How do you pay for your Disney (& other) holidays?

[lovemickey]

Originally Posted by loola30

Some good tips here! I know it sounds silly but I'd never considered saving £2 coins for spending money or anything like that! I'm going to get one of those jars you have to smash open and start.

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Poundland tins are much cheaper and can only be opened with a tin opener. They can hold a lot of change as well!

[ali-s]

Originally Posted by Bozza

I used to treat holidays like a bill, along with things like insurances, RAC membership, family and friends birthday presents and even Christmas. Basically things that needed to be paid once a year. Rather than scrambling to find the money in the month in question, each month I moved a sum of money equal to the combined sum of all these things into a savings account, eg:

RAC - £10
Car tax - £15
Car Insurance - £25
House/contents Insurance - £30
Car maintenance - £100 (for when things go wrong, MOT and tyres etc)
Presents - £150
Christmas - £50

...and I'd keep a spreadsheet of how much was in each 'pot'.

Doing this meant we never had a time when, for example, the car needed two new tyres and we'd think "could have done without that this month" as the money was already set aside.

I'd also save £700 a month for holidays with the intention that we'd have an expensive holiday one year and a cheaper the next.

Around a year ago I gave up work and have largely dossed around since so the above system, which works very well, has gone by the wayside a bit as I don't have an income to take the money out of monthly!

(Still hoping to squeeze in a Florida cheapie though if we can - you only live once, right?!?)

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This is what I do , though my wages make up the bulk of our holiday savings. I buy flights as soon as I see a good price , whether or not I have the funds saved. I use my Tesco credit card then do a balance transfer to a zero interest longer term card. My Tesco clubcard points are paying our rail fare to the airport this year.
Accommodation etc is booked on a separate credit card and paid off in full each month with my savings.
DH is self employed and his income is variable which plays havoc with my budget. It usually evens out over the year though ,in time to pay off the flights on the credit card.

[hornetgirl]

We use the Bozza/Clare method to ensure we have money for broken boilers, car repairs etc as well as holidays. When the money is there we will book using a credit card - for protection, avios, etc - then pay it off as soon as the bill arrives. With things like Disney, we might pay chunks off before they are actually due if we need to hit a credit card spend to trigger bonus points or 241 vouchers.
We would never, ever pay on a credit card without the means to pay it off or use a loan for a holiday. If we don't have the funds, we don't go.

[katiec68]

Originally Posted by loola30

Some good tips here! I know it sounds silly but I'd never considered saving £2 coins for spending money or anything like that! I'm going to get one of those jars you have to smash open and start.

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We were given a terramundi pot that you are supposed to smash.

DH drilled a hole in the bottom so we could reuse it 😂😂😂😂 (he hates wasting money! )

The TA wondered what the red dust was on the £2 coins 😅😅

Katie x

[Hooray4Disney]

Originally Posted by katiec68

We were given a terramundi pot that you are supposed to smash.

DH drilled a hole in the bottom so we could reuse it 😂😂😂😂 (he hates wasting money! )

The TA wondered what the red dust was on the £2 coins 😅😅

Katie x

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We drilled a hole in ours too! The red dust goes everywhere! 😂
We have used gaffa tape to fill the hole - works fine ... ☺

[katiec68]

Originally Posted by Hooray4Disney

We drilled a hole in ours too! The red dust goes everywhere! 😂
We have used gaffa tape to fill the hole - works fine ... ☺

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😂😃😂😂😂 same here with a little bit of card. Had it neatly 10 years now! And never once been tempted to dip into it!

X x

[clanmacbeath]

We have a savings account and put money aside each month. We also have a pot for £2 coins and a tin for loose change. We don't go every year as we are worried it may loose its sparkle so tend to only visit every 2 to 3 years. In between we go on holiday to the med and greece.

[MagicC]

My method of payment is slightly different to all of the above.
On the 9th June 2010 we lost our beloved 10 year old Labrador Zoe to cancer. By September the air of gloom had still not lifted and as we had not been to Florida since 2005, I thought another visit might be what was needed to raise our spirits. The previous four visits had been paid by the working individuals with the cost of our youngest daughter who was still at school and one Grandchild divided equally among us.
How to finance this unplanned holiday though would be the problem as all the kids, except the youngest had left home by then and were heavily committed to mortgages etc.
At the time I was a very heavy smoker which was costing me €175.00 a week or €9100.00 a year so the ciggies were going to pay for the holiday, if I could give them up that is. I had stopped thousands of times before but staying off them was always my problem so before mentioning my plan I would have to give the undertaking some very serious thought. I was lucky in so far as the council I worked for ran a very good Credit Union with repayments on any loan secured stopped at source so once I made the commitment there would be no going back.
The next day I woke up to a cigarette free world for the first time in God knows how many years and arranged a loan with repayments stretched out over two years using the money I would be saving. I then contacted the family and had them organise a two week holiday which helped to ease the pain as we now had something positive to focus on. We traveled over in November and thankfully it had the desired effect
In 2012, just as I finished off the loan another event occurred which created a perfect situation for us to have our longest, and what turned out to be our best ever holiday in Florida. We had taken out a 25 year mortgage in 1987 on the house we now live in and the final payment was made on the 15th September that year. This money and the €175.00 cigarette money now went towards borrowing for a four week stay in Florida over Christmas that year for the entire family then numbering 16. We did practically EVERYTHING we wanted and we really had a fantastic time.
We are away to Florida again this November for 3 weeks and yes I am still off the smokes but unfortunately, as I retired in 2014 my borrowing power is no longer there so we have had to revert to the old system of paying. Do I miss the cigarettes? Yes, and that’s a big yes. I have often said, half joking whole in earnest, that if I was to win the Lottery tomorrow the first thing I would buy is a packet of cigarettes.

