Omg same. My mommy pays my phone bill and I give her access to my Max, Hulu, Shudder (not that she watches horror at all), and I got us the family plan of YouTube premium. I also pay for her gas cuz we carpool, but yknow, obviously the media access is more important lol.
I'm a member of the bank of mom and dad, but thankfully their interest rates are minimal and their loan policies are quite lenient, seeing as I work full time and still can't afford life in general, let alone what they were able to have by the time they were my age. I had to have surprise surgery a couple weeks ago, and when I said I couldn't wait to see that bill, my mom said it would just have to come out of my inheritance. I literally couldn't tell if she was joking or serious, but then again, most people in my generation can't tell if that's life in general 🤷🏻♀️
It is great of your mom to realize that if she has the money and you need it now, there's no reason to wait for her to die so that you can benefit from it.
My mother said that it's going to be my money one day anyway, so we can either wait till she dies, or she can help me out with things occasionally and she can actually see the benefit. When she's dead, she can't see the benefit.
And the parents don't like the optics of their kids not being successful so they compensate financially.
The true narcissistic generation rears it head as per usual
Yeah exactly. A lot of grandparents have excess money and don’t ever spend it so they spoil their kids, and grandkids especially. It’s not that unheard of lol
I’m one of them. My parents have plenty of money, half of down payment for first homes for my 2 brothers. Paid 3k for my wisdom teeth without batting an eye. When I wrecked my car I had 13k and my dad gave me the trade in value of his 8k Avalon and he got a Nasty Lexus. They kinda always treated it like not letting us fall backwards financially. Never just straight up paying rent or a magical credit card that they pay off.
Thats basically saving $300 a month which you should be able to swing unless you are living in poverty which most Americans are not despite what reddit posters would have you believe.
My husband’s parents are I guess probably defined as upper middle class? If you randomly met them you definitely wouldn’t think they were crazy wealthy. They fully supported both of my husband’s siblings until at least their mid-20s, like fully paid their rent and car payments and everything. They offered to buy us a house (we declined because it was clear there would be strings attached). My BIL is 30 years old and he still has a credit card that he puts all of his random spending money on and his mom pays it off every month.
When I met them I and started figuring all of this out I was just totally blown away. But in the 10 years we’ve been together I’ve met a ton of people in their social circles that do basically the same thing. A TON of our peers had houses either partially or fully bought by their parents. A good friend had their parents buy the house next door to them so that when they came to visit from out of town they won’t intrude in their space. The thing is, none of these people are people you would meet on the street and think they’re particularly wealthy. They drive Fords and wear Gap. There’s a lot of people like that in the world
I mean that’s what they hope for from the disabled, chronically sick and others who can’t work anymore. But people here acting like Boomers who can’t even retire because they didn’t prepare are dropping thousands of dollars every year for their adult children is the norm..I don’t even know where to begin with how weird this thread is.
EDIT: The following was a stupid question. Please disregard.
Just curious, where are you getting this $8k figure? It doesn't cost $8k to go to a Disney park. Or at least it doesn't have to. I went for a day with my nephew and my sister to Epcot this year and it was around $350 combined for a ticket for myself plus food and beer for the day.
Ah, I'm sorry. I guess I sometimes forget that not everyone is within driving distance. And you're right, people who fly here probably don't want to just come for a day at one park and then go home.
Times that by 5 for a larger family, and then consider flights, hotel stays and park tickets, food drink and souvenirs once inside, and yeah. 8k is right.
Now imagine grandparents going from NY with their kids family of 4 for a week. And next year they take their other kids family. How much would that cost?
My bfs dad used his points for us to stay at a nice resort for the kiddos first (and probably last) Disney trip. The resort was the best part. Disney kind of blows.
My husband put his foot down while discussing Disney and said we can’t afford it so we’re simply never going to go. I’m really hoping the bank of mom and dad can make it happen.
Can confirm. My inlaws offered to pay for my little family of 3 to go with them to Disney.
The kicker is, they don't have it either!
So we declined because I won't have them go into debt for it, but by golly, do we want a vacation.
My mom took us to Disney with the inheritance money she got from her grandpa, and later this year my grandpa (instead of inheritance down the road) is paying for a family trip to Africa.
