How soon do you start saving for a trip?

[DawnM]

Ongoing really. I have $200 put in an ING account per month.

Many years I don't touch it though as we use DH's bonus for our trip. If you see most of my posts on saving, you will see that we are quite frugal in our trips.

Dawn

 

[NotUrsula]

No separate fund, but we have a budget line-item for travel, and it's rather large. Travel is a major priority for us, and is nearly the only "entertainment" money that we spend.

Early in our marriage we decided that when it came to budgeting for entertainment, travel was the priority. We made choices in our everyday spending in order to feed that priority over and above what we normally might have been able to put aside for it. Among other things, we drive plain vehicles and keep them for a long time, we never buy alcohol in restaurants, we don't do recreational activities like golf that have a regular fee involved, and we didn't buy subscription TV until about 6 years ago (we've been married for 23 years.). We also use pre-paid wireless phones and we don't eat out very often when not traveling. All that helps add up to several thousand dollars a year that is always there for travel whenever we want to go somewhere.

 

[GaSleepingBeautyFan]

I have a constant vacation savings account so I'm always saving for vacations.

For my solo trips, as soon as I'm back from one I start saving for another - that's a separate savings account too.

 

[kiramay]

Right now I don't work, so our tax return pays for the trips. When I go back to work our tax return will plummet so we'll save a set amount every month.

 

[mom2t]

I have an envelope that I stick extra money in. I enjoy my vacations but watch what I spend while on them. Any extra left over goes in my envelope. I came home fom my last vacation with 500. I used 250 for a deposit on a house at Windsor Hills for next summer and used the rest to help start our fund for a cabin over Thanksgiving in Pigeon Forge. I love seeing the amount grow and it is nice to have emergency money here at the house. Àt the end of each week, any money left in my wallet goes in my envelope. I ind larger bills 5, 10, 20 prevents me from spending money. I am always saving for my next big or weekend getaway.

 

[disneychrista]

I don't save "for a trip," I save money each month that I put into a vacation fund(account) that way when I decide to make a trip, I have the money.

 

[Luv Bunnies]

We never save for anything in particular. We save as much as we can, all the time. If we want or need something (including a vacation), we decide which account to pull the money from.

 

[purpledisneyprncess]

We never save for anything in particular. We save as much as we can, all the time. If we want or need something (including a vacation), we decide which account to pull the money from.

Yup that's us too. We save as much as we can. We budget our groceries each week with getting sale items. We also try to really limit how much we eat out. That's a huge saver for us. These things we do in order to go to Disney when we like!

 

[martikus]

We are always saving for vacations. They are our splurge like others would spend on clothes or furniture. A portion of every pay check goes towards saving for vacations.

This won't be a popular opinion, but gosh I worry about everyone I read about these days. If you had events that wiped out your savings you can't afford a vacation. Period. Save up to get a nice cushion (8 months if you can) for a catastrophe like job loss. Then savings for other things (roof leaks, new a/c, etc). Once well on your way then make saving for vacations a part of your everyday saving.

Good luck!

 

[wendybeth75]

I set aside $350 a month in a vacation fund. Usually that pays for an annual trip to WDW.

We do something similiar. We pay on Vacay as if it is any other bill. It is easier to "give things up" that way too. We do something that is fun and "disney related" a couple of times a month. For example instead of going to the movies we will watch a Disney movie on Netflix and have a disney themed dessert and put what we would have spent in the "disney fund". We have some disney board games we play as well. It makes us look forward to the vacation while saving at the same time!

 

[blessedby3]

Besides our regular savings account that we contribute to each time hubby gets paid, we have a vacation account. Each time he gets paid I put $400 in that account so it always has money in it.

DD23 got married a year ago July and we had to use the $400 a paycheck to go towards the wedding stuff for a while as well as a college loan. Since we used vacation money for that we are starting over again. We are going back in June for 2 weeks and so we have been putting money back in the vacation acct and our trip will be paid for before we go.

Since we are staying for 2 weeks and are off property at WBC, I have also been buying a $25 gift card each time hubby gets paid so we will have lots of meals paid for. I already have $50 in gift cards for Olive Garden, Chilis, Cracker Barrel and Steak n Shake. We also have some Disney Gift Cards and I have reward dollars on my 2 Disney Visas.