How does everyone pay for their trips??

[Darcy03231]

DH and I both have good jobs. While we could live on just his income it would be very tight. We decided that it was better for our family for me to continue working.

We set aside a certain amount each week that goes into a travel savings account. We have similar accounts for savings, retirement, etc. We also tend to be very frugal in other areas so we can travel frequently. We don't eat out much and when we do its usually takeout (this way we don't have to buy drinks or leave a tip which can add another $10-15+ dollars on to a meal out). I can't remember the last time I saw a movie in the movie theater. I also don't buy a lot of clothes and only when I need something. DH takes his lunch to work everyday and I go home for lunch (I only live about a mile from where I work). We don't drive new cars (mine's 8 years old and I hope to get at least another 8 years out of it). We've been married for 12 years now (2nd marriage for both of us) and last year we finally bought a new living room set. Other than that we haven't purchased any new furniture since we've been married.

I also have a credit card that awards airline miles. I charge everything I can on that one card and pay it off every week. This way I accumlate free airline tickets.

In the last year I've been to WDW for week (October 2008), took a cruise with DH (January 2009) and plan to take the kids to US/IOA for a week in August 2009.

One way to find out how much disposable income you have is to write down everything you spend in a month. Money for fast food, impulse buys, coffee at Dunkin' Donuts, etc. You'd be surprised how much just dribbles out. I used to stop at DD every morning and get a coffee at $2/day. That's $10/week or $500/year. That's a lot of money to spend on coffee. I figure I've cut that in half by making my own and bringing it to work with me. Another big expense I found I had was books. Even buying them at the 2nd hand book store I was spending $50-$75/month. I now go to the library for free. Or the impulse buys (like that rrip to Target for laundry detergent and you come out $100 poorer). I now make a list before I go and stick to it. If we don't need it, it doesn't go in the cart. Every time I go to spend money I ask myself do I really need it or would I rather have a trip. 9 times out of 10 the trip wins out.

Good luck!

 

[PiperPizzaz]

It doesn't matter how much you make. If you life below your means you will have extra money to do with as you wish.

 

[mareed]

It doesn't matter how much you make. If you life below your means you will have extra money to do with as you wish.

I think this is the key! We probably make more than some here, and less than others. DH & I both work and we live in a less expensive house than some would say we could afford, but it's plenty for us. We also keep our vehicles for 7-10 years. We've made sure we're saving for retirement and college, but we do make vacations a priority too!

 

[krise]

We used some of our Tax Return money to pay for the full trip and placed money in savings tell then too. We both work and claimed 0 to get a large tax return for this trip!

 

[hannah_03]

It doesn't matter how much you make. If you life below your means you will have extra money to do with as you wish.

I agree!

We are a single income family and use our tax refunds.

 

[mygreyglamour]

First time poster, 3rd year reader.

We have been planning for a few years, and did the first route of saving per month. After that trip was canceled we just waited for our tax return. We budgeted a worst case scenario and whatever was left over went into a start up fund for tips, OOP dining, and souvenirs.

Jena-Lyn

 

[tlh0726]

SAHM here.

All our change goes into a jar. We never give the correct amount when paying in cash. If the bill is $1.05, we give them $2. the 95 cents goes into the jar. Once a month the kids and I take it to the bank and deposit it into our vacation account. (they love putting it into the coin counting machine)

Any checks or cash that my husband and I receive for our birthdays, holidays etc. get deposited into our vacation fund.

Any monthly bill that could automatically be billed to a credit card has been set up to be charged to our Disney Visa. You pay these monthly anyhow why not get the disney dollars. Anything we can charge to this card we do, you just need to make sure you pay it off in full each month, which we faithfully do.

We stay at a value resort. We only use our room for sleeping. Cannot make ourselves pay high $$ for something we do not use.

