How do you pay for your trips?

[QVCshopper]

The major thing to remember is that everyone makes and spends different amounts. So, what really matters is how much comes in vs. how much goes out. For me personally, I use my savings. Whatever I don't spend each month goes into savings, which is then used for emergencies, trips, etc. If you're looking to cut expenses, join the no-buy thread. I'm headed back there in Dec after quite a hiatus. But, those ladies are amazing!

 

[Rantybaby]

Was going to spend my third vacation week for Christmas @ Disneyland. Company offered buy out in August. On Oct 2nd, moved back home to TX after 37 years. (Cost of living is cheaper than Los Angeles, CA.)

I'm sick & tire of being practical all the time. I have no spouse or children to answer too. SO, I'M GOING TO LIVE IT UP!!

P.S. Verizon is paying the bill for the stress they cause me.

 

[cglaura]

Everything is relative to income and what you want or feel is important to you. My friend always complains she never gets to go on vacation, yet she plunks down around $2,750 on cigarettes a year (NJ....around $7.50 +/- per pack for her brand). Her DH the same. $5,500 would get a pretty nice vacation somewhere. Heck, I could do Disney and a bunch of 4 day weekenders for that! Not to mention the dinners out, the weekend alcohol when they have get togethers, take out. But "they never get to do anything fun" because they never have extra money. It would be one thing if that is what they wanted to spend it on and be happy, but they just can't seem to connect the dots to why they are not happy and "can't buy anything".

My last trip though, I paid for mostly with survey sites, rebates, "found money" etc. Took a little over two years to collect it all.

 

[beaucoup]

We save money from paychecks. Charge the trip to earn the reward points and then pay the bill off in full when we return. We then cash in the reward points and get money back that goes back into the savings account.

We also book any airfare, hotels or car rentals throught ebates.com if possible. And of course, take advantage of hotel and airline rewards programs to earn free rooms or miles.

None of our trips are anywhere near $10K, so its pretty easy to save up for them quickly. I think the most we've ever spent was $4,000 for a 2 week trip to the other side of the country. Most trips are kept under $2500 when at all possible. We just don't want to spend all that money on a trip.

 

[carebee21]

We also have a vacation fund which we add to from every paycheck. We live in a house big enough for us, but not extravagant, we drive older cars (my car is 10 years old, DH's is 6) that we will drive til they die or repair costs start adding up. We don't go out to eat all that often, movie night usually consists of a movie rental vs. the theater, I buy stuff on clearance throughout the year, etc. We live fairly frugally to ensure we have enough money for what is important to us. My sister always teases me and says we're so cheap, but we always have what we need, have a little money left over for things we really want, don't worry or stress about being able to afford our bills and take two vacations a year where we indulge and treat ourselves.

 

[ChisJo]

We have a vacation fund that we contribute to bi-monthly. We use multiple points programs that usually pay for our tickets and airfare. We shop around until we find the best deal. We don't stay onsite (we rent timeshares through my parents club) that usually cost us under $500 for 7 days, we rent smaller cars, we eat breakfast in our rooms, and bring snacks throughout the day. We share a lunch, and we eat off property in the night. My last trip airfare was $375 (return from NW Canada), passes were free through points programs, we never bought meals in the parks, we bought $100 worth of groceries for 6 days and made that last, we pay for everything in cash so we know how much we are spending every day(I feel more accountable for my spending this way). We allocate so much money for shopping. You can still have a Disney experience without spending ludicrous amounts of money. I made that mistake the first time I went and was appalled at the final bill. Each trip I take seems to get cheaper and cheaper, even though prices are getting higher and higher.

 

[AvaLovesMickey]

Hi all, OP here. Just wanted to say that I did not mean to pick on the $10,000 vacations. However, I disagree with the poster above who said for a family of 5, you wouldn't get very far with $10,000. If you are talking about adding up flights and long vacations then yeah, ok. However, $10,000 can go a long ways when you take flights out. My husband came from a family of more than that and did not spend $10,000. Again, I don't care how much anyone spends on a vacation...because it all depends on a person's income, etc. However, no family *needs* to spend a certain amount of money to have a vacation. There are tons of low cost ways to have a vacation!

