How do you afford it?

[jiminy.cricket]

I'm sure this has been asked before: I'm new to the workforce and just wondering how everyone affords frequent trips to Walt Disney World! There are so many bills and expenses to consider. How do you save enough to make a vacation work? Doesn't one trip severely hurt your bank account? Are there any strategies for saving for a trip?

 

[crisi]

Many people here do a wide variety of things.

Many people who hang here have fairly large incomes.
Some people go into debt (not common on the budget board to admit, but certainly people do).
Many cut corners in the rest of their lives. They drive older cars. They don't go out to dinner.
We have people who work two jobs to feed their Disney habit.
We have people who are extreme couponers.
We have people who are fantastic, regular savers.
We have people with very small families
We have people who live close enough to drive for pretty cheap.
We have people who take cheap trips - sleep in tents, eat peanut butter sandwiches for their trips.
Some do no future savings - again, not common to admit on the budget board, but there are people not saving for retirement or their kids college.
Many folks around here own their homes outright. No debt at all.

 

[3pletprincesses]

Well to us it's cheaper to go to Disney then else where. We only go when we get a good deal and we know that the girls will love their vacation. It cost us about $500 for driving return trip (24 hours driving each way) and to stay, eat and play at Disney for 2 adults and 3 children has cost us $2400. We can't go to any other palce for $3000 and have this much fun. Last fall I went with my girls and it cost me $1400 plus $800 airfare and this fall I'm going back with the girls and it's once again $1400 plus airfare.

no we don't travel like this every year, as a matter of fact we haven't had vacation for 3 years as a family but we decided life is too short to not enjoy.

How we do it, I have 2 jobs and DH aslso works hard. We put money aside at each pay and that's how we do it

 

[GOOFY4DONALD]

Many people here do a wide variety of things.

Many people who hang here have fairly large incomes.
Some people go into debt (not common on the budget board to admit, but certainly people do).
Many cut corners in the rest of their lives. They drive older cars. They don't go out to dinner.
We have people who work two jobs to feed their Disney habit.
We have people who are extreme couponers.
We have people who are fantastic, regular savers.
We have people with very small families
We have people who live close enough to drive for pretty cheap.
We have people who take cheap trips - sleep in tents, eat peanut butter sandwiches for their trips.
Some do no future savings - again, not common to admit on the budget board, but there are people not saving for retirement or their kids college.
Many folks around here own their homes outright. No debt at all.

This is a great reply. This sums up most on the boards. My DH makes a pretty good living. He can pay all our bills (plus non bill nessities like food, clothes, gas, and misc expeses) but after not much was left so I got a full time job to beef up the savings and emergency fund. But after working so hard we realized Disney was something the whole family could look forwaard to so I got an additional and flexible second job just to pay for our WDW trips. Now it's not easy and I get many sympathy remarks from family like "it must be hard working 2 jobs...I'm glad I'm not in your position" but I just remember that I am working towards a goal that will let my family relax and know that for 1 week a year there are no daily stresses. To many it's not worth the hassle of an extra job for our family it is important.

 

[Cynestra]

We are saving $50 a week for about 2 years. Mostly from eating at home, couponing, things like that. We don't go as often as many on here seem to though.

ETA: Forgot to mention this. If I don't pull that money out and mark it for disney, all my couponing and scrimping will go for naught!

 

[ThisIsTheYear]

Last year we used our tax return. That was our first vacation in 5 years. It will probably be another 5 years before we can go again.

 

[badblackpug]

I'm sure this has been asked before: I'm new to the workforce and just wondering how everyone affords frequent trips to Walt Disney World! There are so many bills and expenses to consider. How do you save enough to make a vacation work? Doesn't one trip severely hurt your bank account? Are there any strategies for saving for a trip?

I'm a nurse. There are ALWAYS overtime shifts available. Our trips are paid in full in cash. No credit.

 

[Liberty Belle]

I think it can come down to two things basically. Either they make a lot more money than you do, or they really scrimp on other things. I'd say a little of both, with more leaning toward the first.

 

[crazelion]

I am down right cheap. I was at job 6 years and did not get raise so I get creative if want to take vacation. I do reward programs, pick of coke cans out the parking and save for cash. I don't eat out now unless I have gift card that earn from a reward programs.

We not going vacation this year at all. WE do couple day trips. I saving for the big vacation to Washington D.C. 2012 with my son boy scout troop.

My our entainment budget is pay by reward programs. Example movie gift cards, resturant gift cards. I am bless that I live in city that have ton free activitys in the summer. That what the kids I do.

