Track Your 2018 Vacation Budget Here...

This coming weekend. Offsite on points -0
Airfare points - 0
1 day MK tickets for 4 - $500
Car rental - $136
Parking - $120
Food - $200. (Free breakfast and some food from home, groceries)
About $1000 so not bad.

Now for my BC vacation later on.
BC $2000
Airfare $450
Tickets for 2 $240
Parking $100
Souvenirs $500
Food $300
Almost $4000
 
Just cashed out $320 of credit card rewards points to pay for an upcoming weekend trip (Feb 2) to Great Wolf Lodge with the kids. I'll need to pull a bit more out of the vacation account to cover some other costs (probably another $80). So, yay for paying for a mini vacation completely out of free money. Boo for my account balance going down!

That leaves me with $1120 (or $1040 after I take out the remaining money). Only $2480 to go!
 
I've been away for a while, got really busy but I've still been saving up (and I've finalized my plans) so I thought I'd join in this thread.
Going Nov 26-Dec 2 on a split stay (which was originally going to be DVC rental and a Value resort but then I changed my mind and rented DVC points at another resort)

4 nights at Bay Lake Tower Standard Studio: $1020 (paid)
2 nights at Copper Creek Villas (Studio): $608 (I borrowed money from my main checking for this, so I have $325.75 to go on that)
Tickets: Provided they don't raise the prices, 2 5 day park hoppers (via Mousesavers) $866 ($750.81 to go)
Dining Plan: For the 4 night stay: $603.92 (paid*)
Memory Maker: $169
MVMCP: estimated $200
Epcot or HS Dessert Party: $160
Additional Costs: $500 (estimate)
Plane Fare: Haven't a clue, haven't started looking yet

*Paid for with discounted gift cards bought from Target and BJ's so out of pocket $573ish

So that's $2110 not counting airfare. Some things may get dropped, we'll see. I have a combination of several programs and my freelance work and of course budgeting. We're intending to downsize to a smaller townhome this spring and we're probably gonna sell some stuff so that's another area to earn.
 
February trip Shared with My sister
3 nights POFQ/half - -$400
AP - $0 for tickets
Flight- $11 on Southwest with points
Meals- eating at Biergarten and Sci Fi. BOG lunch and Satuli Canteen. Epcot Fest. Estimating at least $300

I have a solo trip planned for April.
4 nights at All Star Music- $562
AP - $0 for tickets
Flight- $11 on Southwest with points
Meals- none booked. I estimate $100 a day or so.
 


I have done a lot of updating over the past week:teacher:.

First, I took $440 out of the cash budget and bought enough SWA points to cover our flights either to or from Orlando. Right now, there is a perfect flight (price and schedule) available for us on American, but I just can't bring myself to book it because SWA is our preferred carrier and there is always the (slight) possibility that they could offer a non-stop flight or a cheaper option. I've changed our plans around so that now, instead of leaving on Friday night (which is still a possibility), we can now leave on Saturday at any time. That means that if SWA has a non-stop option on Saturday, even if it leaves at 8am, we can take it.

That brings me to my second change...our itinerary. As of now, my plan is to fly down on Friday and stay for 4 nights at Copper Creek. Then, switch over to AKV for 3 nights. We will check out on Friday but spend the day in the park and either take DME back to MCO or just grab an Uber. I have a room booked for us at the MCO Hyatt for Friday night. I had already budgeted for the night at the Hyatt, I just had it added on the front end of the trip, not the back end. I had planned to only stay 6 nights on property, buying a maximum of 3 OTU points, but by doing the 7 night, 4/3 split, I will need to buy 9 points instead. This means I will need $153 instead of $51. I'm OK with adding an extra $100 to get an extra night on property. This is all contingent on availability. I won't know anything until March 19 which is when I can make the reservation changes. If I can't get any of my nights at Copper Creek, we will end up spending the full week at AKV which will save me the $153 in OTU points.