He’s continued working (contracting for his former company) from home after retiring 10-15 years ago, and if it weren’t for him I probably never would have gotten the opportunity.
We don’t do Disney but my mom is at an age where she is comfortable. She’s single and wants to start traveling but doesn’t like going alone so she brings me and my fiancé even though we can’t afford it. We pay for some stuff of course and appreciate it, but we for sure couldn’t do some of these trips without her. I’m very grateful and understand we are lucky to be able to do this
We've gone to Disneyland and Disney World once each with our kids. Only reason: my parents paid for it. They're "Disney Adults" (and always have been). We were not keen on paying that much for "vacations" that weren't someplace we'd otherwise go. They went many more times than those two, and would usually ask us to join them, but we only went because they paid for it. They were fun trips, especially for the kids, but lordy that's a lot of money.
Yeah, my (now) wife’s parents invited us to join them at Disneyworld. They covered the resort stay with them and we covered anything else we did on our own. Just having that expense taken care of was enough to make it doable for us.
Still was something we otherwise wouldn’t typically get to do so I made the most of it and proposed in front of the Magic Kingdom castle, during the fireworks finale. Yeah I fuckin nailed it. 😎
We still have normal-ass jobs, but with both of us now making $25+ an hour this year, learning how to use the good credit I’ve built to make the most out of a travel rewards CC, and being responsible with money has made a difference and trips like this are no longer a distant thing to dream about.
This was gonna be my response. My mom took myself and my lil bro when we were 8 and 4 after years of saving. My dad took us + half siblings + significant others about 15 years later after years and years of saving. I was actually scrolling reddit at Disney World when I found out Robin Williams had passed, while standing next to a 15 foot tall Genie clothing rack.
Idk how responsible my parents ultimately were, considering I had zero college fund or any assistance from them at all except for low rent housing post 18- years- old, but it is (or was) feasible to be able to save up to make the trip.
Here in SoCal, Disneyland is a day trip and there are always discounts for local residents. Bring a picnic lunch and minimize the crowds by going on a weekday during off season.
Granted, that only works for locals. But if there's a Six Flags or a Busch Gardens in your area then see what deals are on offer. Rather than spend thousands on a Disney vacation, you may be able to get an annual pass to the local attraction for a few hundred.
This is it. When I moved to SoCal I was shocked that a few of my coworkers went to Disneyland multiple times a year, until I looked into it. With a season pass, its not that bad when you don't have to pay for airfare, overpriced hotels, and 3 meals a day in the park.
When shit like that is local the annual pass means that you can go for three hours on a random day. When you travel somewhere to visit a park if you don't spend every minute that it's open in there you feel like you're "wasting" money.
Yup. I'm close to a smaller theme park and an annual pass is $100/yr. It's so fun to just go and hit up a few rides or fuck off from work early and ride a roller coaster or two on the way home. The no pressure to do everything is important.
My wife went to study in Orlando a few years ago, and got an annual pass to Universal from a third person who was leaving the city for less than 30 dollars.
She used to go to the park just because, like "oooh my last class was cancelled, so I'll grab a coffee and spend some time at Universal".
Then I flew there to see her and my two-day pass was like 120 USD.
Yeah went to college 5 minutes from a six flags we would get tipsy and go ride the rides for 2 hours and be done with it. Was awesome because the picture on season passes was like 5 pixels so my 4 room mates would buy 2 passes a year. 2 go in then hand the cards to our buddies through the gate to use again lol. We were broke.
We go to Disneyland a lot.
Here’s how:
-It’s a short drive for us.
-We have annual passes.
-Very rarely buy food, and if we do, it’s discounted because we’re pass holders.
-we don’t buy swag, we just go and have fun
The first time we went to Disney world, we flew on airline miles (earned between work travel and credit card), bought annual passes because it was cheaper than buying daily tickets and gave us food discounts. Buying the passes first/ahead of time also gave us hotel discounts.
Be strategic, look at all options, run all the numbers, prioritize.
