How do you save for cruises?

[MsViola]

I love to cruise and do so 1-2 times a year. People always ask " How do you afford that"? I look at vacations as a necessary "Mental Break" from the real world. I do the following to make sure I can cruise/vacation without busting the budget.

 

1) Plan early, book early and research for the best price & include gratuities when booking.

2) Make monthly payments so I don't notice as much

3) Continue to make monthly payments to myself once it is paid off

4) Save all change to later be used for parking, gas, porter & room service tips, etc. You will be shocked how quickly change adds up if you purposely break a bill to get change and keep your husband from raiding the bucket for quarters. :)

5) Use the leftover money from the cruise to put a deposit on the next one

6) Start saving change again.

 

How do you save??

 

Happy Sailing!

[golfadj]

By saving earlier in our lives so that our lower expenses now allow us to go 3x per year

[MsViola]

By saving earlier in our lives so that our lower expenses now allow us to go 3x per year

 

I want to be like you when I grow up! :D My plan is to do just that.

[MsMot]

I love to cruise and do so 1-2 times a year. People always ask " How do you afford that"? I look at vacations as a necessary "Mental Break" from the real world. I do the following to make sure I can cruise/vacation without busting the budget.

 

1) Plan early, book early and research for the best price & include gratuities when booking.

Definitely, waiting to book for 9/2014 now.

2) Make monthly payments so I don't notice as much

Absolutely!

3) Continue to make monthly payments to myself once it is paid off

DH and I each drops $20 every two weeks in a mad money can after debarkation.

4) Save all change to later be used for parking, gas, porter & room service tips, etc. You will be shocked how quickly change adds up if you purposely break a bill to get change and keep your husband from raiding the bucket for quarters. :)

OMG - we use a water cooler bottle and our last bootey was over a grand - just in coins:D.

5) Use the leftover money from the cruise to put a deposit on the next one

Yes! Love coming back with money:D

6) Start saving change again.

And so the story goes...

 

How do you save??

 

Happy Sailing!

 

I want to be just like Stu when I grow up:cool:.

[SKeighley]

I am retired and my DH is semi retired. I work one day a week as a sales cashier and put all that money in a cruise kitty. We do try to cruise at least once a year, sometimes twice. We live in New England so depart from ports we drive to and save on travel.

WE cruise for the ship so do not spend alot on excursions.

I also do a OV more than a balcony rm. which saves us. I always book under the early rate and watch for price drops.

[Tantra1]

By saving earlier in our lives so that our lower expenses now allow us to go 3x per year

 

We did the same and now we can cruise when ever we want, where ever we want, and as often as we want. We do, however, take land trips and travel by other means as well. That way we can spend more time exploring new places instead of being limited to just a few hours in a port city. Both ways to travel are fun. Over the years by not trying to impress anyone with the newest car, biggest house, or most expensive clothes we decided to spend our money to travel all over the world and most of the US. It's just a matter of priority. Still more to see.

 

Cheers!

[PatyCake]

Starve..LOL

 

Not really, but I do very little for myself in order to save for vacations with my Grand children or kids.

 

Seldom dining out

No shopping splurges

and sometimes a part time job during high season

[Sundiego]

By saving earlier in our lives so that our lower expenses now allow us to go 3x per year

I want to be like Stu when I grow up. OH WAIT! I am grown up and I *AM* like Stu, lol.

 

Seriously, we saved and saved when younger. Now we're retired and we are still kind of cheap. Rarely go out for restaurant meals close to home... we figure we can "eat out" on the next vacation which is just around the corner because we saved and saved when younger!

[luvscruising2007]

We have used our tax return for several cruises. I also try to pay some each month so that it is paid off before final payment date. And we collect coins and use that for our casino money.

[cccer]

I usually use my bonus to pay for a cruise, and like others I also collect change throughout the year for odds and ends.

[Warm Breezes]

We are in our late 40's with DD(16), a HS Sophomore, and DS(18), a college Sophomore. We have less than 10 years left on our mortgage with no other debt. We have healthy college, retirement, and rainy day accounts that are funded out of our weekly paychecks, along with daily living expenses, utilities, insurances and DD's dance.

 

My yearly bonuses go toward vacations and larger home improvements. Most years that means a week long vacation around DD's dance nationals where ever they are held, a week long family vacation (sometimes two) either land or sea, and a shorter adult vacation for DH and myself. This year we will be celebrating 25 years with our longest adult vacation since kids on the NCL Jewel.

 

We purchase everything with our credit card and pay it off every month. This usually earns us around $400-$500 in free spending money for our family vacation. We mostly buy slightly used cars, but have occassionally purchased new (those new cars are usually kept for longer than 10 years). We now pay cash for any vehicle we purchase. We built our first home in 1990. We double its size in 1997 when DD was born, doing the construction ourselves. We are still living there and probably will until we retire. I rarely purchase anything that is not on sale or that I don't have some kind of discount to purchase. I have a hard time paying full price for anything. It was how I was raised. DH has an inborn need to save. It was how he was raised. But the one thing we have always prioritized, since our honeymoon, was making sure we had yearly vacations together.

 

Edited to add that DH and I both work full time. DD has dance class 3 nights a week. I absolutely hate cooking. Our biggest splurge is eating out or bringing home restaurant food. My kids can do dishes, laundry, mow the lawn, and clean the house....but they better hope they marry someone who can cook because I failed at teaching them that job. :)

[PA Beachlovers]

We are waiting on our third cruise, we put the down payment down, now we each are saving $12.50 per week out of our paychecks making a payment every 10 weeks until its paid. It is painless and you don't miss that amount of money per week.