The third change was to my food budget. I realized that $1000 might be a little low. We will probably eat breakfast in the room from our grocery order (if they will eat breakfast at all!) and then snack throughout the day. I'm planning a TS meal every night for dinner which I know is what the girls want too. I plan to make some ADR's (Jiko, Sanaa, Artist Point are all ones that the girls have requested....they have expensive tastes:thumbsup2) and we always eat breakfast at Boma on the day we leave to go home so that has to go in the budget too. In addition, we will be there during the F&W Festival and I have been asked to book the Parisian Luncheon again, if it is offered on the day we are there, so that's another $175 or so. Fortunately, outside of the actual meals, we really don't eat that much. If we stop at a CS restaurant, we usually split a single entree three ways. We can usually get "lunch" for the three of us for around $10 so that helps quite a bit. The bulk of our food budget will definitely be the TS meals so I added another $150 to it. Now I am aiming to bring $1150 for dining expenses.

I still have to deal with the matter of our itinerary. The girls currently have 5-day park passes...we will have 7 possible days in the park...so...that's a problem. I'm tossing around a few options. First off, the obvious solution is to add 2 days to their tickets. That would cost me $85.20. The second option would be to take a day and chill...we've never done that:eek:! We would use the other day and go to MNSSHP, which would add another $300 or so to the budget. The cheapest option is obviously going to be just to add the extra 2 days to the tickets. I do want to go to the party, though. The girls haven't gone since they were 3 and 5 years old, but they might think they are "too old" for it now...even though I went without any kids last year:rotfl2:. If I don't do anything (no party, no additional days), it still might add to the budget because we've tossed around things like a horseback ride at Ft Wilderness, bowling at Splitsville, or boating out on the lakes. All of that would be stuff that gets decided on at the last minute. We've never really done a "resort" day...maybe we will have two days and I will call them our "Hilton Head days". These are the days that we do what we would do at HHI where there are no theme parks. We would take in the activities that the resorts have to offer. My younger daughter likes the AoA resort...this would give us a perfect opportunity to visit:thumbsup2

OK, so to summarize...
GIFT CARDS NEEDED: $1503
GIFT CARDS OBTAINED: $1013.35
STILL NEED...$489.65


CASH BUDGET NEEDED: $1600
CASH OBTAINED: $824.07

STILL NEED...$775.93

I ran into the issue with my plasma donations and I am still on hold. I won't know until next week if my protein test came back within range. If it did, I think I am still going to wait until February to start back up again. I had a cell loss and if I have another before January 28, I cannot donate for 8 weeks. I just need to stay healthy and keep my iron and protein levels within range:wizard:.


 
I have done a lot of updating over the past week:teacher:.



That brings me to my second change...our itinerary. As of now, my plan is to fly down on Friday and stay for 4 nights at Copper Creek. Then, switch over to AKV for 3 nights. We will check out on Friday but spend the day in the park and either take DME back to MCO or just grab an Uber. I have a room booked for us at the MCO Hyatt for Friday night. I had already budgeted for the night at the Hyatt, I just had it added on the front end of the trip, not the back end. I had planned to only stay 6 nights on property, buying a maximum of 3 OTU points, but by doing the 7 night, 4/3 split, I will need to buy 9 points instead. This means I will need $153 instead of $51. I'm OK with adding an extra $100 to get an extra night on property. This is all contingent on availability. I won't know anything until March 19 which is when I can make the reservation changes. If I can't get any of my nights at Copper Creek, we will end up spending the full week at AKV which will save me the $153 in OTU points.

Well....this might already be a problem. I just checked the availability tracker and the first 4 nights are already showing unavailable at Copper Creek:sad:. So, I can still try to do a split-stay, starting with 4 nights at AKV and finishing with 3 nights at CCV since the last three nights are still showing up as available, for now. I can't book the last three nights until March 23 so a lot can change between now and then. It's still the same price ($153 in OTU points) so it doesn't change the budget yet. If availability is already tightening up this far out, chances are slim that I will get to switch resorts and we may be "stuck" with AKV for the full week. That's actually what my oldest DD wants anyways and it would save me $153, but I would really like to try something new, at least for a few nights. Stay tuned...
 
