How do you pay for your trips?

[disneydreamersx4]

If you're talking about paying for Disney trips, we use our income tax refund.

 

[hopemax]

A couple different ways.

1. We automatically have money from DH's paycheck go into a savings account. When we first started doing this 13 years ago, it was $100 a month. Then with each pay raise he received, half of the "extra" money would go to increase our day-to-day standard of living, half would go into savings (either increase the money going to the savings account or increase retirement contributions). Now, a lot more than $100 a month goes into our savings account.

2. Tax return

3. Also, we have a flex spending account. Yet, we always manage to cover the costs from our normal day-to-day checking account (cut back on eating out, entertainment, etc), so when we get the reimbursement check that becomes "vacation money."

 

[Disney Doll]

Every pay period I put money into a separate account that is earmarked for vacations.

 

[walkdmc]

We make good money relative to the national average. Our trips are always paid in full, we don't finance vacations and we were one of the $10,000+ trips on "that" board. Does that help? LOL. Seriously, it's never a good idea to compare incomes/budgets, IMO.

Will I get tossed off the Budget Board?

 

[angierae]

We save up the money ahead of time. Next fall when I book our 2012 trip we'll put half down, and then pay the other half off by the time we go. We don't carry any credit card debt by choice, so if we want a vacation, we have to save up for it.

 

[budbeerlady]

I clean my office at work for the extra cash. That is my spending money and I use it on trips, Le Creuset or short weekends away.

I also am a huge coupon clipper. Any money I don't spend on groceries is more I can put towards our Disney trips. I also work hard to cut costs wherever possible. I wait for toy deals and Christmas shop year round, I use codes for clothes shopping online for DD.

And I try to have a very nice vacation at a lower cost. So we drive an extra hour to the cheaper airport to save $400, I stay at value resorts and try to grab "free" dining when we go. If its a better deal we grab annual passes so we can squeeze in 2 trips. And I book early and pay off the trip each time I get paid. That is my big one, paying it off as I go!

This holiday trip is $1600 for just Dd and I. Airfare is the killer for this one and the seasonal prices. Usually I am around $1850 for all 3 of us for a week with airfare in a Value Resort. That breaks out to around $150 a month to find or save.

Can you ask for Disney Gift cards for the holidays/birthdays? Maybe shop thru Mypoints and Sunshine Rewards?

 

[sunnysideup3]

We decided to go next year December 2011 with my parents, so we've been taking $100 out for vacation every month. Anything over that, I put in the travel fund as well. I called and renegotiated our cable/internet rates and saved $40/month for a year, so an additional $40 will be going in the fund. We also decided to not spend $100-150/pp on holiday gifts and instead, look for deals and spend $50-75 and bank the other $$ for the trip. My DS just had a birthday (3) and he is swimming in toys. Instead of asking grandparents for more toys, we asked for Disney GC's or to put the $$ in a fund for the trip. We also plan on doing a mega garage sale this summer and doing some E-Bay selling of my parent's antiques, and the "Disney Change Jar". Any little bit helps!!!

 

[chimo2u]

Another $10,000.00 tripper here..... When you are coming from Canada and pay close to $2,000.00 for airfare, things add up quick for a family of 4 "disney adults"....our trip in 2008 (our first) was booked through AMA, and I didn't know all the tips I know now. It cost about $7,000.00 US and when I added in exchange rate and spending money, we where at $10,000.00 pretty quickly.

Our Sept. 2009 trip was a bit longer, 12 days total at AKL and free dining. I was a "disser" by then so knew about the free dining and deal hunting tips....That trip was closer to the $8,000.00 mark, but still paid in full before leaving and not bought on credit.

This upcoming trip in Feb. for just my son and I is our cheapest Disney trip thus far....probably because there's just the 2 of us. It's one week long, 5 days staying at BC, dining plan, Park Hopper 5 day passes, and 3 nights at Universal and it's $2,700.00 not including airfare.....it's all paid off now (a month early!! ) and we are very much looking forward to our trip. I am bringing $3,000.00 cash to cover incidentals, Universal hotel (2 nights)/food and spending money.

