How can you afford all these trips?

[SigENeaT]

I dont mean to detract from anyone who doesnt have the need to spend money on consumable or materialistic goods like fancy electronic gadgets or nice clothes with what i am about to say; just offering an alternate view! =P

 

Whilst i havent been around for as long as some people (im only 20 ) i do have a very high desire for shiny things like restored '69 Mach 1 Mustangs, or big tv screens. Basically i am a consumer whore.

How i feed these desires is constantly look to find ways i can better my skills in my workplace which opens up avenues for me to progress financially.

In the last 2years of work i have gone from quite a low wage in an entry level IT position to quite a comfortable salary in a demanding IT position on the Argyle Diamonds mine site, with several investments i brew in my spare time. The big driving factor for me to work on these various financial pursuits is that i want to be able to experience as much of life as possibly while im still young! You hear of stories all the time of those who have been around for a while and amassed a comfortable fortune to retire early (say mid 40's) and go on world trips to check out the sights, go skiing etc etc. Well i want to do it the opposite way around! So far its worked quite well.

 

So to all those budding rollercoaster tourists who are thinking of how they can cut back spending in their daily lives to tour the world and all its glory, Mr Alvey's method of cutting back on things which he and his lovely missus dont require (big tv's, boats, fancy cars, etc) is a successful method to achieve what they do and many others have proven this, but dont think its the only way. I encourage you to make the most of what you want in life and think of different ways to get to that point!

 

PEACE OUT Y'ALL!!

[Zenny]

I think the larger question is, how can you afford the time off work for all these trips? The money thing is just good financial planning, but it boggles my mind that you can go on all these trips in a year!

 

Don 'Used to think 30 days off a year was pretty good' Anderson

[SharkTums]

I worked during school and had a full scholarship.

[ChrisZer0]

Rob and Elissa, you're an great financial example that should be followed, so thank you for sharing this information. Have you considered going on late-night infomercials to sell your "amazing money-making plan" to the masses??? One thing that alot of people in our generation (im 31) seem to not do is save money, since alot of us had it come to us easy or handed to us by mom/dad.

[texcoaster]

I also get asked by people how I can afford to go on my vacations.

 

My answer is similar to Robb's:

 

I don't drink, I don't smoke, I don't have kids.

 

I don't cut back on as much other stuff as Robb and Elissa do, but I'm not supporting a child, either. It evens out.

 

 

I also make every trip as full as possible.

 

Example: If I want to go to ride El Toro (and I do), I'm not going to fly up there and go to SFGAd and maybe SFA and come home. I'm going to see as many parks as I can. The airfare is going to cost the same regardless of whether you see ONE park or TWELVE parks while you're away.

[coastercrazed49]

I worked during school and had a full scholarship.

 

What did you do to get a full scholarship? This is because I'm trying my hardest to at least get a partial ride.

[SharkTums]

Florida had a great system in place. Get a certain GPA and a certain SAT score and either get 75% or 100% for a Florida Public University. Or you could take the equivalent money and go to another school.

[TheStig]

Bright Futures is rather amazing, and its all funded by lottery tickets.

[SharkTums]

^I remember when my brother was about to get it Jeb tried to change it and everyone revolted!

 

Good thing that the people that vote and use it, are pretty much the opposite of the lotto people that fund it!

[coastercrazed49]

If I can at least get a half ride I could use some of the money that was in the college funds to go on a couple of trips. Also I can buy my own car hopefully. Thanks for the information Elissa.

[Rideslover]

Hi, you know

 

I am deaf and hard to hearing but I had my SSI and my part-time work.

 

-I want to saving my money for Trip.

-I don't drink

-I don't smoking

-I don't have a debt.

-I don't want to spend money for anywhere to eat like fast food or the restaurant.

-Cheap food for price $ 1.00 dollar menu at McDonald's and Burger King.

-I don't do loan

-I don't need a pet food, vet bills, etc but i don't need any pets.

-Cheap grocery was good deal with Safeway, Vons, Grocery Outlet or Food 4 Less are price is reduce or buy one and get one free.

