How do you pay for it?

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??

We have never gone in debt for any vacation. We typically will use our credit card to pay for our vacations, as we like the rewards program on our card, but we pay the balance in full each month. We have two very decent salaries in our household, so that gives us some freedom with our finances. We also are debt free except for what we owe on our home.
 
ExpoTV.com paid for just about my entire last trip (I earned $2500 from them by the time I took the trip) plus I used money from temping at my DH's work when they were down a secretary. Throw in a little gift money I had saved and that trip (a week in March for me and my 3 kids) was taken care of.

For my solo trip next month I won $700 at a slot machine this spring and used that to pay for it. It pretty much covered it all. I'll use some Expo money for food and souvies.

For our January trip, we will just have to put aside some money the next couple of months, limit dining out, purchases we don't need, etc.

DH and I really don't do much for gifts at Christmas. We take the money we would spend and put it towards whatever trip we have coming up. Also when my parents and MIL (who are both very generous) ask what I want for birthday/Christmas, I always say just $$$ to put towards the next trip.

Allyson
 
AAA six months in advance. 20 percent down, then $500/month til its paid off.
A vacation on layaway:thumbsup2
 
Wow! Thank for all the replys you guys!

It seems to me that most of you have the same thing in common - no debt+live on a budget. You guys sound like you've listened to a word or two from Mr. Dave Ramsey. ;-)

John and I are currently in the works of taking his FPU class at a church, and are doing our best to get out of [his] debt. It's about $16,000. Our goal is to have it taken care of, and the trip paid and accounted for in cash by Dec. 2009. Wish us luck! :banana:

The budget board is atypical in that it is populated by people who have been disciplined (sometimes via hard knocks) about debt. Its also a place where if you WEREN'T disciplined about debt, you wouldn't want to say "we charge all our vacations. We are about to loose our house, be the memories are so worth it, they are only young once." We tend to be pretty harsh on those people, so they probably don't feel very welcome, or at least quickly learn not to admit their debt.

They are certainly out there, though.
 

No kids, one car, work is 5 minutes away, entertainment and shopping 5 minutes away, small condo, Expo TV, demoing and programming work for extra money.
 
We will go 2 years in a row then take a year or 2 off. We get APs for the 2 years. :cool1:

Any and all extra money, plus a certain amount each month goes into a separate bank account that is for our vacations. We also have our Change Jars (for spending money). :thumbsup2

Then I watch the Dis Boards for special codes on the rooms. :surfweb:
 
We went for a month in Jan/Feb 2008, and we'll be back for another month in Nov/Dec 2008.

We're a one-income family......saving for these two trips was done by:

We don't have cable TV....if you can give that up you'll save what $50 a month, that's $600 a year. We don't have Netflix or anything like that either. We don't GO to movies either, because after paying for 2 adults and 2 kids we could just wait two months or so and buy the DVD....and that doesn't include the cost of popcorn or sodas either! And we do buy many DVDs....but we also borrow many that we'll only want to watch once from the library. If we then decide we really liked it, we'll wait until it's not "new" any more and is discounted at places like discountdvds.com I figure that by not rushing out to buy every movie the minute it comes out we save hundreds each year. There are a few that we "have" to have immediately so we get to Walmart the day it comes out so that we get the best price possible on it "new".

We don't go out to eat very often.....I cook a lot from scratch instead of buying frozen foods or ready made type things so our grocery bills are much lower. Yes, I do stay home, but I also homeschool the girls and we are out and about a lot on field trips, co-ops, etc. So I really don't start cooking until late in the day, sometimes not until after my DH gets home before us. What I'm saying is that you don't have to be home all day to cook from scratch. Check your library for cookbooks on 30 minute meals......and then do a bit of planning ahead of time (weekends) to be sure that you have the necessary ingredients. Many of the ideas do literally take less than 30 minutes of prep time. So come home from work, get things started, go change clothes while they cook, and then sit down to eat. It's really not that much longer than you'd be stopping for take out. Healthier, cheaper. Put the difference from your budget into a Disney fund. Our food budget for 2 adults and 2 tweens is $300-400 a month (doesn't include beauty supplies, paper products, etc...just food)