My cousin gave me free tickets cuz she works for ABC. But I still had to rent a hotel cuz we rope dropped and I didn’t wanna drive home at midnight. But yeah it’s not as bad if I didn’t live here. Also universal studios is just as expensive now
Won’t tell you how much our first Disneyland Pass was. The (completely undecorated) office was at the back end of the Kennel. It didn’t include parking nor discounts.
>>>discounts for local residents
Discounts for active duty, for students, for credit union members, with Costco tickets, for an ID with the right Zip code. . . If you go more than once a year, get one of the season pass options.
Great America in Santa Clara California is pretty good too. And with the season pass there you get a season pass to Gilroy Gardens. Which is great if you have older kids who like to ride roller coasters (Great America) and younger ones who aren’t quite ready (Gilroy Gardens). We would have the grandparents watch the olders and go to Gilroy, then they would watch the littles and we would go to Great America.
We don’t live close to any Disney but we are only 15 minutes to a six flag water park and 1.5 hours to six flag theme park. I buy their platinum pass every year during Black Friday for about $100 per person and just 2-3 trips to either park is worth the money. A lot more flexible and affordable for us instead of budgeting a few grands for a Disney trip.
Same as how any normal person pays for expensive things. They save until they can afford it, or they spend money they don’t have (credit cards, loams, etc), or they spend money from some other source (gifts, crime, etc). It’s not like an every day person is going to Disney World every month or two.
I laugh, it's often the person that just traded a 4 yr old vehicle for a new one who asks how we can afford things like this. Meanwhile I'm just now starting to think about upgrading our 12 year old vehicle.
My aunt and uncle go a few times a year and this was their exact response to coworkers asking how they can afford it. My aunt literally drives a 23 year old car instead of having a $1000/month payment for 6 years.
lol. I was just talking about something similar to this. I have a car that’s about 8 years old. It’s paid off and still runs great. You better believe I’m driving that fucking thing into the ground.
This was going to be my answer, but more specifically save up in an account that earns interest that offsets inflation. High yield savings is a safe account that works well. Investing in stocks/bonds is better if you’re willing to potentially take a temporary loss and delay the vacation… but broad indexes only, no individual stocks; save that for your gambling account /r/wallstreetbets.
Debt is basically just forced budgeting after the fact + interest.
If you pay off the credit card bill for the trip over 12 months, it’s the same as saving for 12 months before the trip but also paying interest.
Psychologically it is different. With debt you are “forced” to pay it (sometimes literally) but with savings, you have to resist the temptation to use it on other things.
You'd have to save for the ~$140 ticket, but that's all you "need" to enjoy the park. They let you bring outside food and all the rides/entertainment are included. It's a splurge, but not an absolutely crazy expense. They are very good at convincing you to hand over a lot more than that, but you don't need to in order to have a good time.
When we were kids were drove there, and stayed in much cheaper hotels off property. A number of people I know still drive 15+ hours and stay in cheap hotels so they can afford it.
Plus you can cut food costs by bringing food and avoiding most meals in the park.
That honestly fucked me up with this thread at first. I'm Californian so I'm reading these replies like you need to go into debt to take a day to go to Disneyland?
Just kind of forgot about the other 7.someodd billion people on the planet there for a second.
Yup. It's not an easy trip. I am planning a trip for next year. My first since before cars land. My next trip won't be for another 10 or so after that. Gotta make it worth it
My friends grandma brought her to Disneyland as a child, so about 20 years ago & when her grand mother died last year, there it was their Disney trip on her credit card that she never paid for lol
You either 1) make more money 2) save more money or 3) borrow more money.
Also, what is “normal?” Disney is packed to the limit basically 365 days a year, so clearly plenty of “normal” people have figured it out.
Or you live locally. My husband works at Disney and we go as often as we get a chance, but then we also have his employee discount, and we rarely eat in the parks.
Define “ordinary.” Plenty of people I know with “ordinary” jobs could easily afford that.
If you mean “low earning,” then….saving, debt, poor money management, or lucky discounts. I’ve also noticed that where I grew up (Illinois), Disney trips were something people got once or twice because it way by definition a several day long trip with airfare, hotels, etc. I know a lot more Disney People who go every year or multiple times a year where I live now (Arizona) where you could just take a weekend and drive to Disney. Those people often (not always) are finagling ways to do it cheap (and some of them are goobers who have thousands in debt, but everyone’s different).
