How do YOU pay for your vacation?

[Starlilly]

hey everyone,

im just curious to know how everyone saves for their vacation!

do you have any advice on the best way to save up money? how long does it take to save up enough for a vacation?

 

[robin09]

hey everyone,

im just curious to know how everyone saves for their vacation!

do you have any advice on the best way to save up money? how long does it take to save up enough for a vacation?

I put some on the disney credit card, pay that off for 6months, interest free... and charge it again... and repeat the process... That's how we are doing it for our cruise too, we're almost done paying.. interest free.. I'm happy, my hubby is happy and we go on the cruise without worries!

 

[aleshad01]

We put it on our Disney credit card and then when the bill comes we pay it off right away with money in our savings account.

 

[Karenj2]

Sorry - I had to choose "other"... We use our Disney Visa throughout the year on everything, so we get DRDs from that, plus DH wins "points" at work with which you can purchase Gift Cards, so he gets Disney GCs, then for any other trip expenses not covered by all that, we pay with our CC, but pay it off with money that we've earmarked (saved) in the bank. Does that make any sense?

 

[vickxo]

Since you didn't offer "Blood, Sweat, and Tears" as an option - I went with "OTHER"

 

[arthur06]

I went with "other" as well.

We don't really have a specific way we do things. We have an ING account that we deposit money into every Friday (DW and I get paid on opposite Fridays) from our paychecks. I get bonuses at work, so some of that goes for it. We save loose dollars and change, recycle pop cans. Pretty much whatever.

 

[neatokimmo]

It's a line item in my budget. Although for our Feb trip, we are sharing a room with my fiance and have free dining. I have been charging biz expenses to the Disney card and now have enough points to cover the room & my ticket. The deposit covered DD's ticket so we are covered for a week trip

 

[AmandaRG]

DH is paid every two weeks, so two months a year he receives a 3rd check. We take only expenses to get through that two week period (since we have already paid all the other bills from the first two) such as gas and groceries and the rest goes into a vacation account. After that, we add to the vacation budget when we are able to reduce expenses elsewhere.

 

[Deealee]

I let Uncle Sam save it for me. I love getting that big fat check every year and knowing I can do what ever I want with it. Sort of forces me to live below my means(which I actually have no intentions of doing).

 

[Disney Addicted]

In the past I would take a set amount every paycheque and put it aside. Now we live off my husband's paycheque.

- money I receive from daycare goes straight into our vacation savings
- money received back from medical coverage goes into savings
- I have a Mickey popcorn bucket for dumping loose change & occasional bills into
- any toys/books/clothing, etc. the kids have outgrown are sold and the money goes into the Mickey bucket.

At month end I deposit the Mickey bucket money into our savings account. I would love to see it entirely filled but I would hate to lose it all if our house was broken into.

When it comes time to paying, I use a credit card for deposits & final payment and immediately pay that off using the savings.

 

[Deealee]

I let Uncle Sam save it for me. I love getting that big fat check every year and knowing I can do what ever I want with it. Sort of forces me to live below my means(which I actually have no intentions of doing).

 

[ssawka]

We spread everything out over the year.

• We are DVC owners, so our maintenance fees come out monthly.
• Our credit card gives us AAA gift cards, which helps with tickets.
• We buy our airfare when we get a good deal, usually 4-6 months before trip.
• Everything else we charge to the credit card (more points!) when we go and pay it off at the end of the month. (Credit cards are great as long as you don't carry a balance.)

 

[njmom47]

I chose "Other." One trip was paid for by my dad, the others were part cash/part credit card. The next one will be cash..I am saving as we speak!

 

[PrincessSuzanne]

I do a combination of things, I chose the option that we put money in savings because we do that sometimes.

DH gets paid weekly, so every month that has 5 weeks, that extra check goes into savings, I have 2 months each year that has a 3rd payday, so that check goes in there too, we use tax refunds, sometimes, I try to have it worked into my budget. On our next trip, we will probably use DH's BP card for gas, in turn we will get rewards for free gas.

I need to get rid of a bunch of stuff that we have in storage, so I will probably try to have a yard sale when it cools off a little bit, that money will go in to savings toward our January trip. Dhis in the Army Reserves, some of that may go into our trip fund. He has an old employer that asked him to come work a few hours on Friday's, his day off, that extra money will go towards the trip.

 

[linnell]

The past two years my husband has gotten very generous bonuses from work, and we've used that money for our trips.

 

[disneypofq05]

I picked other because I do two things. I pay for the trip on my Disney Visa and then use my tax return to pay off the bill. I always pay the bill right away.

 

[katrina1122]

I said other because we are a combo of your answers.

It's always save, but sometimes some goes on credit to be paid in the future. We use tax return to pay off bills which free up for vacation so that counts too I guess.

 

[Minnesota!]

I charge our airfare to my Airtran Visa and pay that off in 1 or 2 big chunks. We save a certain % of our checks into a vacation fund, so everything is paid off through that. But, I like the rewards I get on my credit card, so I charge what I can and then pay it off shortly there after

 

[2disneyboys]

We have a Vacation Savings Account for this.
Vacations (to disney or elsewhere) are pretty much our familiy's entertainment. So it has a big line item in our monthly budget (seperate from regular savings etc) We generally know in advance the approximate time span we'd be going on vacation and I back up from there and determine the "min" monthly deposit in order to cover the cost of the vacation (and I always estimate high when determining the cost of our vacations) and I put that amt of $ into our vacation savings account. In addition, 1/2 of any "found" money goes to our vacation savings account (bonus, refunds, item sold) When I have enough in the vacation savings account, I book the trip. My 1st Diseny trip (Nov 99) I used a credit card for and when I got home, I really DID NOT LIKE getting bills for something that was already over & done with so we said, never again. since then, if the CASH is not there, we don't go, or if enough cash is not there, we adjust our vacation plans accordingly. This works for us.

as far as how long does it take, that's very subjective. Some families have a lot more discretionary funds left over after paying for necessaties each month. as an example, DH & I bought what was to be our "starter" home in 1996. over the years, we deceided not to "upgrade" as most families in our area tend to do. As a result, lower housing costs allow us to put a higher amount of our discretionary funds into a vacation/entertainment fund vs pumping it into a larger mortgage. Nothing wrong with the larger mortage, this is just what works for us. We can easily save several 1,000 in a few months time (again, seperate from regualar savings) without feeling the pinch at all. we feel very fortunate to be in this position.

 

[oopsiDAISY]

We do a combination of tax return check and savings...