I pack a lunch for my husband to take to work.....since he'd spend about $8-10 a day for lunch eating out, and I can make him lunch for a dollar or two (sandwiches, leftovers to heat up, fruit, homemade cookies (mixed up huge batch on weekend, freeze in balls and take out to bake while we eat dinner for dessert or next day use), store brand cans of soda, etc)....that means we save at least $120 a month on lunches for him. The kids and I pack a lunch when we'll be out all day as well....we invested in one of those plug in coolers so ours stays cool in the car (important when it is over 100 degrees every day of summer). DH works in an office now, but when he worked in the field, he used a plug in cooler as well. About $50 pays for itself quickly.

Look over your other expenses and decide if they are more important then a vacation. Some people spend a lot of money on clothing and shoes and things like that....if your closet is already bulging, consider whether you REALLY need new clothes, or if maybe a Saturday afternoon of going through your closet and putting together new outfits from what you have and just buying a few well chosen accessories will make them feel new to you. Or maybe hit a thrift store in the better part of town (the people in the better part of town tend to give better quality clothes to thrift stores). There can be some awesome bargains there if you're willing to look through the not so great stuff too.

What other expenses do you have......a daily Starbucks stop can be $5 a day, $25 a week, $1200 a year!!!

How about Saturday nights out on the town.....how much do you spend at the local restaurant, bar, nightclub, whatever. If it's your chance to hang with your friends, why not invite them over to your house instead.....fix a few snacky foods, tell them to bring a bottle of rum/tequila, whatever, crank up the music, and have just as much fun. Ok...so it's not quite the same if your hanging out is to meet friends/potential spouses, lol....but you get the idea. Maybe nurse that drink a while so you only spend half as much. I remember my single party days, it wasn't uncommon to drop $50 a night....that's $200 a month (or $400 if you party Friday and Saturdays) or $2,400 to $4,800 a year! Between the parties and Starbucks, you could have a great Disney trip!

What else could you cut out or cut down on that you wouldn't even notice after a little while. Yes, you'll miss it in the short term, but find something else that will be fun to replace it, and watch how quickly those expensive habits go away. If need be, print out something that reminds you of Disney and put it on the refrig/bathroom mirror/bedroom wall...somewhere that you can see it and remember what your financial goals are.

A few dollars each week don't seem like much ("it's only a buck, I can afford that"), but added up over the year it can be a huge amount! Grab yourself a container of some kind, put it on your dresser and dump your pocket change into each and every night. You'll be amazed at the hundreds of dollars you'll have in a very short time. I give my kids all my pocket change (I hate carry it) and when we decided last April that we were going to Disney in January, they started saving everything they could. They each had over $400 between pocket change, allowances ($2 a week), birthday and Christmas money, finding odd jobs to get paid for from the neighbors, etc. Any money you come across that isn't from your paycheck (i.e. therefore isn't a part of your budget)...put it in an account or container specifically for Disney fund. Don't mix that money in with your main checking account, or you'll spend it because it's so visible. Put it in a separate account, or a bucket under the bed, whatever works....so you rarely see it and therefore don't think to spend it.


Ok...off this soap box....but if you really want to save for an annual DIsney trip, you really just have to make an effort.


EDITED: Well, as if all that wasn't long enough......when it comes time to plan the vacation there are ways of going on the cheap too. Stay offsite...much cheaper, even when factoring in rental cars......eat a few meals each week outside Disney......do more CS than TS......plan your annual vacations so that you can use an AP more than one trip (that is, we went in Jan and are going again in Nov.....when the AP expires in Jan we won't renew....we'll wait until next fall and buy a new AP and go late fall, then probably the following spring, so always at least two uses of AP. If you have to go approximately same time each year, plan it so that your second trip ends a day or two before your AP expires). If you're going every year then you really don't have to do everything every time...pick one expensive event for each trip, rather than having to do them all....that Signature resturant, the hard ticket event, Cirque, whatever it is for you. There are lots more ways of saving on a trip but still having a grand time.....read the DIS board with an open mind and see which you can do. Sometimes we get our mind set to "if I'm going to Disney then I MUST stay at a deluxe, must go to TS every night, must do party and circque and hoop de doo and........" and then you find that you can only go every two or three years. If you can lower your MUST you'll find that you can go more often and you'll also probably be amazed to find that it's really not necessary to do all that stuff every time. Just being there is enough, no matter where your pillow lies or what you eat...you're in Disney, not at home in the back yard moaning about this crappy stay at home vacation.

