Post by honeydew1894 on Jan 18, 2019 19:00:06 GMT -5
We rent our house out on airbnb so we will be going a few places this summer. We will hit Maine for a week, NC for a week (sister's wedding), and Cape Cod for a long weekend. We will probably sneak one more small trip in there, maybe VT or western NY.
The college vs. vacation thing is so relative depending on the individual family. Yeah, if you’re living paycheck to paycheck and not putting anything into any type of savings, you should not be flying to Fiji. Start giving me your side eye now, but we have nothing specifically set aside for college right now. I could get into the details but this is not a big deal for us. But I’m not going without a trip or getaway with my family. And like a PP said, vacations don’t have to be thousands of dollars. You live once. You need to take care of the mental health of yourself and your loved ones.
I only remember one vacation with my family growing up and I was actually in college. I do remember a couple of day trips to parks, etc.. I don’t want this for my kids.
Our vacations are so valuable for us as a family unit. DH and I work nonstop. Vacations force us out of that and reward us and the kids. Show us new things, teach us about the world. It is an amazing privilege and one that I will take advantage of.
I worked. I had loans. I got scholarships. I survived. I will definitely do more for our kids than my parents did for me, but I anticipate my kids will work and try to find scholarships. If they can get through college loan-free, awesome. DD at 6 already wants to go to the Naval Academy because it’s free. That’s not my first choice for her, but I love how she’s thinking.
Plus, I’m paying out the wazoo for private school that comes with an awesome advisors office whose entire job is helping kids find scholarship money. I anticipate they will live in that office their junior and senior years.
I don’t know many people whose parents paid for their entire college experience. The few I did know all flunked out at least once. You value that which costs you money. Kids need to have skin in the game. Signed, the mom who made her kid earn money for an American Girl doll
I’m very conservative financially, and I’ve converted DH to be more conservative as well. We both came out of school owing one year’s salary in loans. I would have owed much more were it not for a terrible car accident thatgot me enough of a settlement that I could pay off the loans my parents took. But basically, I could live in my own place in the city, with a car, after I graduated, and I could still pay off my loans. I put every bonus I ever got toward debt until I didn’t have any. I paid off the loans in about 7 years, even after deferring for 2 while I was in grad school.
I don’t want my kids to be saddled with debt. My alma mater was $33k/ year all in when I graduated. It’s now $74k/year. I worry that my kids wouldn’t be able to manage that kind of debt on a starting salary. So we are more conservative with vacations. Disney is a huge trip for us. HUGE. We won’t do something this big again for a few years.
My parents didn't do college or vacations. So I want to give both.
Right now,we may have enough for 2 years for both at our state school. We will hopefully take a few classes in high school at the community college and we will continue to pay the same amount that we save until they are out.
However, vacation is huge for us. They aren't big. Rockies, Smokies, Hilton Head, a lot of the gulf. We usually drive, so not expensive. We have our best memories on vacation. It is time just to focus on us. I will always find money to take some kind of trip.
I hadn't seen anything beyond my neighboring states, no ocean, no mountain, until I was 18 and went to the beach with my Bf family. In my 40s I am trying to make up for that lack of travel. I just signed myself up for a trip to Minneapolis for work. Not high on my bucket list, but I've never been there, so why not.
My kids have seen so much more of the country than I ever ever imagined at 18. They have been everywhere I have been except for a couple of work trips.
We also use all my business travel and our personal spending as ways to pay for vacations. Like we use AmEx to pay the kids’ tuition and most other expenses. I used it yesterday to pay for my CT scan and this week I will transfer money from my HSA to our account to pay off AmEx. I get the points for no extra money. We pay it off every month because AmEx. Then we cash in those points for airline tickets. If DH and I take a trip, we coordinate it with a work trip for me so my airfare is covered and then use my miles to fly him out to where I am. We use hotel rewards if we have enough from my work travel.
Also we’ve never taken a Disney-level or overseas vacation. Our vacations are fun, we splurge on great food and experiences (dolphin cruises and mermaid cruises at Hilton Head, for example), but we never lose our minds on what we spend. I almost swallow my tongue every time I see what Disney costs. I would rather take the kids to Europe or Hawaii if I’m spending that kind of scratch. And in a couple of years, I plan for us to take the kids to Europe.
Yeah I see people spend 5-6k on Disney which is a lot, includes lodging and airfare.