I think every family is different when it comes to how much we each spend.
Some live closer to Disney and can afford cheaper holidays there....when you are coming a long way though, that can drive up the cost significantly.
PS...sure, I could always book value and stay quite a bit cheaper, but I would rather save longer and have the kind of Deluxe vacation we enjoy!

 

[princesspeach]

I put $500 to $700 dollars from each of my paychecks into a vacation/luxury item fund. We will have about 15,000 for vacations in 2011. The following year we may skip the big vacation and spend the money on some new furniture or other home improvements. It just depends. I love vacations so they really motivate me to save.

 

[Robinrs]

We used to go 3 - 6 times a year, mainly because we can drive down.

I used to pay for my trips with eBay money, get paid on PayPal then transfer to a savings account. I didn't do the high faluting stuff, mostly stayed at vacation homes and condos, never onsite Disney. I would splurge and do onsite Universal due to the express pass, the older I got the more important that was!

I think we went too many times, though, and now we're sort of over it. No trips planned for awhile.

 

[princesspeach]

First, don't believe everything you read online. Do you think all those trips are paid in full when people return? No, I'm sure some take years to pay them off - add the interest payment and think about how much that trip (just one trip) will cost in the end. We like to payoff our trip before we leave so it isn't hanging over our heads.

Second, we use christmas bonus money and also I sell things during the year that we no longer use, etc...it all adds up. I also squirrel away $25 here and there and buy gift cards.

Bottomline - I don't worry about "keeping up with the Jones'). I take the kind of vacations my family can afford and we don't go into debt doing it. Our next trip is camping at Fort Wildnerness in our camper and I will be cooking 2 meals per day. You have to do what works for you and your family. In the end it doesn't matter how much your vacation cost (just because a vacation is super expensive doesn't mean it's better) - for us it's about spending time with family and making memories - and for my family it's the super budget plan.

Believe it or not some people make a lot of money and can afford 10,000 dollar vacations without going into debt. I can afford 10,000-15,000 dollar vacations and we are your average middle class family. I define middle class as making between 50,000 to 250,000 a year. Our house payment is only 15%of our take home pay so we have a lot of disposable income.

 

[jaminmd]

I use my Disney CC every month & pay it off in full. I've charged so much in the past year that I accumulated over $500 in Disney dollars. So when we go to Disney in several weeks, our room at POP is paid for! It's our first time at a value but at $62 per night, DH really wanted to try it out, especially since we stay in the room only to sleep & shower.

Everyone will have a different way of how they can afford to pay so there isn't any one answer that applies to everyone. I prefer Disney deluxes but I still cringe when I spend all that money for a room I'm hardly in.

 

[kkmcan]

I took a part time job last year to pay for our vacations. Before that we always paid for our trips before going on them with our "saved" money (birthday, Christmas, rebates and reinbursements, selling stuff on Ebay, yardsales etc). We still do those things along with my job money. But we don't take anywhere near $10,000 vacations. Actually our annual vacation budget seems to be $5000-$7000. With that we usually get 3 different trips- Disneyland, San Diego beach and one other trip like Las Vegas.

This year we did San Diego in March, DL and SD in June and San Francisco(flew there) in October. This came to right around $4700 for all 3 trips.

Next year we've got the DCL 2 night, DCL 7 night Mex Riv. in March, San Diego in June and Disneyland in October.

Those trips for next year will avg about $6000.

California is 6-7 hours drive so we go there at least once a year, some years 3 times.

 

[Ava]

Another $10,000.00 tripper here..... When you are coming from Canada and pay close to $2,000.00 for airfare, things add up quick for a family of 4 "disney adults"....

