[lucycoe]

Today I called Disney and made a payment on my trip.
Even though it was only a 200.00 payment,
I still have a ways to go!
How do you guys payoff your trip?
I still have untill Jully 11th to finish paying on it.
If you guys dont mind me asking.
Thanks for any ideas.

[Willbegone]

Well, I usually start a year in advance saving for my trip. For my next trip in March I'm taking some ideas from people here at DC. I've started subtracting extra $$ from check book register and writing it on a seperate piece of paper. For me personally if my records show I have so much $$ that is what I go by not ATM balances or my statement so I'm doing pretty good with that. I have also started saving ALL my change in a jar. We also have used tax returns or credit cards ( I prefer not to use CC but if I must I must).

I'm sure there will be many more great ideas.

[buzzsmommy]

Originally posted by Willbegone
I've started subtracting extra $$ from check book register and writing it on a seperate piece of paper. For me personally if my records show I have so much $$ that is what I go by not ATM balances or my statement so I'm doing pretty good with that.

Willbegone I thought I was the only one who did this!!! My accountant husband won't do the bills at home because he does it all day long. So, I use a "creative accounting system" like yours all the time. My DH says its scares him!! And, he'd rather not know!! But, after 12 years, I've never bounced yet and always come through with the cash!! Here's to "creative accounting" and great minds thinking a like!!

[Willbegone]

Buzzsmom,
:laugh :laugh What drives my DH bonkers is I round everything up. Like if I write a check for say $25.18 then I round it up to $26 in my register. That is a good word for it "creative accounting" I like that.

[skwak]

Willbegone is right! The change jar idea works well.:laugh

We have been saving any "found" money so that we will not be overwhelmed when we return. I define "found" money as anything that I wasn't really counting on like tax refunds, product rebates, our VISA annual cashback rebate, the small amount of money we get from watching the neighbor's kid once a week, etc.

Everytime it happens, I turn to my wife any say....Hey, found money!:D Then, we squirrel it away!

We probably will not save enough in advance but it will take the edge off the big bills.

[alextina]

My bank has a vacation club and this is how we save alot of money for our trips and I think most banks have them. They take whatever amount you tell them to out of your paycheck each pay period before you ever have a chance to get your hands on it. Then they put all that money in an account and at the end of the year (the vacation club ends/begins in May each year) they pay your interest to you for the whole year and move the money from your vacation club into your checking account. This works well if you have tendencies toward barrowing because the only way to get the money out of this account before the year is up is to physically go into the bank and make a withdrawl. I am pretty good at saving on my own but I do have a tendency to borrow on occasion so this works well I can't touch the money unless I go into the bank, and I hate going to the bank.

[preidel24]

We start saving from the end of our last vacation and when we get a substanial amount we book our vacation. For example if I have 3,000.00 saved I would feel safe booking a seven night vacation that would cost 2700.00. Since our trip isn't until Oct I break it down into weeks (139 days or approx 20 weeks). After that I decide how much money I need for dinners, recreation etc. Say I feel I need 2,000 spending money I divide the 20 weeks by the 2,000.00 (I need to put away $100.00 a week) and I put away that much money weekly. It works great and never having to worry about paying for any vacation items when we get home is very relaxing. Then we can start planning and saving for our next vacation.

The kids save change and pennies this is strictly their money for them to spend on whatever. Last year they saved 173.00 just in pennies (never forget those pennies they add up fast). Hope this helps.

Paula

[neen626]

We usually use our tax refund money for vacation.
I would like to splurge on a nice weeklong trip next spring, staying at the CBR, WL or AKL, and buying AP's. So that is where our refund money will go :)
Also we collect any and all change and have a big water jug that it goes into. Right now it is almost 1/2 way full :)

[tinkerbell]

Originally posted by buzzsmommy
Here's to "creative accounting" and great minds thinking a like!!

I do the same thing!! Like Willbegone I round it off to the next $
in the past we have always paid our WDW vacation out but this year I put it on a credit card.

[tiggerlover1971]

for julys trip I have been saving money from each paycheck my husband and I get ( we just paid the hotel off ) and we already have the tickets (annuals ) but we have to renew them when we are up there ( we still will have a week on them but we are going in October again so its cheaper to renew then buy whole new annual . so for julys trip we actually only need food money

For octobers trip since my husband just got the Disney visa we are going to get the hotel room and put the deposit on there and pay it off each month and keep putting the hotel payments till we get to disney on it that way we can earn disney reward dollars :D :laugh and still have a vaction plus my husband get an extra check ( gets paid three times instead of two in october ) so we are taking that and all the change we save in a jar ( we are not taking the change in july because we want to save it for octobers trip ) since we will be there longer

[mickaholic4077]

I love the change jar idea. I use it now. In fact I just deposited 47 dollars in my savings Disney account from change collected from Feb.2nd.

[DisneyAnne]

The change jar can absolutely add up - when we got married, I was working for Ruby Tuesdays as a waitress. At night, I would take all of the change in my apron and dump it into a jar for our honeymoon. After 3 months, I had $678.00 - and believe it or not, that paid for most of our trip to WDW - Man, have times changed!!!

I also sell a few things on ebay and that money is tucked away for Disney. The Paypal account makes it easy to save until I am ready for our trip.

[lucycoe]

:!: :!: :!: :) :) Thanks for all the advice:!: :!: :!: :!:
A lot of good info:!: :!:

[DisneyTeacher]

We also do the change jar, It seems to add up pretty fast. When we know it is for a WDW vacation we seem to leave to silver in it so we can get 200 to 300 dollars out of it. We also put "found money" away in a savings account. My DH also teaches for 2 local colleges and that money gets put back when we can afford to.

We have also been giving our DS Disney Dollars as much as possible. He can't spend them on junk at home and we can't borrow from him in a pinch. He will have $200 (all in ones!!) in July when we go to spend between his weekly allowance and birthday. Plus it is fun for him to get Mickey money.

[disneymaverick]

i love everyone's ideas. My boyfriend and i use a paint can and put all our loose change in it. We start it the day we get back from the last disney trip and dont turn it in till the night before we leave. we also throw in that change can all our unused ones at the end of the day so far we have been saving for 8 months and have $260 just in ones alone. we keep those for tips and for fun stuff at disney! This is the first trip we have paid cash for everything. i used my debit card for plane tickets and for the hotel. helps not to have the cc bill at the end of the trip!

we also put all the bottle return money in the disney can!!

hope this helps!