 

[Marionnette]

Hi all, OP here. Just wanted to say that I did not mean to pick on the $10,000 vacations. However, I disagree with the poster above who said for a family of 5, you wouldn't get very far with $10,000. If you are talking about adding up flights and long vacations then yeah, ok. However, $10,000 can go a long ways when you take flights out. My husband came from a family of more than that and did not spend $10,000. Again, I don't care how much anyone spends on a vacation...because it all depends on a person's income, etc. However, no family *needs* to spend a certain amount of money to have a vacation. There are tons of low cost ways to have a vacation!

No family *needs* a vacation. Period. But the truth is that many people cant get to disney without airfare included. They cant swim across the ocean or drive cross-continent. No matter where we vacation the airfare is included in the budget b/c its a necessary expense related to the trip. And while there may be plenty of cheap ways to take a vacation, not everyone wants to take that kind of trip. I would prefer to go less often and not worry over every penny. We dont vacation at the last minute. So we have alot of time to set the money aside to pay for vacations and we plan accordingly.

 

[punkin]

My vacations, like everything else in my life, are budgeted. Some years, when some of my other budget categories come in under budget, I am able to squeeze in an extra trip. This year I have no Disney trip planned, but I am hoping to get a quick 5 day driving trip in anyway. We will see.

 

[princesspeach]

Hi all, OP here. Just wanted to say that I did not mean to pick on the $10,000 vacations. However, I disagree with the poster above who said for a family of 5, you wouldn't get very far with $10,000. If you are talking about adding up flights and long vacations then yeah, ok. However, $10,000 can go a long ways when you take flights out. My husband came from a family of more than that and did not spend $10,000. Again, I don't care how much anyone spends on a vacation...because it all depends on a person's income, etc. However, no family *needs* to spend a certain amount of money to have a vacation. There are tons of low cost ways to have a vacation!

Of course you don't need to spend 10 grand. You can alwas drive and stay at motel 6. If you wan't to fly spend a couple of weeks stay in a deluxe resort and eat at 4 star restaurants. Then you are most likely going to spend 10 grand. If I can't vacation the way I wan't I just stay home and keep savining until I can. Spending any amount of money on something I am not happy with is a waste to me.

 

[4HppyCamprs]

While this is only our second trip we paid cash for both of our trips. We paid the down payment and then made payments until it was paid off at the 45 days out mark. We booked the first trip about 9 months out and the second trip a little over a year out so we had plenty of time to pay. We paid about 3000.00 for our trip this year. I really really really like that Disney lets you pay as you can what you can throughout the reservation period until the 45 day mark.

 

[Ashlotte]

I am usually travelling to Disneyland rather than WDW (much closer) and instead of Disney Visa, I use an airline visa to earn miles. When we go, we either get a really awesome airfare sale (right now it is $50 each way from where we live), or we buy one ticket at full price (usually around $200 round trip), buy one with the $50 companion ticket (now up to $99, so not as good), and use miles for the other two. So plane ticklet are usually around $300-$400 for the four of us. We put everything possible on the card (but we pay it off every month).

We do rent a car, which is about $150, but we buy out park tickets through AAA, which offers free parking at Disneyland. We also make sure to travel off season because it is less crowded and there are often ticket deals. We usually go in January or February and it seems like they are almost always having the adult ticket at kid prices. Tickets are usually $169 x 4, so $676.

We are timeshare owners, so we stay at a timeshare when we are there. The equivilant in dues for the week is $400-$700 (depending on if we stay at the nice one or the skanky one), although dues are paid throughout the year, so it seems like we are staying for "free."

Since we have a car and a full kitchen in the condo, we go grocery shopping. We eat breakfast in our room, usually pack a lunch, and often come back to the room for naps or share a meal in the park. We often don't eat a meal in the park, but if we do, it is only one per day.

We do splurge and make sure to do at least one character meal each trip (often two) and I think the Bibbity Bobbity Boutique is now a tradition, after how fun it was last time.

