How do you afford it?

[jjpenguin]

Great thread

Isn't it strange that people look at what you have or what you do to see if you're "rich". I suppose a lot of people see us that way as well, we live in a great house in the poshest part of town and holiday at least once a year to Florida or other long haul destinations and if at all possible try and get a couple of weekend breaks in as well.

However, a great deal of the house was bought with the money left when my parents died (my mum died before she was 65 and my dad gave up after that but still hung on for another five years,desperately unhappy and drinking too much. I'm an only child.). and we are grateful for that every day. One of the lessons that this taught me was not to wait till "later"; they did and couldn't do anything they had saved for as my mum was too ill.

This is why we also put part of the money into DVC so that we could do what is important to us, take time to relax and enjoy each other's company at a magical place that we both love (me a bit more than DH!!)

My job pays the bills and DH is setting up his own company which is finally starting to earn something. This means that there isn't much time to go away so we want to make the most of it when we do.

Like others have said we have no social life and don't drink, smoke or have a big car, we prefer to spend our money on travel. Since we've been a one income household we have cut down on eating out, clothes etc. preferring to spend our money on what we find important. You can only spend it once!!

 

[Frances999]

Good on yer Red Snapper.

I totally agree. AndRu's comments were totally unjustified and very unfair.

Furthermore, I have always thought that the "point" of putting which Orlando-area hotels you have stayed in in your signature was so that other DIS members considering those hotels for a future trip could ask you questions, as they know you have first-hand knowledge of what the hotel is like.

 

[Miffy2003]

I'm not sure what some of the comments on this thread say about me; we have stayed at offsite hotels for $19 per room per night and also at hotels costing $300+ per room per night.

I was the same person in the $19 room as I was in the $300 room.

As to how I afford it?

I pay all my bills and then if I have enough left over to go on holiday, I do. And I consider myself extremely fortunate to have been able to do so

 

[dandee00]

Hello
This is such a great thread I thought I would subscribe. I'm getting some great ideas on how to save money for our next big trip.

DH and I have the philosophy to enjoy everyday and be thankful for it. So no matter how much the vacation costs at Disney, we manage to do it and have a great time together!!!

 

[angel659]

Hey lets not start on each other. This was meant to be a friendly thread and not for people to start judging what people can and cant afford or where we choose or how we choose to spend our money. Problem with threads we all can take things out of context.

So lets get back on topic. Mummy has spoken




Seriously lets try not to judge everyone.

 

[JohnnySharp2]

Hey lets not start on each other. This was meant to be a friendly thread and not for people to start judging what people can and cant afford or where we choose or how we choose to spend our money. Problem with threads we all can take things out of context.

So lets get back on topic. Mummy has spoken

Seriously lets try not to judge everyone.

Agreed, AndRu and Red Snapper are good mates of mine , come on guys

Johnny has spoken too!!

 

[Tron[ADS]]

Our recent trip was helped significantly by me exploiting a loophole on a high street banks' credit card which paid cashback on spends...unfortunately for them, they neglected to exclude "balance transfers" as a qualifying spend. I took out 6 other cards with zero percent interest and no balance transfer fees, and then bounced money back and forth between them and the loophole card for 3 months, earning myself £1300 with no personal outlay before they realised what I was doing and closed the loophole. Give them their dues, I never expected to be paid out, but they did.

 

[Kevin Stringer]

We too dont have a lavish lifestyle, have a small mortgage (to match our small house ) and share a car. We just save and save. Can i be cheeky and ask how much the DVC initial payment is.... you can message me personally or send me a link where i can find out more......

Thanks

Sorry Julia Ann, it's taken me a while to get back to this thread.
Our initial DVC interest cost us about £7,000 I think for 180 points back in 2000. It would be considerably more now. We bought at $65 a point, it's pushing $100 a point now.

I still find it hard to believe that I have had some wonderful holidays using the DVC and yet I could still sell it now for more than I paid for it, not that I ever would.

Kev

 

[TracyK]

Im a single mum and I get asked this all the time, how can you afford to keep going back to Florida, well I tell them, I work full time, plus do part time work when I can get it, I save really hard, I dont have a full social life, when I do go out its normally as a special occasion or round to friends houses where little or no money needs to be spent, I buy myself very little throughout the year, my daughter now has a Saturday and Holiday job before she starts college and is also saving every penny she gets for our next holiday. I wouldnt change it for the world as its a precious time for me to spend 2 weeks with my daughter in a relaxing atmosphere without the worrys of normal life.

I know that in the next couple of years, my daughter will move on to wanting to go on holidays with her friends so I am making the most of every year that she is with me and indeed wants to holiday with me.

Ditto Sue.
I could have written that post except I have a DS . He's 16 now and I'm just glad we did this when we could because he'll be going away with his friends in a couple of years.

Tracy

 

[susan1]

So exactly why are you doing a Harry Enfield "Loadsamoney" impression then with your comments on the thread and your signature if you don't want people to care?

