the economic recession and you

[MickeyGreenEyes]

Hello everyone,

I was wondering how the current economic recession is affecting everyone's outlook on vacationing. Personally I know I can't spend much on vacations, as I have a young family to support. Even so, I want my kids to be able to have the same kind of experiences traveling and visiting new places that I did as a kid, as I feel they helped shape my life. So I was thinking about different ways that I can both take my kids and wife on vacation, as well as save enough money to stay out of the red.

I found some sites that specialize in providing really cheap deals in exchange for having the visitor go on a vacation ownership tour. All in all it seems like a good deal, as long as you know what you are getting into and in exchange you can make ends meet with the affordable price. What does everyone think about these?

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Does anyone else have any innovative ideas on how to go on vacation during these bad economic times?

Thank you,

Cheers,

Mickey

[princessgirls]

:mickey:We put away money for vacation, and usually plan them well in advance.

In 2008 we drove to Florida and stayed at our friends beach house for a week in March, and on our way home we took the kids to SeaWorld for the day. This trip was relatively inexpensive with eating dinner out every night.
In August, we drove to Myrtle Beach and rented a beach house with another family. We waited until the end of August to go, when the rates dropped in half. We had an excellent week of vacation and it was half the price.
We are a family that needs vacation time, and my motto is...
I like to do the nicer things, I just try and find ways to do them without spending the most.
Julie

[jonah'smom]

Vacationing several times per year is a must for our family. We usually do one big week long trip to Disney with just me, DH & DS. We also do a week long trip combined with DH's family in a condo at Myrtle Beach for July 4. This is relatively inexpensive on our part as the room is paid for mostly by DH's mom. We help out with groceries and pay for our own gas & activities. Mostly we just lounge around on the beach all day, so no real budget breaker on the activities. We also like to take at least one weekend trip with just the DH & myself during the year, and a short trip with our DS another time during the year. We pull our vacation money from places other than our "monthly budget" like our tax refund from last year is paying for our upcoming Jan trip to Disney. DH has a Recording Studio in our home, and he usually banks some extra cash there that he splurges on our much needed vacations. Family time is important to us, and vacationing together is part of that. We make vacationing a priority. We just come up with the cash for it outside of our normal income.

[DizneyRox]

Yep, no impact here... I still get paid the same, things will probably cost less, I plan on getting an AP this year for all the trips.

Gas prices are really helping the wallet these days, gas is under $3 a gallon now, it's almost free!

[FlaTinkRAMESAM]

Yep, no impact here... I still get paid the same, things will probably cost less, I plan on getting an AP this year for all the trips.

Gas prices are really helping the wallet these days, gas is under $3 a gallon now, it's almost free!

lol... we were all talking at work about how nice it is to have gas in the low $3s now... and then I remembered that in 2003 when I first started driving, I filled up my tank for the first time for $11.22... saaaaaad.

[MushuGrl]

Between my job and caring for sick family members, vacations are MANDATORY for my sanity.

That being said, like most people, I plan them out in advance and save a long time.

Do I worry? Yes. But I try not to let "tomorrow" ruin my "today." We've been given a second chance with my mother (who's been battling ovarian cancer since last January) and what I can do with her now is overriding my fear of tomorrow.

[NewmanFamily6]

We are fortunate in that my DH has a job pretty much recession proof. We also are pretty darn on budget most of the time. So for us we will not be changing our vacations that we have planned for 2009. For 2010 who knows we really hadn't thought that far ahead yet:mickey:

[conorsmom2000]

We've always been the type of family to take a big, splurge vacation every other year or so, with little trips in between. Just because of the cards life has dealt us, it has been 2 years since we've had a nice vacation and it has been way too long....we really, really need one. So, we are starting to plan now for the summer, recession or no recession. I don't think it will be Disney (Mike needs a "break"....whatever that is....:confused: ) but it will still be a nice family vacation. But, I definitely think I see a long weekend somewhere in the near future - we all really need some down time! :mickey:

[faline]

In the past, our vacations often consisted of a tent and camping instead of hotels. It was certainly a lot less expensive!

[diz_girl]

Thankfully, DH and I also have recession-proof jobs, but that doesn't mean that we aren't modifying our vacation habits.

We've never been of the type fly to the carribean (or Europe, etc), so airfare hikes don't affect us. Each year drove to a place in Canada for a week. But due to the increase in the exchange rate, what used to buy a week there only buys four days now, if we're lucky, so we're seeking different options for our vacations.

We're considering buying into DVC, which should be a value for us in the long-term, doing WDW one year and HHI the next. We stay at deluxes and, now that we have kids, plan to visit WDW every other year. But when we're not visiting WDW, I'd like to try RV camping (a teardrop or pop-up - I need something with a lock) and see the country. My parents have a cottage on the Delaware river and we just spent this past weekend there, as well as our vacation last year. You can't beat free. We just had to worry about food

So if you know of someone (friend, relative neighbor) who has a house (or condo or camper), ask them if you could use it and (of course) offer to pay for it. They'll probably give you a good deal on it or even let you use it for free. You can definitely save vacation dollars there.

[diz_girl]

Just for clarification, I meant 'friend, relative or neighbor.':blush:

[jrkcr]

We planned a last minute trip, coming up in 30 days. We're staying 10 days at CSR and doing the dining plan. So I guess it seems that the economy hasn't changed our immediate vacations.

But it has affected how I plan for our future vacations. I have been looking at ways to cut back on next years vacations, WDW and other vacations too.
At WDW, we may try camping instead of staying at our usual moderate resort. We already have a nice big tent and all the camping equipment, and we love to camp, but have never camped at WDW. So it may be the way for us to go to cut down expenses.
And although for our family of 5 the dining plan is a pretty good deal, we won't do the dining plan again. Instead we will pick one sit down dinner, and have a few CS meals, and eat at our campsite for all the other meals.

Of course, this is my plan. NOT DH. He isn't as budget aware as I am! :spend: