How Do you pay for your vacations?

[HappyLawyer]

Obviously, I am missing something. How does college financial aid turn into a trip to Disney? Don't you have to account for it with a Financial Aid office???

uhhhh no

 

[marcyinPA]

I do some Ebaying, and we use our Disney Visa card for every purchase and pay it in full every month. I used to sell Real Estate, so we built up a medium sized savings account (under $10K) so we usually just pay cash for our trip (actually, we charge it on our Disney Visa and pay it in full when the bill comes). We'll be putting our IRS check back into the bank when it comes in.

We've never charged a vacation without having a means to pay for it right away. If we don't have the cash, we don't go.

 

[disneysteve]

We've never charged a vacation without having a means to pay for it right away. If we don't have the cash, we don't go.

ITA! It is just amazing how very many people don't get this simple concept. If you can't afford it, don't go until you can afford it.

 

[HappyLawyer]

these are some great ideas

 

[jekajekalynn]

IRS refund usually pays for everything, but I agree with using the leftovers from Financial Aid. And as someone b4 stated, NO you don't have to atone for your spenditures of your finaid refund since it's a refund and it's YOUR money to do with whatever you want.

 

[jgates]

I used to have the $$ for vacations - house was paid for and we were doing great. Now with a kid in a 5 year college program (year 4 starting this month), a new 8 car garage with heated floor (don't ask - it's DH's) and his new hobby of building AR's & AK's (guns), I don't really have any spare cash laying around.

However, I am now seriously into ebay again and hopefully will bring in about $500 prior to end of this year. I'm hoping for Disney in 2007 again. We may go to Vegas in spring with another couple (no, I have no idea where the $$ will come from, LOL). This year DS was awarded additional student loan funding and it's about time he took on some of the debt load for this education so we may actually come out ahead some months, LOL!!!

 

[DVCLiz]

OK, you learn something new every day...

Would some of you who know more about this than I do (which is everybody!) tell me a little more about this Financial Aid thing?? Not that I'm ragging on anybody - if it's legitimately coming to you, why not? (I guess...) but I don't understand...do they make these awards based on anticipated expenses, and if you use it wisely you can keep the leftover for whatever you want???? And are these grants or loans???

 

[Goobergal99]

OK, you learn something new every day...

Would some of you who know more about this than I do (which is everybody!) tell me a little more about this Financial Aid thing?? Not that I'm ragging on anybody - if it's legitimately coming to you, why not? (I guess...) but I don't understand...do they make these awards based on anticipated expenses, and if you use it wisely you can keep the leftover for whatever you want???? And are these grants or loans???

the college takes there portion for tuition and then writes a check out to the student for everything else. The things that are accounted for when determining FA eligibility are tutition, books, trasportation, room and board (even if not staying ON campus) and misc spending (food, notebooks, pens etc...)

For me, I had grants and loans. The way it works is you apply for FA through the state (only kind I ever got because I only when to state schools, first community and then a state university) after you get a number called the EFC or the Estimated Family Contribution, which is what your family is expected to contribute to your education based upon your current savings, checking accounts and yearly household income, the ammount of AID that you are eligible for from the state is excluded from what you are expected to contribute.

For me, I was a single mom with barely any income and I still wasn't married to DH,so since he was the one who provided more then 50% of her needs I could not claim independent. I claimed dependent of my mom who was a single mother who barely made anything in regards to her dependents so I qualified for alot of AID. When I was at community, I quickly discovered that I didn't need loans and so I only applied for state grants and still had plenty of money left after tuition and books to do what I pleased with.

When I went to the state university I recieved both but I used the loan money for whatever because the grants still covered the majority of my tuition. The best part was that when I went to community if I had taken out loans for my degree, I would have been obligated to pay them back because I was taking pre-requisites for nursing while simutaneously pursuing a degree in liberal arts. When I went to the state college however, I majored in Nursing so when I graduated my loans were forgiven.

I wouldn't say anyone is doing anything wrong because noone really dictates what the money has to be used for, they just won't give you anymore money then they have calculated you need. Therefore if you spend your money on vacations you had better find a way to pay for trans to and from school and anything else you may need along the way.

Hope I helped youunderstand

 

[DVCLiz]

I wouldn't say anyone is doing anything wrong because noone really dictates what the money has to be used for, they just won't give you anymore money then they have calculated you need. Therefore if you spend your money on vacations you had better find a way to pay for trans to and from school and anything else you may need along the way.

Hope I helped youunderstand

Oh, I think I get it now - thanks!!! So, you apply for and receive whatever "package" of aid you are eligible for, based on your personal circumstances. And they send you a check that says, "OK, here's what it's going to cost for your education." So if you are more frugal than they estimated you would be, or if you get unexpected money from other sources to help pay for school (a part-time job, a check at Christmas, etc.) you can still keep whatever financial aid you didn't spend, because you don't have to file any kind of accounting. And that's how financial aid can turn into a trip to Disney!!!

And even I, usually Little Miss Mary Susnhine, am not naive enough to think that anyone would actually say, "You know, my circumstances have changed, and I don't think I'll need all of this money, so I'm refunding the portion I was actually able to earn myself." Is that a fair assumption??

