How do YOU pay for your vacation?

[reelmom]

I was a stay at home mom when we (I should specify that we means myself and the kids) got hooked on Disney. After our fourth trip in 2 years, DH jokingly told me if I wanted to keep going to Disney, I would have to get a job to pay for it. So I did. I now work Mon-Fri 8:30-12:30 to pay for my obsession. It allows me to be home when the kids are home and go to Disney. Can't beat that.

 

[blondietink]

I chose "other". While I do save out some money every month in cash to be put towards vacations, what we did several years ago was buy into DVC and another Orlando based timeshare and paid it off before DH retired. the monthly/yearly fees fit into his retirement income budget. We also tend to not eat at WDW restaurants, instead opting to cook in our villa whenever possible. there are 4 of us, so one restaurant meal can easily run $200.00, which I can instead put towards groceries for a week. We also drive to WDW/Florida, which saves us a bundle over airfare.

 

[taaren]

I chose tax return since that's the largest portion of it, but really its "All of the Above" plus other.
Our Disney trip is a combination. Xmas $$ pays for MF's for DVC in January, then half the tax return pays for park tickets and airfare and any other non-food prepaid expenses (and this year our cruise! ). The other half of the tax return goes into long-term savings. Food (and sometimes souvenirs) is paid for with DDRD's from our Disney Visa.
For our other vacation(s) we are lucky enough to have a very generous mom who likes to take us skiing, and she owns a Marriott 2 bedroom timeshare, so then all we have to get is our airfare and ski passes, which comes out of a surplus of my paycheck (we buy groceries and cook for the most part when skiing, too tired to go out to eat after a day on teh slopes). DH's paycheck goes for all the 'basics': rent (mortgage is paid by the renters in our house out-of-state), electric, main credit cards with basic household expenses zero-ed out every month. My paycheck I usually transfer over some into clearing the 'extras' credit cards (for when we go out to dinner, etc), some into savings, and then the surplus sits in that account until we're ready to use it for either the ski trip or other trips ... this year we have to fly 3000 miles to a wedding for a weekend, plus I have to go island hopping twice to finish up my Master's and go to the commencement ceremony, so that surplus is pretty shallow, but that's what its there for ... Just wish the airlines weren't getting so much of my paycheck!

 

[lisaross]

I put a certain amount of money into a separate account labeled "vacation" i make sure to have all the money we need b4 the vacation comes. If its an expensive vacation i plan a good 2-3 years in advance and inbetween we'll save up for a smaller vacation!

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?

 

[ClarabelleCowFan]

We pay cash for all vacations with the exception of what it costs for our DVC membership (DH pays that as part of our monthly budget). To make enough I sell on ebay, Amazon, Craigslist and consignment sales and once in awhile will have a yard sale. Just in the past month we made over $1k to take with us on our back to back DREAM cruises for spending money just by selling stuff we didn't want anymore.

As soon as we get back from the cruise I will start the ebay and Craigslist sales again to make spending money for our Christmas WDW trip.

 

[MedicGoofy]

Every month I put money from my pay check into a savings account that I can't touch with my debit card. The account grows and when I feel like booking my trip, I have the money in there to do what I want. As well to pay for the roof that I need

 

[Aliceacc]

It really depends.

Our last two trips were at a time when I was in the midst of a medical crisis. We just took the money out of our tax return. Maybe not smart, but worth every single penny in terms of the diversion it gave me from researching Breast Cancer.

This trip, however, is being saved for. We started a Vacation club last spring,and hope to have more than enough money by the time we have to pay for our trip next August.

 

[omghidanielle]

I've been doing online surveys for gift cards. Up to $1,053 so far, and 12 months to go!

 

[ClarabelleCowFan]

I've been doing online surveys for gift cards. Up to $1,053 so far, and 12 months to go!

Wow! Which sites do you use?

 

[omghidanielle]

Wow! Which sites do you use?

See the sticky at the top of the Budget Board for QuickRewards.com!

 

[StuckInKS]

We budget, budget, budget throughout the year.

We don't have credit cards, our cars are paid off and we rent (although we are are currently looking at houses and plan to purchase soon) so no debt.

We shop around before we purchase anything and have no qualms about selling the things we are replacing. For example, we got two top-of-the-line computers for $500 by waiting for the best deals and then selling our used machines. DH and I both work from home and needed new machines. I was also thinking of purchasing the kids a $200 tablet (we homeschool with online applications and this was cheaper than a PC,) but waited around so long that I was able to snag two Touchpads for the same price. I just got done with the winter clothes shopping and was able to get entire wardrobes for me (needed maternity clothes) and five kids for $250 by doing consignment sales. Awesome, like-new clothes from Gap, Gymboree, Limited Too, etc for $1 to $3 each. Would have turned out better if I would have consigned some things they can't use anymore, but I was too late

Anyway, all of the money we save on items throughout the year, helps us afford our trips.

 

[mrssmith06]

For our last trip we used part of our tax return to book the package and then saved up the rest that we needed. For this next trip we have just saved and budgeted to get it paid for. (Using coupons, eating out less, saving any money made from overtime pay, etc)

 

[puakinikini]

We planned our trip through AAA and so we had to pay it off 45 days before the trip. So far we paid cash for airline tickets, paid for hotel + tickets, and now we are saving for food budget. We hope to pay completely in cash.

 

[snarlingcoyote]

I put other. Sometimes we use money I've funnelled week by week into savings, sometimes I take money from income tax (which was mine to begin with, after all) and put it into savings with an earmark for Disney, sometimes I use "found money" like selling something we've had that we don't need or DH's bonuses or I funnel all our Christmas present money from family into Disney (they know where it's going).