How do you afford it?

[kevin harrison]

This is an excellent topic, I've often read threads here and seen peoples signatures and wondered, how on earth have they afforded that?

Me? well I'd rather have a massive blow-out holiday every 2 or 3 years than some boring holiday that I would rather not be on every year. Averaged out, it is probably the same as the average yearly holiday.

 

[alisonbestford]

Well, pretty much all of our spare cash goes on holidays

I've been a full time carer for DH for 6 years now so Phil battles away with his art work and I pay for holidays as the cash comes in, once all the bills have been paid

We don't go out much, except to the cinema occasionally, and clothes shopping isn't a priority - even DD will weigh up whether she needs new clothes vs a family holiday
DH smokes but we have lots of friends who don't and they bring him back tobacco at duty free prices
We eat out occasionally but usually only when we have a BOGOF voucher

Must admit that I did look around the house recently and think that we really should spend some money on it before it falls down but looking is one thing - whether I actually get round to it for a year or two you'll be able to gauge by my trip countdowns.......................

Family holidays are a priority for us at the moment as there'll be a time, in the future, when we're all unable to travel together.
Until then our hard earned cash will be spent building wonderful memories and the rest can wait
Like Lisash, due to personal circumstances, we tend to 'live for the day'

 

[kevin harrison]

Apologies for the frequent use of the words Joshua or Josh on my posts - just cannot be avoided sometimes

Have to say, I had noticed that, and talking about your children is one thing never to apologise about. It's a sign of a Dad that loves his son.

 

[wayneg]

In common with others here, we earn decent money, and over the years have choosen to spend a good portion of it on family holidays we hope our DDs will remember as fondly as we do. Yes, we also have fond memories of camping weekends in the rain in the Lake District, but Florida takes a lot of beating in our opinion.

It doesn't seem long ago (although it was rather longer ago than I care to remember!) that we earned very little and could no more have imagined a foreign holiday than a trip to the moon (not a cue for a Monty Python motorway central reservation sketch! ). Maybe that's helped us to appreciate what we have now, and there still comes a point where I'll stop and say "I'm not paying that much" whether it be for a 5 star hotel room or a pricey ice cream!

You had me thinking about my childhood, all the trips to Filey, Reighton Gap, Cowden among other places in East Yorkshire, I still remember the names even though I have not been for 30+ years. Mum and Dad didn't have car so we had to go by bus (not been on a bus for 22 years). How fortunate are we now.

 

[Boo Boo Too]

Life is a balancing act - providing that you are happy with what you are "putting away" to provide for your future/retirement (+ kids education/university), then it is up to you to enjoy your money the way you want.

Life is about experiences - you could get hit by a bus tomorrow... so you need to enjoy it will you can (without getting into debt or leaving yourself a pauper for your old age!).

We love holidays: have one longhaul Summer holiday a year (normally the US or a cruise) and one longhaul ski holiday a year (Colorado - normally combined with a visit to the in-laws in California). I also have been doing quite a lot of travelling for my sport, but that is tailing off now and was pretty much "airport-hotel-sportshall-hotel-airport" anyway....

Last year we had no Summer holiday because we had the rear garden landscaped instead (which works out at about the same price as a longhaul holiday...)

DH has a successful internet/software/e-catalogue company.

Boo

 

[Shooby doo]

To be honest up until this trip we have both worked,DW had a cracking job earning twice what I did -although you'll notice that we have never stayed on-site!! Unfortunately 2 years ago DW was taken seriously ill & although she is still here (only just) she has been left with permanent disabilities & can't work so now instead of going every 2 years we'll have to wait 4-5 years-paying for the holiday has never been the problem,it's all that spending money!! I think we'll wait till there's just the 2 of us so that we can stay on-site,that way space isn't an issue!
By the way we went to Devon last year to help fund this & had a great time,DS can't wait to go back next year!!
SD

 

[AndRu]

I've read this thread from start to finish and have to agree with so many people....

Lizzy Lemon - Staying in ths SAS Radisson the night before. Great in'it?

Steve Chase (and others) - Having three kids is pain - I've yet to find a hotel website that doesn't break when I try to book a room for the 5 of us

WayneG - Asking why people stop in expensive hotels? Totally agree, complete waste of money! Besides, I'd always go for the freedom and "home from home" experience (i.e. own bedrooms etc) that you get with a villa, especially when kids are involved.

Sue - Wanting to make the most of holidays with her daughter before she grows out of it.