 

[HeatherC]

We are a family of five with basically one full time income. DH works for a town and I sub teach part time. So not "wealthy" by any means.

What has enabled us to go frequently is to stay offsite. Just works for us since it is no vacation to us to have five people crammed into one room. We just travel better this way and like to spread out and relax. We also go for about ten days at a time, so it makes it more enjoyable.

We rent a condo or villa. We have found great deals on them via the internet and have rented places for about $300 for a week through skyauction, govarm, getravelop, etc. Cant't stay in a nice hotel for that. We eat breakfast in our jammies and we buy some quick snacks to keep at the place.

We buy the 10 day non-expiring tickets and get about three trips out of them. We still have about ten water park days on old passes we still have to use.

I put money in an ING account each week. I also use Amex for everything and then cash in the rewards points for restaurant gift cards. Last time we had over $500 to spend this way. Works great, because by the end of the day we are all ready to leave the parks and relax.

Our trips have been actually pretty affordable for a Disney vacation. We average about $2500 to $3000 for five people for ten days. This has included air, rental car, lodging and food.

Hope this helps.

 

[JaymeC]

I'm sure this has been asked before: I'm new to the workforce and just wondering how everyone affords frequent trips to Walt Disney World! There are so many bills and expenses to consider. How do you save enough to make a vacation work? Doesn't one trip severely hurt your bank account? Are there any strategies for saving for a trip?

Most of us don't take frequent trips, and those that do I think have a significantly higher income than the average person OR live close to WDW or DL. I know when we lived in Southern California we were at DL at least twice a year Now we're in NC, times change!

As to answer about saving and the hit your bank account takes, that's part of the real world It hasn't been that long for me and I remember being overwhelmed by it at first too. What's worked for us is to do the best we can to eliminate necessary spending. So we lived in rentals (rentals, because we were military and it makes no sense to buy when you'll be moving again in a year or two, now we're out and we're pricing the cheapest homes we can find to buy, finally!) that were smaller than most people wanted and apartments instead of houses that saved us a lot on rent but also utilities. I shop around for the best rates for car insurance, life insurance, and the like. As far as discretionary spending we rarely eat out, and especially fast food. Once I realized how much fast food was eating our budget I started making sure we had some easily accessible 'fast food' at home. Probably our only large budget buster is our children, and they're definitely more than worth it.

At heart, we watch our budget closely. And we do it while on vacation as well as off. I know that people here have a hard time finding other trips that are under the price of Disney and still enjoyable, but dh calls me the queen at figuring out how to do things as cheaply as possible while still having fun. We were able to do a week in Tokyo, including two days at Tokyo Disney for $1500 total spending. Twice. Given, that was with free flights, but still I figure if I can vacation in Tokyo for that price I can find something anywhere.

Right now our next trip to Disney is tentatively planned for 2014 (Yes, THAT far out!) since my husband is going back to school and the recession means I couldn't find anything anywhere decent as far as wages go, despite a college education and a decent resume (by decent I mean 35k/year). But we'll take lots of mini-trips in the mean time. I'm a traveler at heart. We've been living in coastal NC for only six months now and I've already visited Raleigh, Myrtle Beach, and am planning a visit to DC in the upcoming months. Raleigh for less than $100, MB for about $200, and DC I'm also shooting for less than $200, though I may go up a little bit. Weekend trips keep me sane when I know our next vacation is awhile out And we do a lot of vacationing at home too, which is why I'm always determined to live near the ocean, makes those trips cheaper

 

[bicker]

We were fortunate enough to buy-into DVC before it got really expensive and so we're benefiting from that advantage to a great extent. Beyond that, even within DVC membership, sometimes we're "short points" - we make-do with a shorter vacation. I think that's a critical distinction between how one-time trip-of-a-lifetime guests look at WDW and how every-year-or-two guests look at WDW: If you know you're going back a year or two later, it isn't a big problem cutting a day or two off the trip, to fit it within the available budget. That doesn't help with airline costs and such, but one or two fewer nights in a hotel could cover someone's admission.

 

[gregpso]

Well to us it's cheaper to go to Disney then else where. We only go when we get a good deal and we know that the girls will love their vacation. It cost us about $500 for driving return trip (24 hours driving each way) and to stay, eat and play at Disney for 2 adults and 3 children has cost us $2400. We can't go to any other palce for $3000 and have this much fun. Last fall I went with my girls and it cost me $1400 plus $800 airfare and this fall I'm going back with the girls and it's once again $1400 plus airfare.

no we don't travel like this every year, as a matter of fact we haven't had vacation for 3 years as a family but we decided life is too short to not enjoy.

