How do you pay for it?

[Kaia119]

I was wondering how everyone pays for their trips? I have noticed on the boards that some of you go pretty often - once a year sometimes more then that. Credit? Cash? Save all year long? Are you in debt from the trips?

I know I used my Disney Visa for my last trip ($3k+) and I will never do it again. I am saving up for my next trip which I plan to pay for, in full, with cash all the way around. I don't wanna come home from my awesome vacation to a bill that almost kills me.

So, how do ya afford it??

 

[KarenAylwood]

I make a vacation budget for myself- and have an account in ING specifically for vacations. When I get paid (once a month) I set aside what I'll need for the month, pay my CC bill and divide the rest among my various savings accounts (savings, Christmas, Roth IRA, and vacation). I put a certain amount of my paycheck towards vacations each month, whether or not I have one planned. Then when I plan one, I budget how much I'll need to save each month to cover the trip incase I'm not saving enough.

If, for some reason something comes up that month I'll forfeit the vacation account first. I try to contribute the same amount to savings each month no matter what. Then when I get some "extra" money, I'll put that towards vacation (be it my company bonus or birthday checks).

I "charge" every vacation to get the rewards points, but I pay off the bill in full that month. I have a hard time charging anything that I can't cover with savings/income. The thought makes me a little panicky

 

[GrowingUpDisney]

We save our $$. We try to plan our trips at least a year out so we can save and have it paid in full before we leave. That way, the pressure is off and when we return we can focus on planning our next trip and not paying off the last one before we can plan the next one! We don't do credit anymore unless it is absolutely necessary and there is no other way.

 

[Tinker'n'Fun]

I pay my bills, feed the disaster fund, then put the rest in an account for vacations and school trips. We have given up movie theatres and restaurants for the most part. Date night is at home. Walking the park is free and sporting events revolve around children (ours and their friends). The car only gets driven maybe twice a week outside of DH going to work and taking the kids to school. AC is a luxury not a necessity.... (PS we do not use charge cards for anything)

 

[dex08]

We allocate funds each month for Vacation and by the time our trip comes around we have enough $ to pay in full. We charge the trip on our credit cards (usually AmEx) because of the benefits of the card and pay in full at when the bill comes.

Also, this way we have no guilt when we spend outrageous amounts of $ on things during the trip because it's all coming out of our pre-planned vacation fund.

 

[eyeheartgoofy]

We just save money, then pay cash for it ...

We actually booked a room & ticket package through a TA for our very first WDW trip in January 1998. We booked well over a year in advance and only had to pay a small deposit. After that, I tucked away $100 every payday and that was enough to pay the bill when the time came ... and we still had $600 left for food (mostly counter service) and spending. Of course, I think I would have to double the amount saved to pay for the same trip at today's prices (plus, the trip was just for 2 back then and we are a family of 4 now).

 

[spalady]

We save our money then put it on the disney visa to get the points then pay it right off!!!

 

[EthansMom]

DH gets paid bi-weekly, so he gets an "extra" paycheck every 6 months. I budget our monthly budget using only two paychecks per month. So, when those "extra" paychecks come, I deposit them immediately in savings for our vacations.

We also save our change and credit card rewards to help pay for vacations.

 

[jnzimm]

Live below your means and you would be surprised at how easy it is to save. We have an annual budget and stick to it. We eat @ home take luches to work including drinks. Pay by credit card for everything and pay it off monthly that way we track all expenditures. We do not carry any loans other than our mortgage as we refuse to pay interest. Cash for cars when we have saved enough to buy one used of course.

 

[bmoncher]

Cash - We book vacations - put on a CC for rewards and pat it off as soon as the bill comes...
We travel when we can afford to... we don't when we can't...

Like others have said - we pay the bills, put some in savings, kids 529s monthly and then we save the rest for home repairs/improvements and vacations....

We don't budget persay - but I know what we have and how much we can spend with out debt...
Beth

 

[budbeerlady]

Like others have said, we give up something to do it.

We dont have cable or satellite tv - it was $50 a month, there is $600
We dont eat out $100 a month - there is $1200.

Our free dining trip is $1644 plus airfare of $450, giving up those 2 un-life changing things about pays for the trip.

 

[fourfoxesinpa]

I am a member of Sunshine Rewards and have earned over $500 since last October for our upcoming cruise. It was enough to pay for an upgrade to a verandah and a trip to MVMCP.

Then, we use our Disney Visa card for EVERYTHING we can and pay it off in full each month. 1% back isn't very good if you're paying 13% to get it. We usually have around $450 each year in Disney Rewards to use.

