The bigger question, for most people, is how we manage to finance all of our travel, especially since I am a stay at home mom. Without going into too many details, here is the answer:
First, I budget pretty tightly- Jason likes to brag that I squeeze the most out of every penny. I was raised with my mom's attitude towards money, and that means I only spend on a credit card what I can afford to pay off that month. We try very hard to keep our "luxuries" realistic. We drive newer, nice cars, but nothing excessive or over the top. We have average cell phone, cable and internet plans, but we don't overdo it- no HBO, no internet plans on the phones. (Who wants to be that in touch, anyway??) Also, we only have one television in our house. We don't watch tv all the time, and we are perfectly happy not having a tv in the bedroom!
Hmm, what else?? I like to cook, and I plan our meals to minimize little trips to the grocery store. In fact, I only spend $350 a month on groceries. I try to watch sales, and I end up getting lots of free things by using coupons. I save a lot on clothes by watching clearance sales and shopping for the next year at the end of the season. For example, I just bought a ton of gymboree clothes for the girls for $3-5 per item. We like to go out to eat, but we don't do it all the time. When we do, Jason and I often share an appetizer and an entree since portion sizes these days are enormous. We budget amounts for lessons for the kids, preschool for Caitlyn, entertainment for all of us, and we try to stick to those amounts. We really like to have nice things and be able to do fun activities, but that doesn't mean that we have to pay a lot to do so!
The result of all of this is that we have enough left over each month to sock away into the vacation fund. Of course, then we are also careful with how much we actually spend to travel!
We watch airline sales, which is how we were able to score $30 flights to Boston for this fall. I also keep an eye on hotel specials- this netted us a cheap hotel at Disney World (40% off!), as well as a great deal on a couple of extra days at a non-Disney hotel that included breakfast and dinner each day. Websites like priceline and hotwire are full of amazing deals, if you know how to make them work for you.
If I know we are taking a trip, I keep an eye out for souvenirs related to what we will be doing. The kids are all still young enough that if I buy a Mickey shirt from the Disney Outlet and give it to them on the trip, they don't realize it didn't come from the gift shop. That allows us to get them a couple of gifts AND spring for something from the overpriced gift shop- what lucky kids!
Another trick that has saved us a lot, while also allowing us to do and see a lot, is to buy family memberships to zoos and museums. Our National Zoo membership gives us free parking in Washington, DC, but also allows us to go to the VA Zoo, the Houston Zoo, and many others for free. Our Living Museum membership gets us discounts to lots of other places, and our Busch Gardens season passes get us discount tickets to other parks, like Sea World.
When we travel, we try to really be able to see the spirit of the city. There are so many free things to do in every city, many of which are unique to that locale and give you a true feel of where you are- we try to take full advantage of those sorts of things. We don't travel to spend time in a shopping mall.
This mentality is paying off for us- with the economy in the tank right now, we are able to take advantage of so many great deals and opportunities. I figure that the more I save in our daily lives and on our trip just adds up to more money we can spend on yet another trip!
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