We typically have free flights. Renting a house for a week ranges from $900-$1400 depending on where and how nice the house is. Extras are variable. But one day we went to Disney and paid $200 for the day ($100 off and a child that was 2). A lot different than 6000.
Post by librarychica on Jan 19, 2019 17:07:40 GMT -5
waverly, we really enjoyed St Thomas last year, if you’re looking at the Caribbean. We took a day trip on a cruise (got a taxi and visited some recommended places by my old boss who was from there) but I’ve researched taking a longer trip. There are some reasonable places on VRBO, it is laid back, lovely beaches. I’m not really a beach resort person, for myself. I snorkel and took my oldest snorkeling from the shore and she loved it. .
Post by traveltheworld on Jan 20, 2019 22:37:53 GMT -5
Vacations are a huge priority for me. We travel internationally with the kids every year for 10 days to 2 weeks, do a summer road trip / camping trip for that same amount of time, do a week long ski trip, and then try to fit in as many other little trips as possible. We always rent a place to save on eating costs, and we dont spend extravagantly, but to me, I always have to be planning a trip - gives me something to look forward to.
I actually don't know how much we should be saving for college - I mean, the costs vary so much depending on whether it's a state school, whether they'd choose to live at home, etc. Right now I think we are on track to pay for 4 years of state school with full room and board, so I'm reasonably comfortable with that.
traveltheworld, good God! You get a lot of vacation time! I thought my account was fat because I get 4 weeks a year after 10 years with my company.
I want to start doing a lot of short drivabletrips. My kids have never been in the car more than 90 minutes, which is just crazy. There are so many great places within driving distance of Fort Worth!
traveltheworld , good God! You get a lot of vacation time! I thought my account was fat because I get 4 weeks a year after 10 years with my company.
I want to start doing a lot of short drivabletrips. My kids have never been in the car more than 90 minutes, which is just crazy. There are so many great places within driving distance of Fort Worth!
I negotiated 4 weeks when I joined my company, because that's what I've always had. Even as a junior in private practice I used up all 4 weeks. I think I'm the master of utilizing vacation time - my international trip + summer trip are usually 10 days - 2 weeks each, so that leaves me 3 or 4 extra days. Then I always take those other shorter trips on a long weekend. We'd leave on a Friday, usually mid-morning, so I'd come to the office first, work a few hours, and join the family at the airport, work all the time in the airport and in-flight (I don't sit with the kids), and doesn't count that as a vacation day. Then we come back on a Wednesday, and same thing - I work starting Wednesday morning, in the airport and in-flight, and head straight to the office from the airport. So the only "vacation" day I'd take out of an almost 6 day trip would be the Tuesday (1 day)! So I manage to squeeze in 3 or 4 shorter trips that way.
I've also accepted the fact that we'd spend a lot of time just getting to a place when we travel internationally - but I've found that it's all part of the experience. Last year we went to France for 9 days, which was only 7 days on the ground when you factored in getting there and back, but we still had fun, and the kids liked the "travel days" well enough.
traveltheworld , great perspective. I think I have 4 weeks vacation and we typically do 3 (1 week) vacations. Spring Break and 2 summer vacations. However, I like to take a day here and there during the year, so I think that is the 4th week. It is complicated more because now they are not letting us roll over nearly as much as we used to do.
Good point on the travel day being the experience. I am not a "journey" person, and personally find those travel days pretty miserable, but then I think it detracts us from taking a weekend away because it is 2 days of travel out of 4 days. Think Presidents weekend if I take the kids out of school maybe a half day on Fri. Is it worth flying somewhere warm? We have 250,000 miles and companion pass, so it's like go somewhere, but its a long flight to get somewhere warm and at this point all we want is to get out of the cold.
10 days is a bit long for us in the summer, but if we do international then it makes more sense.
nellgirl, if you can put off your Oregon coast trip towards mid September/October the weather will be way better. Unless we are having a storm the Oregon coast in the fall is amazing. 60s sunny and no/little wind! Oregon Coast during summer is filled with tourist, foggy/hazy, and super windy. Everyone flocks to cool off but I hate the idea of needing to wear jeans and coats in July/August.
Started looking at reserving a camp spot for our Redwoods trip and the state park near Brookings is already fully booked for 4th of July weekend. We looked into a couple RV parks and it was going to $70-100 per day to park. DH said maybe I should look into a hotel. I'm also thinking about picking different weekend.