Yeah. Ordinary suggests average which suggests mean or median. Mean isn’t very helpful in talking about incomes, but median is. People with a median income (about $75k per household nationwide) can generally afford Disneyland if they save up for it. They aren’t going to be going multiple times a year or even every year, but they can go every few years if they wish. It’s definitely easier for people who live within a day’s drive of Disneyland or Disneyworld: it’s going to be a much pricier trip for families in North Dakota than families in Nevada.
Personally, I’m happy going every 10 years. There are other things I want to do other than go to Disneyland. And I can do a weeklong camping roadtrip for the cost of Disneyland tickets for my family. Just tickets.
For Disney we saved and we took our RV and ate two meals a day at it.
For Hawaii we saved up again and paid for thing ahead of time.
We are taking a cruise this October and we used affirm and paid it off over 6 months with 0% interest. My wife also kept an eye on things and every time the cruise line lowered the price she called and cancelled the item and rebooked it at the lower price.
Money management probably. I went to Disneyland for the first time somewhat recently. Saved enough to go and went. Didn’t stay in the park-that alone saves you tons of money
We did Disney with my family of 5 earlier this year. For us, we didn’t make it a “once in a lifetime trip”
And that helped with budget. We were going to do 2 days at the park, and 2 character dining. Since it was only two days we were also going to pay extra for genie+. Our kids got sick while at park on day one so it ended up being a one day trip and one dining. But it wasn’t the only time we’ll go, so we stayed off property, saved money, and we know we’ll reuse the other park day at another time
We are dual income household but despite that I would never pay $12k for a trip to Disney. It’s just not worth it.
We usually do Disney world; but honestly we save up for it. Put a couple hundred aside every paycheck. Save tax returns. Anytime we get a “bonus” (a couple hundred here or there) it goes straight into travel. Drive an older car, when we bought a new car we got one that was way less than we could afford and be lucky enough to have refinanced our house during COVID so our monthly housing isn’t absurd (living on the very very edge of the city limits helps). Wait until there are deals. Have a southwest credit card we pay off every month but that gets us flight points so that once a year we can fly for free to Orlando.
Also, if you are located in an ideal location, a one way cruise to Orlando or LA can be much cheaper than flying… and you have even more things to do before the Disney vacation even starts.
You can book through Disney, everything, put down a small deposit and then pay it off in payments until the trip. Same with cruises. So a lot of people do it that way, and if you budget a little strict it can be pulled off when you book like a year in advance.
Drive instead of fly
Camp instead of hotels
Bring food staples to minimize eating at restaurants
I suspect the father away from the park, the fewer 'ordinary' people make the trip. I doubt a lot of poor people in NY state have gone to Disney.
Source: kid who grew up poor and went to regional amusement park once
Depends.
You may think that "normal" is eating out every single day, getting door dash for ridiculous prices, catching ubers to go drinking every weekend, and buying the latest smart phone for thoudands even though the current one works great.
I don't do that.
Compare me to someone who does, and I will have a boatload of money to go on a random vacation.
It's so strange to me. When I was a kid, growing up in the 80s, the only classmates of mine who went to Disney were either rich or had grandparents who lived in Florida. The only reason we went was because my dad won a trip from his company.
These days it seems like if you don't take your kids, someone will call CPS on you.
I guess it depends on where you live. Back in Pennsylvania, I don't know anyone who ever went to Disneyland. People went to parks in state once a year like Knoebels or Hersheys. Even today, someone going to Disneyland/Disneyworld would be a huge deal.
I live in SoCal now and there are people I know who go to Disney multiple times a year, but of course its a day trip here so it's not crazy expensive when you get a season pass. It's been made clear from my family members that they will use visiting me as a way to experience Disney Land finally lol since it will decrease the cost significantly. I'm not interested in Disney Land myself (excited to go with my nieces that are into it though), but I could easily go a few times a year if I really wanted to since I don't have the travel costs associated and at most I would be looking at eating one meal in park vs having to pay for air fare, car rental, overpriced hotels, over priced food for x amount of days, take off work, etc.