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I love these type of threads. I just starting planning out trip for next December today. Our budget is going to be a little more than usual because we are buying annual passes.
Total budget for 2 adults is roughly $5,000 for 7 nights.

Airport parking $125

Flights Free with points $24 in taxes (I think)

Dog boarding $300

Staying at the boardwalk, renting points from the dvc rental store in a standard studio $1,368

2 annual passes $1659.28 ouch!! (I will get this lowered a little by buying discount gift cards of discount tickets then upgrading.

Groceries/food/snacks/drinks $1,000. We are not huge eaters, we will eat most breakfasts in the room, split a qs meal for lunch and do a sit down dinner.

Miscellaneous/souvenirs/cocktails $500

Wow, this trip is going to be more expensive than I first thought. It will be worth it because the following years trip will be much cheaper because the tickets will be paid for.
 


This is my first Disney Trip since I was in middle school. We are taking our two kids age 5 and 2. This is my budget and hopefully someone can advise me on if it looks reasonable. My dad lives near Miami, FL so we are flying into FLL since it was less points and visiting with him after our Disney trip. We will have 6 nights at Disney.

Flight $0 (used 45,000 UR reward points)
Coronado Resort $0 (used 81,000 UR reward points)
Car Rental $281
Double Stroller rental $72
gasoline $100
character dining $120.36 (one at Tusker House with light show tickets)
Disney Tickets $845 (was $1145 but I used my $300 CSR travel credit using Underground Tourist) 6 day non park hopper for 2 adults/1 child
Marriott Tax/Parking $37 (using 13,000 spg points transferred to stay at the beach to visit dad)
Turnpike $25
baggage fees $100
food $1050 (hoping to get my Disney Visa rewards of $450 in time but I budgeted $1500 for food)
Souvenirs $100
gifts $30


Total Spent $2760

If I add it up paying cash for the trip it looks like it would be $5707.

Can anyone tell me if I'm missing anything I need to budget for? I'm planning to save an extra $1,000 on top of the $2707 just in case I can't get the reward on time (cutting it close for April) and if I am underestimating since it's our first trip and I'm not sure what to expect.
 
June- 9 nights in Cancun, MX

Airfare- $0- paid for with SW pts, CP and taxes covered with UR Travel credit
Hotel (all-inclusive w/ free airport transportation)- $3000- OOP
Tips- $50
Airport parking- $100

Total- $3150

August- 2 nights at GWL in Williamsburg, VA

Hotel- $600
Food- $400
Gas- $40
MagiQuest- $20

Total- $1020

Grand Total- $4150

Pretty sure we will also be making a bunch of weekend trip to Hersheypark since we have season passes.
 
UPDATED Costs in BLUE:

Budget is for 2 adults and 2 children

Hotel: 5 nights BWV standard 2 bedroom, rented through a DISer, splitting the cost with my parents but they are paying more (they offered) since they decided to join us and I was originally getting a studio. $1000 for our share. I've been earning money through SB and at this point I have $367 more to earn to pay for it completely with no money OOP. Final payment due end of Feb.

Transportation: 4 one way tickets on SW booked, paid with RR points, so fees and EBCI, total $82.40. Originally was strict on fly-out date, but now we can do a day earlier which actually saves us money. SW didin't have any good flight times for our original arrival day, but they had some great times the day before and I had enough RR points to cover so only $22.40 OOP (I went without EBCI since I'll be at work and will set an alarm to remind me to check in!). I was able to change our flight to an earlier non-stop on SW so now it makes sense to take DME to ASMo for one night. With discounts and "free" Disney money (Disney Visa Rewards and Disney Movie Rewards) our OOP is $94. Parking at my airport is $11/ day so $77 unless I can find a better deal on Groupon.

Tickets: I had enough free Disney money through my Disney Visa for 2 adult 6 day tickets. I had enough between free Disney GC money and Disney Visa Rewards money to purchase 1 of the kids tickets for no money OOP. I'm planning on purchasing our last ticket from Disney. Between my Rewards money and discount Target GCs -> Disney GCs, I'll save more than buying from UT. Right now, I'm planning on $350, less if my DVR is more than what I'm calculating.

Food: we are planning on breakfast and dinner in the room, I priced out what we need on Instacart and it's about $250 and we'll split with my parents, so about $125-$150. I also have budgeted QS lunch for DH and I for the 5 days plus snacks around the world the night we arrive. I usually order kids meals so I'm budgeting $20-25 per meal (for the 2 of us combined), and I figure no more than $150 between arrival night and the next day, so we'll say $250 for the week for QS meals (last time we went we did the same thing and we spent less than $300 and that included a TS dinner so I think it's realistic). So $450 total for food.

Memory Maker: $169 (again, hoping to use Disney Visa points since I'll have bought my tickets prior to Feb, so any other Disney points I earn will go towards this and the food budget mentioned above)

So, as you can tell, my main focus is as little OOP as possible! Right now if I did nothing and only paid the remainder OOP, it would be $1611.80. My goal is to get that number below $1000. At the slowed rate of my DVR (not spending as much, and not earning that 4% back on utilities) and slow Swagbucks earning, I'll be happy if it's less than $1500. Wish me luck!!

ETA: Updated parking cost since we're leaving a day earlier than originally planned.
 
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Wow! This is very impressive!

UPDATED Costs in BLUE:

Budget is for 2 adults and 2 children

Hotel: 5 nights BWV standard, rented through a DISer, splitting the cost with my parents but they are paying more (they offered) since they decided to join us and I was originally getting a studio. $1000 for our share. I've been earning money through SB and at this point I have $367 more to earn to pay for it completely with no money OOP. Final payment due end of Feb.

Transportation: 4 one way tickets on SW booked, paid with RR points, so fees and EBCI, total $82.40. Originally was strict on fly-out date, but now we can do a day earlier which actually saves us money. SW didin't have any good flight times for our original arrival day, but they had some great times the day before and I had enough RR points to cover so only $22.40 OOP (I went without EBCI since I'll be at work and will set an alarm to remind me to check in!). I was able to change our flight to an earlier non-stop on SW so now it makes sense to take DME to ASMo for one night. With discounts and "free" Disney money (Disney Visa Rewards and Disney Movie Rewards) our OOP is $94. Parking at my airport is $11/ day so $66 unless I can find a better deal on Groupon.

Tickets: I had enough free Disney money through my Disney Visa for 2 adult 6 day tickets. I had enough between free Disney GC money and Disney Visa Rewards money to purchase 1 of the kids tickets for no money OOP. I'm planning on purchasing our last ticket from Disney. Between my Rewards money and discount Target GCs -> Disney GCs, I'll save more than buying from UT. Right now, I'm planning on $350, less if my DVR is more than what I'm calculating.

Food: we are planning on breakfast and dinner in the room, I priced out what we need on Instacart and it's about $250 and we'll split with my parents, so about $125-$150. I also have budgeted QS lunch for DH and I for the 5 days plus snacks around the world the night we arrive. I usually order kids meals so I'm budgeting $20-25 per meal (for the 2 of us combined), and I figure no more than $150 between arrival night and the next day, so we'll say $250 for the week for QS meals (last time we went we did the same thing and we spent less than $300 and that included a TS dinner so I think it's realistic). So $450 total for food.

Memory Maker: $169 (again, hoping to use Disney Visa points since I'll have bought my tickets prior to Feb, so any other Disney points I earn will go towards this and the food budget mentioned above)

So, as you can tell, my main focus is as little OOP as possible! Right now if I did nothing and only paid the remainder OOP, it would be $1600.80. My goal is to get that number below $1000. At the slowed rate of my DVR (not spending as much, and not earning that 4% back on utilities) and slow Swagbucks earning, I'll be happy if it's less than $1500. Wish me luck!!
 
Wow! This is very impressive!

Thanks! I will say the majority of my "free money" came from the Disney Visa and the Southwest Visa. Swagbucks is 3rd. I explained to DH last night that our park tickets alone would have been $1600 so if I can get our entire trip under that, I'll feel like a winner! :dancer:
 
Bought a $25.00 Disney Gift card with money from Walmart savings catcher. Which takes my Disney numbers to:
August Disney Trip:
Needed: $2,880.11
Saved/paid: $1022.83 (No OOP- all swagbucks, Ibotta, and other savings apps)
Balance remaining: $1857.28

I have also cashed in to Ibotta, Swag bucks to PayPal, and saving star to put money in the savings for the beach trip. Totals:

May Beach Trip:
Need:$3000 ( I have been doing a little research, and I may actually need more than this…)
Saved so far: $241.00
Still need: $2759.00

Still chipping away at my numbers, a little at a time...

August Disney Trip:
Needed: $2,880.11
Saved/paid: $1073.01 (No OOP- all swagbucks, Ibotta, Disney Rewards, and other savings apps)
Balance remaining: $1807.10

May Beach Trip:
Need:$3000 ( I have been doing a little research, and I may actually need more than this…)
Saved so far: $285.00
Still need: $2715.00

I also have a $30 Starbucks gift card. My goal is to have $50 by Disney Trip, And I may need some more for my other trips. So, my Goal: $100

 
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Woohoo! Just settled on vacation weeks with the ex and it all works out for taking the kids to Disney at the end of August! Haven't booked yet, but I'm looking at 6 nights at Pop Century, 5 park days, (and hopefully a free dining offer.) Hooray! So very similar to what I had laid out earlier, but since I have the kids for my sister's entire visit, I'll leave the day before she does which will give us an extra night and let us use a full day for the first day in the parks (instead of taking an early morning flight and getting to the parks around lunch time.)
 
Yes! Wow! That all sounds like a different language to me. But I'm working on it. So far we are using Best Buy Rewards and Target red card to help with our first trip in June. We already want to go back! And its awesome you can save so much money doing it smart.

Thanks! I will say the majority of my "free money" came from the Disney Visa and the Southwest Visa. Swagbucks is 3rd. I explained to DH last night that our park tickets alone would have been $1600 so if I can get our entire trip under that, I'll feel like a winner! :dancer:
 
Here's is an update to our trip in April.
This was added in the last 2 weeks.
Well, most of it was last week as I was sick all this week and didn't get out much until later in the week.

Price again to show how much:
Package price: $1,800
Food: $800;
Souvenirs: $500;
Flights: $400;
Rental car: $254
Travel (drive to Dallas and stay at hotel night before trip), $200;
Total: $4,154

Amount saved/paid:
DW's bonus that she gets Feb. 15 will cover package price and either flights/rental car/travel or food
Change jar: $114.99 - Added $32.29 - Now $147.28
Disney GCs: $115 - Added $50 - Now $165
Paypal: $24 - Added $18 - Now $42
Cash: $150 (bought outbound flight from Dallas to MCO)
Total saved thus far: Was $253.99 - Added $100.29
Also paid for flights. Now saved up $354.28 and paid for half of flights
 
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I haven't been keeping up because I was so busy over the holidays. As previously mentioned, Brother#3 has booked 2 treehouse villas at SSR and invited all siblings to visit Disney during F&W this coming fall. So, thanks to his generosity we have very nice accommodations already covered. He also intends to rent a large SUV to chauffeur anyone who would prefer to not take Disney transportation (he accrues a lot of points because he travels weekly for work). That means that we won't need to rent a car and can take DME from MCO.

I took $1200 in Disney GCs and I purchased 2 Platinum Plus AP vouchers thru DVC for myself and my husband.

I have about 50K SWA RR points to cover our flights. My husband has about 45K as well. We should be in good shape for the trip unless SWA raises their prices dramatically. 9/11 fees ($23) and EBCI ($50) will cost me just under $75 from my cash reserves.

I had to raid my GC stash to pay my own DVC dues (more than I care to confess to-- I own over 600 points at 3 different resorts). I planned to do this, so it's not an issue but it still hurts to see my balance plummet every January!

