LONG TERM planning

[Judique]

The 12 to 14 hour car ride is my specialty.

But, since going to Disney I've always driven either a van or an suv with space.

I always do an overnight on the way. My 2 girls tolerated it and just slept. My son slept but absolutely hated the ride. He wasn't a baby when I started going from here - he's just not a road tripper.

My grand children do not do well yet. They are 1 and 1/2 and 2 and 1/2, and we will be doing it in my very large van in November. They get antsy just going to Ocean City.

I'm torn. I want the company on the drive, but I really think they should fly and meet me there. But I want them with me! They came with me last January and it had its challenges but we made it.

It may get better. One thing for sure - many more stops are necessary and it takes longer to do it with the babies in the car. Plus, settling them down for the night in a room along the way - they need to blow off steam before that happens, so it's not easy. I think flying is easiest for young parents, bottom line.

The advantage for the car ride is bringing ALL the stuff that makes your life easier with your young child. And some travel well, others don't.

 

[drnp]

Look into cash back credit cards to help build up some money. Over 5 years it could be substantial. My two main ones are a Fidelity Visa which gives a flat 2% on everything you charge with no annual fee. The other is a Uber Visa which gives you 4% on restaurants and 3% on airfare/hotel, with no annual fee. So I use the Uber Visa for all dining and travel, and Fidelity for everything else and pay off balances each month. Take a look at your last year spending on credit cards and see what 2.5 - 3% would have been then multiply by 5. That should give you a good idea of how much cash you could get. If its more valuable to you than the number of hotel points or airline miles, take the cash.

 

[Next_disney_princess]

I budget the purchase of a gift card into my paychecks. So everytime I get paid I'll buy either a $25 or $50 gift card and put it in a jar. I also use shopkick, ibotta, and coupons. I use those things to buy gift cards as well. Also as family for gift cards for holidays or birthdays. Disney also has a savings club you can transfer money into but I haven't used it.

 

[LNMom]

So many great ideas here—

You can totally do the drive.

We’ve done 13 hour drives with all 3 of our kids at all ages. My DS3 just did it. they all love a drive. They prefer it to flying. We’ve also broken trip into 2 days allowing for an early Orlando arrival and relaxation/rest time.

They each have a kindle with downloaded content that I prepare just ahead of time; a portable DVD (all Disney movies all day!!!!). Limited screen time is out the window for the drive. They get “trip tickets” every 30 minutes (see pinterest). They can turn in tix 1=snack (something they’d never get at home); 2=activity (PB Kids catalogs, activity books, foil&tape for sculptures, felt activity book pages that I have made — see Pinterest for endless ideas); 3=prize (a wrapped inexpensive gift, cars bath bombs, new DVD, etc). They get healthy snacks whenever they want. I pack muffins/fruit for breakfast and sandwiches for lunch.

Stay off property in a condo so you can cook some meals and have more space (for our last long weekend I made meals ahead and froze them. Kept In a cooler on drive for a slow defrost. So easy for me). I have been known to have a kid sleep on an air mattress so that we can squeeze into a 1-bedroom condo. Kids laugh about it.

See “the points guy” website for CC info. I check this site almost daily for tips/info.

Happy travels!

 

[wendow]

Disney also has a savings club you can transfer money into but I haven't used it.

Disney discontinued their vacation savings club last year Such a bummer.

 

[LovesTimone]

The 12 to 14 hour car ride is my specialty.

But, since going to Disney I've always driven either a van or an suv with space.

I always do an overnight on the way. My 2 girls tolerated it and just slept. My son slept but absolutely hated the ride. He wasn't a baby when I started going from here - he's just not a road tripper.

My grand children do not do well yet. They are 1 and 1/2 and 2 and 1/2, and we will be doing it in my very large van in November. They get antsy just going to Ocean City.

I'm torn. I want the company on the drive, but I really think they should fly and meet me there. But I want them with me! They came with me last January and it had its challenges but we made it.

It may get better. One thing for sure - many more stops are necessary and it takes longer to do it with the babies in the car. Plus, settling them down for the night in a room along the way - they need to blow off steam before that happens, so it's not easy. I think flying is easiest for young parents, bottom line.

The advantage for the car ride is bringing ALL the stuff that makes your life easier with your young child. And some travel well, others don't.

