How Do You Afford It?

[homebrew2]

I don't EAT for months at a time.

 

[homebrew2]

We use DD! For years we paid her way, Now it is her turn to repay!

PLEASE tell me your secret. I still have to pay for mine
plus the son in law and grandkids

 

[ntsammy5]

I don't EAT for months at a time.

I tried that, but I still gained weight - we're going in November and it is costing around a grand for air, car, condo, tickets everything excluding food. I can afford that, but just barely.

 

[4mickey2]

with the rising (at the time) fuel prices, last year we drove down together (us and sis's family). we had our truck with our lance truck camper and we pulled my sisters pop up behind. it was snug in the truck with 5 adults, 3 dogs and a cat. but, we saved some money doing this. then we each had our own site and camper once we arrived.

this year, my sis and bil are going with us and staying in our seneca. so, we are sharing fuel and staying at one site.

my folks are taking my bro and his family in their minnie and pulling their pop up. so, their fuel will be split, too. luckily fuel has come down (we were planning to spend $5/gal).

any way you can save, you just do...

 

[disneymayz]

We use our tax refund. This is money that we did not have. We never saw it. If you can live with out using it on something else then use it for Vacation. The first amount that I remove from the taxes is vacation money then we go and buy ourselves something small (a camera, DVD player, etc.)

 

[mtjoycol]

We have Annual passes, that helps a bunch. We are trying to get there 3 times during the life of the passes, if not 4. Fortunately, the summer trip gets Us a pass holder discount. We also pretty much do nothing during the year. Maybe, maybe, maybe dinner 1 time a month out, nothing fancy. I am self employed so when I know I have a trip coming up, I may take on extra work to help pay for it. We are also big believers in the old Irish Philosophy of "You can't take it with you when your dead." A few years from now, the kids won't want to hang out with Mom & Dad, so we are taking advantage of it now. Plus when we are there, we bring lots of food, still buy in th eparks, but makes Us feel a bit better. What else are we going do???? Put our $$$$$ in the stock market???????[/QUOTE

When I saw your photo on this board I thought...that looks like my brother in law... looking closer I see it's my beautiful neices and sister! What a small world ( no pun intended!)
Can't wait to camp at the fort in March....and again with you later in the year if the $$$ Gods allow it!
Col]

 

[MBMacs]

When I saw your photo on this board I thought...that looks like my brother in law... looking closer I see it's my beautiful neices and sister! What a small world ( no pun intended!)
Can't wait to camp at the fort in March....and again with you later in the year if the $$$ Gods allow it!
Col]

Beautiful nieces and sister???????What about beautiful Brother in Law? Yeah small world, only hope you don't find all of the boards I post at...........

 

[Minnie's Mate]

We are only 425 or so miles away so we can drive it in less than eight hours...we only stop once. You have to have a big bladder if you travel with me!

We have annual passes and we have a Disney Visa. We charge everything to the Disney Visa and pay it off every month just to earn the Disney reward dollars. Often when we stay at the Fort, our camp site is covered by the Disney reward dollars and some of the meals. In fact, we had $36 left over from our long weekend trip when we went down for MNSSHP. This isn't the most efficient way to save and isn't for everyone, but it works for us. When we stay in a hotel, we always stay in a deluxe resort, but, only if we can get an annual pass holder's discount. We have the Disney Dinning Experience and that saves on the meals because we always eat two sit-down meals per day. I also transfer money from our checking account to our savings account every pay check without fail to pay for our trips to Disney. I have studied all of the boards on this forum for years to learn every trick I can to save money on trips so we can afford to go as often as we can.

My wife is a teacher and I am a consultant (both high stress jobs) so we both treasure our time away with our two boys. We are fortunate in that God has blessed us both with good jobs that has allowed us to be able to make an average of three trips per year. This year, God has been really good to us and Christmas will be our sixth trip since Spring Break in April; last year we made five trips.

 

[JKD Disney]

I think back to when my wife was a child...

they drove straight through from Chicago...
they camped (obviously)...
they cooked almost every meal themselves...
they went to the MK twice max and maybe River Country or an offsite water park once...
they went to Epcot when it opened, and not again for a few trips...
they went to the beach all the time (now the water is contaminated I know)...
pools, fishing, volleyball, campfire, pool-hopping!...

