online and checked for rates to WDW for 10 days at POP and it was quoted at $1,800 before airfare. This doesnt factor in meals, spending money, etc. DH and I dont make much yearly (about $60,000 a year) and we cant even imagine spending that kind of money on a vacation, unless we come into some major money!

Anyone have any ideas?

 

[mom2taylorandemily]

We use tax refunds, and any overtime we get and put it right towards our trip. I work a part time job and all my money goes straight to the trip as well. We live modestly, we both drive paid off cars (no car payment). We limit clothing allowance for the girls. You'd be surprised where extra money comes from if you want it bad enough. We don't drink famous coffee, we make it at home, we both take our lunches, both girls take lunch to school. We have no credit cards, and we are frugal with utilities at home. We just are very creative.

 

[faindrops27]

Hiya, I guess it lies in our priorities. I dont know,but my husband and I make just over 70k per year. But, we work hard, and I will not see a year go by without me taking a famiy trip, or some type of vacation. Now, others look at us, and say our priorities, are all screwed up to spend close to 5k every year. But, I feel life is to short. So, I might as well spend the money. And enjoy the time, while I still have it. We book usually 6-8 months in advance, and just pay it off.

 

[MomofKatie]

We go for weeklong WDW vacations around once a year, and we make about the same pay as you. We live close enough to drive instead of fly. We stay at the Value resorts (or offsite) to save $$, and we either do the Dining Plan or just plan carefully to save a little on meals. We don't go crazy with buying souvenirs, and DD uses her own money for her souvenirs- we don't buy her everything she sees. We try to buy 10 day hopper/waterpark and more passes w/no expiration and split them up into 2 or 3 trips each. We set aside some $$ from each paycheck for vacations, and I do a little side job for extra cash (I'm a SAHM). We just make paying for a nice vacation each year a priority.

 

[DisneyBride'03]

I'd be happy if I lived in Monterey Bay!!! Was just there for vacation last month, its beautiful. If you time it right, get a "code" its affordable. I just booked a 4 day 3 night trip...at POP, incl airfare, DDP, 3 day base ticket for 1 adult 1 child for $1100! Just have to do research and look for deals or get a good TA!

 

[madhttr]

You guys make it sound so easy! My dream has always been to go to WDW. As a kid, we would go once every other year and sometimes once a year to DL. While I am not ungrateful for one second because there are alot of people who dont get to experience that, I just wish that once we could do it. DH and I have poor spending habits and between the little things here and there to DH's addiction to Dirtbikes, we are slowly going into the poor house! lol. But seriously, I really would love to, and someday we will. It will just take a little will power!

 

[madhttr]

I'd be happy if I lived in Monterey Bay!!! Was just there for vacation last month, its beautiful.

I love it here. I grew up here and have been all over the US, lived in Colorado for 3 years and Germany for another 3 and I always came back. Now I'm here to stay!

 

[DisneyBride'03]

My fave restaurant is the Whole Enchilada, right before you get to the Monterey Dunes, killer margarita's! We hope to be back this summer, in laws have a place at the dunes, makes it easy$ for us

 

[Poppinsme]

We are going to spend close to 8,000.00 on our trip to the POLY this year but hey its our 32 wedding anni. I will work a lot of OT to make up for it. This is our dream vacation we have always wanted. So going all out. Why be normal? Its only money. One thing I learned after Hurricane Katrina is to enjoy every day like its your last. I owe, I owe, its off to work I go............

 

[DisneyBride'03]

I say good for you and congrats on your anniversary! I love the POLY...got married there! There is nothing like lying on the beach, having a Lava Flow, having the Grand Floridian in the distance and looking at the castle!! However, With three kids now (baby was born on our anniversary) we may try mod ...going to POP next month for a long weekend with DD and mom. I can get 2 rooms at POP for way less than Poly. It judt depends on your budgt and what you are willing to do to have your dream vacation!

 

[nan1217]

We spent 15k on travel between June 2005 and July 2006 - 4 trips, 1 of which was to WDW. We live very modestly, don't have credit card balances, only have 1 car payment at a time, rarely get new clothes, I cook most all of our meals, etc. I got laid off last August and chose to stay home for awhile and since we live modestly, it hasn't affected our finances except that we can't spend 15k on vacations this year...vacations are much, much more modest for now but I will not ever get rid of them. I'm just earning on the side for odd jobs here and there and applying it toward vacations.

 

[soupy11]

No credit cards! No big bank loans!

Modest living, living well below our means, and splurging on our one obsession, WDW!

