How much money do you spend a year on vacations?

[bookluvingbabe]

My husband doesn't like to travel so we have to deal with that first.

Then DS was small. Then we were broke, broke, broke.

2007, 2009 and 2010 there were no vacations. There were trips to see the grandparents.

In 2008 we spent $2000 for a week away.

In 2011, I did a week at the beach with DS for under $1000 and did a day at the MK.

In 2012, I took DS to my hometown for a week for $1,000, we did the beach as a family for $1,000, plus two days at Disney for $700, and then did a 5 day Disney trip at Christmas for $2,500.

This year we're even more broke, so we're doing two weeks at the beach I'm hoping to keep my cash outlay under $500, using reward points for gas and the hotels there and back. Had to spend $100 to fly DH in for a day...

My dream Disney trip prices out at about $6,000. We'll ignore the fact that I just spent that on a new air-conditioner this week...

 

[mefordis]

Stepping back, is it fair for one child's activity to cost thousands of $$?

If this is the last year your family can fit at BC, is it fair to ask all the other people in the family to sacrifice for a dance tournament?

Only you and your family can answer that question. Good luck deciding

That is a good question. IMO fair isn't always equal. If my dd9 has dance that costs 8k a year, and my other dd5 has gymnastics that costs 3k a year, it's fair because they are both doing what they love but the activities cost different amounts. If they go to different colleges and one costs 50k a year and another costs 75k a year, still fair because they are both pursuing their interests, the costs are just different.

OP, we spend about 15k a year on vacations. I would probably take my dd alone to MB or bring my youngest and have family babysit.

 

[texasroni75]

We don't do pricey vacations every year. We do smaller less expensive daytrips in between our big trips. For our BIG trips, for a family of 6 (5 if you don't count our youngest because he's pretty much free everywhere we go right now), we would not spend more than $4000 for a trip. That includes transportation, food, lodging, entrance fees/tickets, and anything else we are getting specifically for the vacation. And it includes spending money for emergencies and unexpected expenses - which I hope we don't spend and like to come home with some of that cash. So, once we hit the $4000 price point I get that nagging voice in my head telling me I could buy a CAR instead of taking this trip. Even when DH and I were both working and we had double the income (I'm now a SAHM), I kept our vacations in the same range.

 

[Praying Colonel]

Last year we spent about 7% of our income on vacations, which consisted of a DCL cruise, a WDW vacation, a 5-day trip to Chicago and a 4-day trip to Pensacola.

But the devil was in the details. If we'd done any of these vacations differently, we couldn't have afforded to have done them all. For example, the Pensacola trip was at Thanksgiving, when the condo price was about half of what it would've been if we'd gone in July. We booked an inside cabin for the DCL trip (and were fortunate to get upgraded to a verandah!), and would've paid a lot more if we'd booked concierge. And when we went to WDW we stayed at Shades of Green and paid for our meals OOP, which cost a fraction of what it would have cost if we'd stayed at a deluxe and paid for DDP.

Point is, we have a certain amount we can spend, and we're not going to go over. Last year we had that 7%, and we spent it the way we spent it. We'll adjust our plans accordingly, or do a trip some other time when we can afford it, to make it all work. Everybody has to make the same calculation for their own vacation budget.

 

[crisi]

I wouldn't count on that---if the girls do well in the competition, they are going to want to do it again. And your oldest is only seven. Your younger children haven't even joined the activities that will offer them travel opportunities in years to come. Traveling for competitive dance, sports, etc is probably going to be a major expense for you for the forsee-able future.

And there are three younger ones.

One of the best pieces of advice I got from my mother when my kids were little is "don't do for one what you aren't prepared to do for the rest." I only have two, so we didn't do traveling baseball for my son because we weren't prepared to do competitive gymnastics for my daughter. We could have handled the time and expense for ONE, but not for TWO. My cousin has three, and since she started the first in competitive dance, they now fly all over the country for dance for one, baseball for the second, and swimming for the third. The kids are good at their sports, but not scholarship good - this isn't an investment. Its a profit center for the coaches. They can well afford it, but a lot of families can't.

Also, people here have talked about percentage income - and even that is misleading. There is a minimum amount of money everyone needs to live - but someone making $500,000 a year can live in a $80,000 paid for house in North Dakota, drive a ten year old beater, shop with coupons or at Aldi, keep the heat down - and decide not to save for retirement or their kids educations - and have several hundred thousand left a year after taxes for vacations, kids activities, buying expensive shoes, and investing in racehorses. Someone making $50k a year might do the same thing and have almost nothing left at the end of the month to fund vacations and kids activities. Its what you spend AFTER your obligations are met. Its been recommended here before, but All Your Worth is a fantastic personal finance book about the balance. It lays out three categories:

50% to Needs (taxes, groceries, shelter, insurance, utilities, basic clothing, includes required debt payment - credit card minimums, cell phone contracts)
30% to Wants (extra clothes, restaurant meals, video games, knitting supplies, vacations)
20% to Savings (including debt repayment beyond minimums)

As a family, we are way low on "needs" - we are a high income family living in a relatively modest house, and we don't take on many financial obligations), so we have far more going into the other two categories. And since we are trying to raise kids without affluenza - turns out we are super savers.