[neilhd]

Originally Posted by MagicC

My method of payment is slightly different to all of the above.
On the 9th June 2010 we lost our beloved 10 year old Labrador Zoe to cancer. By September the air of gloom had still not lifted and as we had not been to Florida since 2005, I thought another visit might be what was needed to raise our spirits. The previous four visits had been paid by the working individuals with the cost of our youngest daughter who was still at school and one Grandchild divided equally among us.
How to finance this unplanned holiday though would be the problem as all the kids, except the youngest had left home by then and were heavily committed to mortgages etc.
At the time I was a very heavy smoker which was costing me €175.00 a week or €9100.00 a year so the ciggies were going to pay for the holiday, if I could give them up that is. I had stopped thousands of times before but staying off them was always my problem so before mentioning my plan I would have to give the undertaking some very serious thought. I was lucky in so far as the council I worked for ran a very good Credit Union with repayments on any loan secured stopped at source so once I made the commitment there would be no going back.
The next day I woke up to a cigarette free world for the first time in God knows how many years and arranged a loan with repayments stretched out over two years using the money I would be saving. I then contacted the family and had them organise a two week holiday which helped to ease the pain as we now had something positive to focus on. We traveled over in November and thankfully it had the desired effect
In 2012, just as I finished off the loan another event occurred which created a perfect situation for us to have our longest, and what turned out to be our best ever holiday in Florida. We had taken out a 25 year mortgage in 1987 on the house we now live in and the final payment was made on the 15th September that year. This money and the €175.00 cigarette money now went towards borrowing for a four week stay in Florida over Christmas that year for the entire family then numbering 16. We did practically EVERYTHING we wanted and we really had a fantastic time.
We are away to Florida again this November for 3 weeks and yes I am still off the smokes but unfortunately, as I retired in 2014 my borrowing power is no longer there so we have had to revert to the old system of paying. Do I miss the cigarettes? Yes, and that’s a big yes. I have often said, half joking whole in earnest, that if I was to win the Lottery tomorrow the first thing I would buy is a packet of cigarettes.

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Welcome to The Dibb!

I gave up smoking many years ago in order to buy a sports car. No longer have the car but wouldn't dream of having another cig now! Very pleased you did it but please don't start again if you win the lottery!

[Leyfy]

Originally Posted by MagicC

My method of payment is slightly different to all of the above.
On the 9th June 2010 we lost our beloved 10 year old Labrador Zoe to cancer. By September the air of gloom had still not lifted and as we had not been to Florida since 2005, I thought another visit might be what was needed to raise our spirits. The previous four visits had been paid by the working individuals with the cost of our youngest daughter who was still at school and one Grandchild divided equally among us.
How to finance this unplanned holiday though would be the problem as all the kids, except the youngest had left home by then and were heavily committed to mortgages etc.
At the time I was a very heavy smoker which was costing me €175.00 a week or €9100.00 a year so the ciggies were going to pay for the holiday, if I could give them up that is. I had stopped thousands of times before but staying off them was always my problem so before mentioning my plan I would have to give the undertaking some very serious thought. I was lucky in so far as the council I worked for ran a very good Credit Union with repayments on any loan secured stopped at source so once I made the commitment there would be no going back.
The next day I woke up to a cigarette free world for the first time in God knows how many years and arranged a loan with repayments stretched out over two years using the money I would be saving. I then contacted the family and had them organise a two week holiday which helped to ease the pain as we now had something positive to focus on. We traveled over in November and thankfully it had the desired effect
In 2012, just as I finished off the loan another event occurred which created a perfect situation for us to have our longest, and what turned out to be our best ever holiday in Florida. We had taken out a 25 year mortgage in 1987 on the house we now live in and the final payment was made on the 15th September that year. This money and the €175.00 cigarette money now went towards borrowing for a four week stay in Florida over Christmas that year for the entire family then numbering 16. We did practically EVERYTHING we wanted and we really had a fantastic time.
We are away to Florida again this November for 3 weeks and yes I am still off the smokes but unfortunately, as I retired in 2014 my borrowing power is no longer there so we have had to revert to the old system of paying. Do I miss the cigarettes? Yes, and that’s a big yes. I have often said, half joking whole in earnest, that if I was to win the Lottery tomorrow the first thing I would buy is a packet of cigarettes.

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Wow well done! My OH had just given up smoking, he was on two packs a day (roughly £110 a week) and the money he's going to be saving we are putting towards our spending money for Florida for our honeymoon.

I know from his experience how hard it is to quit. He's tried a few times before but this has been the first time he's really wanted to do it and has got help from the hospital he works at with patches/gum etc.