How do you pay for your trips?

[quentina]

We do a little at a time. We own DVC so, that covers room. If I see an airfare sale, I will buy one way (family of 5), next sale the way home. Priceline car, buy 10 day no expiration tix and get a few trips out of them, if staying at Universal...we pay 1 night deposit and the other nights via accounting department.

I try very hard to have a zero balance at arrival. I will use bonus money, tax refund, extra "found" money (b-days, christmas etc). I also buy gift cards here and there to build up spending money or other specific items...for example, last visit, we did a cruise and Disney and purchased dining plan. I did gift cards for the tips on the cruise, estimated spending money and another gift card for the dining plan and disney money. Yes, it was all seperate cards...I know you can add however; I buy it, take a sharpie and write Tips....Dining...etc on them. This way, I do not buy more than I have budgeted for. Last trip, I came home with $250.00 in gift cards which I will apply towards next years cruise.

Years ago, I would have charged and not looked back. However; as I was not good with plastic and spent years digging myself out, we are a cash only family anymore....live and learn

 

[crazelion]

My vacations now is fund by found money thanks to the disboards. LOL I have learned so much. I do all the reward sites can found to pay for vacations.

I have start saving for 2011 weekend trip to Tampa, Fl. Goal is have hotel, food and gas paid for gift cards. Then make money from simplegpt to pay for tickets and extras.

From these boards I have learn how to budget and spend money.

 

[rnorwo1]

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.

How do you get 3 trips out of a 10 day ticket? Do you always take short trips or do you just do the parks for the 3-4 days and do other things in the area each year?

We have DVC also, and I have been playing around with ticket prices trying to figure out how to maximize tickets... I'm not sure whether we should do 2 trips in 12 months with APs then skip a year or so, or do the 10 day no-exp and do two 5 night trips. We usually stay about 6 nights, but we are flexible.

 

[heathernfrankie]

For this vacation (we're going in Sept), I cashed out my retirement fund. I used to work for a school district and resigned last August to stay home with my boys. I don't plan to go back into the teaching profession, so I figured why not take it out. Any other vacations we take, we will definately need to save for.

 

[kirstenb1]

How do you get 3 trips out of a 10 day ticket? Do you always take short trips or do you just do the parks for the 3-4 days and do other things in the area each year?

We have DVC also, and I have been playing around with ticket prices trying to figure out how to maximize tickets... I'm not sure whether we should do 2 trips in 12 months with APs then skip a year or so, or do the 10 day no-exp and do two 5 night trips. We usually stay about 6 nights, but we are flexible.

We stay 5-6 nights. We live about 90 minutes from BG Williamsburg. We bought platinum season passes there, with the thought we could go to Sea World and BG Tampa. So we go to WDW parks 3-4 days, then do Sea World and BG, or throw in Universal (did that for the first time 2 years ago, and skipped WDW altogether). Unfortunately AP's aren't a great option for us right now.

 

[Darkfirewolfe]

removed - found answer elsewhere

 

[Marionnette]

If someone wouldn't mind sharing, where are these surveys you can do for actual money. I've only ever seen the scam ones that want all sorts of personal information from you. If there are legit surveys, I would love to do that.

Im sure that you will get plenty of referral offers via pm just for asking that question. Check the disney rewards forum here on the disboards. There should be discussions there about the programs. The rewards programs may offer anywhere from fifty cents to a dollar for completed surveys. It can be very frustrating to just qualify for a survey. I especially hated the ones that would have you go thru the whole thing and then boot you out at the very end when you didnt meet there target demographics. As if they couldnt ask those questions to screen you out twenty minutes earlier.

 

[Marionnette]

For this vacation (we're going in Sept), I cashed out my retirement fund. I used to work for a school district and resigned last August to stay home with my boys. I don't plan to go back into the teaching profession, so I figured why not take it out. Any other vacations we take, we will definately need to save for.

Water under the bridge now. But you would have most financial advisors heads spinning with what you did. Your retirement fund could have been rolled over into an ira instead of paying the penalty and taxes involved in the early withdrawal. I would never consider taking money from retirement in order to do a vacation.

 

[amylynne01]

Water under the bridge now. But you would have most financial advisors heads spinning with what you did. Your retirement fund could have been rolled over into an ira instead of paying the penalty and taxes involved in the early withdrawal. I would never consider taking money from retirement in order to do a vacation.

This exactly. You lost a lot of money by withdrawing that money.

 

[heathernfrankie]

Water under the bridge now. But you would have most financial advisors heads spinning with what you did. Your retirement fund could have been rolled over into an ira instead of paying the penalty and taxes involved in the early withdrawal. I would never consider taking money from retirement in order to do a vacation.

I understand that, but I had 3 surgeries in July and August and yes, we have great medical benefits, we still owe $1000 on them. I need to pay them somehow. Plus, some other things around the house, that was the only option. With the extra cash, we're doing Disney. I guess I should have been more clear.

