Personal Finance Question

[wenrob]

I keep a specific amount in savings that does not get touched and a yearly goal of family vacation, DH's "boys trip" and my "girls trip." If anything gets sacrificed it would be our trips, never family vacation. OT? Put in savings. Bonus? Savings. Extra paycheck? At least half in savings. When doing Target runs I pick up a Disney gift card here and there so by the time our trip gets here we have food, packages, photos, souvenirs etc already covered. That way it's specifically for our trip and doesn't get used for other things. I don't worry about maybe needing it for an emergency because it comes out of the regular budget and I have savings stashed for emergencies.

Our only debt is mortgage so I have been very fortunate the last couple of years not to have to touch earmarked vacation savings. Nothing goes on a credit card unless I have the cash to pay it off immediately. This year I bought the 13 month annual passes with vacation savings so I'm currently working on building that back up. I will also continue to buy Disney gift cards after vacation so AP renewal will be covered.

 

[calypso726]

We also rely on more than money and budgeting when it comes to vacation funding. Travel hacking is a huge part of how we are able to do the things we do. Both our Disney and non-Disney vacation getaways are covered through travel hacking. For example, last weekend we flew to London to see Harry Potter and the Cursed Child on airline miles and our hotel stay was covered with points. This summer we will be flying to San Francisco to see Hamilton. Once again not paying for the air fare or hotel and using points. We would never choose to do crazy things like that if we had to pay real money for the airfare and hotels.

Travel hacking mitigates a lot of vacation expenses and affords us experiences we would not likely enjoy if we had to shell out cash. Absolutely everything gets paid with miles/points earning credit cards where possible and all balances are paid in full each month. The majority of our vacations are Disney related: Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Vacation Club, Disney Cruise and Adventures by Disney. This allows us to pay our trips with Disney gift cards that we have loaded on to the Disney Savings Account. We can purchase the Disney gift cards at a 5% discount with a credit card that earns 5 airline miles per dollar through a shopping portal that earns 1 extra airline mile per dollar. Loading the gift cards and paying the trip through the Disney Savings accounts gets me another 2% back in Disney gift cards.

 

[CarolynK]

....Travel hacking mitigates a lot of vacation expenses and affords us experiences we would not likely enjoy if we had to shell out cash. Absolutely everything gets paid with miles/points earning credit cards where possible and all balances are paid in full each month. The majority of our vacations are Disney related: Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Vacation Club, Disney Cruise and Adventures by Disney. This allows us to pay our trips with Disney gift cards that we have loaded on to the Disney Savings Account. We can purchase the Disney gift cards at a 5% discount with a credit card that earns 5 airline miles per dollar through a shopping portal that earns 1 extra airline mile per dollar. Loading the gift cards and paying the trip through the Disney Savings accounts gets me another 2% back in Disney gift cards.

Can you elaborate on this? We recently bought Disney GCs at Sam's Club, last quarter with Chase Freedom. And Sam's gives a small discount. But I'd love to know what you did! Thanks.

 

[calypso726]

Can you elaborate on this? We recently bought Disney GCs at Sam's Club, last quarter with Chase Freedom. And Sam's gives a small discount. But I'd love to know what you did! Thanks.

We have been able to purchase Disney GCs from Sam's and BJs via shopping portals and get the extra miles. If you went through the shopping portal to get to Sam's online and then used the Freedom during that bonus quarter it triggered.

 

[LovesTimone]

There are a lot of ways to save for Disney or other vacations in general.

1) start a vacation account, and direct so much to go into it on pay day. - if you saved 25 a week for a year that's 1300 dollars.

2) Use coupons for everything, take the money you saved and pay yourself and stick it in the vacation account. Keep a envelope in your purse and put in the cash, hit the bank up weekly to deposit.

3) A garage sale is a great way to jump start your account. Really go through your stuff, wait to throw away anything till after, I had a box of old make up maybe used once or twice, yes even lip stick, and I put 1.00 for each they sold like crazy, I had a art student buy it for a class project, another time a lady was picking up some for the local women's shelter, said they were hardly used and good quality, She also bought a bunch of my work clothes, shoes, handbags, all for the shelter, After she paid and was walking away I grab the box of make up and walked out to her car and just gave her the rest of the box, a feel good moment for me. We normally make between 300 and 600 dollars, we have made 1000 before when we had some bigger bedroom piece to sell. My mom had a couple of boxes to add to my sale and there was a bowling ball in the box, and had 2 ladies fighting over it, and started a bidding war. I sold it for 50 dollars, which was crazy as I put 10.00 on it. It was a custom ball and very pricey... just goes to show you another mans stuff is another mans treasure. With all the repurposing of items going on you just never know what is going to sell.

4) You can buy WDW Gift cards to help you save

5) get your kids involved in saving, you will be surprised how they will chip in to see mickey

6) take your lunch to work, lunch out here would be for drive thru cheap around 6.00 to 8.00 bucks, sit down like at Ruby Tuesday kinda place would be around 15 to 20.00 not including tip. So if you cut out one table meal for 18.00 a week for a year you would save 936.00 dollars, 1 drive thru meal a week for 8.00 dollars, 416.00, if you did both = 1352.00 to go into the vacation fund. That's just 1 person, so if you and DH both did it...double the savings, of course this will fluctuate as stuff happens but it can be done.

7) Save your change, as a family you will be surprised how much you can save. DD and I made a special jar for our change with picture or stickers of Mickey and the Gang to help keep us focus on our goal.

 

[erc]

Well, I haven't seen anyone else mention this, but my Disney trips have always depended on what I get for an income tax refund from Uncle Sam. Yes, it is not smart money to let the Federal Government use your money interest free, but I got back about $6,000 this year. So almost as soon as I finished filing my taxes I was pricing trips to Disney. But there will be a hiatus after this as my oldest are just turning college aged.

 

[runwad]

Well, I haven't seen anyone else mention this, but my Disney trips have always depended on what I get for an income tax refund from Uncle Sam. Yes, it is not smart money to let the Federal Government use your money interest free, but I got back about $6,000 this year. So almost as soon as I finished filing my taxes I was pricing trips to Disney. But there will be a hiatus after this as my oldest are just turning college aged.

^ Well then if you do it right you'll get back another $2500 for each kid from The American Opportunity Credit

 

[leebee]

We don't have a budget and we live below our means. Older cars, NO cell phones, minimal cable, no real hobbies, no expensive/fancy/label clothes or accessories, etc. When we want to go to Disney, I look at what's in the bank and decide if we can afford to go. We've had lots of luck with Southwest VISA cards, so both DH and I have a stockpile of rapid rewards points, and a companion pass, so we rarely pay for airfare to Disney (or anywhere). I have a Disney VISA and we get 2% on it, so I charge everything I possibly can and pay it off every month. There's usually somewhere between $700 and $2000 in rewards money when we decide to go to Disney, so I'll use that for food, park passes, etc., depending on how much money is available, how long we are going, where we are staying, etc. If we don't have much in rewards money, we'll stay offsite in the cheapest accommodations I'm willing to purchase (needs to be clean and safe, that's about all I need). I'm pretty good with stalking the rental cars, finding coupon codes, etc. I also can get discounted park passes through my union, and they are usually cheaper than having to do the "Target Red Card Shuffle." Of course, I charge things to the room on my Disney VISA when staying at Disney, then pay it off with rewards points, so I'm accruing points while I'm at Disney. I'm not afraid to use my credit card, but we never spend more than we can pay off within the credit card cycle. We also don't really buy souvenirs, which makes a trip more affordable. I can usually take 2 of us to WDW for a week for about $1500 OOP or less depending on what we have for rewards, cost of rental car, discounts on tickets, where we stay, etc. It just works for us.