How we do it, I have 2 jobs and DH aslso works hard. We put money aside at each pay and that's how we do it

You are lucky you live in the country where WDW is Try spending $8000 on airfares for 4 people just to get there. Wish I could drive there.. cause its quite cheap once you are there!!

 

[bdcp]

DH and I have very good incomes, but that's mainly because we're in our 50's and have been working for 30 years. When we and our children were young, we couldn't afford to go which is why my kids only went twice while growing up. I do have to admit I don't see the point of going every year. Of course, we sacrificed a lot for me to be a SAHM and our vacations were much smaller than they are now.

I do have to agree that a lot of people go into debt and just flat out won't admit it here on this board. I know very few people who are not in debt of some kind yet on this board it seems to be a high percentage. That just doesn't match reality.

 

[Darcy03231]

For us, its a combination of things. DH makes a good income and we could live on just his income, but it would be tight. I don't want to live that way. I work full time as well and also make a good income (although less than DH). We economize and budget. We don't buy the newlest, latest, greatest whatever as soon as it comes out. We buy new things to replace old ones that have broken, not to get a new version of something we already have. We drive our cars for a long time (I drove one for 18 years), we don't spend much on entertainment (I can't remember the last time I saw a movie in a movie theater) and we don't go out to eat much. In general, we're not big consumers of stuff. I don't buy clothes unless we need them and they're on sale. Every week both paychecks are deposited into the checking account and from their they're disbursed to different savings accounts (emergency, retirement, regular savings, car, vacation, etc.) Everything expense has a line item budget and monies are deposited weekly into each category. I find it makes it easier for us to keep track of where the money is going.

 

[PrncesKMW]

Great posts so far - I'm in the same boat as everyone else with finding the lowest prices for insurance, avoiding eating away from home, and couponing.

I can recommend Dave Ramsey's books. He may be a bit hard core for some, but his "envelope system" works great and has allowed us to save a LOT.

We also do a "vacation kitty." We took an empty snack mix container, cut a hole in the lid and taped the lid on, and whenever we have change or several $1 bills, they go into the "kitty." Since we pay cash for everything thanks to Dave, we add to it almost every day, and trust me, we don't miss it!

It's a small thing, but over time it adds up. We were able to take our two months of "kitty" money for our trip last fall and pay for two awesome (and otherwise unaffordable) meals at CA Grill and the Yachtsman.

 

[weezyree]

We are a couple who didn't take our first real vacation until we were married 9 years. After raising children old enough to remember anything, working 5 jobs between the two of us and finishing college, we just couldn't afford anything.

Vacation was visiting family!! UGH....not anymore. All the hard work paid off.

My husband is an Officer in the Army and I work for the Army. We make great money but still clip coupons, don't eat out, pay off debt, pay cash for Disney because we plan far enough in advance for it and bought into the Disney Vacation Club. Since we bought that, we have vacationed more since purchasing it and recently refinanced it through our bank. We put a lien against our paid off Suburban, saved over $10,000 in interest and dropped our years owed from 8 more years to four!!!

It takes time, save your money and have fun!!

 

[eliza61]

Ok, I have a confession to make. I spend money. I like to shop!! So for me, I hae to make a vacation a priority and a goal. So basically we set a date, lets say August of 2012. We plan a trip (get prices, estimates etc) and then we set a goal every week of how much we need to save in order to go on our trip.

We purchased our dvc a long time ago so that helps.

Now next year I will have 2 kids in college so all bets will be off we'll be lucky if we can afford to walk around the corner to get ice cream.

 

[Disney-Chick]

We save money by driving. It takes us 33-36 hours total. But we only spend $700 there and back on gas, hotel, and food. The first year we flew was very expensive for just the 3 of us. I also work FT as well as my DH who makes better money then myself. I also have a Canada Saving Bond that money goes into and is taken off my pay. I raise it each year by $5 (which may not sound like a lot but it helps and I don`t notice it as much) and that is our travel money. Also when our Canadian dollar was high we bought as much American money as we could as often without going into debt. All of our trips are paid for before we leave.

I like to spend money so DH is in charge of it. We don`t have a joint account and I give him so much money on pay days. The only bills that I pay for out of my account are car, cell phone and student loan, DH takes care of the rest. Any extra money is mine.

 

[mhsjax]

WE live only 2.5 hours away. So that cuts out air fair, and it doesn't take much gas. Generally for big trips, we plan about a year out, and we just save. We pay cash.

For small trips we may stay only one night, so it isn't that big of a deal, and we also have APs.