How can you afford all these trips?

[wierdo135]

^exacly

[Raider82]

Just found this thread after going through a lot of the Trip Reports that you all have done. I am glad that I found this page because I guess like a lot of people I was curious as to how everyone could afford these trips, like to Europe & Japan.

 

I would like to think that I am cheap when it comes to a lot of things, and try to save all the money I can for smaller trips - mostly to Orlando. A lot of the things Robb said is great advice for a lot or people wanting to save money. It is hard when we live in such a materialist society to be frugal with money, but it can be done! I hope to one day get the chance to go on a trip to Japan with the wife one day, and hopefully on a trip with everyone on this site, I feel like I know a lot of you just from the photo trip reports!

[WildWaves100]

Ah, even though i'm only 11, i'll try to this and buy less things... I think I could make enough by next summer I could have enough to have me and my family go to Cedar Point, with them pitching in a bit of course.

[Thelegendarymatthew]

Babysitting, dog sitting, house sitting, and helping out with chores for other people .

In April 09 I can get a job with a 8$ pay(per hour) and work 40 hours a week. I can make a nice 400$ over the summer.

I honestly don't travel as much though, KD is probably it for this year, maybe Hershey due to the fact that I got a coupon. Although I did go to Orlando in April/may for my birthday

[BeemerBoy]

Babysitting, dog sitting, house sitting, and helping out with chores for nabors. I get like 5$.

 

Wow. You help with oil drilling, and you're only getting paid $5? Now we know how they're making their huge profits!

[monsterfan99]

This topic is a great one for a new member who is just out of college and finally able to afford trips. I will say, the fact I can now hit theme parks more often has changed my spending habits. No more 1-3 DVD's a week, eating out or random road trips. It is all worth it in the end.

[erik9976]

I'm new here. I'm a truck driver. If I want to go to a park I just tell my dispatcher where I want to go. I've been to all the parks in SoCal, SFoGA, SFGA, SFGA, SFOT, SFNE, Knoebels, Dorney Park, Frontier City, Playland Park, Lake Wnnie, all the parks in Florida, KI, CP, and Mall of America so far.

[ThrillsAndChills]

I'm new here as well. But I have taken many trips recently. Somehow I've been getting lucky and been offered free hotels or tickets, so I've been taking up the offers. Recently I got offered free stay at a Disney World resort, so I took a trip for 5 days. Great time I must say.

[Xizor_Racer]

One thging our family does is sit down each week and plan rthe next weeks menu for meals. We were spending upwards of $1000 a month at the grocery store yet we never seemed to have anything in the house ( we are a family of 6, the wifey and four kids)After we started palnniog meals the grocery bill dropped to less than $600 a month. Also look over te grocery ad each week. Find stuff you like that is on sale and stock up. I work for Kroger so that helps too.

 

Also I will never again buy an off the lot car. The minute you drive it off you lose a ton of value. Look for good reliable used cars. If you look enough you can find a good reliable used car lot and/or salesman (yes they do exist)

 

And the school thing is great. Here in IN we have what is calle 21st Century Scholars. The kid maintains a certain GPA throughout HS and gets tuition toward a state school. I think that they may have added the dollar value on non state school as well.

 

And defiantely check with the locals on deals. When we went to Cedar Point a few years back, when we checked into the hotel they handed me pop cans good for $10 off at the gate.

[Volt]

Robb,

 

Would you say the iPhone is a necessity? Maybe for you, to post when you're away and such?

[TPDave]

Since when did Robb have an iPhone?

[coolhandluke]

^Third post down in this thread says both R&E got them a couple months ago.

 

At least that's where I assume Volt got that from.

[robbalvey]

Robb,

 

Would you say the iPhone is a necessity? Maybe for you, to post when you're away and such?

Well, if you're asking why I bought such an expensive phone (which I really didn't, I got the 8 gig for $200) it's because I do need a phone I can keep up with the website on, and the iPhone seemed to have the best browsing capabilities.

 

It was also the first phone I've bought in three years and I would assume I'll have this one for another three years.

 

It's a marginal expense at best.

 

--Robb

[Volt]

^ You were basically having sex with it at WCB

 

But I see your point.

[Twister II]

For me and being financially secure to afford these trips, I feel like I have to make a decision between being healthy and being able to go.

 

It would be great to go on a healthy system, but when you try and eat organic or nutritional it is more expensive for food! When buying groceries, organic or more nutritional value is anywhere between 25c to $2.00 more! Im guessing Robb might have noticed this when he had weight problems. Where is the line drawn?

[DiSab]

For me and being financially secure to afford these trips, I feel like I have to make a decision between being healthy and being able to go.

 

It would be great to go on a healthy system, but when you try and eat organic or nutritional it is more expensive for food! When buying groceries, organic or more nutritional value is anywhere between 25c to $2.00 more! Im guessing Robb might have noticed this when he had weight problems. Where is the line drawn?

 

I completely agree with you here, especially since I'm in college. All the food that's bad for you is so much cheaper, it's hard to eat healthy on a college budget. you can get a decent-sized salad for $3.50-$4.00, or a pile of fries for $0.99. When you only have about $6 to spend on food, which would you pick? It's ridiculous. I try to eat as best I can, but oftentimes it's just so hard.

[Twister II]

Exactly DiSab. Especially when dining halls are all you can eat! Hahaha.

 

Another thing is if there would be something like an emergency fund? Just incase something happens like a car accident, medical this-or-that, baby being born, etc.

 

Working it out, I have about $600 in expenses every month with an income of about the same! Stupid costly major city insurance.