 

[halfpintpeggy]

We don't have a budget and we live below our means. Older cars, NO cell phones, minimal cable, no real hobbies, no expensive/fancy/label clothes or accessories, etc. When we want to go to Disney, I look at what's in the bank and decide if we can afford to go. We've had lots of luck with Southwest VISA cards, so both DH and I have a stockpile of rapid rewards points, and a companion pass, so we rarely pay for airfare to Disney (or anywhere). I have a Disney VISA and we get 2% on it, so I charge everything I possibly can and pay it off every month. There's usually somewhere between $700 and $2000 in rewards money when we decide to go to Disney, so I'll use that for food, park passes, etc., depending on how much money is available, how long we are going, where we are staying, etc. If we don't have much in rewards money, we'll stay offsite in the cheapest accommodations I'm willing to purchase (needs to be clean and safe, that's about all I need). I'm pretty good with stalking the rental cars, finding coupon codes, etc. I also can get discounted park passes through my union, and they are usually cheaper than having to do the "Target Red Card Shuffle." Of course, I charge things to the room on my Disney VISA when staying at Disney, then pay it off with rewards points, so I'm accruing points while I'm at Disney. I'm not afraid to use my credit card, but we never spend more than we can pay off within the credit card cycle. We also don't really buy souvenirs, which makes a trip more affordable. I can usually take 2 of us to WDW for a week for about $1500 OOP or less depending on what we have for rewards, cost of rental car, discounts on tickets, where we stay, etc. It just works for us.

Sounds like you have a good system down! Quick question, "...we'll stay offsite in the cheapest accommodations I'm willing to purchase(needs to be clean and safe, that's about all I need.)" Where have you stayed? What have you liked or disliked? We've become pretty much an offsite family, so I love to hear other's opinions on budget lodgings. Thanks in advance!

 

[erc]

^ Well then if you do it right you'll get back another $2500 for each kid from The American Opportunity Credit

Wow, I just looked that up. I never knew that existed. A drop in the bucket for what we will be paying but I'll take it. Thanks.

 

[runwad]

Wow, I just looked that up. I never knew that existed. A drop in the bucket for what we will be paying but I'll take it. Thanks.

but just a quick tip, if you're paying from a 529 plan, those funds don't count towards the credit. If you take the Stafford loans they do count. So make sure you are paying 4k out of pocket or thru loans for the credit.

 

[kniquy]

Right now my little one is still in daycare. My husband has money taken out of his check for dependent care. It is taken out, I don't see it (i take care of the bills) but we leave it in there and when we are going to take a vacation then we submit for the money. It works out great because it is $4500 I don't have to worry about. This year i will draw from it in May to buy our disney world tickets and then a few months later when i have saved up some more i will buy our tickets for universal. Whatever might be left over i will put aside to help pay for food. We have our DVC so at least the room portion of WDW is taken care of. Just have to pay for our UO room. When DD is out of daycare then that will be just a huge boost to our bank account and savings will be a little easier.

 

[leebee]

Sounds like you have a good system down! Quick question, "...we'll stay offsite in the cheapest accommodations I'm willing to purchase(needs to be clean and safe, that's about all I need.)" Where have you stayed? What have you liked or disliked? We've become pretty much an offsite family, so I love to hear other's opinions on budget lodgings. Thanks in advance!

We have been to Disney a LOT and almost all of our trips have been budget trips. I have been lucky in sometimes being able to share hotel accommodations with my sister/nieces, which brings the cost down considerably! I'm not sure I can be much help about hotels because I don't remember a lot of the names, and it's been a lot of years since we've stayed in some of these so my opinions might not be accurate, but Comfort Inn Maingate East was excellent, Comfort Inn Maingate and on Turkey Hill Rd (?) were fine (just older), Quality Inn out on West Irlo Bronson was just OK (but that was maybe 15 years ago), Holiday Villas were terrific (shared with 2 other families). There are many others but I really don't remember. Some of these don't sound like they are budget lodgings, but sometimes we've traveled with my sister and have shared the hotel costs, which REALLY helps (especially when they were Marriott timeshare members and I could get the lock-off on their villa for $100 for a week, LOL!). We've done skyauction several times ($222 for a 3 bedroom villa at a Hilton timeshare resort for the WEEK- it was incredible), rented DVC points (it's not such a great deal anymore, but there were times when we stayed at OKW for about $50 a night), hotwire, hotelkingdom.com (but the site's not at all what it used to be), Orbitz with discount codes, etc. We've done timeshare presentations (I book for the 2nd or 3rd day- I am only good for 2 park days before I need a break) and just make sure we only stay for the advertised time (and always drive around the resort in your own vehicle). My biggest suggestion is to find a cheap hotel and then read the reviews on Trip Advisor. There are usually enough reviews there for you to be able to get a good feel for a hotel. If there are only a couple of bad reviews, well, ANY place is going to have someone give it a bad review or 2. If there are a bunch, I steer clear!