 

[crazymama]

I, unfortunately, am also a Canadian that needs to spend thousands to get my Disney World fix. Flying from BC is just so expensive unless we drive to Seattle first. We did this once but then had to factor pretrip hotel, gas etc into the price. Fares are ridiculously expensive to fly from where I live. There are 5 of us too. I am on the watch for good fares this August. We have been to Disneyland 3 times and have had a great time... much more affordable but somehow doesn't quit fill the bill like the WORLD!! We don't spend a ton on souvenirs or fancy meals and we do stay off site which helps but then we also factor in a trip to Universal Orlando for that experience. It just adds up.

 

[Arielle22]

We put $75 a week away in a vacation fund and go every other year. I have ING take the money automatically from our checking account.

We (DH DD17 and DD15) prefer longer Disney vacations rather than more frequent shorter ones.

On the off year we go someplace cheaper.

DH and I actually just came back and we had saved separately for that trip since it was our anniversary.

 

[bwolfe]

We are a cash only family. We save and save until we have the cash to book a trip. This has worked very well for our family. All of our trips are paid at the time of booking.

 

[believe]

Vacations are part of the budget for us. We plan our vacations 1-2yrs out. We have most of next years paid for. Since our 2012 vacation is going to be a 2wk vacation to the NE states we are making all our vacations next year camping vacations, except one. We take extended weekend trips and a long vacation for a total of 9-10 trips a year. With camping it allows us more trips for our family.

We do use the Disney VISA rewards for our food when we go to Disney which is every 2-3 yrs. We are light eaters compared to some and we drive, not fly. That saves us on cost. Plus we can take snacks, drinks, etc with us.

We don't spend $10,000 every year, but there are some years we are close. Those trips take us 2yrs to save for.

 

[Whistle]

I have not read all of the response so I may repeat myself. The way I pay for our vacations is by:

not spending ANY change (all coins go into our "Disney bucket)-- this adds up fast

also, I recently started a savings through my local bank (Wachovia) that everytime you use your debit card (which I use a lot), they put a dollar into the savings account (I will never miss that money, and over time, this will add up)-- I just need to make sure when I subtract the money from my checking acct. to add the extra dollar

any "found" or "extra" money goes into the Disney fund-- i.e. yard sales, coupons, jury duty- 50.00, rebates, ebay, selling on Craigslist,etc.

if I have several dollars in my pocket, I will toss a few into the Disney bucket (sometimes a 5.00 or a 10.00)-- once the cash hits the bucket, it's "untouchable"

I also have a Disney Visa and use that for purchases once we are there

I hope this helps someone else.

 

[rnorwo1]

We stay 5-6 nights. We live about 90 minutes from BG Williamsburg. We bought platinum season passes there, with the thought we could go to Sea World and BG Tampa. So we go to WDW parks 3-4 days, then do Sea World and BG, or throw in Universal (did that for the first time 2 years ago, and skipped WDW altogether). Unfortunately AP's aren't a great option for us right now.

What is the platinum season pass? Is that for Sea World and BG only?

Does anyone else ever try to use the no-exp tickets or annual passes to minimize ticket costs?? I was just wondering how that's worked out for other people.

 

[kirstenb1]

What is the platinum season pass? Is that for Sea World and BG only?

Does anyone else ever try to use the no-exp tickets or annual passes to minimize ticket costs?? I was just wondering how that's worked out for other people.

The platinum passes are good for 2 years at a time (although I think we auto-renew ours on line). It gets us free admission at all Anheuser Busch parks, and free preferred parking at BG and Water Country in Williamsburg.

I'm not sure if people in Orlando or Tampa, can buy the same pass, with the same conditions.

Anyway, we'd buy some type of season pass for the 2 Williamsburg parks no matter what. For a little extra, we get the Florida parks, which helps make our trips a little cheaper. WDW Annual passes don't make sense for us right now. We have to travel in summer, due to the kids' school. We only go once a year, and it looks like the annual passes are a better deal for either a longer stay, or more trips per year. So we combine our BG passes, with 10 day park hoppers, and stretch 3 years worth of trips.

 

[ChisJo]

I, unfortunately, am also a Canadian that needs to spend thousands to get my Disney World fix. Flying from BC is just so expensive unless we drive to Seattle first. We did this once but then had to factor pretrip hotel, gas etc into the price. Fares are ridiculously expensive to fly from where I live. There are 5 of us too. I am on the watch for good fares this August. We have been to Disneyland 3 times and have had a great time... much more affordable but somehow doesn't quit fill the bill like the WORLD!! We don't spend a ton on souvenirs or fancy meals and we do stay off site which helps but then we also factor in a trip to Universal Orlando for that experience. It just adds up.

Look at Continentals website right now...great seat sales flying out of western Canada right now! We just got return from Edmonton for $397...I was going to use aeroplan, but I thought I would save it for next time!