So, going into 2018 I have made an accounting of what's left:

Disney GCs - $4,900+
Target GCs - $45 (plus $50 pending from Perk and $25 pending from SB)
Best Buy GCs - $450 (plus $45 bonus certificate coming on 1/21 and enough BB Rewards points for a $30 certificate)
Landry's GCs - $90
Starbucks GCs - $205
Wolfgang Puck GC - $50
Earl of Sandwich GC - $25
Chase UR Points - 708K+
Disney Visa Reward Dollars - 22
Shopkicks - need 781 more kicks to redeem for a $25 Disney GC
Mickey Money (cash in my CapitalOne360 account from EarnHoney, iBotta and SB) - $239
I redeemed the Target and Best Buy GCs and bonus certificates, plus a bonus $5 virtual Visa from Samsung Pay to buy $700 in Disney GCs. And I finally got enough points to redeem for a $25 Disney GC on Shopkick. So, my balances are:
Disney GCs - $5600+
Target GCs - $25 (plus $25 pending from Perk)
Best Buy GCs - BB Rewards points for a $30 certificate
Landry's GCs - $90
Starbucks GCs - $205
Wolfgang Puck GC - $50
Earl of Sandwich GC - $25
Chase UR Points - 708K+
Disney Visa Reward Dollars - 22
Shopkicks - 202 kicks
Mickey Money (cash in my CapitalOne360 account from EarnHoney, iBotta and SB) - $284​
 
I love these threads.... I'm a a crazy obsessive planner (so I've been told:rotfl2:) and I was just looking at my 2018 travel budget so far.... Right now I have planned a spring 2018 extended family trip to WDW. I'm budgeting for 4(mostly)
Current calculated costs are-
hotel for 8 nights -points+ $224
airfare- all points +44.80 fees
Tickets bought back before any use by dates so I paid around $850 for three 5 day passes(4th person pays for own tix)
Food OOP for week-budget approx $100 per day x 9 days=$900 (total spent $765 so 15% disc. on gc purchased already) so $765
Uber to/from MCO budget $100
dogsitting $40 per day x9=$360 (ack)
airport parking at home is about $65-75
so it's mostly paid for already basically and total is $2409 (APPROX)
So amending my budget slightly to account for adding a couple of days to each ticket....cost 255 for 3 tix,which is offset by purchasing dis gc at a discount. (average discount on gc purchases are between 10-19% so another $216 for adding some days. overall calculations currently stand at 10 days/4 'adults'-:flower1: Hotel is $224,Uber is approx $60,$850 for food,airfare $45,1127 for park tix, deduct this years travel credit ($300) = approx. $2006.00 total. (oh,add dogsitting but whatever lol) that means approx. $50 per person,per day for LOTS of family fun!!!:jumping1: (counting for 9 nights 10 days total)
 
January is over--how's everyone doing?

I added $304 to my vacation savings in January (but I also cashed out $320 to pay for a weekend trip so I'm actually down overall).

Right now I have:
$1140 in my vacation savings account
$36 in credit card rewards
$0 in interest in my online savings account that I haven't transferred yet
$40 worth of swagbucks (as of 2/1 when I can get another discounted card)
$2 in shopkick credit
$11 on mturk

That gives me $1229 or about 1/3 of my total budget of $3800.

February should be a very good savings month--I'll be getting a couple of reimbursement checks and my tax refund (a big chunk of which is going into vacation savings). I also plan to send my old phone in to gazelle which should get me $50 or so.
 
Added a surprise weekend birthday trip to Universal in March:
Airfare: SW RR points + CP ($129.60 for taxes and EBCI)
Hotel: Portofino Bay for 2 nights ($225.00)
Tickets to Universal: covered with APs
Food: $400
Parking: $20
Total: $775 for an awesome birthday getaway for DS!

DS decided he didn't want a party this year. Although I am taking his best friend and him to iFly, Dave and Buster's and PF Chang's to celebrate so still some expensive but he's only our only and worth every penny :)
 

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