Save, save, and save some more!
We don't have credit cards either so we save every pennt before we leave.
I run my own business which is going very well so we're lucky now to be able to afford Florida and not sacrifice days out, takeaways etc.
But the last time we went I was a single mother who wasn't working. It took 2 years of me saving everything, quitting smoking, shopping in aldi, coupons, second hand clothes, no new clothes for me at all etc to get there, and we did it
This time I pay all the bills I need to pay in the week first (I pay myself weekly) and whatever I have left I save.
I go to the post office every day with my job and at first every time I went I got $20 and put it in my jar at home, then the rate dropped. So instead I went to the cashpoint next door every day and took £10-£50 depending on whether it was pay day or not lol and put it in my terramundi pot.
I've had two pots in the last year and both times I've smashed it I've had over £800 in there!
I use teco clubcard and transfer them to airmile/avios. Eventually this will pay for a holiday but not for a while yet, in the meantime I've used them for car hire, the hotel the night before the flight and travel insurance, all technically free
It does make me feel a little sick when it hits me how expensive two weeks will cost, I could have put a deposit on a house for it! I did get a good deal, family of 5, flights, 2 weeks in a villa with car for just over £3k. Then tickets on top of that, including discovery cove for us all and a night in HRH, plus around $3500 spending money, it's costing us around £7k!
But, it is so worth it, and I only want to go every few years because of the cost.
I'm another who would never go to DLP. I don't feel I could after going to WDW first. I priced it up and worked out it costs more than 3x as much per night in dlp than it does WDW.
Obviously you wouldn't spend two weeks in dlp, you'd be bored, only two parks, no sun etc but if you did it would cost far more than WDW would!