How do you pay for your Disney trip?

[SnowWhite607]

Yeah I never charge a vacation either. We use tax refund and some savings if that doesnt cover it. Also we save a bit each week, use a change jar and save birthday and Christmas money.

 

[Swimalie]

I live my financial life the old fashioned way--I don't buy things unless I have the cash to pay for them. So I save up and pay for the trip before I leave.

Amen!!

 

[PinkRhombus]

Usually I go to buy my food at the supermarket, and grab anything I like, but when I only have 4 months to pay for Disney, every 15 days, I make my food calendar, and go to buy EXACTLY what I will need every day, NO MORE, and I save around 400 dollars a Month in food. That is 1600 dollars, then, I do a Garage sale, and Kids help not asking for a lot of candy.

I'm giving up extracurricular shopping for Lent!

 

[MsStinkerBelle]

I have a set amount I automatically save into my ING account for our trip. I pay cash only for the entire thing and if I have to use a credit card, it's usually for any car rental and I pay that off as soon as I return. Any reimbursements from health or dependent care FSA's go right towards Disney. I make it an automatic savings just like for my 401K, Roth and other bills.

I don't get a lot back on my tax refunds and the amount I do get goes right into reserving DD10's weeks for Summer camp that year.

 

[bwolfe]

We pay in full with cash for each and every trip. We choose to live without debt and credit cards, so we pay in full.

 

[Tinkerbelle32]

Cash, is the only way we travel. If we don't have it up front, we don't go. I do charge it to get my disney dollars, but then pay off the credit card.

 

[disneymeces]

Pay a little at a time-using our tax refund as a big chunk. We save birthday money and other gift money for our trip

Will never charge a vacation

Same here! Don't like to charge! we use our tax refund, plus any extra cash we save (like money from the consignment store!) And pay the lump some when do!

 

[thej]

We automatically put some aside to our vacation fund via direct deposit every month... and some of our tax refund goes in there too. We also use our Disney Visa for everything we can and pay it off in full every month. That alone gives us a couple hundred to spend on "extras" while we are there.

Since we drive that helps a lot on cost, so we can be a little less agressive on gathering funds than some folks.

 

[blanq]

We have enough discretionary income that I am able to just pay as I go. So, I might first book my airfare via my credit card. When the bill comes, I pay it in full using DHs and my normal weekly income (from our jobs). The following month, I might purchase our park tickets. And so it goes until all aspects of our trip are booked and paid for. I typically plan our trips enough in advance so that this strategy works for me. If I planned a last minute trip, then I might need to dip into savings, but I would be more inclined to not go on vacation if I needed to do that. We just got back from a cruise this week, and I booked it just 2 months ago. The airfare and cruise fare (for three people) was due via our credit card last month, and I did have enough money from our regular income to pay it in full. We did charge quite a bit while on our trip, so the rest will be paid off when our bill comes next month.

 

[NJGirl]

For this year's trip, we got free roundtrip sleeper transportation with meals from our Amtrak reward points and that credit card bill gets paid in full every month. We've saved our change and thrown dollar bills (and fives on occasion) into a bank to pay for our transfers, tips for meals on the DDP, one OOP meal and other random expenses. So far we've saved over 300 dollars. For the trip itself, we've put money aside every time we get paid; some through direct deposit to savings. Our 45th day balance due is next next month, I'll charge the balance to get credit card reward points but I have the cash in hand to write that big check when the bill comes. Any money we come home with starts next years vacation fund.