EDITED AGAIN: Ok, if anyone is still reading this ridiculously long thing......something else I wanted to say. Get it into your head too that saving money doesn't mean no fun......you'll find it a little tough at first, changing any habit is....but you'll also find that as time goes on you get better at saving (plus your salary hopefully goes up, and a wise saver will take the raise and put it away rather up your life style by the whole amount)....and once you're better at saving, then you'll find that you have a larger vacation fund, and then you CAN do some of those things that you thought were MUST....maybe...or maybe you'll have come to realize that it's about BEING at Disney as much as it is eating that $40 steak, or sleeping on a nearly identical pillow but in a much fancier room that you don't see much off because your eyes are closed or your at the parks. We can afford many vacations and short trips because I've learned to save anywhere I can....and yet we have wayyyyy too much stuff in the house still, my kids have a closet that overflows (and they're twins who prefer to dress alike, so no thrift clothes for them), but we've finally gotten a handle on the wants vs the needs....and travelling has become a need for us, so we give up a lot of wants that later we realize we don't even miss. If you put off buying something you think you MUST have, chances are that you'll find you've forgotten the need in a week. When the girls go to Disney they take a notepad to make a list of all the souvies they think they HAVE to have....write down where, what, cost. At the end of our trip they go through and decide what they want to buy. And guess what....most of that stuff gets crossed off. But if they'd bought them right there and there, they'd run out of money half way through...instead they come home with a couple well chosen souvies, and some cash for our next trip.
 
My DH gets a yearly bonus at work and that is what we use combined with paying it down as much as possible for 11 months prior to leaving .
 
We save for it. We don't use credit cards ever. Funny thing is even when we had credit cards, we never used them for vacations. The income tax return was a huge chunk.
 
We typically have the money in our account, we save 20% of our income monthly anyway, but we have also used DH's bonus in November to pay for our January trip.

Dawn
 
All great ideas! :thumbsup2 We use a lot of them ourselves. I think the main thing you said was "live below your means!" If something is really important to you, you will sacrifice other things to acheive it!

Dawn

We went for a month in Jan/Feb 2008, and we'll be back for another month in Nov/Dec 2008.

We're a one-income family......saving for these two trips was done by:

We don't have cable TV....if you can give that up you'll save what $50 a month, that's $600 a year. We don't have Netflix or anything like that either. We don't GO to movies either, because after paying for 2 adults and 2 kids we could just wait two months or so and buy the DVD....and that doesn't include the cost of popcorn or sodas either! And we do buy many DVDs....but we also borrow many that we'll only want to watch once from the library. If we then decide we really liked it, we'll wait until it's not "new" any more and is discounted at places like discountdvds.com I figure that by not rushing out to buy every movie the minute it comes out we save hundreds each year. There are a few that we "have" to have immediately so we get to Walmart the day it comes out so that we get the best price possible on it "new".

