How do you pay for your trip?

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Registered: 03-26-2003
How do you pay for your trip?
22
Wed, 07-05-2006 - 9:21am

Let's face it...a trip to Disney World is not cheap. I'd assume that most of us have to scrimp and save for such a trip! How do you fund a trip? Do you charge it and hope to pay it off, or pay it off slowly? Do you save until you have the cash and then go? Do you depend on your income tax refund? Do you save change in a jar or sell on Ebay? Do you earn Disney Rewards on the Visa? Do you set aside a certain amount from every paycheck?

We don't have a huge savings account, but when we are presented with a great Disney deal, we take the money out of savings and go (but we can only afford to do this every other year or so...never a few times a year!). Then when our income tax refund comes in, we just replenish our savings with it. I also sell a bit on Ebay (kids outgrown clothes in season) and I save that money for trip incidentals. And, we have the Disney Visa. Although I charge EVERYTHING on it and use it like a debit card (and pay it in full each month, so I never carry a balance), we've never earned enough rewards to pay for an entire trip. Our last trip, we had 300 points, which we used for souvies since we had free dining. If not for the dining, it would have helped pay for our food.

I also started substitute teaching for our school district in March, so I've banked that money instead of spending it! I'll be working part time and subbing again in the Fall, so that money will get banked into my special "rainy day" account too.

Just curious how the rest of you do it!!

Marcy

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Registered: 03-26-2003
Wed, 07-05-2006 - 5:07pm

Our 1st trip was a 3 day thing pretty cheap we just paid it a little at a time over the year we had 1 kid that cost and 1 kid that was free

 

amberglittery.gif picture by nickyglomski

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Registered: 03-26-2003
Wed, 07-05-2006 - 5:12pm

I work part time, and my hours are extremely flexible. I pay the house payment out of my check (bi-weekly) and whatever is leftover goes into a savings acct. That has been our WDW money for our 2005 trip and the one we're planning for 2007, providing nothing else comes up that will need the money. It is separate from our regular savings account.

We don't do more than we have cash to pay for. I do charge the trip to our Disney Visa to get the reward dollars, then I write and mail the check as soon as I get off the phone. We don't eat our more than maybe once a month if that (except for our anniversary or something), and we really don't spend extra money. I wanted some new clothes awhile back, but it came from what would have gone to the trip savings that time, and I was ok with that. My DS starts kindergarten in the fall at a private school, but that should be able to come out of our regular checking/savings accts, but we'll see.




Edited 7/6/2006 7:07 am ET by bigbabyblues
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Registered: 03-25-2003
Wed, 07-05-2006 - 6:26pm

How much do they charge for the kids to eat at school?

Our schools charge $1.25 for lunch and it's really good food (we are from Louisiana, you know!..lol) and it's really some of the best and most variety of food Aly eats (she is so picky at home and definitely at family things where there are certain people there to aggravate her about her eating habits). They can't warm up food at school, so I'd be stuck (and I did this for a few months when she was in K) sending her with sandwiches every day...the warm foods didn't even stay warm in a Thermos by the time they would eat. She also has to have her milk, and that's an extra 25¢ charge if you don't buy lunch.

Alysha


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Registered: 03-25-2003
Wed, 07-05-2006 - 6:39pm

We've done the change in a jar thing for our next trip (may be almost 2 years away), but that's for "extra" stuff...like a sit-down meal, which we normally don't do because it's too expensive, we don't like to take "park" time for a full meal, and when it's hot, we don't really eat that much, so it's a waste of money & food. But, that also depends on how much time we are down there--our last trip, we drove Friday, did the parks Sat, Sun, & Mon, and drove home Mon--no "downtime" and already a short trip (we prefer 4 days at the parks).

We usually just charge the trip as we can, and pay it off as soon as possible (usually right after).

