How much do you spend on vacations each year?

[westjones]

I have been struggling with how much we spend on our vacations each year. The past couple of years, we have spent WAY too much. We decided to cut back to just one big vacation a year. We have to work around school schedules, so that can make it difficult cost wise.

I have been planning our trip for spring break 2006, and it looks like it is going to cost us about $5000. We also spend about $650 a year on our dues for DVC (which I include in the cost of vacations). We have a short (3 day) trip planned in the fall, but that one is not far (so we are driving) and I would estimate it will cost us about $350. So we are looking at $6000 for vacations!

This sounds like a lot. Is this crazy? How much do other families (we are a family of 4) spend on vacations each year?
Thanks,
DJ

Wanted to add: The reason this is so high is because we have a 4 night Disney Cruise booked for March 2006 and that will be $3000 with about $700 in airfare to get there. Then we were going to WDW for 2 nights with two days at the parks. That is where the $5000 comes from.

 

[krissynkayla]

I does sound crazy to me. No offence but $6000 for vacation a year? I could get several new cars for that each year. Also could put it away for kids college and retirement. But hey if you have the money , then have at it, its your money....

 

[KarenAylwood]

I think that if you have the money and it wouldn't be used in a better place (ie you've already got a plan for college tuition and any unforseen expenses like cars breaking down, an illness, etc) then have at it!

I am 22 so I haven't exactly been budgeting for vacations (I've gotten about as far as rent and food at this age...) but I know that my parents have spent $$ on vacations over the years. Some years they don't go at all, and then one year my dad spent $15,000 on a Millenium New Year's trip to Hawaii for three. But that was when I was a senior in high school and he knew where the $ was coming from for my college education, etc.

Everyone makes something different and if you've got the money and enjoy your vacations then go for it! Everyone likes to spend money in different ways...


(and side note: $6,000 for several new cars? My new car cost more than twice that... )

 

[EthansMom]

Some years, we spend less and some we spend more. We are leaving for WDW on Sat. and this will be about 19 months since our last vacation due to DH losing his job and trying to start his own business, having a baby, and moving across country. But, as a general rule, I try to budget for 2 weeks of vacation per year at between $2500 and $4000 per week depending upon what we are doing and where we are going.

Our near term vacation plans include 2 week-long trips to WDW in 2005 and one in 2005 at an average total cost of $3000. We're a family of 2 adults, one pre-schooler and one infant -- I guess we spend about $6000 per year but since I budget and save for it well in advance, I don't stress about spending the money.

Oh, sure, there are other things we could do with that money, but we're doing a pretty good job of paying off debt early and putting away savings, that we don't deny ourselves some money for pleasure.

 

[winnyis]

On an average we spend about 10K a year on vacations. We usually go away 2 -3 times each year. My DH works really hard so I try to make sure that when he is on vacation we always do something nice.

 

[Cindyzgoingtodizny]

I'm sad to say:

Last vacation 1991
Married in 1993
Katie born 1997
Kelli born 1998
No vacations till 2005
Doing Disney this year $7k
so average (14 years) would be $500 year LOL!

 

[weregoingtodw]

I does sound crazy to me. No offence but $6000 for vacation a year? I could get several new cars for that each year. Also could put it away for kids college and retirement. But hey if you have the money , then have at it, its your money....

Just curious - how much would you average for vacations, if you don't mind sharing?

 

[ducklite]

Usually between $10,000 and $12,000.

Our son isn't going to college, one car is paid for, the other is financed with a zero % loan. I have balances on two credit cards, both at 0% interest (Best Buy and Home Depot) I make payments each month so that when the end of the grace period comes it's paid off. Use their money

We have savings, both day-today and long term, and equity in our homes. We own DVC free and clear, just annual dues.

We give generously of both cash and time to various charities.

And we like to vacation

Anne

 

[weregoingtodw]

I'd say we're in the $4,000 to 5,000 range. This trip (DD & me) will probably be around $2,200. When hubby was home on leave, we took a trip to a ski resort/visiting wineries for a week as well (although it was cut short by his dad's heart attack).

Now, if you're counting in the spontaneous weekend trips and the like, I'd say add a couple thousand more... it just depends, but I don't think you're off base at all.