Post by traveltheworld on Jan 21, 2019 12:38:44 GMT -5
waverly, pre-kids, I hated travel time, as I just want to get to my destination. But a few years' ago I realized I just have to think of it differently - taking the kids on vacation is about family time and the kids becoming more social and more in tuned with the rest of the world; and airports, planes, trains and long bus rides are great for that purpose. FWIW - at every airport, even the ones where we are doing lay-overs, the kids go to the visitor information booth, chat with staff there (they are usually super friendly), get maps / brochures, we take those on the plane and go through them to learn a bit more about the city; and then we read, play board games, draw, and chat. We also encourage them to chat with people on the plane. You'd be surprised how chatty people are if they are stuck on a long flight. So even though it may be a 10+ hour travel day, I feel like we were productive in terms of getting quality time in.
The other thing we do is that we always have 1 adult in a different row / section of the plane. On long flights, I can't handle being actively engaged with the kids for that many hours at a time; so DH and I take turns sitting in the "relax" seat, re-charge, and then get back to hanging out with the kids.
traveltheworld, genius! we typically have 1 kid and 1 adult and the adult helps the kid manage their tech. But yeah if DH needs to work on the plane it make sense for him to maybe sit elsewhere.
I just wish Southwest had assigned seats because they boarded early once (and we were a few minutes late) and then I didn't have 2 seats together for me and the 5 year old. It won't be as big of an issue as they get older and can be independent. DH and DS had a spot, so if they had been smart we would have just swapped kids. As it is I sat down where someone else was sitting who had gone to the bathroom and stowed their backpack. I didn't see the backpack until we sat down so he made snide comments for 15 minutes. But who goes to the bathroom when people are boarding?
nellgirl, if you can put off your Oregon coast trip towards mid September/October the weather will be way better. Unless we are having a storm the Oregon coast in the fall is amazing. 60s sunny and no/little wind! Oregon Coast during summer is filled with tourist, foggy/hazy, and super windy. Everyone flocks to cool off but I hate the idea of needing to wear jeans and coats in July/August.
Started looking at reserving a camp spot for our Redwoods trip and the state park near Brookings is already fully booked for 4th of July weekend. We looked into a couple RV parks and it was going to $70-100 per day to park. DH said maybe I should look into a hotel. I'm also thinking about picking different weekend.
I wish! I teach, so it’s July/August or nothing. We live in Vancouver, BC, and have done the Oregon Coast many times.
It looks like travel plans might change for this summer, to incorporate a trip to visit an ill relative. Anybody been to Sleeping Bear dunes recently in Michigan? I went when I was a kid, and its near enough to said relative to make it a destination .
Re: vacations vs. college savings, I think if we couldn’t afford to save for college, we’d still take vacations but we’d take less expensive/less frequent vacations. Like camping, staying with family, going off season. SIL and her family use credit card miles and come to visit us, so they’re really just paying for food and entertainment.
It looks like travel plans might change for this summer, to incorporate a trip to visit an ill relative. Anybody been to Sleeping Bear dunes recently in Michigan? I went when I was a kid, and its near enough to said relative to make it a destination .
We were just there this summer. Honestly I was never a huge fan of Sleeping Bear Dunes because it seemed like all you do is climb this big cliff which is exhausting and hot and you can't get near the water because it is still a huge uphill hike to the water. If you choose to do it, which I mean you have to do once wear lots of sunscreen and bring water bottles. And I probably wouldn't bother going too much farther past the first big hill since it's just more of the same sand and bushes.
So this year, I googled the Sleeping Bear Dune beaches (which are sort of randomly here and there because remember it is a National Lakeshore not like a regular National Park in terms of being compact). www.nps.gov/slbe/planyourvisit/beaches.htm We went to Esch Beach which was nice, but small. And if we had stayed in the area we would have tried out more of the beaches. I guess I am more of a beach person than a hike in the hot sun person. I do like to hike but in shade without a ton of bugs (I'm not particular at all ha). North Bar lake was my second choice for swimming but we didn't make it out there.
The neighboring towns are cute and a bit touristy. It's a farther drive then you might think from Traverse City and not a ton of restaurants in the area, so plan restaurants and food accordingly and ahead of time. DH is a food snob, so....
We got the kids the National Park booklet on the Dunes, and they seemed to enjoy them.