But, we go on a MAJOR tight budget. We drive, so that saves a lot even with the price of gas, we bring our own breakfast foods, we stay off-site (which even with parking & driving, has always saved us a lot of money...we saved nearly $200 one trip when we could have gotten All Stars for $59/night). The most we have ever spent on one vacation was $1021 and that included CRT (when it was MUCH cheaper--$15.99 for adults, $7.99 for kids) and 1 meal & snack for my cousin who was working there and spent time with us. We're not souvenir types--Aly's favorite Disney souvenir is pressed pennies, so we do a bunch of those. One mistake that I will not repeat again is to rely on PB sandwiches for the trip. I'll gladly pay for counter service meals.

Alysha


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Registered: 07-04-2004
Thu, 07-06-2006 - 12:32am

For our trip in June we used my DH's yearly bonus from work.

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Registered: 10-25-2004
Thu, 07-06-2006 - 9:17am

We own our home and have 3 kids with my DH and I working jobs that have lots of deductables (Plus DH's "regular" job). We get a HUGE refund! We put it in our savings, and usually us it for things for the house, but this year, we couldn't pass up the free diining! We put it on the credit card, and paid it in full!! Yay!!

(ANd we are still going to paint the house htis year!)

~Elena
Going to the world in 45 days!!!

~Elena Princess Of Everyday Adventures! event.png
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Registered: 03-26-2003
Thu, 07-06-2006 - 3:40pm

Well we don't have credit cards or a savings account so to pay for our Disney trips, or any other trips we have to save. Often a tax return will finish paying it off, but what we usually do is make the reservation & pay the deposit, next we buy tickets when we can afford them, then we set a bit aside here and there and pay the balance when we check in. Of course that's for room only reservations. Packages have to be paid in full 45 days in advance, so that requires setting more aside sooner. We've always been lucky enough to get a discount code for the time we're going, but our trip has always already been booked when they are released so we just apply it.


We do drop extra change and singles into a big jar and then drop it in the coinstar machine before trips, we usually have $200-300 after coin star takes off it's counting fee so that's not to bad. That's our suvioner money. Also any refund/rebate checks we get are put aside for the trips. Sometimes to avoid temptation to dive into it I'll turn it into Disney $.


We drive down although with the distance now that we've moved and gas at $3 a tank flying looks more and more tempting!


My commision checks from this job are supposed to be deposited directly into a new savings account so we can buy a house again (renting stinks!) but I'll also pinch off a little bit to put in a Disney fund. Not much though, my commision isn't big and we really need our own house.


Sadly this Dec trip will be my last for a little while. I'm hoping to squeeze in the cruise my company is planning next Nov, but Amanda turns 3 in Jan 07($), then Dec 07 Megan turns 3 ($) and that following summer (08)Kait turns 10 ($$) so it may take me from this Dec to the 07 cruise to save for that and from the cruise until infinity to afford 3adults & 2 children. Big price change from 2 adults 1 child.


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Registered: 06-07-2004
Thu, 07-06-2006 - 3:53pm

Sonya,

I feel your pain on the adult thing. I want to squeeze in at least two more trips before our oldest turns 10. That is a year from december...........It is fun planning it but then the reality of paying for it kicks in.

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Registered: 03-26-2003
Thu, 07-06-2006 - 4:59pm

Ugh, I know all about the 10 y/o charged as an adult issue! We had to pay adult prices for my DS11 in September (he was 10 then). Luckily, we had the free dining, because he could only eat "so much" adult food. He's a good eater, but he does like his burgers and chicken fingers too! I think the adult selections were a bit rich for his system too...he spent quite a bit of time in the bathroom that trip (sorry, tmi!)

Anyway, next trip, no free dining (unless they offer it in May which I doubt!) so I'll be paying adult prices for him for dining too.

Marcy

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Registered: 03-26-2003
Thu, 07-06-2006 - 7:40pm
Part of the reason we are going this summer is I showed Joe the difference once Joey (who will be 10 Nov 19th) is charged adult prices he was more than Happy to go in August (although the Free dining helped most )


 

amberglittery.gif picture by nickyglomski