LegoMom3 said:
Ok, forgive me if this has been discussed previously, but I read so many great threads about folks who go to WDW at least once every year. HOW do you all do it?! I can't imagine there are that many "wealthy" people out there, so there has to be something to it. We don't use plastic much (I'm sure some folks rack up big bills going to Disney that way). I would love to get there once a year but it seems to take us at least a couple years to be able to save the money. We are a family of 5, and because the rooms that are large enough for us are much too expensive, we will tent camp at FW and drive down (airfare for 5 is out of the question, and besides I hate to fly!).
I'd just love to know how you all do it. TIA!
Here is my 2 cents.
We are a married couple who both have been blessed with good jobs but we live on a budget as we werent always as lucky as we are now. When we first got married we owed a great deal of money and it was kind of tight for us.
I am certainly not one qualified to give out financial advice but if I can say one thing, pay yourself a certain $ amount (whatever it may be) to your savings account from every paycheck before you pay any other bill. Trust me, you will find a way to make your bills one way or the other.
We live in a nice house in a golf community that I bought for an extremely great deal as it was a relocation property. (Savings $$$$) My neighbor paid about $50K more for his house then mine and they are almost the exact same sq. ft.
We cut coupons and look for sales.
I am not shy about asking for a discount no matter what I buy no matter if it is at Sears, Wal-mart, Best Buy or wherever.
We currently have no kids (but one due here in about a month!!! ).
We charge everything we can to the Disney Visa and pay it off at the end of the month. Credit cards are a nice thing, but the can be very evil very quickly. Never carry a balance on a credit card unless it is one of those 0% for one year or whatever. Just make sure you pay them off before the interest rate kicks in.
We have done both extravagant trips as well as budget trips and had a blast on both so you dont always have to spend a ton of money to have fun.
We bought DVC resale (saved some $$$) and paid cash for it. It was a hard check to write but we didnt want to finance. If we would have had to finance it, I doubt we would have bought it.
On one trip, after a week of eating out for every meal we found that we got sick from all of the rich food so we began eating at least one meal in our room per day. Saved a bunch there alone.
Bought MYW tickets with no expiration date.
My last thought and many may laugh at it but I believe in this.
Never take advantage of someone who is down on their luck. (Joe Blow got a divorce and is selling his PC for $25 because he needs money). Never stiff a waiter or waitress when they are working their butt off just because you are trying to save money. Doing stuff like this just isnt right. Karma is real and what goes around comes around.