A VERY Nosy Budget Question!!

[hezell123]

I don't know if this question has been asked before but I'm curious as to what percent of your income do you save for vacations?!!! No one has to say the exact amount you make but that would be beneficial too! I see all these posts of people spending $5000+ on their vacations...I figure that's more than 10% of our annual income! THere is no way I could/would do that! I would guess for some that Disney is a major priority even more so than a nice car or eating meat every day !

I guess I'll go first then...
My husband has a job that he loves that pays 45k a year plus a vehicle and car insurance. I'm a stay at home mom of 3 wonderful young ones! I'm lucky if I can save $2000 a year to spend on vacations! I'm curious if anyone else is able to save more than that and in the same boat I'm in!!!! So I guess that's 4.44%

 

[momoftwins]

Hi, I am a SAHM with 5 yr old twins. In order for me to do so, we had to really cut back on spending. In order to save money, we go to the parks in February.

Being from New England, even the 60 degree Florida days seem like spring to us. We spend around $1000 for the park passes(not much you can do about this cost). We stay at the All-Stars and this usually costs us $600 - $800 for 7 days (we search for discounts - and yes, this year I am keeping my eyes glued to Mousesavers.com). We bring food from home. We eat breakfast in our room, sometimes bring lunch into the parks. If we do not bring lunch into the parks, we eat it for supper and have a snack for lunch in the parks.

We use Tiffany TownCar - $100.00 (includes tip).

As far as airfare, we usually get enough airmiles from my husbands travel to get at least one free airline ticket. In the past we have paid anywhere from $475 - $550 for three of us for RT from Providence, RI -my husband uses airmiles.

We allow the kids $20.00 each for souvenirs. Being so young, they find lots of inexpensive things to buy.

I save change throughout the year, we use a credit card that gives us cash back on all of our purchases, I play some of the reward games discussed on these boards, and for birthdays, Xmas, etc I ask for Disney Dollars. This year we are thinking about having a yard sale to help clean up the house and raise some money.

We chose Disney in February because it gives us a nice warm place to go in the winter. It has a lot of great family activities and is a nice safe place to go. We do not ski - and since I like to go somewhere warm in the winter, Disney has been our choice.

We are fairly frugal spenders and pretty good savers. In the summer, we go to the shore - which again can get expensive if you do not preplan.

I hope this gives you some encouragement.

Have a great day.

inkbounc inkbounc inkbounc inkbounc

 

[Roll-Tide]

Hi Hezell,
I guess I'll go second. My DH is a computer programmer and I'm a teachers aide. I guess together we make about 75k. We mainly save for our retirement and our 2 boys education. So our disney acct. only gets about 3k a year. If I did the math right that's about 4%. It ususally takes us 2 years to save up for our vacation. When we do go, we go for about 2 weeks. On our "off" years, we usually go to the beach instead.

It will be fun reading about everyone else.

Kim

 

[ChisJo]

Well, we just decided at the beginning of this year that we should try to go to WDW every 2 years. I am a full time college students, and have a full time waitressing job, so my income is unstable. My fiance is currently working 2 jobs to make ends meet for us in the next couple of months. A lot has come up this past month that we relly couldn't afford, so we are struggling,, but no matter what, we are going every 2 years. It keeps us sane, and romantic. We try to save $250 per month, so that would make it $5000 for every 2 years. It is hard, but no matter what, we save that money. And we will not use it no matter what comes up. Hopefully that helps.

Joline

 

[Lisa P.]

Good topic! Our annual routine vacation budget is ~$2,180 (3.3% of DH's gross salary). In addition, we put aside another $2,000 (3%) into savings/year, for RT airfares, upgrades and lengthening of one of our trips, about every other year. So our total travel budget is about 6.3% of his gross salary or about $4,180/year.

I home school our three preteens and don't work for $ right now. Depending on whether we bring along foster children, an exchange student or friends, we travel with 5-8 people for at least 2 separate weeks in timeshare condos, plus several camping weekends in our old pop-up. The basic budget covers our TS maint & exchange fees, campsites, food, transport, sightseeing, souvies, spending, etc - everything. We drive our van.

Our travel budget for over 10 years was only about $400/year, when we only went camping locally. Travel is a greater priority now, as our children get older and our budget is balanced and debt free. In the next 18 months, we've booked at least a week in each: Williamsburg, NYC, Washington DC and Orlando - no airfares. The following year we've got a $$$ Grand Canyon/California trip planned. Our cheapie timeshares make the regular trips affordable within our budget.

 

[Riverview]

I'm a single dad and we spend about 7% if you factor in all the expenses. Lisa P. you will LOVE the Grand Canyon. It was one of the most awesome things I have ever seen.
Riverview

 

[imgoingtodisney]

This year our vacation fund is about 10% of our total income. Both my husband and I work full-time but currently only make about $50,000 per year. Ive been back to work full time for 3 years now. (Son is now 9). The twelve years before he was born I worked at a job that left me with an enormous amount in profit sharing! So we do not have to save for retirement. If it wasnt for this fund I would not be spending money for this trip so easily. This year Ive been saving money for Disney by (1) charging $100 each month at Disney store for disney dollars to be used for PS, (2) Ive been giving son and husband Disney dollars from tooth fairy, valentines day, fathers day, birthdays, report cards, etc and (3) when there are 5 paycheck weeks in a month the 5th check goes to the Wilderness Lodge.

 

[SlightlyGoofy]

We are retired and spend about 20% of our budget on traveling. The majority of it has been spent at WDW in the year and a half we have been retired. We have everything paid for and owe nothing so we can afford to spend a higher percentage of our income. I figure that we should spend more for fun now while we are able so that when the days come that we cannot go we will have good memories and besides I figure when we can't go we won't need so much money. I hope I am planning right.

We went on vacations even when we could not really afford it as my DH insisted. There were times that I would have rather spent the money fixing up the home where we spent the other 50 weeks a year.

Everyone has their own priorities and as long as everyone can agree basically - you should do what you want. You work harder when you have a goal to work toward and WDW is a worthy goal IMHO.

Some postings can scare off people who have never been before since the prices that they can afford to pay are awesome and unreachable for some but you can do WDW on a budget and still have a blast. Who you go with matters the most.

Slightly Goofy

 

[mommyto3]

We go to WDW every two years and the price of our vacation is about $7200. If we would save every month for two years it wouldn't be bad, but I am a procrastinator. Our next trip is this December and I haven't saved ANYTHING. So starting in July, I will have to save $1400 a month. OUCH!! Especially since my husband just got a new car. (An unexpected expense, we live in Houston where it had that horrible flooding a couple of weeks ago and he lost his car in the flooding.) So the next few months will be tight. I will have to save every penny because we don't believe in charging our vacations. (Nothing worse than having a great trip and then come home in debt!!) Anyway, I'm a stay at home mom with three kids. My husbands salary is about 65k. We don't really have a vacation budget, we just start saving when the time gets close. But I think after this trip, I will start putting away money every month, just to make life easier.

 

[GoofyBeth]

Well, I'm single woman with no kids . I don't travel and/or vacation very much. I make about $32K a year so there isn't much left over.

This year Disney became more affordable for me .. and I'm staying at All Stars Music. And I'm driving down. Actually, my dad, sister and I are driving down .. Dad is dropping me and sis at All Stars and then he is visiting friends in Tampa. So that saves me money.

All told, I'm spending about $900 for the passes and lodging ... and I'm taking about $900 for spending money. Then I won't take another vacation for another 3 or 4 years.

Beth

 

[beansmom]

We spend about 5% of our income on vacation ($5000 every two years). I decided a couple of years ago that I'm not waiting for the 'right' time anymore.

My dad at 61 had never been to WDW but always wanted to go to EPCOT. In fact, he and his wife had a trip planned for the following spring but in September he was diagnosed with inoperable colon cancer and died six weeks later.

Life is too short to wish instead of get and you ain't takin' it with you, so spend in here and make some memories for yourself and your family.

 

[imgoingtodisney]

In 1996 we spent 2 weeks at Disney - 1 week was suppose to be at inlaws near Vero Beach but FIL got very sick. This Oct MIL is coming with husband, 9yr son and myself for 6 nights at Wilderness Lodge. Then we will go to her house for 3 nights. You're right about the memories - my son will have the memories with my MIL that he never had with FIL.

 

[katefromny]

I am also a SAHM with a 4year old and a 1 year old, my husband makes approx $35,000 annually. I do per-diem work from time to time in a local hospital, so anything I get there goes into our vacation fund. I also hunt for bargains at yard sales, and turn around and sell 'em on ebay, sometimes for substantial profit margin. Half of this money goes towards vacation planning as well. We save change, christmas and birthday money and plan, plan, plan. Next year, we are staying at WDW at the Boardwalk Villas and WLV for 8 nights in a 2 bedroom (we are taking my sister and her family as a surprise christmas present). We started planning this a year ago, and have paid off rooms ( we rented from a DVC member), 7 day passes, car rental and are working on the airfare. We obviously can't do this every year, there are too many other things to save for and to experience...but for now, it works for us--and it can be done without a 6 figure income.