I have an ING account but it's only paying 1.75% and my Paypal money market is paying 2.33% so I've moved everything over there. Not a lot, but every penny counts when it gets you closer to Mickey.

We also use a popcorn tub from the Magic Kingdom and throw all of our change into it. It really adds up over the course of a year.

 

[sarahlovesmickey]

we do it a combination of ways: Primarily, we have an ING account specifically labeled "Disney fund". We throw money in there often. Then when our trip comes up, we move it to our checking account.

Second, we save change and cash it in when our vacation approaches.

Third, we do use our Disney Visa occasionally and then pay it off so not to accrue interest, but we do get points!!

Fourth, we give the kids Disney dollars on certain occasions and we keep them in a safe spot until we leave for Disney.

We NEVER charge anything while on vacation, nor do we pay for tickets or lodging or anything like that using a credit card.

 

[sbell111]

We save up money to use on us, whether it is to buy new toys, go see a movie, or go on vacation. Don't go into debt to do any of this.

 

[rt2dz]

We go every year for 10 days to WDW, plus take another vacation each year. We budget for vacations all year long. It goes into a separate high interest savings account. Then when we make purchases for a trip, it goes on a nice rewards credit card. When the charge posts (or if we are already on vacation, when we get home), we then send in a payment. So, it goes on the credit card, but we pay it off in full with cash we have already set aside for that purpose before any interest charges hit. We also manage to get a nice dividend check back that will go into the vacation savings account since the vacation earned it.

Then as far as vacation goes (since you really want to know how people afford it), we pick and choose how we spend our money. We drive since it is a lot less than paying for 5 airline tickets (and checked luggage). Time might be money, but if we didn’t drive, we’d have a lot less money to spend on a hotel room so it wouldn’t be time spent at WDW anyhow.

We go every year, so it’s APs for us—taking the second trip before it expires. We eat breakfast in our rooms. Having an AP, we purchase a DDE card and then get 20% off a lot of our other meals. DH also gets a nice discount on tickets through work—not on APs, but use it once and then upgrade to retain some discount (usually better than a renewal discount).

We go value season most times, occasionally regular season, and then I usually use some type of discount code. We don’t buy a ton of souvenirs. I pre-purchase trading pins in lots from Mouse Pins or off EBay. I’m sure there is more, but that is all I can think of right now.

 

[mskayjay]

You know its funny, but this whole gas thing really got me looking at our finances and how we were spending where we didn't need to. I made the conscious decision to really watch what we were spending, eat out less, etc. There has actually been no change in the QUALITY of our lives but our savings has gone up quite a bit. Very pleased.

For our trip this time, it is being covered completely by our airmiles.

 

[mmkk]

My DH makes a decent salary (not great but decent enough for our standard of living) and I'm a SAHM-so I find ways to make extra money and that goes toward our vacations since DH's salary covers our day to day living expenses and savings. I do surveys, product reviews and sometimes Ebay.

 

[christa112]

I put the trip on my Disney Visa to get the rewards points to spend at WDW and then pay it off in a couple of months with big payments.

 

[Karenj2]

You know its funny, but this whole gas thing really got me looking at our finances and how we were spending where we didn't need to. I made the conscious decision to really watch what we were spending, eat out less, etc. There has actually been no change in the QUALITY of our lives but our savings has gone up quite a bit. Very pleased.

For our trip this time, it is being covered completely by our airmiles.

mskayjay (& OP) - I found a great website/program for tracking our finances called www.youneedabudget.com, and since I signed on I've made enough changes to our spending habits that we could afford our impromtu trip with my sister this year. (We were saving up for our trip NEXT year.) Of course, it's just me and DH, so I've only budgeted ~$2k for our entire trip.

Also, even with this trip, we put our deposit & balance (and plane tix, etc.) on our Disney Visa, and we've paid all but our balance (just charged earlier this month) already. We pay our CC bill in full every month. It's actually nice to go on vacation knowing we will have very few out of pocket expenses... (We'll have to pay for a taxi to WDW - we're flying in the night before and staying at an airport hotel, and we'll probably spend a little bit over what I have saved up in Disney Rewards Dollars.)

 

[crisi]

We save a large portion of our income - we max our 401ks, put money into the kids college funds, put money into deferred compensation. (That alone is almost 30% of our income)

We have two shorter term savings vehicles, ESPPs (employee stock purchase programs) that see about 15% of our income. And savings accounts that see about another 7%.

When we want to go on vacation, it comes out of these shorter term savings accounts or stock accounts. It usually goes on a credit card and gets paid off. We use credit cards that provide rewards - the Disney Visa will "pay for" much of our dining this trip.