I often also check out a hotel's website to see what discounts are available. We belong to AAA, my husband teaches at our state university (technically makes him a state government employee), and I search online for membership perks/codes for hotel discounts. I also stalk a rate, so if I find something cheaper I can rebook. We have also stayed onsite sometimes, in AllStars or POP century, depending on price. There are times when it's worth it to pay $75 (check Orbitz for discounts and deals) at AllStars and not have to rent a vehicle. I try to stay really, REALLY flexible when it comes to accommodations, we don't care about pools particularly, I'll take my collapsable cooler and fill it with ice daily to keep breakfast stuff cool if there's no fridge in the room, etc. I just don't see the value in spending a lot of money on hotels when I'm only there to sleep and shower!

 

[halfpintpeggy]

We have been to Disney a LOT and almost all of our trips have been budget trips. I have been lucky in sometimes being able to share hotel accommodations with my sister/nieces, which brings the cost down considerably! I'm not sure I can be much help about hotels because I don't remember a lot of the names, and it's been a lot of years since we've stayed in some of these so my opinions might not be accurate, but Comfort Inn Maingate East was excellent, Comfort Inn Maingate and on Turkey Hill Rd (?) were fine (just older), Quality Inn out on West Irlo Bronson was just OK (but that was maybe 15 years ago), Holiday Villas were terrific (shared with 2 other families). There are many others but I really don't remember. Some of these don't sound like they are budget lodgings, but sometimes we've traveled with my sister and have shared the hotel costs, which REALLY helps (especially when they were Marriott timeshare members and I could get the lock-off on their villa for $100 for a week, LOL!). We've done skyauction several times ($222 for a 3 bedroom villa at a Hilton timeshare resort for the WEEK- it was incredible), rented DVC points (it's not such a great deal anymore, but there were times when we stayed at OKW for about $50 a night), hotwire, hotelkingdom.com (but the site's not at all what it used to be), Orbitz with discount codes, etc. We've done timeshare presentations (I book for the 2nd or 3rd day- I am only good for 2 park days before I need a break) and just make sure we only stay for the advertised time (and always drive around the resort in your own vehicle). My biggest suggestion is to find a cheap hotel and then read the reviews on Trip Advisor. There are usually enough reviews there for you to be able to get a good feel for a hotel. If there are only a couple of bad reviews, well, ANY place is going to have someone give it a bad review or 2. If there are a bunch, I steer clear!

I often also check out a hotel's website to see what discounts are available. We belong to AAA, my husband teaches at our state university (technically makes him a state government employee), and I search online for membership perks/codes for hotel discounts. I also stalk a rate, so if I find something cheaper I can rebook. We have also stayed onsite sometimes, in AllStars or POP century, depending on price. There are times when it's worth it to pay $75 (check Orbitz for discounts and deals) at AllStars and not have to rent a vehicle. I try to stay really, REALLY flexible when it comes to accommodations, we don't care about pools particularly, I'll take my collapsable cooler and fill it with ice daily to keep breakfast stuff cool if there's no fridge in the room, etc. I just don't see the value in spending a lot of money on hotels when I'm only there to sleep and shower!

Terrific, thanks!

 

[ZephyrHawk]

I don't really budget our trips, but part of that is because I pay for them throughout the year(s). For example, I bought my tickets for January 2018 a couple weeks ago. They're now paid off. I'll buy plane tickets sometime in the fall. I'm DVC, so I already spent most of that cost years ago. When its time for the trip I'll have to pay for our food, but that's about it. I never spend any amount that I can't handle at any given time, and since I spread it out, I never really feel the impact.