 

[Belle5]

More telling would be the percentage of the income spent. A five thousand dollar vacation for a family making $30,000 per year is a whole different story from a family with a 6 figure plus income. Our vacations tend to run $5,000 for a family of 8. Now, it is probably far less comfortable for our family to come up with that money than a family of 4 whith the same income. Until recently we have taken two big vacations a year. Now, we are taking a small vacation and a big vacation.

 

[MEM]

More telling would be the percentage of the income spent. A five thousand dollar vacation for a family making $30,000 per year is a whole different story from a family with a 6 figure plus income. Our vacations tend to run $5,000 for a family of 8. Now, it is probably far less comfortable for our family to come up with that money than a family of 4 whith the same income. Until recently we have taken two big vacations a year. Now, we are taking a small vacation and a big vacation.

I was thinking the same thing. Mine is a two parent, single income household where I work outside the home and DH is SAHD. We have 2 children, one of whom is autistic (unpredictable expenses there). We aim for $3,000 -$4,000 a year for vacations which is a lot from one salary. However, vacations are my chosen therapy and we are fortunate not to have a mortgage, car payment or credit card balances. We do get slammed with property taxes and car insurance premiums -- Boston has some of the highest of both in the country.

Our vacation budget includes several week-long camping trips in our pop-up (paid for) and we aim for 7-10 days per year at WDW. We are annual passholders and buy them every OTHER year yet still get annual trips. (Hope that makes sense - we bought one in August 2004, used it for 10 days and will use it again August 2005 but a week earlier. Won't buy another until August 2006)

I work at a large University in Boston and nearly everyone has taken this week for Spring break. Only a skeleton crew is here, including me. I really feel the sense of the "haves" and "have-nots" during school breaks.

 

[westjones]

I'm glad to see that there are others spending in the area also.

We haven't done this all of our lives. DH and I are both 45, and we only started taking nice trips like this 5 years ago. We spent our 30s paying off all of our debts (including our house, so we own everything we have free and clear, and no credit card debts either).

It bothers DH when he hears how much our trips costs because it wasn't that long ago we were scraping up every penny to send to the mortgage company (like I said, we REALLY hate debt). But he says that as long as we can save up over the year and pay for everything (so we don't owe money after the trip) and as long as he doesn't know how much it costs (yes, it is true, I am not allowed to tell him how much we are spending on vacations), then he is fine.

So I guess we aren't that far off of what a lot of other families are spending. We just weren't use to spending that kind of money through most of our marriage. The first 10 years of our marriage, our yearly vacation was in a tent camping (which was fun! But the Disney cruise is MORE fun and I don't see us wanting to go back to the tent now that we are older).

Thanks everyone!
DJ

 

[mamalle]

our varies every year and I have never sat down and put a price tag on all of it. we work, we save and we go on vacation. This year we took our first 4 day cruise and will do 3 small trips to disney. We live in Fla and go when there are fla rates to disney. we did have a week planned in the keys in June but Im going to be out of work for 3 weeks after I have surgery so that is out. as the kids get older Im sure we will travel outside of fla. the kids would like to see snow and I love to take them out west. It cost money and if I have to work a extra shift here and there Im fine with that. we will be taking our 1st 7 day cruise next year and that will be the most expensive vacation so far. We are lucky that we dont need to include air fare into the costs yet. I guess it depends on what you can afford and what is important to you. Everyone is different.

 

[jkovick]

That is exactly what we do Winnyis! That was one of the main reasons we bought DVC last year.

 

[bengalbelle]

I'm glad to see that there are others spending in the area also.

We haven't done this all of our lives. DH and I are both 45, and we only started taking nice trips like this 5 years ago. We spent our 30s paying off all of our debts (including our house, so we own everything we have free and clear, and no credit card debts either).

It bothers DH when he hears how much our trips costs because it wasn't that long ago we were scraping up every penny to send to the mortgage company (like I said, we REALLY hate debt). But he says that as long as we can save up over the year and pay for everything (so we don't owe money after the trip) and as long as he doesn't know how much it costs (yes, it is true, I am not allowed to tell him how much we are spending on vacations), then he is fine.