We don't really buy souviners. I give the kids $20 in Disney dollars before we go, and they have money that they save from birthdays and whatnot if they want to buy something. My husband would never buy a souviner and I usually don't. We might splurge on a dole whip or turkey leg at some point, but usually one to share and one per trip. We are very cheap!

So, our trips are about $2000 and we go once per calendar year.

 

[jlm]

I also have an ING account and put $$ into it automatic withdrawal from every paycheck. Sometimes in the winter I have to suspend it for a bit due to seasonal layoff-but I start it right back up when I can! I also put any 'extra' money into it (ex. birthday, Christmas, rebates, etc). I do alterations on the side and use that money for disney as well. We save all of our change and put it into a jar. We just cashed it in and had over 500.00 in the jar! All 'pocket' money from the laundry is a disney donation!
We USE to take our trips, then use our tax return to pay it off. Until the yr our tax return didn't quite cover it!!
We have been saving for 2 years now and taking our almost 'dream' vacation! (I say almost...because I would have LOVED to add the cruise onto it!!) Our vacation will be paid off in full when we leave...and that is the best feeling of all!!!

Here is what ours cost: (family of 5....3 adults, 2 kids)
$5821.52 airfare from MN, Poly 8nts, reg. dining, hopper passes(with discount)
$279.52 MVMCP
252.28 SeaWorld
127.74 meals at SeaWorld
112.84 Dessert party
99.95 Photopass
80.00 assigned seats on flight
80.00 bag fees
120.58 gardengrocer
35.00 mousekeeping
151.00 tips
92.55 airport parking
1000.00 spending money!
$8252.98 TOTAL-paid in full!

 

[kirstenb1]

We bought DVC back in 1993 when it was much cheaper. We drive down, and eat breakfast in our villa, lunch is counter service, then dinner is off-site. Every 3 years, we buy 10 day passes, non-expiring. The purchase year is a killer. I swear ticket prices are eating me alive! But the next 2 years are pretty cheap.

If we didn't have DVC, I imagine we'd rent off-site, and go every 3 years or so.

 

[NMW]

$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............

I agree with you about the family of 5 thing! We always fly to WDW, so that gets included. We would never drive from PA to WDW! We drive every summer to Myrtle Beach (12 hours) and that almost kills us!

 

[pjm-guy]

I have a side job refereeing youth ice hockey in NJ.......

 

[Jen_in_NH]

We bought DVC, so the hotel price is taken out for us (other than the annual dues, but we make up for that by renting points out on years we're not going to go.) We use DME and the Disney busses, so there's no expense of renting a car.

I do all sorts of paid surveys, MyPoints, rebating and couponing, and save everything from that for Disney or Disney-related stuff. I just found out that Amazon sells Disney Store stuff, so I took all of the Amazon certificates I had saved to buy pins for our next trip.

I also do the Disney Visa thing, and pay everything with it. We had enough last time to pay for 2 7 day hoppers, and all of our meals for a week.

Airfare is the killer for us, and we usually end up paying for DHs cousin and her family. They watch our son when we're working, and we pay to fly them to Disney and have them stay with us. It works out for both of us.

Jen

 

[quasar4legs]

We try to put everything on our credit card and use the frequent flye pointsr for airfares.
The card is paid off in full every month so we never pay any interest and as long as we book in advance we have been able to get flights that suit us.


Good luck

 

[luvthemouse71]

I pay the $200 deposit, and pay off as I go through the year. It's paid off before I go.

 

[Brandi1leigh]

I agree that everyone's vacation budget is relative. What you can afford is what you can afford. But here's what I do:

1) I don't get to take a major vacation every year.
2) I do all of the sites that you earn extra money on. Every little bit counts! (MyPoints, Sunshine Rewards, QuickRewards, Swagbucks).
3) I budget for big vacations very carefully. I probably overplan. I would rather save too much than too little. Of course, I have a credit card for emergencies, but I would rather not use that on vacation.
4) I try to put a little bit of money aside every month. Since I'm on disability, this has gotten a lot harder! However, I try to put a little away (once again every little bit counts).
5) I use coupons. I shop at yard sales. I go to the library instead of buying books.
6) I'm open to any suggestions for how to save more!