-I don't going to shopping or the mall to bought the stuff.

-Cheap shampoo, toothpaste, deodorant, shave, toilet paper, paper towel, garbage bags, zip plastic bag, lot of food, snack and more at the Dollar Tree or 99 cents only store that was big cheap!

-Save the gas and find a cheap gas for my truck but don't drive around and waste my gas but Bicycle is better for me to ride and go visit my friends.

-Don't buy anything on Ebay just like I did bought the many Magic Mountain collection but I am stop doing with ebay.

-I don't do cable bills or phone bills so they already cut off my phone and my tv for the basic cable only but no cost to pay bills for digital cable or DVR.

-I don't rent movie or games.

-I don't do Lottery or Gambles at the casino.

-I buy a cheap clothes at Wal-Mart, Target or Kmart but better one is at thrift shop is very cheap.

-My house rent is $800.00 month but next month I will stop rent and I guess look for cheap rent like roommate or complex apartment or studio rent was low price.

-I buy cheap vegetable but I have a hanging tomato, bell pepper, etc was good for me without buy a tomato and bell pepper.

-When my truck is broken but I don't need the truck and never buy any part to fix my truck.

-Sell the stuff and or the vehicles was good to get lot of money but please don't post on Ebay that price is fee but you need a free post ad to the www.craigslist.com that is best for many people as I get rid of my old many stuff from the storage.

-I can catch fish (Salmon) from fishing and i will cook it then eat it but no cost need.

-I need a low pay bills from Pacific Gas & Electric that keep turn all the light off. Better to buy the spiral light blub as good energy like a save the electric.

 

I am keep up a hard work and put saving my money in account.

 

Thank you, Larry

[kris182_2000]

I wonder how much rent is today. We don't pay that much for a 3 bedroom apartment. But then again, we don't live in California.

 

We can't save money like you guys, it's not that simple. Ugh, but I know we need to try soon enough. We would like to go on a full trip with you guys next summer maybe.

[Destination]

Those are such good ways to use your money for trips. I should do that when I get older.

[thrillgeek]

I'm starting right now. I just bought a $350 bmx bike. This will be the last "useless" item I buy for quit some time. I promise

[Calakapepe]

Wow, that's a lot that you guys give up for all these trips. But it must be worth it.

[jujubee1985]

whatever you guys do, more power to you, and I agree with all of the "cost effective" tips for living. However, being fresh out of college and a student teacher with college loans, credit card payments, and the insane price of gas in C.A., for now I can only dream of taking a TPR trip, even if it is within the USA. I love coming here and reading posts nonetheless, I live vicariously through posted trip reports! I hope to meet up with you all some day!

[lizzybear]

The reasons you listed are pretty much why me and my bf can afford to visit the US every year. We get the 'you must be rich!' comments, but then these people go out drinking several times a week or spend insane amounts on groceries/takeaways/meals out! I'd rather be able to afford to go on awesome holidays that'll give us fantastic memories, but each to their own I guess. I think even when we do earn more in the future we'll still stick to this philosophy

[dartarro21]

I have to repeat this question, since I am curious as well. How are you guys able to take so much time off for your trips each year? I am a student & I know once I start my career I won't have much time off to be able to take a lot of trips, even if I save the money (I am a mega saver).

[mcjaco]

^ Some of us have managed to get sweet gigs that are open and flexible for vacation time. Some of us have worked long enough at one place where we get four to five weeks off. It all depends.

 

I know it seems like a lot of the members you see in the updates are always on trips, but it's not the case. We have to pick and choose the trips we want to do.

[larrygator]

FYI - Last year Robb switched jobs and with his professional expertise he was able to leverage the flex time needed to sustain his coaster habit/hobby/business.

 

Many people on the trips might act like buffoons at times in front of the camera. However, as Matt just stated, many of us are hard working professionals established in our fields who have earned or negotiated a little extra vacation time.

[Moose]

As far as vacation time, it's usually my limiting factor. I used up all my vacation on the Spain trip last year and was thus unable to go on the MiniEurope portion.