One more thing, in some cases, isn't this money just a student loan, so really you're using borrowed money that you'll have to pay back? And wouldn't it then just be a personal decision as to whether you'd take the vacation or just get a head start on paying back your loans??

 

[snowy76]

One more thing, in some cases, isn't this money just a student loan, so really you're using borrowed money that you'll have to pay back? And wouldn't it then just be a personal decision as to whether you'd take the vacation or just get a head start on paying back your loans??

Yep. There's the catch! Generally I'm a person who pays things off quick. But then you think, hmm... 30K or 35K, I'm still going to pay up the wazoo for a bunch of years... so let's enjoy the money while it's there!

Even now, I've been to Disney three times since finishing grad school. Could DH and I have put that money toward paying off our principal sooner? Yep. But do we LOVE our family time at Disney? Yep... and I am still making the payments the bank requires of me. If I'd set all my extra money aside to pay student loans back quicker, I'd probably never get to enjoy WDW while my kids are still young.

 

[Camping Griswalds]

We do the change thing and coupons. We cheat and when we go to superfresh or foodlion and buy something on sale, we look at the total on the receipt and put it into disney fund too. we just discipline ourselves not to purchase food that we would not have normally.

 

[Camping Griswalds]

DH gets paid every two weeks. I run my monthly budget off just two paychecks per month. Every six months, DH gets an extra paycheck, which I put right into savings and keep for our vacations. It's painless.

we get paid that way too. That's how we budget Christmas and birthdays ( 3 kids and 1 DH in 12 days) It is painless

 

[polyfan]

And yet, when you try to tell people about the "extra pays" they just don't get it. We have tried to share this with friends for years and they still seem to not understand it. It is 2 whole extra paychecks if you do your monthly budget based on 2 pays.

 

[mickeymousemom]

Our first few trips we used some of our tax money with the rest of it coming from my paychecks and DH's OT. Its a little harder now that I've been a SAHM for the last 18 months and will also go back to school this fall. We've managed to make 2 trips since I quit working and we're headed back in October. This year I made a $200 deposit from our own money..the rest of it($1650) will come from extra money we got from refinancing our home. Even with the free dining, we want to take the same amount of spending money we normally do(~$1000-$1200) so we can really enjoy ourselves more than usual. We usually have to watch every penny, share CS meals and eat breakfast in our room. So, I am saving change in a coffee can, adding $1 and $5 to it every so often, and DH is starting the OT also. I have 3 years of school left and we still plan on taking at least one trip a year. Between bonus checks, saving change and tax refunds, we should be able to swing it. I don't mind watching every penny while we're there...at least we're THERE!

 

[mamalle]

we too put the extra paychecks away for vacations and home improvement. dh also has to cash in his sick time at the end of the year that we put into our vacations. He also gets $$ for holidays and mileage for the year and that is for our vacations also.. Our tax refunds also go to whatever we may want to do throughout the year. Im also starting to do some work from home that I will put into another savings account for our trips and such. I have done ebay in the past but Im not consistant with it and it really doenst bring in alot of money for me..

 

[umaangel00]

I am starting to save several ways. I am starting a new job on monday so that will help. That's 300 every week. I only need to make 500 a month so that will be awesome!

I also take back pop bottles and put that money away. When I right checks, I round them up. Let's say there are 31.66 I would round up to 35.00 and if it was 16.88 i would round to 20.00. The extra money would go in my Disney fund. I saved 20 bucks in 1 1/2 weeks that way. I am going to start selling on ebay again for more money. I also do surveys which that goes into the disney fund. I don't save the money in a savings account. I save it at home. In an undisclosed location. LOL. We will also be using our income taxes and my DH's payout on his vacation time for our trip in March.

We need all the money we can get, we are going for an extra week this time.

 

[DVCLiz]

Yep. There's the catch! Generally I'm a person who pays things off quick. But then you think, hmm... 30K or 35K, I'm still going to pay up the wazoo for a bunch of years... so let's enjoy the money while it's there!

Even now, I've been to Disney three times since finishing grad school. Could DH and I have put that money toward paying off our principal sooner? Yep. But do we LOVE our family time at Disney? Yep... and I am still making the payments the bank requires of me. If I'd set all my extra money aside to pay student loans back quicker, I'd probably never get to enjoy WDW while my kids are still young.

I think that makes perfect sense!!! And I hope you enjoy your trips!!!

 

[problemchild718]

I work extra shifts at time and a half (nursing is great!), Save that 5th week paycheck, only pay cash for things and save change-I manage to get about $30.00 a month.

 

[mamalle]

I agree nursing does have its perks... for me Im a per diem employee and if I work more than two shifts a week my third is a extra $6.00 a hour. granted I dont do that awhole lot since I only work once a week but its nice to have that option to make more money. I like to work the holidays also for that time and a half and sock that away..

 

[NMW]

We bought DVC to go on vacation! Boardwalk Villas to be exact. Yes, it was a big chunk up front but our family vacations are now prepaid for a really, really really long time. We use the DVC discount on PAP's and use them for 2 trips that we stagger 10 mos apart since they are good for 365 days from the activation. This means that we only have to buy them every other year for our yearly trips. As for spending money and airfare, we have a vacation savings account set up for that!