Personal Question- How do you do it?

[PhotobearSam]

Priorities...

We wanted to go really bad on our first trip.

We saved ALL our spare change. We stayed off-site ($33 a night) and tok a lot of food with us (Soup for the micro in the room, sandwhiches and Lunchables for the park, froze water bottles, took snacks...etc etc).

We DROVE FROM CANADA, and loved every minute...We were there for 11 days and spent less than $3500 Canadian for the whole trip (Gone 16 days total)...($300 of it was X-mas gifts too...)

We read the budget board like crazy and the Unofficial Guide to WDW really helped...

If you want it bad enough you can do it...but I am the type that can make things happen when I focus.

Get a condo off-site from skyauction.com and make your evening meals at the condo. You would be surprised at how much you can save. Staying on-site is not the be-all end-all...BUDGET BUDGET BUDGET.

 

[DVC Jen]

I agree with many of the posters...if it's a priority...then it's "do-able."

Sure we can have a bigger home, or newer, more expensive furniture but my kids won't remember the kind of sofas they had growing up (can you?) but I know they will NEVER forget our trips to WDW!

EXACTLY!

 

[HollyJoy]

I"ve often wondered the same thing, but I now am a bit more educated on the matter! LOL Yes, it's expensive, but I know A LOT of people here are members of the Vacation Club, which is pricey at first, but pays off in the end. I'm also thinking that many people just budget Disney into their household budget. I'm sure that if DH and I sat down and tried to cut a lot of corners, we could do it, and be able to take a Disney Vacation more than every few years. My DH is one who hates to spend money, therefore we don't go that often. Hopefully that will change! LOL

 

[Bill From PA]

Like many others here, we didn't take vacations at all once the first of our three wallet vacuums were born and for years it was a week in a log cabin in a PA state park then a promotion to the Jersey shore, then Rehobeth and finally Myrtle Beach. My mom took us all to WDW for the first time in 1996 and we've been hooked ever since. The two girls have graduated from college, Bill From PA Junior is in a community college, so we're enjoying life before taking the long Dirt Nap. I've personally been hit by 3 floods in my lifetime, losing possessions each time. We spend money on experiences, not things now.

Bill From PA

 

[disney4me4ever]

1. Hard Work
2. DVC
3. Being Childfree

Yup! Us too!
Nancy

 

[jeast]

"wallet vacuums" and "dirt nap". These kill me! I must use them.

 

[Zippa D Doodah]

1) Family vacation is a priority
2) Our only debt is two small car loans
3) Budget-minded WDW vacations (family of 4 for 5-6 days = $1500)
4) Income is average at best, but we don't splurge much at malls etc.

 

[leebee]

DD and I generally go to WDW 2-3x per year, DH joins us on maybe one of those trips; he doesn't love it the way we do. DD and I have AP's now, which saves a bundle, but for the first ten trips we DIDN'T...just bought the most pass we could for the money, and saved the days for the next trips (harder to do now with the MYW passes). I am always on the lookout for good airfare, sometimes scheduling vacation around airfare (got $126pp all incl last fall, BGR-MCO!!!). Also priceline airfare. I know, you lose a bit of time, can't pick flights, etc BUT if it saves me $100/ticket, so be it! We have only stayed on-site once, as a special treat. Even with AP discount, on-site is not worth it for my money. Food money is our splurge, and it's not a big one. Hotel b'fast, shared park lunch (dbl cheesburger with 2nd bun, split a pizza and salad, etc). One ice cream per day is a definite! Dinner is either sitdown at Disney or cheap offsite. Rental car...get whatever is cheapest that will hold us and our stuff. Souveniers- all our relatives know that DD is Disney-fixated and give her disney dollars at holidays, b-days, etc. We also let her earn money for chores, and she can take some of that for WDW, but basically we spend very little on souvies; who needs 'em when we know we'll be back in 6 months?! We also try to overlap our vacations with my sister, so that we can share accomodations. I am very fortunate in that Dsis and BIL are Marriott timeshare owners. They trade in alot of their weeks for others, and we are the lucky benefactors of this, often staying with them for free! Usually, DD and I can go to WDW for a week for around $1000, since we have AP's (I save all year to renew these, so I have the $$$ ready at renewal time). We want to be in WDW, so we do without cell phones, premium cable, restaurant dinners, expensive clothes/shoes, etc. I know...we'd have a huge healthy savings account (as DH keeps reminding me) if we'd stayed home from WDW all those trips...gee, DD would have such lovely memories of driving to the bank to make deposits...!!!

 

[nowellsl]

Luckily we can go for much cheaper than most people - no air fair, FL resident rates/passes. We never go for longer than 3 or 4 days because DD20 is in college and can't miss class. Usually always value resorts, sometimes moderate.

 

[mommykds]

Like many others here, we didn't take vacations at all once the first of our three wallet vacuums were born


Bill From PA Junior is in a community college, so we're enjoying life before taking the long Dirt Nap. I've personally been hit by 3 floods in my lifetime, losing possessions each time. We spend money on experiences, not things now.

Bill From PA

Bill, I cannot stop laughing!
You are very correct when you said you spend money on experiences & not things..exactly how I feel!

 

[kakiegirl]

We do not have alot of money we are just an average middle class family. However, we only have one full week out of the year that we leave home, foreget our worries and are together just the three of us as a family (we live righ next door to my parents) so it is a priority to us. We have decided we will take dd (now six) to disney on vacation every other year while she is young. (1) We use our income tax refund to pay for our tickets and lodging. (2) Stay in a value resort (this year we are camping at Fort Wilderness). (3) We take an ice chest with drinks and snacks and and try not to eat out alot.
(4) We save all of our change all year and wrap it and use is as spending money. I also sale items on e-bay and that goes toward our spending money. Also, one year we really wanted to go to disney and did not have the money so we did three time share tours in one week, it was not as fun as staying on site but we still had a great vacation and it was really cheap, I think for the whole 8 nights we paid under $300.00 and that was our lodging and mine and DH's tickets we had to buy dd tickets. We stayed in some really nice resorts and by the end of the week we had the time share tours down so were out of there in less than an hour. We had to change resorts three times in one week but that wasn't so bad. We are going on one again this fall to go to universal studios during DD fall break.

 

[Eeyore2003]

Gotta agree with other posters regarding priorities. We've made vacations our priority. No regrets. (Not now, anyway. Ask me again when we're retired... )

I keep telling DH that we better buy into the DVC, so that we can at least afford a vacation every year once we retire!!!!

 

[Storminator]

It's all about priorities and budgeting. We don't have fancy cars, furniture, or clothes. I commute to work via bus because my job pays for it. I shop at Target and Sam's Club and use coupons for everything I can. We also have only one child so we have just one education to pay for and one mouthful of braces. That helps!

We put $300 a month into our vacation fund and our bonuses go towards vacations as well. Our Disney trips are usually 5 nights or less and generally cost $2500ish. We also spend a week at the beach each summer. Usually we have a little money at the end of the year to roll into next year's vacation fund.

As an aside, my mother never did the things she wanted to do when we were growing up because she said that she'd have time to travel when her kids were grown. She died at 42 and never got to do anything. I regret that so much. Live your life and have fun because you don't know what will happen tomorrow. Just make sure you work it into the budget...a new car or computer can wait!

 

[cristbaby]

We are just your everyday middle class people. Our children are grown now and married. We both worked hard to make ends meet and put our daughters through college, and we hardly ever took a vacation. Do we regret not taking vacations? You bet we do. We won't make that same mistake with our 3 grandchildren. We take Disney vacations every year now with our daughters and their families. We put a little money aside every week for vacation and we belong to DVC so we have a kitchen when we stay so we can have alot of meals there. Vacation with your family is an important part of life today, don't miss out on it. Sacrifice something else if you have to but try to leave some money for that. Trust me, I learned from experience!

 

[Laugh O. Grams]

How do you all do these vacations? We are going this summer to our first BIG vacation since i've gotten married (we celebrate 17 years this year) With 3 kids it is just too expensive to go anyhwere these days.

i just wonder what we are doing wrong... its taken my husband 17 years to talk me into spending so much for this eeny weeny vacation we are taking... What are we doing wrong?//

You aren't doing anything wrong, it's just a matter of perspective.
I know for a fact that there are people out there who look at you and wonder what they are "doing wrong" because they can't afford a PC and internet access. My wife and I own a manufacturing company based in Florida that employs about 30 people, mostly women and single moms, all of whom we consider part of our extended family. This last holiday season, we gave all of our employees PCs for their homes as a bonus for a profitable year. You would have thought that they had won the lottery from the reaction that we received! Don't get down on yourself. We all do what we can to make our lives enjoyable and live it to it's fullest.

 

[janethill]

We never took vacations when I was a kid, because "no money". Though, we lived in one very nice house. My parents were "house poor". My husband's family never took vacations because his parents were always saving for that rainy day that never came. They were extraordinarily "tight" with everything. They now have lots of money and kids that don't want to be around them. And now unless they plan their year of death just right, the government is going to get a significant portion of what they worked hard for and never enjoyed. How sad.

We make vacationing a priority. We live in a more modest house than we could afford, drive modest cars till they die, rarely eat out, no cable tv, and only shop for clothes on clearance racks. Our only extravagance is our pool membership.

We bought lots of timeshare weeks resale for cheap and away we go at least three full weeks a year. I rent out my extra weeks for extra money. Most meals on vacation we eat in. Out of pocket (including maintenance fees, net of rental income) about $2,500/yr. I admit when in Orlando, I will always do a timeshare presentation or two for park tickets.

 

[lillygator]

Florida residents
Seasonal Passes
Dining Card

We make vacations a priority.....we both work full time and have two kids ages 2 1/2 and 3 months!! We both get 2 weeks off...DH gets to pick one week and I pick one week....since we live in Florida we choose to go to Disney for usually 3 or 4 nights at a time - not really taking up vacation time. Anything longer than that is just a little too much for us. We have seasonal passes, the DDE card and only visit when there are Florida resident rates available....except for October....

This year our vacations are Disney along with a Disney cruise and Sanibel Island (DH)....we both chose the cruise to celebrate our wedding anniversary.....

we still have the normal bills along with 2 college funds and retirement funds but still manage to squeeze out a little excess for fun...............I figure you can't take it with you!!

 

[Christine]

As you can see from my signature, I haven't been since 2001. I was going every other year up until then, but after that point, it seemed I ran out of money!! I swear, for us, the cost of living has gotten way out of control and our salaries have not kept up.

At any rate, we are going this year and I just made a snap decision to do it. It all started with the airfare. I got RT tickets for $49 each way. That's a steal. I got a rental car for 1 week at $94. I'm staying at Shades of Green on the park at $97 a night (I realize not everyone can do this). Also, the vacation "charges" come in increments. I bought the airfare almost 2 months ago, so that is paid for now. One night's hotel was charged and paid for. When I get there I will charge the food and tickets. I have resigned myself to the fact that I *might* not pay them off in one month--it might take me up to 3 months. But maybe not.

I realize that is not the best solution, but like you, I don't have $3500 laying around. Both my DH and I work and we get NO tax refund (we pay). Both kids are in braces and both are in private school. We drive cheap cars and don't do much else. Can I really "afford" this vacation? Probably not. And I can't do it every year. So don't feel bad.

 

[3lilprincesses]

we have made family vacations a priority. we are a family of 5, and live on one income (i'm SAHM). we don't use credit cards so we don't waste money on interest. we don't buy new cars every couple of years. we haven't "upgraded" our house like so many of my friends. we are happy where we are. we save all of our change and roll it for vacations. we put the majority of our tax return towards vacation. we opened a separate savings account for vacation money. we put any "unexpected" money in that savings account -- birthday or christmas checks, bonuses from DH's work, garage sale earnings, etc.

life is so short. i have lost people at such young ages, and know it can happen to anyone. children will remember family vacations. it is worth budgeting to give them these memories.

 

[Chester's Mum]

My husband and I both work full time. Basically blue collar type jobs, we have a moderate house and an old car. Don't smoke, save by payroll deduction, don't go out to fancy places, most of our outings are with our two kids (16 and 11). We really value our vacation which used to be once a year, but now is usually every other year (because mom, that's me, likes staying in a nice room these days). Most years we drive down to Florida but we have flown twice, our last vacation in May 2004 was on site but that's the first time on site - POFQ (now I am spoiled I'll have to stay on site) driving down saved us about $1,000 canadian. For two weeks every other year, we don't worry about money, we eat in restaurants, and buy the kids as much ice cream as they want, and a few silly souvenirs. I have friends who go to all inclusives without their kids, who don't understand how we can afford disney vacations. I would not consider going away without the kids (they are sooo much fun). In low budget years I have sought out rooms that have a fridge or continental breakfast. We are more able to afford the nicer onsite accommodations now than when the kids were small. Our kids have a blast, and they (and we) have great memories and pictures of our trips together, so if we have to penny pinch a little to get there, it's worth it for us.

I am in the planning stage for our 20th anniversary in 2006. Gotta be onsite, so I am saving like the dickens. I'm aiming for Polynesian (yikes!)...will the 50th Anniversary Celebration still be on in May 2006?