 

[ProudMommyof2]

I haven't read every commemt, but how about if your mom stays at your house to take care of the younger kids and just you and your daughter do the dance competition?

That cost could be made up with cheaper eating and less spending money at Disney.

 

[Colleen27]

That is a good question. IMO fair isn't always equal.

I would agree with that. "Fair" is allowing each child to pursue their passions, but not all passions come with the same price tag. I have one who is very focused on a single activity and one who is a "dabbler", so for one we've paid for specialized skills camps, high-end equipment, team fees, travel/tournament expenses, etc. while for the other it is all low-cost rec/community activities. But the one with the cheap activities is academically talented, so we shell out far more for private school tuition than we'd ever spend on football to nurture the thing she's most focused on.

I don't think it is a given that just because one child has an interest in an expensive or competitive sport the others will follow suit. It certainly hasn't been the case in our family - my daughter has had two invites to competitive/travel programs (softball and swim; she does both on the rec/little league level) and she turned both down because she doesn't want to put that much time in. My son, on the other hand, knew at 8 that football was his "thing" and by 10 was asking if we could school-of-choice him into a district with a very well respected and successful program with a history of sending players on to the NCAA (not at elite/future pro levels, but at the 'using football to help pay for school' level).

 

[Colleen27]

Also, people here have talked about percentage income - and even that is misleading. There is a minimum amount of money everyone needs to live - but someone making $500,000 a year can live in a $80,000 paid for house in North Dakota, drive a ten year old beater, shop with coupons or at Aldi, keep the heat down - and decide not to save for retirement or their kids educations - and have several hundred thousand left a year after taxes for vacations, kids activities, buying expensive shoes, and investing in racehorses. Someone making $50k a year might do the same thing and have almost nothing left at the end of the month to fund vacations and kids activities. Its what you spend AFTER your obligations are met. Its been recommended here before, but All Your Worth is a fantastic personal finance book about the balance. It lays out three categories:

50% to Needs (taxes, groceries, shelter, insurance, utilities, basic clothing, includes required debt payment - credit card minimums, cell phone contracts)
30% to Wants (extra clothes, restaurant meals, video games, knitting supplies, vacations)
20% to Savings (including debt repayment beyond minimums)

As a family, we are way low on "needs" - we are a high income family living in a relatively modest house, and we don't take on many financial obligations), so we have far more going into the other two categories. And since we are trying to raise kids without affluenza - turns out we are super savers.

I agree. Percentages are meaningless without context. We have a pretty average American income, well shy of 6 figures, but we're also way low on "needs". So we're able to spend relatively lavishly on wants, and travel is where most of that extra money goes.

 

[shortbun]

Anywhere between 5K and 18K, depending on where and how long. This year we spent a lot on an ocean front home at the beach for two weeks. We also spent another 1500 on four days of college visits. We have a few more to visit so I'd guess we're spending close to 20K this year. Next year will be cheap to make up for it. Then, once the college tuition begins...could be a whole other story.

 

[CMW0021]

It really doesn't matter what other people spend or think is too much since everyone has different circumstances, different incomes, different priorities, different expenses, etc. It sounds like you need to make some difficult choices. Keep in mind too, that if your daughter is involved in competition dance, this will most likely not be the last trip you need to make for a competition. And I see that your kids are young. Are any of the others going to go into comp dance? If so, you need to seriously think about what that may do to your family vacations. I kept my daughters out of comp dance and comp gymnastics due to the cost involved. They still did dance and gymnastics but it was once a week and no comp. if comp is really important for you, you may have to sacrifice your Disney trips if you can't swing both.

To answer your question, we try to keep our vacations to between $5000-$6000 a year for a two week trip. That is for a family of 5 (kids are 13, 11, and 8 yrs old). The only time we went over budget was last summer when we drove across country (nj to California) for a three week trip. That ran us around $6500 and was our trip of a lIfetime though.

Off topic slightly but would live to hear about your 3 week road trip. Thinking about doing that when the kids get a bit older.

 

[Gumbo4x4]

Off topic slightly but would live to hear about your 3 week road trip. Thinking about doing that when the kids get a bit older.

I've done many shorter ones, plus one of 6 weeks when I was a kid (both parents were teachers, so more time off than most). I LOVE road trips. Do it, I say!!