So I guess we aren't that far off of what a lot of other families are spending. We just weren't use to spending that kind of money through most of our marriage. The first 10 years of our marriage, our yearly vacation was in a tent camping (which was fun! But the Disney cruise is MORE fun and I don't see us wanting to go back to the tent now that we are older).

Thanks everyone!
DJ

I think it's great that you've paid everything off at such a young age. If you have zero debt and are spending roughly $6,000.00/year on vacations, I don't see a thing wrong with it. My in-laws did the same thing and spend a lot of time traveling now.

We spend about $2-3,000/year and take anywhere from 1-3 vacations/year. The places we visit regularly are WDW, Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina, and Navarre Beach, Fl. I don't think it's fair to say we go all of these places and only spend the amount above without explaining.
Blue Ridge Mountains: inlaws have a second home there and all we pay for is gas to drive there, groceries, any excursions we want to do while we're there.

Navarre Beach: family friends have a beach house and rent it out. We usually go there with inlaws on a family trip so it's either free or shared for rent. We buy groceries, pay for housekeeping, excursions, etc.

WDW: About every 3 years or so inlaws will do a family trip there. We'll get longer park hoppers and save the days. Resort cost is paid by inlaws if it's a family trip. When we've paid, we got the resort at a code rate and already had the tickets. So the only other cost was food, gas, etc. We went in December so this was also our Christmas for our family of 3 so we didn't have that additional expense.

We're still happy going to the free or nearly free vacation spots now, but in a few years when DS is older we'll want to do different things. I figure we'll probably spend about the same amount of money, but only take 1 vacation per year.

 

[Sally]

We spend about $2500. per vacation, which we take one per year. We always go to WDW and have been lucky to get a pin each year. We are a family of 3, my husband is a SAHD due to his CP and I work part time. Our house is paid for and our car is as well. We have no credit card debt, DH pays off the disney visa each month. If his family wants to see us or the grand daughter they generally travel here. I want to save for DVC but still can't get DH to commit to it, maybe this year he will take the tour and want to do it

 

[westjones]

I want to save for DVC but still can't get DH to commit to it, maybe this year he will take the tour and want to do it

I convinced DH to buy into DVC the year we were tent camping at FW. We went in April, but it was as hot as summer (everyone kept saying it was extremely hot for April).

We had a great time, BUT when we took the tour of the DVC model home (after sleeping in a tent for 3 nights) he was sold.

So maybe if you took your DH camping at FW, he would think DVC looked really good!

DJ
(BTW, I had talked about DVC for 3 years before we finally bought, and we only have 150 points and we make that work for us--we did take 1 year to pay that off, but we now own that free and clear also).

 

[CrzyforPiglet]

if it works for your family I don't think its too much at all! My DH is in a job he doesn't like but is willing to do it b/c it pays well so we try and take nice vacations. I think for just the two of us the most we have spent is about 6,000 (one time) and on average we usually spend about 2-3,000 on our big vacation of the year and do weekend trips here and there.

My thing is that growing up my family never went on vacation - ever! The closest we got was my mom would fly us to Indiana to visit her family but my dad never went. Other than that and solo trips to summer camp we never did any family trips and I really regret not having that time especially since my dad died when I was 16. Life isn't always about doing the sensible thing - sometimes you have to treasure your family more so if we spend more than we should (never more than we can afford) and make those special memories - it's fine with me!

 

[CarolinaBlue]

2 adults, 2 kids (ages 11 and 14)

When we go to Disney for a week: around $2500
When we go to the beach or Charleston for a week: less than $1000

 

[Anne34]

What we spend usually varies. This year we went to Cancun in March -- cost for family of 5 was around $5,000.00 (air, hotel and food) -- not including the side trips (add another $1000). Last spring break we went to Hilton Head island. We drove from Chicago and stayed their 5 nights in a 2br villa that was on special with Disney visa -- That trip was $1500/2000.00. We also hav a trip planned to Disney this year before Christmas -- will run about $4,000.00 for the week.

Some years we spend more than other -- we usually vacation 1 02 times per year and lots of weekend trips over the summer. Like another poster mentioned -- we pay all our bills every month, no car loans, house is paid off, etc. (and we're late 30's) It's all relative.