How many weeks pay do you spend on vacation?

[Silent1CB]

Just curious. You see ads for how many months pay you should spend on an engagement ring. So wondering how many weeks pay people spend on a vacation. All vacation costs included like pet sitting, house sitting, airport parking, photo printing, .....everything.

Gross pay or net pay?

Our upcoming 2 wk vacation is about 2 weeks (1 paycheck) of DH's gross pay.

 

[foolishmortal]

depends for us really.

Sometimes we will go away for a few days on less than half a check (net), but others we will go for a week on about 3 checks worth (gross)

 

[Liberty Belle]

Anywhere from less than one week's pay to about three week's pay (all net - I don't know what our gross is right now), depending on the vacation. I don't think we've ever spent a full month's (net) pay.

 

[Robinrs]

I am the cheapest human being on earth and have never spent a weeks pay on a vacation, never. Mostly because it's just for me and Mike and secondly because I don't believe that spending more money doesn't necessarily equal more fun.

 

[foolishmortal]

I am the cheapest human being on earth and have never spent a weeks pay on a vacation, never. Mostly because it's just for me and Mike and secondly because I don't believe that spending more money doesn't necessarily equal more fun.

I agree but sometimes things are expensive (some personal pref some not). in vegas we would rather stay somewhere like nyny or mgm rather than imperial or circus circus, would rather eat at Ah Sin instead of mcdonalds, etc...

but when in Orlando or cali, us (myself plus dw) plus 2 kids is pricy even staying on a budget. keep in mind being in colorado we have to fly to orlando...not cheap, and to cali either drive (gas and hotels) or fly, again not cheap.

 

[JoyG]

I never think of it in terms of that. But we spend less than 3% of our yearly take home on vacations.

 

[Colleen27]

I think your answers to this one are going to vary widely if people answer honestly, because unlike an engagement ring, vacation costs (at least relative to the destination we all have in common on a Disney forum) are pretty static. And for that reason, I don't think you're likely to get many responses from the family living on an income at/near the American median for whom even a budget Disney vacation might be a month's pay.

For my own family, our weekly income fluctuates so I'm going off an annualized average. We've done small trips for a half week's pay and we've done big blowout trips for 10+ weeks' pay, and everything in between. Travel is, in most years, our single biggest expense and we've structured our lives quite deliberately to have that luxury.

 

[vettechick99]

We almost always end up spending about $2k for a week's vacation. Whether that be Disney or the beach (the two places we normally go). I guess that's my comfort zone!

 

[DisneyBamaFan]

We will spend about 5% of our gross income on vacations this year. That percentage has remained pretty constant throughout my life, but as our incomes increased, our vacation options expanded.

 

[a1tinkfans]

I think it would have been easier to answer how much does your typical vacation cost. This summers vacations will run about 8K, and our other getaways during this year ran considerably less. But we agree that vacations are a part of our lifestyle, so they are in the budget per se, not really a fixed amount for vacation, we just know there is going to be spending for our vacations. That does not mean I do not try and get good deals, I definitely always try to get a deal, especially in Disney! I refuse to go to Disney without feeling I got some type of deal In the Big pix our vacations do not heavily impact our incomes or we would not do it.

 

[scrapquitler]

Typically, a 'big vacation' for us is a Disney vacation, which we do in a fairly budget way (off site room, no table service meals at WDW) costs us about 2 weeks take home pay. But that is not a trip which we do every year, we do it more like every 2 years.

 

[wdwmom2]

It depends. This year we are not taking a big vacation. DH and I have off a week in July, but nothing planned. May go to the lake to do a little jet skiing. That doesn't cost much at all, maybe 30 or 40 dollars for the gas and picnic items that we take. We have off another week in September where we will take the Harley down to bike week in Ocean City, MD. That may cost us 1/4 a paycheck.

Now next year we will be cruising on the Allure of the Seas. That will probably cost close to 2 weeks pay. But we don't take those kind of vacations often. The last "big" vacations we took were in 2007 when we cruised on the Freedom of the Seas, and in 2004 when we took 2 kiddos with us and did Disney land/sea.

We do 1 or 2 "long weekend" stints on the Harley every year. Last year it consisted of going to the Holocaust museum in DC, Mount Vernon, and then Monticello. The hotels are our biggest expense. But we always stay at a hotel the gives AARP discount. Believe me, those discounts add up!! Also have to pay for the attractions and food. Gas is a very minor expense when riding a motorcycle.

 

[ZephyrHawk]

It depends. The Disney trip I'm planning for fall will come out to a little over 2 weeks pay (for me, not inclusive of DH). The Europe trip I'm planning for next year will probably be at least 4 weeks, and that's using a lot of free airline miles.

 

[GeorgeG]

It's kind of hard to tell now that I'm retired and vacation blends into regular life, but before I retired a typical 9-10 day WDW vacation would cost around 2-3 weeks worth of pay and I never regretted one penny of it.

 

[cats mom]

Our biggest splurge vacation ever was about 8% of yearly gross, so just slightly under 1 months' gross pay. That was unusual for us though.

I think it would have been easier to answer how much does your typical vacation cost.

Yes, but a $10,000 vacation for a family making $60,000 a year is a much different deal than the same $10,000 vacation for a family making $200,000 a year.

I think it's a very interesting question OP.
I hope more folks chime in.

 

[tasha99]

Here's a shocker--twice in the past, I've spent around 20% on a vacation. This year, I'm spending 0%, just because I'm in the middle of a grad school program that goes over the summer. I know that just sounds insane to some people, but I figured I would never get the time back, we live fairly simply otherwise, and our most basic needs were met. Even after I graduate, I think I'll spend more than most people percentage wise, mostly because travel is pretty much where I want to put my frivolous spending (I have enough things--too many things already).

 

[mumom95]

This year we are going to Mammouth Caves in Kentucky for a week. We'll probably spend less than $2,000 so it's a pretty cheap vacation.

Next summer we are doing Hawaii for 2 weeks and I've got a budget set for anywhere between $10,000 and $12,000. That will be a very non-cheap vacation.

So it really depends on the year and the vacation. I'd say our average vacation is about 1/2 a paycheck, gross (we get paid once a month).

 

[phragmipedium]

Just curious. You see ads for how many months pay you should spend on an engagement ring. So wondering how many weeks pay people spend on a vacation. All vacation costs included like pet sitting, house sitting, airport parking, photo printing, .....everything.

Gross pay or net pay?

Our upcoming 2 wk vacation is about 2 weeks (1 paycheck) of DH's gross pay.

A full week & a half Disneyworld trip with airfare and all expenses for us is about two weeks of our gross pay. However, we've done Disney about once every three years.

Our other trips are generally extended four-day weekends to the Oregon Coast or other places in our state, and they're always less than a half week's gross pay for us. We usually do those twice a year in a regular year or once a year in a Disney year.

 

[kehlyrsmom]

We probably spend about 1 weeks of my husbands gross pay maybe a little less. Since my father travels out of state every week for his job he has been very generous and has given us our airline tickets for all of our trips that we have taken. We usually go in the fall during free dining except the trip that my husband and I just got back from and I took advantge of the room discount rate for that one. So basically for our family trips the only expese we have is the hotel/park tickets and souverniors. Also except for our trip last week we always have booked on of the value resorts. So we have been able to keep our vacations under $2k for a family of 4.

 

[Silent1CB]

Yes, but a $10,000 vacation for a family making $60,000 a year is a much different deal than the same $10,000 vacation for a family making $200,000 a year.

I think it's a very interesting question OP.
I hope more folks chime in.

Glad you understood why I didn't ask for the amount of the trip.