[Tapi]

We skip mortgage and utilities payments every couple of months. We also open a new credit card every time we want to cruise, charge the whole thing to it, and then just make minimum payments. :p

 

Seriously, after all of our obligations are paid for (bills, mortgage, college fund, 401K, savings, car payments, etc), any money left over goes to a "fun account" which we use, not only for cruising, but for any other fun stuff (going out, dinners, theater, weekend getaways, etc). We charge the cruise to our credit card, but we pay the balance off immediately at the end of every month.

 

Planning way in advance means only having to set aside a few bucks every month for a cruise. Our June cruise has been paid in full for months (including gratuities, excursions, hotels, flights, etc). We are now setting money aside for our next cruise which wont be until November 2014.

[2gingerlovers]

I love to cruise and do so 1-2 times a year. People always ask " How do you afford that"? I look at vacations as a necessary "Mental Break" from the real world. I do the following to make sure I can cruise/vacation without busting the budget.

 

1) Plan early, book early and research for the best price & include gratuities when booking.

2) Make monthly payments so I don't notice as much

3) Continue to make monthly payments to myself once it is paid off

4) Save all change to later be used for parking, gas, porter & room service tips, etc. You will be shocked how quickly change adds up if you purposely break a bill to get change and keep your husband from raiding the bucket for quarters. :)

5) Use the leftover money from the cruise to put a deposit on the next one

6) Start saving change again.

 

How do you save??

 

Happy Sailing!

 

 

Great tips! Our first cruise is next week and I already feel addicted. Will def use these tips for our next one!

[Meanee]

I am in early 30's, girlfriend is in late 20's. I never got into the whole "Let's go out on Friday night and get drunk" so I get money left over after rent/car/bills/(very expensive)hobby. So that's what we use.

[*jess*]

I also view vacations as "necessary" so I add it into the budget just like I do the car payment. I save a little every month and cut expenses where I can. We don't have any big hobbies that are expensive, I always shop sales, and we don't eat out much which all saves money. I'm going to start doing the change thing!

[tinkerbell_82]

Coupons! I use them as much as I can when I shop and transfer my savings to the vacation account. I also save a bit out of every paycheck. It adds up quick! :)

[marjenn]

In 2007 my wife and I decided to get out of debt (except for the house). We met our goal two years later in 2009. Now since we only have our house payment and the "regular" bills we are able to save a lot every month. Because of that when we decide on our yearly vacations we typically already have enough saved to pay for it.

[golfadj]

Great thread. And thanks to all the people who want to be like DW and I.

[mek]

I don't save money specifically for cruises/travel - I just save period. So when I want to take a cruise or a land vacation, the money is already there.

[kramonas]

Here is what i did, but its not for the un-disciplined...

 

First, i have excellent credit, and most my cc's have zero balances.

 

1) charge the full cruise to a credit card.

2) call another credit card, and ask for any specials on balance transfers. EVERY time i do this, i get 12-14 months no interest.

3) balance transfer the cruise.

4) go on cruise.

5) pay for the cruise within 14 months (usually a tax return takes care of it).

 

go to step 1.

 

so except for a typical transfer fee of like $100, its an interest free loan, and even if you dont pay in the time frame.. no big deal.

[kathy884]

Vacation money is just part of the budget. Every paycheck monies that don't stay in my checking account for current expenses and fun go into the following categories (retirement --401K / kid college fund / car replacement fund / home maintenance-repair-improvement fund / vacation fund / charitable contributions fund / clothing-extra expense fund) -- A set amount goes into each of these for every paycheck I receive. I track all monies/funds in a spreadsheet. I've been doing this for the last 31 year ever since I graduated from college and got my first job.

 

The fun part is planning vacations and spending the vacation monies. The vacation budget usually allows us to do one full week vacation a year, one mini vacation, plus a long weekend trip to visit relatives out east.

 

Before booking any vacation I do a budget estimate and see if monies will be available and plan out all my vacations for the entire year. I usually have several ideas and fitting in the budget is one of the criteria I look at too. We usually spend about $10,000 a year on travel for our family of three, so can do some fun trips. But it's still picking and choosing -- A more expensive trip with lots of expensive excursions, may mean the mini get-a-way is more moderate and visa vera. And in reality I only have about $7500 to work with as the trip to visit relatives almost always costs about $2500 (the east coast is expensive and relatives have small modest homes which means staying in a hotel.)

 

We're fortunate to have relatively modest wants and relatively big pay checks. We have a nice little house and reliable cars that we buy new and drive 200,000 miles and then get another one. Our only debt is a very modest morgage that will be paid off in five years. We eat in except for Saturday night. Most evenings except Saturday involve help with homework, walking the dog, etc. (no cost activities). We do enjoy theatre, go to about 10 shows a year (six are our season tickets to the rep), and pay for personal training and indoor tennis weeky year round.

[nurseingu]

Last year I decided to get rid of a lot of unnecessary junk that I had so I opened up an eBay account to sell it. So far I've paid for our cruisr for next month and have over $300 left. Always book early saver. Watched the prices carefully and have $250 in OBC. Save change all year in a large coffee can. Wil go to coin star about a week before we cruise. That should bring in around $200. Whatever Is left over will go toward next years cruise! ;)

 

Karen

[erby2283]

I'm not married and don't have to save as much but I use my tax refund for my cruise fare and then I put away $50 every paycheck for spending cash. I only cruise once per year.

[Jimmy Geegitz]

We don't take other vacations. Every time we have taken a week and drove somewhere, pay for gas tolls hotel rooms and meals plus entertainment it is wayyyyyy more than a cruise. People don't realize this I think. I cost a lot more to go to Vegas for a week than a cruise.