 

[Laila_Adam]

going on 2-3 vacations each year is a priority for us. I am a stay at home mom and my DH makes a little over 125K excluding bonuses. Whatever DH makes goes to bills, car payments, insurance, college savings, 401k, life insurance, groceries, utilities, clothes, some to savings, etc. What we do is we just use our Tax return and DH's yearly bonus which is separate from his base pay. For us this money is extra cash and so this way we do not touch any of our savings accounts. I also forgot to add we do not have any credit card balances

 

[LSUmom4kids]

I guess I'm thrifty and can't understand how people can spend up to $500 per night for a hotel room or suite.........

I didn't grow up that way, therefore I'm not used to spending that much for a hotel room.

I guess if I won the lottery, I might be able to part with the $$ but it would be hard...it's in my blood ... I'd still be looking how to stretch the money to make it go farther....

DH and I both work full time. Having 4 kids doesn't make things easier.

We're using our tax refunds plus saving some from each paycheck to make it work. Plus, this year we will again go right after the kids' birthdays (they all have birthdays in the summer within 1 month of each other!), and request all relatives give Disney dollars or gift cards (if they ask what the kids want for their birthday). Last year, each kid had at least $200 to spend on their special souveniers - I monitored and held the 3 youngest kids' money so it wasn't lost or spent unwisely. It worked great!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[FigmentGuy]

I went in 2003 for the first time. I'm frugal when it comes to blowing a big wad of cash. Well after that first trip it has been crazy since. I can't get enough WDW.

I'm fresh to my career and dbf is kinda established in his. We made about 80k last year combined. It was easy for us to go previously because we owned a mobile home, so just payed lot rent, utilities and 2 "smaller" car payments. We were debt free for credit cards.

Well this fall we "grew up" and purchased a home. (kinda silly to make good money, want to own a home, and not actully buy one) So now I have a huge mortage payment that requires about 1/2 of my months salary, still paying for our cars.. cellphones, bigger utility bills that came with a big house etc. And I realized.. "no wdw for figmentguy". Well my mom came to me and said "i want to go to WDW". She has never been and I thought.. OMG! We need to go!!! The dbf looked at me as if I was on illegal drugs. hahaha

So we talked it over, and curently we are paying off the last lil bit of a credit card, and working hard on saving any penny we can. We have reserved our rooms, bought two 1stclass plane tickets, and are staying for 15days at the CBR. We will prolly spend a good 5-8k on this trip. I dont think thats a drop in the bucket, but disney makes me happy...
.

So how do WE do it. Like everyone else does. We sacrafice. Cut back on spending habits. No more "best buy", No more "starbucks", no more "applebees". If we do want a game/movie/cd we budget it. If we want to go out to eat we do a buffet to help us "control price". Etc. We got rid of things we dont need..Like reduced our cellphone package, got rid of a satalite receiver, will be getting rid of our home phone.


I also hunt hunt hunt for the cheapest price. Codes to apply to rooms, cheapest airport shuttle, cheapest car rental. I do spend alot at disney, but I like to see how far a dollar can go. We just purchased an AP to receive the DDE. That will save 20% off most of our sit down meals.

It does wear on my bf. He says "wouldnt you like to vacation at a cheaper place? a new place? or just skip a vacation and maybe get a sunroom for the house?" SO yah... this may be my last wdw trip for a year or two. It may not.
(dbf has been to disney over 10 times in the past 20 years. He is the one who convinced me to try it. He says he created a monster. LOL I agree.)

Also I developed another $nasty$ hobby.. Cirque Du Soeil. La Nouba at DTD totally caught my heart on my first trip. So next year we may be heading to vegas to catch the cirque shows out there. That was actually supposed to be our vacation this year until my mom wanted to head to WDW.

So for us its just determination to get there and cutting the things we need to to make it happen. Save what we can, and stay focused. Currently Im working hard. Our trip is 9months around the corner and I still have a "large $goal" I need to meet. So with that, I wish you luck too.

 

[kentear]

When it comes to saving money on Disney trips I can get a little obsessed. Ok, REALLY obsessed . I'm not cheap - in fact, quite the opposite. I just love to go on vacations and but can't imagine how people afford to pay for them all the time. 12 years ago my partner and I decided we were going to take a Disney trip every year, come hell or high water. So we set out to find a way to do it - and - only wanted to stay on Disney property when ever possible.

Now…should we replace the siding on our house? yes. Should we fix the ceilings on the first floor? yes. Should we install a new side door? yes. However, I want a vacation every year and that has moved its way up our list to one of our priorities. Life is short and we are both pretty healthy so vacations win out.

Here is how we save up for our trips...