I see a lot of people are talking about how they do/don't use credit cards for Disney trips, so I'll add our situation. We have 2 credit cards, a Disney card and a Southwest airline one. We use them for everything. Disney card gets all food, gas, and Disney purchases because we get double points. The SW gets everything else. We pay them off every month. We never buy anything more than we'd buy anyways, but when the time comes for another Disney trip we'll have the majority of our airfare paid for and hundreds of Disney dollars to spend in the parks. Then, I go another step - I use the Disney card to buy a TIW card, which gets me 20% off most worthwhile Disney eating places. And of course, our Disney food purchases are put on my Disney card, so they get me double points, too.

 

[hsmamato2]

We also rely on more than money and budgeting when it comes to vacation funding. Travel hacking is a huge part of how we are able to do the things we do. Both our Disney and non-Disney vacation getaways are covered through travel hacking. For example, last weekend we flew to London to see Harry Potter and the Cursed Child on airline miles and our hotel stay was covered with points. This summer we will be flying to San Francisco to see Hamilton. Once again not paying for the air fare or hotel and using points. We would never choose to do crazy things like that if we had to pay real money for the airfare and hotels.

Travel hacking mitigates a lot of vacation expenses and affords us experiences we would not likely enjoy if we had to shell out cash. Absolutely everything gets paid with miles/points earning credit cards where possible and all balances are paid in full each month. The majority of our vacations are Disney related: Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Vacation Club, Disney Cruise and Adventures by Disney. This allows us to pay our trips with Disney gift cards that we have loaded on to the Disney Savings Account. We can purchase the Disney gift cards at a 5% discount with a credit card that earns 5 airline miles per dollar through a shopping portal that earns 1 extra airline mile per dollar. Loading the gift cards and paying the trip through the Disney Savings accounts gets me another 2% back in Disney gift cards.

yesssssssss in addition to my regular budgeted 'vacation' fund travel hacking is the single most powerful way we have to save on travel.

 

[MillauFr]

We live beneath our means. We drive older cars. Put at least 150K miles on them. We buy some store brand groceries. We go to thrift stores and Dollar tree. We clip coupons. We pay off our credit card each month and enjoy 2% cash back on all purchases. We love sales if the value is good on the item. We often stay offsite to keep the price down. There is not a single designer purse in my "collection", etc, etc.

These daily, weekly, monthly choices help us afford things like a week long trip to Disney when we want to go.

Ditto. We are lucky to have jobs that pay very well but live well below our means. I like spending money on vacations. When going to Disneyworld we use the travel agent that sells Deluxe rooms for 55% off of the rack rate. Makes staying at the Poly affordable.

 

[bigbabyblues]

We have a separate savings account for vacations/extras. We put some in every month, and then my Christmas bonus, anything like that goes in there. We don't go until we have enough saved to pay for everything.

 

[eeyoresmom]

I'm going to add some out of the box ideas . I'm the poster that has several vacation accounts set up with automatic deductions but I also do a few things to pad my savings and pay for extras. Example, we are leaving early next Saturday. I usually do my food shopping for the week Friday after work. Since we will be away all that week I don't need to food shop at all and will transfer my weekly food budget for the week into vacation savings. I do this weekly on a smaller scale. I try to stick to a number while food shopping. If I spend say $15 less that week I get on my phone and immediately transfer that $15 into vacation savings. I do the same with my gas budget. It has to be immediate though or I find those small sums get overlooked. Years ago I remember reading a similar thread here and other posters went further, figuring out electricity and heating costs of their home and whatever they would reduce their bills by, they saved for travel. One other thing I do is if I talk myself out of a purchase I transfer that money to savings. For example, I was "this close" to buying a new Disney guidebook last week. I decided against it and transfered the $25 to vacation savings. Some may think my methods are extreme but I got into finding creative ways to save back when my 4 kids were little and our budget was much tighter. These things that I am still doing take almost zero effort compared to what I did to afford our trips back then.

 

[AquaDame]

We don't save specifically for vacation.... we are unlucky in that my husband only gets 2 weeks off a year and the week between christmas and new years in addition. We'd be hard pressed to do much financial damage during such a short break without getting really creatively extravagant, so we just go where we want when we can. We look up prices and if its a number we can afford and are happy with we book it.