 

Most places give you two weeks a year, if you save it up you can use it for trips like these.

[1Instinct]

Oh ..... this explains it.

 

I was starting to believe you guys robbed theme parks or something

[wierdo135]

Since this gets asked a lot, I decided I'll sticky the response I gave a little while ago.....

 

Where do you get all that money for all these trips? :shock:

Well, for we both have full time jobs. Two, we really don't spend any money on ANYTHING else but doing our trips. Seriously, almost all of our 'disposable' income gets put into the savings account and put towards our trips.

 

People think we bathe in money, but really we are your typical average family living off 'middle management' salaries. It's how we spend, or rather don't spend our money that allows us to do these trips. Think about it, we live in a small one bedroom apartment and we don't:

 

- drink

- smoke

- buy many DVDs

- buy many video games

- have a home theater system

- go to the movies

- go to concerts

- go to sporting events

- have monthly subscriptions to anything

- have credit card debt

- eat out (in restaurants) much

- go over our cell phone minutes

- have premium cable/satellite TV channels

- don't celebrate holiday's in the traditional fashion (instead of buying b-day, anniversary and xmas gifts for each other, we agree to put that money towards trips)

- buy new computers (all our computers were bought used or refurb)

- don't have a car payment (If we can't pay cash for a car, we don't buy it)

 

Elissa doesn't:

- get her nails done

- get hair done

- buy jewelry

- buy purses

 

- what else am I leaving out that "normal" people do?

 

As much as we would like to do some of those things, we pick and choose things we want to do and trips almost always win out. Our spending budget is very tight and very limited which allows us to do these crazy trips more often.

 

For example, we haven't seen a movie in the movie theater since Shrek 2 and before that is was the original Spider-Man. We assume the average couple sees one movie per month, which for us would be conservatively around $30 for two tickets, drinks, snacks, gas, parking. Cutting out going to the movies saves us about $400 per year which is about equal to a week's worth of hotel stay on a Florida trip. So we have to figure "would we rather sit in a dark room and watch a movie for a couple hours once a month, or spend a week in Florida?" If you see TWO movies a month, then that's airfare to Japan!

 

The only thing we spend any kind of money on, which ties into our trips, is video equipment and the website which the DVD sales help cover the costs, but they don't ever cover all of it.

 

So really, the answer to "where do you get all that money" is simple - we don't spend it on other things. The trips we do are not THAT expensive, especially when you consider that we usually share hotel & car rental costs with other people, look for the cheapest airfare as possible, and we hardly ever buy any souvenirs. (I think I bought ONE T-shirt on the entire Europe trip!)

 

Our goal with the group trips is to make trips that would normally seem "far fetched" to some people as affordable as possible.

 

It may take some savings to do one our group trips, yes, but not as much as I think some people would expect and we hope people get as much value out of them as we do!

 

--Robb "Wishes he had as much money as people seem to think we do!" Alvey

 

With KidTums here, how is all that going to change?

[larrygator]

Think about it, we live in a small one bedroom apartment and we don't:

 

- drink

- smoke

- buy many DVDs

- buy many video games

- have a home theater system

- go to the movies

- go to concerts

- go to sporting events

- have monthly subscriptions to anything

- have credit card debt

- eat out (in restaurants) much

- go over our cell phone minutes

- have premium cable/satellite TV channels

- don't celebrate holiday's in the traditional fashion (instead of buying b-day, anniversary and xmas gifts for each other, we agree to put that money towards trips)

- buy new computers (all our computers were bought used or refurb)

- don't have a car payment (If we can't pay cash for a car, we don't buy it)

 

Elissa doesn't:

- get her nails done

- get hair done

- buy jewelry

- buy purses

 

- what else am I leaving out that "normal" people do?

 

--Robb "Wishes he had as much money as people seem to think we do!" Alvey

 

With KidTums here, how is all that going to change?

 

 

I doubt Robb and Elissa will change their saving/spending habits. They have another mouth to feed and body to clothe. But they are not the type to spoil their child with materialistic things.

[ParkTrips]

^ That's what grandparents are for anyways