• We set up a savings account called The Disney Fund. NOTHING is taken out of the fund unless it is for vacation. No Exceptions.
• We each direct deposit $20 from our paychecks every other week into the account.
• We have a huge change jars on top of the refrigerator and one of our dressers where we put ALL of our change. One of our "rules" is that we never use exact change when shopping because it is one of the ways we save (I know it sounds weird but that is what we do). You would be amazed how quickly money adds up this way.
• We buy a couple of scratch lottery tickets each week and if we win anything over $5, it goes into the savings account.
• $250 from taxes refunds goes towards vacation.
• Our regular ATM card for our bank earns us Continental Airlines miles. We use that everywhere we can to get points towards free flights. However most times we end up flying Southwest because they always have such good deals - usually.
• I spend MONTHS bargain hunting for the best deals on rental cars, the hotel deals at Disney and stuff like that. I literally make an Excel spreadsheet with all the different options. For example, this year we are going in September. We just booked the Dolphin at $125 per night. We are hoping for free dining at a Disney resort so we have also booked Port Orleans Riverside just in case. We had to pay deposits but it is worth it. (I warned you I get obsessed). Check AAA, these boards, other travel discussion boards, etc...
• I sign up for ANY card deal that we find. For example a few years ago we went to Rainforest Cafe in Downtown Disney and tried to get a table but there was a terrible wait. The host told us that if we signed up for one of their discount cards (not a credit card) and paid a one time fee of $5 (I think) we could have front of the line access when ever we came again and get a free appetizer or get a discount off the total bill. We did and now never go to Disney without the card.
• We like to pick up a few t-shirts each trip. We allow ourselves 1 each from one of the parks but anything else in the way of souvenirs comes from the Disney Outlet store just outside WDW. I can't recall the name of the mall it is at but I know how to get there.
• As we get about 6 months away from the trip, I start checking rental car rates - daily. In the past we have usually gotten a week rental, including taxes for about $120-$140. We don’t need a rental car, but I like to have it and it gets us to the Disney Outlet store.

That is about it I think. When we actually go on vacation, it is totally paid for 100%. We do not go unless it is. We even leave $40 in the glove box in our car that we park at the airport to cover the parking fee when we leave the lot after coming back home.

Check out my sigfile below to see the places we have stayed. This plan works for us. It sort of turns into a fun experience for us to see how we do each year. We usually go for 5-6 nights. This year is going to be a whopper for a trip for us though. We decided to skip going last year and save up for 2 years. We are staying 9 nights this time around. Can't wait!

I hope this helps give you some ideas

 

[Dislifer]

Well, my house needs to be painted, I need new furniture and carpeting and I should be saving for my children's college education but I don't know how long I'll be around, so I spend my $$$ on vacations!

 

[tasha99]

This will blow your mind: I'm a single parent who makes around $20k a year in earnings, and another 10K in child support--half what your family makes. We use some of my tax refund and I tuck a little money away every month.

My family thinks I'm crazy, but who knows if I'll be around next year. Or what if something happens to my back and I can't go on the rollercoasters when I'm old? I figure if I wait till I can afford it, I might be waiting till I don't want to go. What's the fun in that?

 

[Charleyann]

No credit cards! No big bank loans!

Modest living, living well below our means, and splurging on our one obsession, WDW!

Just my DS and I . I don't smoke nor do I go out to bars. We have for our vacations a little money tucked away each month. I pay off my hotel a little each month and with tickets, I have enough each year for one 7 day hopper with park water and no expiration with airmiles. Usually I stay offsite for just 49.00 nightly (Best Western LAkeside) but this year due to the 40% off room quote we are staying on Disney for the first time. Going at Christmas, so Disney will be our Christmas! The souveniors I buy my son will be his Christmas presents! I spent alot on Christmas for him. He is 11 years old now and not into toys as much. He would rather go to Disney. Last year went with $2000.00 US, bought one 7 day magic your way ticket, ate with this, bought souveniors and still brought money home with us!

Book the plane 331 days before to get two round trip tickets for $420.00...No need for credit cards!

I going for 18 days and plan on taking the same amount. WE had extra last time. We aren't big eaters either. Uusally two good meals and a mid afternoon snack! We buy munchies and fresh fruit for our room and take a snack to the park!

Charleyann

 

[fla4fun]

I do a combination of what everyone else has said: tax refund, overtime pay, set amount direct deposited from paycheck each week, no frivolous spending, lots of bargain hunting, etc. I don't go during peak season ever, and try to only go in value season with a good discount. The main thing for me is having the AP, since I live close. Even when money gets really tight, I can still go for the day, if nothing else. But it's better to stay on site when I can.