 

[ktaggie]

I have not read all pages or comments but I will say it does not sound like you are willing to make any changes. So there is no reason to give you suggestions for going for less. But that was not your question. Your question was how much do you spend. I am not 100% sure. I am thrifty. I love vacations and in face just got back from a three week road trip with hubby and three kids. We don't spend a lot on hotels because we sleep there but I also don't do shady or dirty. We use hotel points as much as possible. Each family has to decide what is important to them. That is what budgeting means. I make less than some friends but vacation more because I budget differently.

 

[bartleby1]

Off topic slightly but would live to hear about your 3 week road trip. Thinking about doing that when the kids get a bit older.

It involved lots of driving, but our kids have been well trained in riding in the car, LOL! We covered about 6500 miles from start to finish, all in our minivan and stopped at hotels. It took a lot of careful planning to fit in the amount that we did cover but was well worth it. Wish we had DOUBLE the amount of time. There is just so much to see and while three weeks seems like a lot of time, once you start planning you realize how much you want to stop and do. Some highlights were a train ride out of Durango, Colorado, rafting on the Colorado in Utah, Bryce Canyon NP, arches NP, Zion NP, driving parts of Route 66, Grand Canyon, Las Vegas, Laura Ingalls Wilder house in Missouri, St. Louis arch, Mesa Verde NP, and, of course, Disneyland!

The year before we did a two week road trip to South Dakota which was awesome also. That may have been my favorite trip of all time. Our country is truly beautiful. It makes me sad that so many people don't get to experience it. The national parks are filled with tourists from other countries but so many US citizens never get to see them.

Feel free to PM me with any questions you have.

Sorry to the OP for hijacking the thread! Carry on!

 

[Gumbo4x4]

I'm glad the idea of road trips came up. OP, surely other families are going to feel the pinch of the dance comp trip.

Can you team up with some other families, rent a van, and share motel rooms in an effort to bring the cost of the trip down? Are you doing any fund raisers as a group to offset some of the costs?

 

[Colleen27]

The year before we did a two week road trip to South Dakota which was awesome also. That may have been my favorite trip of all time.

That's a trip I'm hoping to plan in the next few years, if we ever have a solid couple of free weeks in the summer (marching band + football + swim does not leave a lot of time!). My 12yo wants to go see the Ingalls homestead in South Dakota, and if we're going to drive that far I'd like to continue on to Mount Rushmore and Yellowstone.

 

[CluelessDisFan]

I would send DD with another dance mom. Don't give up your big family vacation for crappy ol' Myrtle Beach. When I was growing up I also traveled to dance competitions. Vegas, Chicago, Hawaii. The Hawaii trip was expensive and just my mom took me. One of the girl's parents couldn't afford it, so sent her with us. She had to fund raise for practically her whole trip. It was amazing and we had a blast. My DD is only 3 and started dance last year. I won't ever give up a big Disney family trip to take her to a dance competition when she's older. But I'd at least try to send her.

 

[TwistGrl101]

I would send DD with another dance mom. Don't give up your big family vacation for crappy ol' Myrtle Beach. When I was growing up I also traveled to dance competitions. Vegas, Chicago, Hawaii. The Hawaii trip was expensive and just my mom took me. One of the girl's parents couldn't afford it, so sent her with us. She had to fund raise for practically her whole trip. It was amazing and we had a blast. My DD is only 3 and started dance last year. I won't ever give up a big Disney family trip to take her to a dance competition when she's older. But I'd at least try to send her.

I think I will fundraise for my daughter to pay for her costs and have my mom take her. Thanks everyone.

 

[Angie789]

A friend of mine just posted this article on FB and it made me think of this thread. Interesting read about extracurricular activities from the New York Times a few years back:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/13/your-money/childrens-activities-no-guarantee-of-later-success.html?pagewanted=1&_r=0&smid=fb-share

 

[kandb]

This year we are spending around $10K on 2 vacations. Our income is $190K a year and our house is paid for, we have no debt and we have around $140K in the bank (plus we both have pensions when we retire). I would never spend $10K a year for vacations if we weren't financial comfortable. I think $8K for a vacation is high if your salary is not high and you have a lot of expenses/debt. It really depends on your financial situation.

PS-My niece is into competitive dance and it costs my SIL/BIL around $15-20K a year, between the traveling, cost of the classes, costumes etc. Personally, I think this is ludicrous but she "loves it". I just think sometimes as parents, we are guilted into giving our children too much and spending too much.

 

[kandb]

OP-you sound like a great mom who wants to give your kids everything and the fact you don't want to leave your younger ones behind, says a lot about you. Parenting and making decisions is hard sometimes. I hope whatever you choose, works out for you.