 

[Lissete]

My husband is a firefighter/paramedic and we live on his income. I am a Realtor and my income is used for play! I don't work full time but it works out really well. We are also FL. Res. and DVC Members, that helps out alot!

 

[Kermit]

I guess we're in the minority. We don't really save for our vacations. We just pay with the discretionary money in our monthly budget. You have to pay for your rooms before you get there, so we pay that ahead of time with extra money that's in the checking account. If we get LOS passes, we pay for them at the same time. Then we pay for food, gas, and that type of thing the same way. Since it's over a month since we paid for the room, there's extra money in the account again. We drive instead of flying, so travel expenses are minimal.

We stay in moderates and don't spend a whole lot on food. We usually eat at one full service restaurant each day, and we usually share an entree and each order soup or salad. We eat fast food and snacks the rest of the time. All in all, we spend less than 2% of our annual income on a trip. We go on lots of long weekend trips throughout the year, sometimes in our pop-up and sometimes at hotels, so we don't want to blow too much on one vacation.

 

[aec]

We got really lucky this year. A friend offered to let us have their timeshare week at cost (which they were going to loose). The cost for 1 week at HGVC is about $175. I got a full size car through dollar for a base weekly rate of $109. I'm hoping to get a deal on southwest (guessing about $675 for four RT tickets) for our flight when ever they get around to posting November fares! The park tickets are going to run about $1100 including disney and Seaword. We keep souveniers and meals as low as possible. I expect the 8 night trip to cost about $2200. That's less than 2% of our gross pay of about $125K combined (I work partime but we also pay for daycare for one and private school for the other which eats up a lot of my pay). Disney is pretty much our only vacation cost this year. We are flying up to visit my folks on cape cod this summer but the only cost is the flight which was a steal at $280 total for four RT tickets on South West.

 

[sablair]

I dont really WANT to do the math on this one..haha. We spend about 5% of our incomes on vacations each year... this trip will be about 3% of that. DH works OT and umpires baseball and Refs basketball to fund our vacation so it really doesnt come out of what we call income. Shhh.. dont tell him that though.. he works very HARD for the "play" money for us!

We used to be deep in debt because we didnt know how to manage our money and vacations always left us catching up on bills. It was so stressful!!! 6 years ago when we bought our house we went on a very strict budget.. payed off all our credit card debt and we only buy something now after the bills and savings account is paid and ONLY if we can buy it with cash. We also refuse to commit more than 25% of our income to fixed payments (car, house, daycare, utilities).

Finally, we feel free to go on vacations and spend our money on fun without guilt!! We are travelling to Disney at the same time as friends and one made the comment about our "extravagant" trip because we are flying, doing character meals and spending money on things they arent. My response was that I would rather spend it at WDW memories than on a $30,000 vehicle or other material things that will wear out in a few years!

8 days to go!!!!!

~Sheila

 

[jadyson]

I totally agree with Sablair. My sister and cousin just don't understand why I won't buy a new car because mine is 8 years old. Whenever I announce to the family that we're going to WDW again, they say "How can you afford to go AGAIN?" I tell them imagine if they took that $300 (or more) a month that they are spending on their cars and put it into a vacation savings. That usually ****s them up pretty quick!!

By the way we usually spend about $4000 every year on our trips, which would be about 7% of our gross income. This year we had airfare vouchers from Delta so our expenses are low, about $2000 for 8 days.

 

[UrsulaFan]

We average 5% each year for vacation. I have 2 main ways of saving for it: 1) We claim no dependents to get a large tax refund, when it comes we buy a short term CD with it to keep it "Unavailable" and 2) I have a Christmas club that I renamed a Vacation Club account at the bank & they draw money out of my checking acct. each & every week. We go on vacation generally in the fall, due to my husbands work & I get the club check the first week of October. This has worked out great for us. 9 yo DS wants to take our $6000 this year & put in a pool instead of vacation! Yeah, Right!

 

[Minniemom2girls]

Just wanted to say a BIG "GREAT JOB" to all of you who are stay at home moms. I am working toward that goal (I'm currently at 10-15 hours per week). Hurray to you for doing the most important job in the world and finding the money to do WDW as well. We had to severely cut back our expenses this year due to my pay cut. We used to spend 4,000 to 5,000 for a week trip. This year we went 15 days and our total was right at $1500. We are DVC members so accomodations are not included in that. Airfare for 4 - $312, car for 2nd week $150, Tiffany, one way $50, food and souvenirs $700, park tickets $350. It was the best trip ever for us! It wasn't about rushing around spending money on everything in sight. Instead, we took our time and THOROUGHLY enjoyed ourselves for much less money. It can be done! And we had a BLAST!