How do YOU pay for your vacation?

[ceemys]

I do the either save money or I use my tax return. I believe that if you can't pay cash, you can't afford to go. But that is what I use for my family and what I teach my kids. Not to mention, I don't use CC's at all. lol

 

[Pakey]

Part of my compensation package includes vacation money. Also, after maxing my 401k out of my bonus, we use the balance for vacations. The bigger the bonus, the more elaborate the vacations.

 

[DSNY4ever]

We don't make a special trip savings account or anything, but we always watch our spending where we can and we save our money. Once we check out how we are doing and think we have enough extra to pull it off, then we start thinking about a vacation.

 

[canadianjovigirl]

I have a certain amount of my paycheque deposited directly into our vacation savings account and then i add extra to it after we pay our bills i take some of whats left and transfer it between the 2 savings accounts and also any unexpected money we put in there as well (birthdays, bonus, garage sale etc)

 

[DisneyRunner2009]

My DH likes to make payments on the trip monthly. His motto, "Inch by inch it's a cinch."

 

[Colleen27]

I chose other because our method is basically "all of the above" - since DH's income is variable anything we have leftover after budgeted items are paid gets saved for fun stuff, we use our tax return if we get one, the profit from a particular ongoing contract DH has goes straight to the "fun" account, as does anything I earn (I'm a SAHM but still do a bit of freelance writing and crafting), along with garage sale/Craigslist sales, the change jar, and other "found" money. The only choice that doesn't apply is the credit card option, because we're a plastic-free household.

How long it takes us to save depends on the trip, on how business is going, and on what other expenses might come up in the mean time to divert money from that "fun" savings plan. We usually take one or two big trips and three or four smaller (weekend/driving) trips a year.

 

[WantToGoNow]

We make our reservations about a year out and pay the deposit at that time. Then we figure out how many paydays we will have until the due date and divde the balance by that number of weeks. Each payday, we go online and pay that "payment". The final payment for our upcoming trip will be next week!!!

The weeks after the due date, I will continue putting so much back each paycheck and that will be our spending money while we are there. Everything is paid in advance or with cash.

 

[Styx Fan]

While I voted save for it, I have to admit to once putting it all on a credit card My fIL was working in Paris 2 weeks out of the month for a long stretch. He had a small apt in the city and lots of frequent flyer points. He invited DH and I to come over on his points and stay with him! This was about 17 years ago, before kids.

This took us off guard and we didn't have much money saved for a vacation. But how could we turn it down? This was in the 90's, the economy was good, we had no credit card debt and both jobs secure. We took out a no interest for 6 months credit card just for the trip and off we went. Just as a note, we did have the money in long term investments if we wanted to be dumb and touch it.

Spent a week with FIL in Paris, then rented a car and traveled to Germany and Austria and spent a week roaming around the countryside visiting castles, historic towns, etc. Once we had the free air fare, the 2nd week was pretty cheap. We made the decision up front to be frugal, but not cheap and to not skip anything we really wanted to see or do because of a few marks or francs. It was the trip of a lifetime. My first (and hopefully not my last ) to Europe. We stayed in tourist homes, ate cheap instead of 5 star restaurants and shopped with our brains.

And the trip was paid off before we paid a cent of interest

Taking that trip was the smartest thing we ever did.

 

[ExPirateShopGirl]

I put it on a credit card that gives me rewards then I pay the bill when it arrives. I put more into savings than I spend so I don't budget for travel specifically. We don't pay for air travel so that keeps costs down.

 

[luvthemouse71]

I chose the savings option- maybe I should have chosen "other". I pay the deposit and just pay it off over the next few months. I also take extra call, have yard sales and a change jar.

 

[DawnM]

We have a vacation fun and save monthly.

 

[kstgelais4]

We make our reservations about a year out and pay the deposit at that time. Then we figure out how many paydays we will have until the due date and divde the balance by that number of weeks. Each payday, we go online and pay that "payment". The final payment for our upcoming trip will be next week!!!

The weeks after the due date, I will continue putting so much back each paycheck and that will be our spending money while we are there. Everything is paid in advance or with cash.

This is EXACTLY what we do. 3 payments left!!!

 

[NancyIL]

I put it on a credit card that gives me rewards then I pay the bill when it arrives. I put more into savings than I spend so I don't budget for travel specifically. We don't pay for air travel so that keeps costs down.

That is exactly what we do. I chose "I put it on a credit card" - although I imagine that refers to people who charge now and worry about how to pay the bill down the road.

While it's a good feeling to have a trip paid off, I stifle the urge to pay for things (like cruises or hotel packages) before the bill is due. I prefer to hang onto my money as long as possible rather than give it to Disney months in advance. I also have no qualms about getting a big credit card bill when the trip is over, because that spreads out the payments and keeps more money in my savings account as long as possible.

 

[ExPirateShopGirl]

Exactly how I operate. I will put a $200 on a bounceback reservation when we are there this fall and put it on my credit card. I'll pay that and whatever else I charge in full when the bill arrives. Next year, 45 days out, I will pay off the trip in the same way. In my mind, paying early is nearly as big a sin as paying late.

That is exactly what we do. I chose "I put it on a credit card" - although I imagine that refers to people who charge now and worry about how to pay the bill down the road.

While it's a good feeling to have a trip paid off, I stifle the urge to pay for things (like cruises or hotel packages) before the bill is due. I prefer to hang onto my money as long as possible rather than give it to Disney months in advance. I also have no qualms about getting a big credit card bill when the trip is over, because that spreads out the payments and keeps more money in my savings account as long as possible.

 

[MsDunny]

I try to "pay as I go" as much as possible. For this trip - we leave in a week, YAY!! - we were given the resort stay as a gift. So, I bought tickets as I had the money, bought train tickets when I sold a few things on ebay, etc. I like to have as much paid for in advance as I can.

 

[crazelion]

I used reward program sites to pay for vacation. Example swagbucks,quickrewards, irazoo, zoombucks. I get cash, resturants gift cards, gas cards, hotel gift cards. The cash would use to pay for tickets and other expense that gift cards can't cover. I saving for Tampa/Orlando trip in 2012.

 

[JandJ]

I chose "other" because vacation usually comes out of DH's bonus plus savings. We live close to Disney, though, so that's not really vacation for us - vacation is a cruise or a trip to Europe. Last year we went to Egypt for 15 days

 

[mchllevns]

We put it on our Disney Visa (to earn Disney Dollars, of course) but pay it off immediately with savings. We also take advantage of every sale/PIN/etc we can...last trip we took advantage of free dining and cheap air fare. I also earned several Disney Gift Cards from Quickrewards that covered all of our tips for our TS meals...we spent less than $50 in cash...and that was mostly in the airport!!

 

[Amerangel89]

Me too!

 

[punkin]

I put it on a credit card. I put everything on a credit card. However, I budget for vacations so I have money to pay the credit card off at the end of the month.