We don't go out to eat very often.....I cook a lot from scratch instead of buying frozen foods or ready made type things so our grocery bills are much lower. Yes, I do stay home, but I also homeschool the girls and we are out and about a lot on field trips, co-ops, etc. So I really don't start cooking until late in the day, sometimes not until after my DH gets home before us. What I'm saying is that you don't have to be home all day to cook from scratch. Check your library for cookbooks on 30 minute meals......and then do a bit of planning ahead of time (weekends) to be sure that you have the necessary ingredients. Many of the ideas do literally take less than 30 minutes of prep time. So come home from work, get things started, go change clothes while they cook, and then sit down to eat. It's really not that much longer than you'd be stopping for take out. Healthier, cheaper. Put the difference from your budget into a Disney fund. Our food budget for 2 adults and 2 tweens is $300-400 a month (doesn't include beauty supplies, paper products, etc...just food)

I pack a lunch for my husband to take to work.....since he'd spend about $8-10 a day for lunch eating out, and I can make him lunch for a dollar or two (sandwiches, leftovers to heat up, fruit, homemade cookies (mixed up huge batch on weekend, freeze in balls and take out to bake while we eat dinner for dessert or next day use), store brand cans of soda, etc)....that means we save at least $120 a month on lunches for him. The kids and I pack a lunch when we'll be out all day as well....we invested in one of those plug in coolers so ours stays cool in the car (important when it is over 100 degrees every day of summer). DH works in an office now, but when he worked in the field, he used a plug in cooler as well. About $50 pays for itself quickly.

Look over your other expenses and decide if they are more important then a vacation. Some people spend a lot of money on clothing and shoes and things like that....if your closet is already bulging, consider whether you REALLY need new clothes, or if maybe a Saturday afternoon of going through your closet and putting together new outfits from what you have and just buying a few well chosen accessories will make them feel new to you. Or maybe hit a thrift store in the better part of town (the people in the better part of town tend to give better quality clothes to thrift stores). There can be some awesome bargains there if you're willing to look through the not so great stuff too.

What other expenses do you have......a daily Starbucks stop can be $5 a day, $25 a week, $1200 a year!!!

How about Saturday nights out on the town.....how much do you spend at the local restaurant, bar, nightclub, whatever. If it's your chance to hang with your friends, why not invite them over to your house instead.....fix a few snacky foods, tell them to bring a bottle of rum/tequila, whatever, crank up the music, and have just as much fun. Ok...so it's not quite the same if your hanging out is to meet friends/potential spouses, lol....but you get the idea. Maybe nurse that drink a while so you only spend half as much. I remember my single party days, it wasn't uncommon to drop $50 a night....that's $200 a month (or $400 if you party Friday and Saturdays) or $2,400 to $4,800 a year! Between the parties and Starbucks, you could have a great Disney trip!

What else could you cut out or cut down on that you wouldn't even notice after a little while. Yes, you'll miss it in the short term, but find something else that will be fun to replace it, and watch how quickly those expensive habits go away. If need be, print out something that reminds you of Disney and put it on the refrig/bathroom mirror/bedroom wall...somewhere that you can see it and remember what your financial goals are.

A few dollars each week don't seem like much ("it's only a buck, I can afford that"), but added up over the year it can be a huge amount! Grab yourself a container of some kind, put it on your dresser and dump your pocket change into each and every night. You'll be amazed at the hundreds of dollars you'll have in a very short time. I give my kids all my pocket change (I hate carry it) and when we decided last April that we were going to Disney in January, they started saving everything they could. They each had over $400 between pocket change, allowances ($2 a week), birthday and Christmas money, finding odd jobs to get paid for from the neighbors, etc. Any money you come across that isn't from your paycheck (i.e. therefore isn't a part of your budget)...put it in an account or container specifically for Disney fund. Don't mix that money in with your main checking account, or you'll spend it because it's so visible. Put it in a separate account, or a bucket under the bed, whatever works....so you rarely see it and therefore don't think to spend it.


Ok...off this soap box....but if you really want to save for an annual DIsney trip, you really just have to make an effort.


EDITED: Well, as if all that wasn't long enough......when it comes time to plan the vacation there are ways of going on the cheap too. Stay offsite...much cheaper, even when factoring in rental cars......eat a few meals each week outside Disney......do more CS than TS......plan your annual vacations so that you can use an AP more than one trip (that is, we went in Jan and are going again in Nov.....when the AP expires in Jan we won't renew....we'll wait until next fall and buy a new AP and go late fall, then probably the following spring, so always at least two uses of AP. If you have to go approximately same time each year, plan it so that your second trip ends a day or two before your AP expires). If you're going every year then you really don't have to do everything every time...pick one expensive event for each trip, rather than having to do them all....that Signature resturant, the hard ticket event, Cirque, whatever it is for you. There are lots more ways of saving on a trip but still having a grand time.....read the DIS board with an open mind and see which you can do. Sometimes we get our mind set to "if I'm going to Disney then I MUST stay at a deluxe, must go to TS every night, must do party and circque and hoop de doo and........" and then you find that you can only go every two or three years. If you can lower your MUST you'll find that you can go more often and you'll also probably be amazed to find that it's really not necessary to do all that stuff every time. Just being there is enough, no matter where your pillow lies or what you eat...you're in Disney, not at home in the back yard moaning about this crappy stay at home vacation.

EDITED AGAIN: Ok, if anyone is still reading this ridiculously long thing......something else I wanted to say. Get it into your head too that saving money doesn't mean no fun......you'll find it a little tough at first, changing any habit is....but you'll also find that as time goes on you get better at saving (plus your salary hopefully goes up, and a wise saver will take the raise and put it away rather up your life style by the whole amount)....and once you're better at saving, then you'll find that you have a larger vacation fund, and then you CAN do some of those things that you thought were MUST....maybe...or maybe you'll have come to realize that it's about BEING at Disney as much as it is eating that $40 steak, or sleeping on a nearly identical pillow but in a much fancier room that you don't see much off because your eyes are closed or your at the parks. We can afford many vacations and short trips because I've learned to save anywhere I can....and yet we have wayyyyy too much stuff in the house still, my kids have a closet that overflows (and they're twins who prefer to dress alike, so no thrift clothes for them), but we've finally gotten a handle on the wants vs the needs....and travelling has become a need for us, so we give up a lot of wants that later we realize we don't even miss. If you put off buying something you think you MUST have, chances are that you'll find you've forgotten the need in a week. When the girls go to Disney they take a notepad to make a list of all the souvies they think they HAVE to have....write down where, what, cost. At the end of our trip they go through and decide what they want to buy. And guess what....most of that stuff gets crossed off. But if they'd bought them right there and there, they'd run out of money half way through...instead they come home with a couple well chosen souvies, and some cash for our next trip.
 
Everyone on her is so disciplined. I wish I could be. I have money taken out each week by a credit union. It was money that I was paying on an ING loan anyway and when that ended I signed up for the credit union. Its like I don't notice it. As many out there we are paycheck to paycheck family. I don't have credit cards so if I don't have it, we don't get it, or if we don't need it, we don't get it. What ever the savings doesn't pay for then I will take part of my income tax. I could do that every year, its just that I have a hard time spending all that at one time. So this year I have the mind set to save and I am going to do it. WISH ME LUCK !!:woohoo:
 
We tend to be pretty harsh on those people, so they probably don't feel very welcome, or at least quickly learn not to admit their debt.

You have no idea what a mouthful you said right here!!!

I have never been flamed about my finances (but then again I don't go asking for advice from budget minded people about going into debt - LOL :lmao: )I have read some pretty harsh posts when other have asked about Disney vs the new washing machine or furniture or food (ok a bit out there on that one)... or Disney vs FILL IN THE BLANK

I tend to lurk here - occassionally responding - but more or less a lurker:3dglasses popcorn:: and I will have to say there is some AWESOME :worship: advice - and there is some pretty scary :scared1: :scared: advice out there as well.

DH & I have been working for over a year getting ourselves out of debt that we created ALL ON OUR OWN - I blame no one but him & I (yes I know strange when someone admits it's thier own fault) - We are doing amazingly well, we are even able to go to WDW in December w/o credit cards - I am currently looking for a PT job to supplement our Disney trip for some extra treats while we are there - but if the job doesn't happen, no worries we are still going with no guilt and no regret!!!

Cheers!!!
 
