How do you pay for it?

[FOV]

We have a "vacation fund" that we put money into and this year took a 10 day trip to Costa Rica and then our upcoming Disney trip (9 days) in Sept with that fund. There will be a little left over for some weekend getaways hopefully too I never use credit cards. If I don't have the cash we don't do it.

Wow - you sound exactly like us! We were in Costa Rica for 13 days in February and we will be in Disney for 7 days in Aug/Sep.

We put extra $ in a special mmf for non-essentials, but most of it is used for vacations. We always fund retirement #1, emergency fund #2, kids college funds #3, then the "non-essential" comes last.

 

[eliza61]

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??

You're asking this on the budget board? I'll be the cynic of the group, I doubt very seriously if anyone charged their vacations or went on vacations while in debt that they would admit it here.

Oops Crisi,
I didn't see your post stating the same thing. Sorry

 

[aribelle]

One of the best posts I've seen in a long time. And I read every last flippin' word! Not only did you put in TONS of suggestions, but you were not demeaning, but encouraging. I originally joined the Dis Boards to plan for a trip to WDW, but I found this place and I've learned SO much that I never understood before. No one ever taught me any of these things (unfortunately) and I'm so grateful to be learning so much here. But sometimes the way the information is given puts me off. I never learned so many of the things that are talked about here, but I had a couple of really bad fiscal years, which is leading to some nasty times financially. I'm still not out of those times, but coming here gives me hope. Thanks for such a great post!

Thank you so much for the compliment! I don't think many of us were ever taught about finances....I sure wasn't, but I'm making sure that my kids know a lot more than I do. I know my parents NEVER talked about finances....us kids eavsedropped to learn we were in trouble after my dad lost his job, they never spoke a word of it. But I think that was the way that generation was. My kids don't know all the scary details, but they know how much their dad makes, they know how much our mortgage is, why we don't have a new van, and since I homeschool I make our food budget part of their school work, so they're definitely learning how to budget. They have to go through the ads each week and work up a menu usually based on what we have or what's on sale.....they make up the shopping list, clip coupons (something I hate to do and they love it, they check online for coupons to print too)....and they keep a price log so we know which store has the best prices (we don't shop a lot of stores...just Sam's Club, Sprouts and Walmart...but Walmart will price match ads so the girls keep track of that too). My husband laughs that I'm cruel pawning that hated task off on them, but they love it, and the lessons they're learning are better than any mathbook I can find! I keep teasing the girls that I'm teaching them all this so they can afford to support Dad and I in our old age.

 

[aribelle]

Well where do i start lol. My hubbie and i have been married for 11 years and we have 4 beautifull kids . We have never been on a actual vacation , not even a honeymoom lol.
We have only been to a place 4 hours from us 2 times in those 11 years .
We got in over are heads and had to claim bankruptcy almost 6 years ago , since then we have had to live off of cash and it was a rude awakening lol. We have now got 2 credit cards and yes we do charge on them but we also have a savings account and the credit cards and dentist bill etc will all be paid off by Dec, and we still will have a good savings account.
I am a sahm so hubby works full time actually 1 full time and 1 part time job.
We are actually planning a disneyland trip ( we live in alberta canada) and it is so fun , we were going to go in April of this year but hubbies job moved out of town so we had to buy a van , yes we make payments on it .
So the ways we have been saving are , we cut down some of our digital cable to only a few channels plus basic and that saves $40 a month , we cut down our internet to a slower speed and that saves $25 a month , we cut down our cell service to just basic and that saves us $30 a month . WE got our rent lowered and saves us $225 a month we have a budget for everything else so that helps. WE also used our income tax refund . WE have a change jar and we sell our pop cans and that adds up fast .
I like living on cash instead of debit as then i know how much cash i have for the month .
Sorry for being so long.
Some months stuff comes up and we can't save that month but that is okay we have waited 11 years already a few more months won't hurt lol.

That's actually some amazing savings.....that is over $300 a month, so by the end of a year of saving all that you ought to have a very nice vacation! Good going!

 

[aribelle]

Charge it!!!!!!

Flame away.............I'm not scared.

DH purposely gets a lot taken out of his check for taxes every year, and we get a couple thousand dollars back. We just pay off the CC every March with our income tax refund.
I know I know, it's smarter to invest that extra money, and I've heard "Uncle Sam is making money off your money". It's the easiest way for us to save though.

No flaming here...whatever works for you.

And yes, letting Uncle Sam have your money without paying you interest all year isn't the wisest fianancial choice, but for some people it's that "if I don't see it I won't spend" mentality.....DH is like that.

You might want to look into whether your employer can electronically deposit a set amount from the paycheck into a savings account, or an investment account (watch these for fees that will eat up your savings or that have penalties for withdrawals). It might be a way to earn some interest but not have that money in your main account so it's still "out of sight". If you are able to save some from each paycheck for retirement or long term savings, then look into investments that can take the money from the paycheck PRE-tax.....which makes them worth more. These can't be used for short term savings because there are early withdrawal penalties, plus you have to pay the tax that wasn't taken out on them....they work best for retirement accounts because when you start taking the money out it's taxed on your then tax rate, which at retirement will be less.

But...even if you don't do that...saving is saving, however you manage to do it. So good on ya!

 

[chicagodisneyfan]

We have no kids - so it is so easy to travel as we have money. We also have flexibility without kids as we can travel at a moments notice.

Husband and I once decided to go to Disney 4 HOURS before we got on a plane! Got last minute deals and we were off.

We go to Disney 7 to 14 days a year - at least one trip during the Food and Wine Festival.

We never use debit cards - pay actual cash for everything. Each payday we take $1400 in twenties and split that between us. The rule is no spending of singles or five dollar bills. It adds up fast.

We can easily save over $4,000 a year just with that, plus another $1,500 in change.

 

[BurnsideMommy]

Some great advice here!

DH & I have flip flopped over the years on mentalities. We've taken a few vacations before partially on CC because we were on the mentality that memory making needed to happen at that time. More recent years we've been on the debt paying down plan (selling our rental home wiped out the last of our debts!!!yaaay!). During that time DH wanted to not go on elaborate vacations. I agreed, but I love to travel more than most things in life. So, I came up with a plan. I cut coupons, bargain shopped, cut out cable, and cut back what we spent. Used that extra to pay down debt. Then I sold on ebay and craigslist, and took up sunshine rewards, cash duck and other GPTs. All that money was secret trip money. Also money from birthdays and christmas from family was trip money.

Doing that paid for trips to DL, one trip to WDW (short) and a cruise.

We paid off the car a few months ago and now own 4 vehicles outright (planning to sell one soon). Our CC's are paid off. I do use 2 of them from time to time to build points/get discounts but actually pay them off that week (I only use the ones that are from banks in town with drive up windows for ease since I have kids to haul around LOL).

We homeschool, so schedules are free. DH owns his own company so that helps in scheduling as well.

We have $200 deposit for RCL right now, but not sure when to go. I've got a few hundred in my vacation fund right now, trying to decide where to go, if we should cruise now or something else. Once I decide, I'll get all excited and start 'hard core' earning.

 

[megthewonderful]

We pay for our trip using points accumulated on our Disney Visa. Then we charge it to our Disney Visa to get more points. We usually buy a package so we get 6 months interest free and then we pay if off before the interest free period expires.