Have never done the dining plan. For us, we do not like having to be at a certain place at a certain time for meals. If it was free, yeah I would use it in a heartbeat. We pack alot of snacks, water bottles, and single serve drink mixes to use while in the parks. We do simple breakfast stuff in our room in the morning. (take advantage of the free frig swaps)

We also have started a new Christmas tradition in our home this past year. Every year in the past, each person was responsible for getting someone a gift $25 or less. These gifts to each other we open on Xmas eve. Christmas morning is just gifts from Santa and relatives from out of town.
Since the responsibility (and the stress associated with it) seems to always fall on my shoulders, my husband and I have agreed that we will continue with the gifts from each other but Santa will now be giving our family a vacation to somewhere each year for Xmas and one small gift for each child. The money that we were spending on toys that the kids only play with for a month or two is being put to much better use. And not one of them complained about not getting all the presents. Their expressions when the balloons began popping out of the bike size gift bags was priceless.

 

[disney fan 1994]

Here is what we do... We put all of our change in a water jug. Believe me it does add up and we use our bank card most of the time. All cash gifts (b-day and holidays) it is added in the jug. The kids love to put their money in the jug, but sometimes they do ask if they can buy something and they do get to use their money. We started an e-bay accoount and use it for vacation this year it helped with Christmas. Our jug has paid for our park tickets. Family of 4. The other thing is our Disney rewards card gets a small amount of spending money. Has anyone bought Disney cards at the grocery store. I saw them and was wondering if it would be worth it to buy one a month to help save. They say they are good for food but I'm not sure what else they can be used for.

Good luck

 

[kerandmel]

We were saving to go to Disney next year but my father in law was nice enough to pay for our trip. It will be me, DH, my 2 dd, my father in law, and my mother.

But when we were saving we were having money taken out of our checking and put into a savings account.

Melissa

 

[maddiesmom0116]

I am a single mother and I usually book my next stay during the current stay - bouncebacks are wonderful. This gives me 7 or 8 months to pay for my package portion without feeling it in the budget too much. I took my ex with us one year to split the costs so we could go twice in a year and that is something I would never do again, saving costs was not worth my entire vacation being miserable. My best advice is book early and pay a little every other week or once a month. Another idea is a friend asks for Disney Gift cards from her parents and siblings for b-day and Christmas too to help pay the cost.

 

[Grendalynn]

subscribing! Laptop battery is almost dead, so I will finish reading tomorrow and make a post!!

 

[mamarissa]

we are using our tax returns for our trip this june....also, grandparents are giving the kids "disney dollars" to use for souvies and snacks and such. my dh and i decided we do not want to charge any portion of the trip--don't want to have anything hanging over our heads during the trip!

 

[QVCshopper]

We afford Disney (and life as a whole) by living way below our means. My husband is fortunate to have a good job, and I am a SAHM who works very part-time. We are very blessed in many ways, but also smart.

Growing up, my family was broke. My dad was out of work my entire high school career, and I put myself through college. We were on food stamps, unemployment, my neighbor brought us food every week. My parents even borrowed money from me. Looking back, that was a great educational experience.

I'm 32 with 2 kids. I have no mortage, no credit card debt, no car loans, and what was a sizable retirement before this recession hit. A lot of our friends think we're rich, but really don't make anymore than they do. We're just very cheap. We shop at the Goodwill, use coupons, and don't eat out much at all, and buy Hondas. I also try to have what I term "no consumption days"--no driving, eating out, shopping, etc. (I do that partly b/c I like being environmentally friendly, too.)

However, I am very fortunate to have not gone through a layoff as of yet, and I feel deeply for those going through that. Hopefully the economy will improve soon. The only advice I can offer is to respect money, but don't worship it. It's a tool that can help us live as we want. Best of luck!

 

[bellebud]

don't forget having a disney visa and putting everything on there that you'll pay off at the end of the month. I have our home phone bill set up for auto payment on my disney visa. The reward points add up (although it takes a while!) I know someone who deducts the amt from her checking acct right at the store when she's paying w/ her cc, this way she gets the reward points on the visa, and doesn't worry about having the money in her checking acct at the end of the month to actually pay the bill.

Just to save money for whatever, I skip a week of food shopping now and then (I'll only get milk and fruit/salad stuff), and we have to eat whatevers in the house. It helps go through the food that would sit there forever then get tossed. Put this money in the disney fund.

can you offer pet sitting or something to neighbors? hope you get lots of useful ideas.