I’ll be an honest one. I can’t afford the trips I take, hell I can’t afford half of the stuff I do. But as a single mom, I want my kids to have good childhood memories and they get these from the things we do. Sure they might get the same good memories from sitting at home every night, but I try to give them what I had as a kid even if it means I’m in over my head in debt. It sucks, but it’s what I’ll keep doing.
 
I’ll be an honest one. I can’t afford the trips I take, hell I can’t afford half of the stuff I do. But as a single mom, I want my kids to have good childhood memories and they get these from the things we do. Sure they might get the same good memories from sitting at home every night, but I try to give them what I had as a kid even if it means I’m in over my head in debt. It sucks, but it’s what I’ll keep doing.

Im a single mom too sweetie. My 'SO' John is my SO/best guy friend. We're not really together, but we're not seeing anyone else. I am a SAHM and my son is only 7 months old and I worry everyday about being able to pay for things. I'm sure I'll go in the hole once in a while over something over the years.
 
We save by cutting costs in other places and I am an avid couponer. I budget $$ for groceries-anything I can save with coupons goes to WDW fund. I also work a part time job in addition to my full time job to help boost our savings and pay for extras.
 
Budget for it and pay in cash (actually pay with credit card and then pay off the card when the statement arrives so we get the cash back points...) We have priorities and our Disney passes are one of them, so we don't have HDTV, a DVR, a fancy flat screen HDTV on the wall, eat out 5 nights a week, go to movies all the time, etc. You just have to decide what is most important, budget accordingly, and stick to it (and hope you don't get stuck with emergencies and surprises to steal your Disney money!). :)
 
We never go into credit card debt for vacations. We don't go very often, but we save and squirrel away money ahead of time to pay for trips.

Also, we live below our means. We still live in the same small house that my husband bought before we got engaged. DH takes the city bus to work instead of drives, and my commute is zero (I'm a SAHM). I cut coupons for groceries, we don't eat out very often, etc...
 
I pay in cash every year, it is the one thing I splurge on. I have no debt so it is easier to save. Instead of buying a new car I got a 2000 Corolla and it is saving me a ton of money in repairs and gas. I also sell on eBay to make money for vacations. I rarely buy toys but last year I got a new flat screen to replace my 23 year old tv, I think I waited enough time. As one poster said live below your means and it comes without much effort.

70' - Disneyland
99' - ASMU
03' - POR
04' - Contemporary
05' - AKL/Poly (June), AKL (August)
06' - CBR/Cruise
07' - ASMO
08' - Wilderness Lodge (39 Days to Go!)
 
Okay...I'll admit it...I use my credit card to fund vacations. Sometimes they get paid off immediately, sometimes they don't.

I do believe that life is too short to worry all the time about money. As long as I can pay all my bills (including the dreaded "debt" payments), I feel comfortable with splurging occassionally.

I usually just look to these boards for advice - and have found some great ideas - but I also look over all the posts about debt free being the only way to live. I don't look down on people for being too frugal, just like I hope people don't look down on me for having debt. We all do what we think we should do...

Next week my family and I are going to Mexico for a week. We charged the vacation, and it will probably be on the card a month or two before being paid off completely. We do, however, find great deals for vacations and limit what we spend while gone. In total, 7 nights for 3 people (me, dh & dd9) will cost less than $3500, which includes a private deep sea fishing trip AND a night fishing trip(my husband took a side job to cover this), a dolphin training program for me and dd (we are using our own "allowance" money for this), a dune buggy trip (we installed a pet fence for in-laws), and a great hotel. So, even though we will go into debt to cover this, we have established a budget - only I suppose in reverse (we set a limit for the vacation, and then budget money after the fact to pay it off).
 


Disney Vacation Planning. Free. Done for You.
Our Authorized Disney Vacation Planners are here to provide personalized, expert advice, answer every question, and uncover the best discounts. Let Dreams Unlimited Travel take care of all the details, so you can sit back, relax, and enjoy a stress-free vacation.
Start Your Disney Vacation
Disney EarMarked Producer






DIS Facebook DIS youtube DIS Instagram DIS Pinterest DIS Tiktok DIS Twitter

Add as a preferred source on Google

Back
Top Bottom