This is true, the cost of a Disney vacation is relative. If you are far away and it costs thousands of dollars just to get there, you can easily reach $10,000. Our airfare from NYC is less than $200 per person, and there's only 3 of us. We chose to stay at a value resort, and we only need 2 park tickets because DD won't need a ticket. If any of those conditions were different, our trip could cost a lot more.

 

[Handbag Lady]

We do things strangely. Well, to others is it strange. We pay everything 50/50. We have one joint account that we each put $x each into the savings account each pay check weekly. Then,. before the trip, we transfer this to the checking.

This is our travel fund. It is connected to a Visa debit card and we use that, so it looks like we are paying by credit but we pay cash. On our last trip, don't ask but we ended up not spending $1000 of it. So, that rolls over to the savings account, earns interest, and we start over for the next big trip.

 

[jldixon62]

I usually book the package a year out (which I'll be doing tomorrow) so I can pay it monthly just like a bill. Then I save all of my travel reimbursement checks in my vacation savings account to cover the airfare and spending money on the trip.

P.S. This is the trip I pay for, for my kids and grandkids, and we stay value. I also have to fit in at least one week long and one weekend vacation with the husband.

 

[amylynne01]

I'm trying to pay for our trip next May with "found" money - money from doing focus groups, rewards sites, selling on eBay, change jar, Disney Visa points, etc. Basically doing what you are doing, trying not to spend any of my regular salary on the trip. So far I'm about halfway there. I have a lot of things to go up on eBay this month so hopefully that does well.

I estimate our total trip cost to be about $3,000. This is for 6 nights at Pop Century, 6-day base tickets for 2 adults (DD will be under 3), airfare for 3 people, food, souvenirs, & a little extra budgeted for misc expenses. We do have enough in savings to pay for the trip, but it's become a game for me to try to "find" enough money to pay for it without using savings.

I am doing this too. My entire trip will be paid for by money not from my or my DH's paychecks. I have $2860 right now saved since 1/1/10 and should have another $300 before we leave. Every dollar adds up and is making interest! All the big stuff is paid for. Flights are paid for, park tickets are paid for and in-hand, stroller is paid for, and DVC points are paid for. Food, small souvies, and incidentals will all be paid for by cash or on our debit card using the money we've saved.

 

[diznee25]

The WDW vacation in my signiture is due to our company asking us to work overtime for the past 3 months. (Dh and I work together.) Otherwise I don't really see us vacationing that often since we're also paying off credit card debt.

So basically our vacation $$ comes from overtime pay. If there's no overtime, then we don't take a vacation. (We usually average a vacation once every 3 - 4 years.) After all our credit card debt is paid off I can see us vacationing more frequently.


diznee25

 

[mom2t]

Yard sales twice a year - Had one in Sept. and racked up over $700 with stuff we no longer use. Sell my son's clothing to 2 moms with younger sons and then consign the rest - another $300. I just keep sticking back money - It adds up quickly. We pay as we go. I thought my trip was high at $3300 for 8 nights at OKW in a 2 bedroom - We will drive and split the cost with my parents who are also going. We will eat in except for 4 meals and will drive and also go to Seaworld - We do not come to Disney every year and so we save for several years before returning. Our last was in 2008.

 

[canadianjovigirl]

$10,000 for us here as well as its not cheap for a family of 5 to travel anywhere. We did stay off site for just over 3 weeks, but again airfare was over $2000.00 and we did alot in Florida so it was well worth it to us as our Mexico all inclusives are about $1500.00 per person for 10-14 days (depending on the place and deal we get) so for a bit more we got alot more time in Florida.

I too have money from my check go directly to a savings account for vacations and any extra money (ebay, garage sales, birthdays etc) also go into that account for holidays. My family loves to get away together so the kids opt for less gifts at holidays as they dont want stuff they want experiences and memories so it works for us..........

My work bonus is usually used for a adults vacation somewhere or added to our family vacation account............

I dont think we would get far for a $3000 vacation............