[Swimace]

It's not that hard to eat cheap and still remain with food that isn't fried or terrible for you. Pasta is dirt cheap and with some jars of sauce laying around you can make one box into a few different meals. Simple things like PB&J sandwiches are also an easy way to stay away from fast food while living on a budget. I also tend to eat vegetarian a lot of the time just because it's cheaper to not buy meat at the grocery store.

 

I'm going on the TPR Texas trip this summer as well as already taking a KI/Holiday World trip and planning an upcoming Freestyle Music Park trip. I pay for my tuition and my food and I'm a full time student. It's hard, but with some discipline you can usually make it work.

[TPDave]

Another thing is if there would be something like an emergency fund? Just incase something happens like a car accident, medical this-or-that, baby being born, etc.

 

You generally get about nine months notice for that one

[Goliath513]

Exactly DiSab. Especially when dining halls are all you can eat! Hahaha.

 

Another thing is if there would be something like an emergency fund? Just incase something happens like a car accident, medical this-or-that, baby being born, etc.

 

Working it out, I have about $600 in expenses every month with an income of about the same! Stupid costly major city insurance.

Is there a place to donate plasma in Vegas (I see you're not in Colorado anymore)? There's one right here in FoCo that I donate at twice a week and get paid $50 a week for it. Always a good way for poor college students to make some extra cash.

[Sir Clinksalot]

I see where a LOT of people spend money, and as has been said, it's all about "priorities". Even on a modest salary, if going on a trip is important to you, it's very easy for you to save.

 

Our living expenses have gone WAY up over the past 3 or 4 years, yet we have been able to put even more away for things as our salary's have actually stayed pretty much the same.

 

- The ONLY places we shop for clothes is generally Target or Kohls. The clearance racks at Kohls are your friends. Great deals. No need to shop at places like Abercrombie (I've never even stepped into one). We also get shoes at the Sketchers outlet (buy 1 get 1 1/2 off). You need to have comfy shoes.

 

- VERY minimal eating out. This was the HUGE one for us. We used to eat out at least 4 or 5 times a week. And I used to buy lunch DAILY at work. I figured out we were spending close to $150-$200 a week on eating out. Not even including the grocery shopping we were doing. Now, I work at home 3 days a week and the 2 days I do go in I take my lunch. I'll "maybe" get a subway every couple of weeks, that's it. We still do eat out about once a week though, you need a night off once in awhile.

 

- The BIG one for us, being able to pay cash for any car you buy. Well, we only had about 1/2 for our newest car, but our last car we were paying over $400 a month for the payment, now it's about $150 for a newer/nicer car and it will be paid-off next year.

 

- We only have 2 credit cards. One is my corporate card I use for work stuff (that the company pays for) and the other is what we use for travelling. The general rule-of-thumb is we can't take any additional trips until the "Trip card" is paid off. Even with that, we only use the "Travel Card" for airfare/car-rental/hotels since most will only take a major credit card, not a debit card. Everything else is done via the debit card that comes directly from our account.

 

- Cut WAY down on the DVD/Music buying. We have Netflix and will generally just watch stuff via Rental or wait until it comes out on cable.

 

You just need to set a goal, see what your spending that can get cut out and stick with it. Sticking with your budget is the hardest thing to do to be honest. But many banks have things were you can put a certain amount of your check into a savings account each check, or each month. Make it so it's hard for you to transfer money out of your savings.

 

We had a problem with going into our savings, so we removed our savings from our ATM card so in order to transfer money out of our savings we have to actually call the bank to talk to somebody or go into the bank. You'll be amazed how much you can have if you don't touch it for 6 months.

 

Also, if your with BofA, enroll in the "keep the change" thing. Not only does it make all of your transactions a nice even dollar amount for book-keeping purposes, but that money does add up. We've "Saved" over $500 in the last year just from that in addition to what we put in every paycheck.

 

Once you get used to living off a certain amount, it's not very difficult.

[kennywood_racer]

I need a way to save more for coaster trips. It is hard on a Walmart salary

 

after my student loan is payed, I barley have enough for gas to get to work. And to top it all off, I still live at home, rent free.

 

Walmart's profits are up, yet they still cut hours. Why do I have to live 2.5 hours away from even a medium size city? then I could get a real job were I could ride more coasters.

[ebl]

^^ "No need to shop at places like Abercrombie (I've never even stepped into one)"

 

Guess where Diana works?

 

But you're right, Gregg. For years, I've always shopped at Sears, Penney's, Levi's, Mervyn's (now gone), and Kohl's for clothes. High end brand clothes are often not made any better---you're paying for the name. If you look at the tags, you'll see that some of the expensive clothes are still made on the other side of the world for undoubtedly very little cost.

 

Outlet malls can be your friend, too. I get my Reebok walking shoes at our local Camarillo Premium Outlets store. Their shoes are already priced $20 below retail, and they have a deal where if you buy one pair, the second is half price. If you buy two pairs, the third pair is free. So for about $100, I get three pairs of good walking shoes---and I only have to do that about once every other year because I'm easy on my shoes and wear them awhile.

 

Eric

[csikoth]

Movies was a money killer for me. I use to buy movies 3 or 4 a week or renting. I finally started going to the local library and checking them out there. 10 movies to take home for 7 days renew up to 4 times and still costing me no money.

[DOCTOR DOOM!!!]

WOW!!! Everybody's rent is so HIGH!!! Right now I pay $450 for a 3 bedroom!!!

 

Doctor "must be price of living here in KY" DOOM