JohnnySharp - if only this man supported Leicester instead of Liverpool, he could be my brother! We don't have much of a social life either, don't drink (often), don't smoke and my biggest vice is a DVD sale. Our children take up so much of our time

Shingle - Mentioning the pub mentallity. We know people in our village that are in the pub virtually everyday and we wonder how they can afford it. Yet they seem to think we're rich because we've got two cars on the drive and choose to holiday in Florida every 2 years. If they stopped giving the brewery so much money they would be able to go!

LisaH - Living for the day. So true.

And to sum it up:

Life is a balancing act - providing that you are happy with what you are "putting away" to provide for your future/retirement (+ kids education/university), then it is up to you to enjoy your money the way you want.

As I said earlier, we don't go out much, in fact, in the 11.5 years our oldest daughter has been alive we've only ever had two nights away from our children. One night was when they stayed with grandparents in Leicester when we moved from York to Derbyshire. The other was one night in London when a friend of mine got married. That's two nights away from our kids in 11.5 years - one of us has always been with them otherwise.

I have a good job working in IT for a power company and my wife works as an admin assistant at a school. As I mentioned earlier, we don't have much of a social life as a couple so we do things as a family and because we are a 5, this can be quite expensive. We're in the fortunate position (through hard work and diligent management of money) that we can pay all the bills and live on my money alone. It's my DW Ruth's salary that pays for the treats. If she wasn't earning we wouldn't be able to save for things like Florida - and that's what we do, save like mad!

We went in '03 & '05 and are going back in '07. This year we're having one week in Wales and Ruth is taking the kids away for some day trips over the summer holiday. I'm taking as little time off as possible this year as I'll need to carry some over for next years 3 weeks in Orlando. So again, we're saving for what we want to do.

None of us know when we're going to leave this mortal coil, in fact, the way it's going I can't ever see myself being able to retire and claim a pension - that set of goal posts in getting further away year on year. So, we're going to work pay the current bills and save for the things we want to do while we're still alive and able to do them!

 

[mrs-mac]

We are forunate to be able to afford nice holidays as l work part-time and DH has a full-time job and is also a retained firefighter. His income from the fire service goes into a savings account and pays for the holidays. We were also very lucky to be able to purchase DVC at Saratoga, this means we will hopefully (God willing) enjoy family holidays for many years to come. We averaged that we would go away every other year with the DVC and inbetween enjoying camping, which the kids love too. Like others have said, we dont drink, smoke or go out much really, l do like to shop lol but family time is important to us, so those 2 wks are prescious

 

[mushumadness]

we save all year for ours, I dont rest till the holidays paid in full, take next years the hotels paid for, and half the flights so I am doing well.

We dont smoke, I dont drink and we dont tend to go on many day trips, plus we dont have and responcibilities (see I cant even spell it) such as car payments or house payments which makes it easier.

My shopping habits even get halved, but I do shop for the holidays lol.

Luckily I ahve had early experiance on saving for wdw, Ive been going since I was about 5 or 6 and saw my parents save for the holidays (back then not many people round here went to wdw) so I know what to do

 

[JohnnySharp2]

JohnnySharp - if only this man supported Leicester instead of Liverpool, he could be my brother! We don't have much of a social life either, don't drink (often), don't smoke and my biggest vice is a DVD sale. Our children take up so much of our time

Up the Foxes!!

 

[AndRu]

Cheers Bro'!!!!!!

Glad to know I'll "Never Walk Alone!"

 

[Lizzy Lemon]

Johnny - don't apologise for mentioning Josh, I for one can appreciate how to have to tailor your holidays around him. Love seeing the different pictures of him, how about putting one up of you and your wife, its nice to be able to picture who you're writing to my excuse for not having one is I'm not photogenic and I can't post one up anyway, computer illiterate!!!!

 

[carolfoy]

All my money goes on travel (I can't even say it's 'spare' money 'cos as a single mum I don't have any of that ) but its what I work and live for! As a travel agent though I can spend days and days looking for my own holidays to ensure i get the best deal and I can take advantage of the many travel agent offers through airlines.
I don't go out often and when I do I'm a '3 g&t's and I'm anyones' kind of gal (cheap date!) and I only ever smoke duty frees which is ok as I always know someone whos going away.
My girlfriends spend what I consider to be ridiculous amounts on clothes - £250 pairs of jeans, £300 handbags etc which I could never do cos I always think £300 thats a weekend in barcelona!!! yes, I could probably up my mortgage and move to a bigger house but why would I need to? I don't need the pressure of a long term high mortgage when my own is very manageable.