My Dad and I helped move my DD, SIL and 6 week old grandson back from Lawrenceville GA. My SIL drove the Uhaul, my Dad drove my DD's car, and DD and sweet little grandson rode with me in my SUV, we were able to put all of his stuff in my SUV, so we had everything right there. It took almost 12 hours to make the drive. My SIL and Dad made it back in 10 but with the little guy nursing, we had to stop often and let her feed him.

 

[Stefien Quix]

So many great ideas here—

You can totally do the drive.

We’ve done 13 hour drives with all 3 of our kids at all ages. My DS3 just did it. they all love a drive. They prefer it to flying. We’ve also broken trip into 2 days allowing for an early Orlando arrival and relaxation/rest time.

They each have a kindle with downloaded content that I prepare just ahead of time; a portable DVD (all Disney movies all day!!!!). Limited screen time is out the window for the drive. They get “trip tickets” every 30 minutes (see pinterest). They can turn in tix 1=snack (something they’d never get at home); 2=activity (PB Kids catalogs, activity books, foil&tape for sculptures, felt activity book pages that I have made — see Pinterest for endless ideas); 3=prize (a wrapped inexpensive gift, cars bath bombs, new DVD, etc). They get healthy snacks whenever they want. I pack muffins/fruit for breakfast and sandwiches for lunch.

Stay off property in a condo so you can cook some meals and have more space (for our last long weekend I made meals ahead and froze them. Kept In a cooler on drive for a slow defrost. So easy for me). I have been known to have a kid sleep on an air mattress so that we can squeeze into a 1-bedroom condo. Kids laugh about it.

See “the points guy” website for CC info. I check this site almost daily for tips/info.

Happy travels!

Those "trip tickets" are a fun idea!

 

[Carrie Ellis]

We are all adults now. Since my 4 kids have boyfriends and girlfriends, etc... We can not even figure out how to afford staying onsite. It is a big bummer because we did stay on site for years. Our last Disney trip, my sister and I split a VRBO. I researched for the best and a super close one with no major highways. We found one and we loveeeeeeeeed it! It almost was a breath of fresh air to get away from the hectic atmosphere. She does a major Disney theme so we did not feel cheated. Anyway....When you book a vrbo, they require 1/3 down, 1/3 (6) months out and the last 1/3 (3) months out. I kind of like that because I am knocking out my stay in stages. the one we used and will be using again is www.stayhappilyeverafter.com. I paid this first 1/3 my sister will pay the second 1/3 and then we will split the 3rd 1/3.

So I am prepaying that part of the vaca! (she will refund if we can't go). Then for tickets I am saving up on giving plasma. For food and events I am doing swagbucks and buying Disney cards at discounts.

I am going to look at the smarty pig thing too! I just love learning new things on this board!!!

 

[Hisgirl]

When I want to raise 'extra' money, I open an additional savings account at my credit union. Then, all unusual monies go into that account. eg: credit card 2% cash back money, youtube video adsense money, market survey funds...anything that shows up and is considered above and beyond our monthly income goes to this account. Right now, I have $2600 in my account. One time, we won $1000 in a raffle!! Into the secret savings account! It's a fun and quick way to raise up extra money!

 

[YawningDodo]

Budget. Budget budget budget. Budget? Budget.

I've got a really solid overall budget so I know where all my money's going at any one time and can control my spending. I use You Need a Budget for that; it took me a year of using the website just to track what I was already doing before I had a good enough understanding of what I was doing with my money to start making conscious choices about what I wanted to do differently. Now that I'm on top of it, though, I don't have to worry about taking money away from other things for vacations--Disney Vacations are their own category, and the same amount of money goes in there from every paycheck. When I'm good and underspend in other discretionary categories (looking at you, Dining Out), I can move the leftovers into the vacation category when I start the next pay cycle. It's basically the same principle others have described re: automatically putting vacation money into a separate account, but I like doing it this way because the visibility of absolutely all my spending in one place helps me feel like I'm in control and every so often I'll spot a little change I can make to do even better at it.

The other side of budgeting is that I've taken to building fairly detailed budget spreadsheets for each trip I plan to take. I take every expense into account and make my best guess at each line item (since you're planning several years out, be sure to estimate higher on ticket and resort costs than you'd pay if you were going next year, since those will only continue to rise!). When I'm actually on the trip I track my expenses throughout, both so I can see how I'm doing on keeping it within expectations and so that when I get home I can enter the real numbers into the spreadsheet and see where my estimates were too high or too low and adjust for the next time around. Knowing how much I can expect to pay for a trip lets me play around with dates and see how much I'd have to set aside per month to travel by such-and-so date.