 

[RMulieri]

I work solely to play.

My husband earns a pretty good income, but I work 1-3 days a week as an RN so we can play. Going out to eat, movies, and vacations. My kids are 10 and 5 and my mom is retired so she babysits.

Sometimes I'll complain to DH about working, he just says, fine quit, no more eating out and vacations will only be every 2-3 years instead of 2 per year. That straightens my butt out. LOL

I use my taxes for our trips but for everything else I am the same as you. I am an RN who works 2-3 nights shifts per week so that we have spending money.My Dh told me I can feel fit to quit anytime but they I have to budget everything.I would rather work.

 

[disneymomof2boyz]

I work solely to play.

My husband earns a pretty good income, but I work 1-3 days a week as an RN so we can play. Going out to eat, movies, and vacations. My kids are 10 and 5 and my mom is retired so she babysits.

Sometimes I'll complain to DH about working, he just says, fine quit, no more eating out and vacations will only be every 2-3 years instead of 2 per year. That straightens my butt out. LOL

I'm a SAHM mom now, but will be back to work in a couple years. We budget most everything out now, but once I start working we will be doing the same. I am happy to stay home now b/c I feel these years with the kids are priceless, but it's great to have two incomes and extra money.

 

[cjackearl]

We're a family of 5 and I'm a SAHM also. Because of our family size (5 people don't fit in a value resort or most mods on site) and my husbands job (teacher and tennis coach) we're limited to more expensive resorts and more expensive times of the year. We've been saving for 2 years for our June vacation.
We've used Christmas gift money and tax return to pay for our package.

We've also got a change jar that we're using for spending money. We've saved a little over $100 so far.

We received Disney Dollars for Christmas that we're using for tips and extra meals.

I always do a garage sale in April and usually make about $500. I'm not counting on that, but whatever I make will be taken for incidentals.

We use a rewards card at the gas station we go to which earns us points. By the time we go we'll have enough for a $50 gas giftcard. We're driving and this will pay for a tank+ if gas stays around $2 a gallon.

I'm also planning on taking the $ that is budgeted for food, household and misc. for the 2 weeks we'll be gone (visiting relatives in NC after Disney). We'd use it anyway.

Good luck! Hopefully Disney will continue offering good deals. The 4/3 deal enabled us to switch from a split stay 5 days POR/ 3 at BC to all 8 nights at BC!

 

[Reese'smom]

We're using our tax refund. This will be our very first vacation that we've paid for by ourselves. We've only been married 3.5 yrs and usually go to my parent's beach house for vacation because its free. I'm guessing in the future we will save up through the year. I'm a SAHM and DH does ok so Disney will probably have to be every few years. Theres no way we can afford to go several times a year.

 

[cogero]

we are now DVC members but we used to use tax returns and saving through the year for our trips.

Now we put the money we budgeted for Disney towards our maintenance fees and park tickets we don't do a dining plan so no need for that.

We live very nicely on my DHs salary and I have a small business that allows me to be home.

We had to many years of struggling to make ends meet to not enjoy life now. And we pay our CC every month so we are good to go.

 

[Stitches glitch]

I'm a single mom, and have been dreaming of taking this vacation for a very long time! After reading these boards for a few years I've picked up a lot of helpful money saving tips, and (fingers crossed) we will finally be able to go at the beginning of next year. It helps that my son is an only child and that my car is paid off, we don't go out to eat very often or to the movies. We have had the same furniture for a long time and only buy clothes as we need them. I cut coupons for groceries, and try to match my coupons with items that are already on sale which cuts my grocery bill almost in half. I am horrible at saving, but I can stick to a budget so I use the money that should be going into savings to pay off things in advance like my son's braces. I don't want to have to worry about anything while we are there or have to feel guilty about taking a vacation instead of paying bills. So, after everything is paid I'm going to make our reservations and just pay it off monthly like so many of the other posters have also suggested. There is so many great tips here and even more helpful people, and until you are boarding that plane you can always make a trip to the pic of the day threads and take a virtual vacation whenever you want! :surfweb