 

[PChef]

I guess the theme of this thread is that we are all from different backgrounds and that we choose to spend our spare cash on going to Florida!

I am a stay at home Mum and DH works in traffic management/IT very long hours, 12+ most days, for which he gets paid quite well. We are lucky that I can afford to stay at home with the boys, help out at school, take them to activities etc. Holidays are really the highlight of the year as that is the main time we get to spend time together and DH truly relaxes and switches off from work.

This year we went to Centerparcs in January for a weekend, Disneyland Paris for 5 days in May Half Term, and we are going to a cottage in Cornwall in August and then another weekend at Centerparcs in October. Plus one adults only weekend and one DH and boys camping trip!!! I like to have frequent breaks to look forward to! Probably if I added the cost of all these up it would come to about 4k.

So for us to go to Florida each year would mean sacrificing all the other breaks/holidays. I'm not sure if I could do that... I'll let you know once I've been on our first trip in February next year!!!

A very interesting thread.

Michelle

 

[TandCmum]

well actually we can't afford it....lol, but like many of the others we have no social life whatsoever, we don't go out, don't drink, don't smoke and apart from the occasional gig we don't realy do anything. DH works long hours and is often away from home 2/3 nights a week and i work nights so that we can mange without childcare costs. We did Florida last year and we are going again next year, but this year we are doing 11 nights in a mobile home in France folowed by 4 nights at DLP for a grand total of £900. So for us it's cheap holiday one year and Florida the year after

 

[kkymmy]

Being a humble student (and having accumualted the acceptable £4000per year debt in my first year) im having to make massive sacrifices to be able to afford this. I'm quite lucky in the fact that the job I have is well paid (in student terms) which means I can put a fair portion of the holiday cost away each month....but it's not easy. Most of the year i've been doing the student thing, eating out most of the time, going out most nights and buying things that I can't really afford.

I guess having this holiday booked and knowing that I have to pay for it is making more financially independent and more aware of the value of money. The money that I'm spending on possibly the second best holiday of my life is money that I would normally spend on socialising, drinking and junk food. So by making myself afford this holiday I'm kind of improving my lifestyle too (although some days I just CANNOT be bothered to make myself a packed lunch)!

I think if you really want something you'll find ways of affording it. I know we aren't doing two weeks at a deluxe but for three 19 year olds we're spending an awful lot of money on this holiday, we're working damned hard for it and it's going to make the holiday so rewarding.

 

[Sarnia]

We bought into DVC, and were luck enough to be able to pay cash, so we just have maintenance fees each year.

For flights, we have a Virgin credit card which we use for everything we can. We pay a £80 per year fee to get 2 points per £ spent rather than 1, which gives us enough points for 2 free return flights. In April/May we were able to fly out in Premium Economy and back in Upper Class for just the cost of the tax. We also get free companion tickets by spending over a certain amount on the card a year, so we are going again in October for a week for the cost of one flight.

Unfortunately Virgin are replacing the Virgin Mastercard with an Amex card, which is accepted in far fewer places, so we will not be able to use it as much. Over here it's hardly accepted anywhere

 

[susan1]

[QUOTE Staying offsite from now until Easter we can afford 3 trips to Florida but I have a max of £30/nightd[/QUOTE]
hi have to agree with you we do frequent budget trips. it does take a lot of searching to find what you want! the price for the same hotel,same dates can vary wildly. we usually stay at the quality inn main gate west,which is usually on offer somewhere for between £18 - £19.50 per night for up to four people. it has safe, coffee maker, iron and ironing board, no micro/fridge but it does have a substantial cold continental breakfast (complimentary) two weeks holiday in june cost £1.750 for flights hotel car and spending money for 2 adults. the price will be the same for september. in jan o7 we are going for 7 weeks and it is costing us £4,200 for the same combination as before, the only extra not added in is the premier annual pass which covers all the holidays. this easily pays for its self,the break even point is 11 days and includes parking! i am not saying this the right way to do it but that it is possible to enjoy yourself at both ends of the scale.
off in 50 days

 

[carolfoy]

I guess the theme of this thread is that we are all from different backgrounds and that we choose to spend our spare cash on going to Florida!


Michelle

Precisely!! one love - that's why we're all here

 

[princess jackson]

Another DVC owner here, with no social life, (i could not have one any way i work 4-12 five/six nights a week)

Savings go into isa which makes more money for us