I know, in today's society that probably qualifies as child abuse. You must fill every waking hour with Disney sanctioned revenue generating activities lest the DCFS show up at you tent in the middle of the night.

Seriously though, there is a minimum you need to spend for a Disney vacation, no doubt. But that minimum is MUCH lower than you think it is, MUCH lower.

John

 

[zoom8942]

this probably sounds silly but we save money in a change jar. Just every day put in your loose change, believe me it adds up. We usually have about $1,000 a yr. Also a rummage sale yearly, another $400. checking mousesavers religiosly for the best discounts on everything. We bought APs this year and still saved money just on the discount for our room. Make the vacation with other family members. If everyone shares rooms(we usually stay ft wilderness cabins, they sleep 6) or camp even cheaper yet. I know the amount I just saved wasnt enough to pay for the whole trip, but all those little things make the trip a lot more affordable, without sacraficing anything.

 

[jennypenny]

We get annual passes. We get 2-3 trips out of it. We went the last two weeks of August recently but next summer we'll go the first two weeks so we can use this years passes.

And we always stay somewhere with a kitchen, whether it be our camper, a cabin, or a DVC room. If we didn't our food budget would be bigger than everything else. If you only eat out for lunch every day and do dinner and breakfast in the room/camper you save a lot of money. Most restaurants in disney have the same meal at lunch but for less money (trails end being a big exception ). We occasionally make an exception to eat at Ohana's or somewhere that doesn't serve lunch but not that often. Places like the biergarten in Germany, Teppan Edo in Japan, Kona's, Mama Melrose's, Tusker House, Rose and Crown, Le Cellier, etc all have a cheaper lunch with almost the exact same menu. And don't rule out counter service for your special meal. We have done trips with only counter service for lunch and done quite well including Flame Tree BBQ, Columbia Harbor House, Cosmic Rays, all of the countries in Epcot, The Land food court, etc. And don't rule out the BW if you're at DS or Epcot.

When we first started going we only ate out 2-3 meals per trip. We cooked in the room. We drove. We camped. We saved our change. And everytime I got money out of the atm for groceries I stuck a $20 into the change jar. And a vacation account at the bank is a great way. Even if you only save $10 a week, that's $520 a year--not bad!

 

[VAN]

We do many of the things mentioned by others. I have money taken from each week's paycheck and put into a special account for travel. It doesn't pay for everything, but does take the sting out of coming up with the money.

We go to the Fort about every year for 2 weeks. We pack the cooler for the trip down and eat out very sparingly. We also have purchased park passes with non-expiry and go into the parks only 2-3 times each trip.

At home we don't go out to eat that much. Once in a while when the kids (college and just starting a career) are home, we will go out together as a special treat - but for the most part we feel it is too expensive.

We also take a camping trip yearly close to home (1 week) which is inexpensive but a true vacation as it is on Lake Michigan.

We also manage to make a trip to Vegas every year ... in fact we have one in December where we are getting all five nights comped!! That is a first for us though.

It all comes down to priorities and living within your means. We have paid cash for the kids tuition/books/etc, keep our cars for many years, and have just this month made our last mortgage payment.

Because we do try to live as coupon-clippers, etc (not cheap, just frugal), we really look forward to vacations when we can loosen the purse strings a little. HOWEVER, we certainly don't go overboard. I don't think I would have much fun blowing the budget.

Anyway, planning and prioritizing is how we manage multiple vacations every year without going into hock!

 

[kmurawski]

I call our vacations peace of mind! We are DVC members. We use our tax rebate for the extras above the price of the accomodations. I will skimp anywhere just to have my vacations. Our pop up provides us the opportunity to take more affordable vacations too.

 

[chief19spixi]

We try and go every year for at least 2 weeks and pretty much all we do is save the extra money back from 2 dh's pay checks instead of blowing it away and then just book it and pay for it in full right away and then just wait.. and it seems like forever to go!!! LOL