Look at mah wad!!!!

hi
these two posts cracked me up! when this topic was aired a couple of years ago somone from their "ivory tower" said that "now offsite hotels are charging walmart prices one is getting walmart type people in the disney parks
actually if the post you are referring to was mine, you will see that i carefully edited the agreement to show that i only agreed with 3 budget holidays in a year rather than one big spend! i certainly don't care if you stay at the g.f. or the ritz carlton but i bet the walmart people are more fun to play with

 

[Andrew DEREK UK]

Our recent trip was helped significantly by me exploiting a loophole on a high street banks' credit card which paid cashback on spends...unfortunately for them, they neglected to exclude "balance transfers" as a qualifying spend. I took out 6 other cards with zero percent interest and no balance transfer fees, and then bounced money back and forth between them and the loophole card for 3 months, earning myself £1300 with no personal outlay before they realised what I was doing and closed the loophole. Give them their dues, I never expected to be paid out, but they did.

Pardon the flame but what is the difference in doing this and walking into a branch and taking £1300 which is not yours, everyone else has to pay for this, in charges and fees.

 

[Clare D]

We save, save and save for our holidays. I work 4 full days whilst DH works full time in a very busy and very stressful job. Our holidays are about spending quality time together as a family which is why I save like mad.
As our circumstances have changed so have the hotels we have stayed in. You never know what is around the corner so we make the most of what we have now.
We rarely go out and we don't lead a lavish lifestyle my only vice is Disney.
If we were doing 14 days onsite I wouldn't probably be able to afford to stay in the GF but for 3 nights I wanted to try the experience.

 

[wayneg]

Pardon the flame but what is the difference in doing this and walking into a branch and taking £1300 which is not yours, everyone else has to pay for this, in charges and fees.

Not sure exactly how Tron[ADS] has done this but if its a lophole done within the banks terms and conditions I don't see why he should be critisised for doing it. Sorry but I am totally against banks, I have money invested in different banks but my main business account is with Natwest, I overdrew £9 last year after 15 years of being in credit. They had the nerve to charge me £125 fees to set up an overdraft because it was in their T&C's they could. It took me 6 months and a letter to their complaints dept. to get refunded. They had one of my savings accounts with over £90k in but could not take any of that to cover the £9 overdraft. Banks are way too greedy.

 

[AndRu]

Pardon the flame but what is the difference in doing this and walking into a branch and taking £1300 which is not yours, everyone else has to pay for this, in charges and fees.

So, a bank customer is at fault if they get extra charges because they didn't read the small print. Yet if the customer reads the small print and takes (legal) advantage of a situation that the bank allows, how can that also be the customers fault?

Well played Tron - David gets one in the eye of the Goliath banking corporations.

 

[angel659]

Pardon the flame but what is the difference in doing this and walking into a branch and taking £1300 which is not yours, everyone else has to pay for this, in charges and fees.

Banks make a fortune from most of us, I say if theres a loophole, exploit the hell out of it.

Oh.. and im claiming some charges back from my bank, which will go directly to next years trip when I succeed.

 

[Obi Wan Kenobi]

banks are no different to any other buisness. They are NOT a social service or a charity. Why on earth do people think that they should be?

If in your buisness, someone takes liberty with their account you don't just accept it, to do so is the way to bankruptcy.

Its the same as people ripping off insurance companies, in the end everyone else ends up paying for their selfish rip off.

A bank is there to make money. Airlines are there to make money, hell, even Disney is there to make money.

 

[kevin harrison]

Oh.. and im claiming some charges back from my bank, which will go directly to next years trip when I succeed.

Me also. What stage have you reached?

 

[mushumadness]

please dont start on banks I get agro and abusive off "customers" every day about charges etc for them going onvr their limit (which they should know, I know my account limits). And I can definatly say the staff in branches never benefit from anything the bank earns, And did you know the banks get charged by the companies who the moneys are paid to when an account goes over drawn.

Anyhow back to topic, alot of next years trip is combined with inheritance (I get it at 25 but would sooner have my granddad) which is why its now three weeks the rest is pure saving, especially my mum and dads trip we are buying for them

 

[CHRIS_PRESTON]

Hi JohnnySharp 2,

I now where your coming from, having a child with a disability (Joe 8 - Autism) changes your priorities. Our trip last year was supposed to be a one off - but you've guessed it - we've booked again for April 07 - nothing can beat Joe's the cheer joy on Joe's face everyday of our holiday - like you we don't know what the future holds. When the children are grwon up they won't remember if we have the lastest car or the smartest house but hopefully they'll remember the holidays they had and do the same with their children.

 

[fizz13]

have to say, i am also in the process of claiming my charges back from the bank. It was talked about on Lorraine kelly a couple of weeks ago, and there is an article on the GMTV website with step by step instructions. I agree i should know my own limit, but my bank has got very clever at moving the dtaes around on when things go through, so what it says on my account online my not be accurate, hence the charges when I then pay a bill.

To answer the OP, I book my holiday about 18 months in advance normally, and then pay off equal amounts each month so its spread out nicely. This time for my October trip, I paid £200 p.m. so it was affordable. If i tried to pay it all at once it just wouldn't happen. having said that, i have been known to run up a credit card now and again