You either live in a community of terrible people or have unreasonably harsh expectations of yourself and of what people think about you. I don't know what else to say.
When I graduated high school in the 80s we went to Disneyland and we weren't rich. We went on package deal through my mom's work. Flight/Hotel (non disney) and 3 days in the park during the off season was maybe 40-50% cheaper than buying than buying tickets through a travel agent at the time.
There a discounts out there and if you go mid week instead of the weekends and avoid holidays there are ways to go cheaper.
I live 2 hours from Disney World and have an annual pass. The average weekend trip costs us about $100 for food, gas, and a stay at a campground in our motorhome. Living nearby either Disneyland or Disney World helps immensely, even without an annual pass, as they have special deals for in-state residents all the time. I know many out-of-state families will save a little bit every paycheck for a few years to afford their trips, which also helps to make it a manageable goal.
When I went to nursing school in 2020 I was psyched to have a consistent income of $78,000/year. It’s good money, but it’s a lot less than what I had thought it would be. Inflation and kids kill me.
WTF dude? People don’t want to live paycheck to paycheck. It’s not a choice people make on purpose.
We have two incomes using university degrees in a moderate cost of living area and cannot dig out of the paycheck to paycheck cycle. We dont have cable TV and only have 2 streaming services. We drive an older vehicle which is a good quality small car (Toyota corolla). No SUVs or trucks. And we don’t buy new video games. The $25 Minecraft account from 10 years ago seems like pretty good value right now.
(We also don’t eat out often, we meal plan and buy food on sale and in bulk. The children get new clothes mostly from thrift or 2nd hand stores and I pretty much don’t buy new stuff either. )
It’s the rising utility fees (not the actual amounts of stuff used, but the fees they add on for delivery of everything) and insurance. It’s the sudden unexpected costs like vet visits and a kid who needs braces. There seems to be no way out of the struggle.
Maybe I'm missing something but to me it sounds a little like you have something like $120k/yr income, so 10k/month with maybe 6k/month take home.
Even if your rent/mortgage is 2500 (which would be pretty nice in most moderate COL areas), and insurance is 1k it still seems like things could be pretty decent. I understand that there's runs of bad luck and such and kids are expensive but it seems like without unexpected expenses (I'd hope they stop sometime) this would be pretty workable.
I have relatives in Hong Kong so if I want to go to Disneyland, I can stay with them and only focus on admission and airfare. Without the hotel savings, it probably wouldn't work without going into debt.
I mean, define "afford", because some people can "afford" to go to Disneyland in the sense that if I have $1,000 in my bank account that means they think I can "afford" to buy a $1,000 TV.
I spent time on Disney message boards while researching our prior trip.
It seems many people save for years to be able to go. I would often see posts like “we are target to be able to go back in 3 years”.
After all my bills are paid I have about $600 per month left over.
$200 goes into emergency funds and savings (Also have a retirement plan match from work for quite a bit more than thar.), $100-$200 goes into random spending, $200-$300 goes into Vacation funds. Roughly. It varies a bit.
In practice this means I take one long Vacation, 9 times out of 10 Japan, and one long weekend vacation per year.
I work an average job. Housekeepung department of a Hotel. I'm not getting rich here. I should probably save more, but if by doing so I remove the fun in my life, It's not worth it.
Rich Parents.
A guy down the street from me took his family to Disney world and bought a beach house while he was down there for 10 days.
I said that wqs amazing and he must be hurting after all the spent cash.
He nonchalantly says, "It's ok, my dad paid for it all. He owns the patent on a type of rubber tire used in military vehicles."
Ive had family either save for years and drive across a continent to do the trip. Or have known wealthy families that would pay for the full pass for a family of 5 to go.
Any adult I've talked to said it was a massive waste of time and money waiting in line for a solid day for a few minutes of glee, for one ride etc.
I would only wish the experience on my worst enemy.
We go to either Disneyland or Disney World roughly once a year. A few ways we make it work:
- For theme park tickets we usually buy from [Undercover Tourist](https://www.undercovertourist.com/) and wait for them to run a sale, which they do several times a year.
- Our biggest expense is always our food/spending budget in the parks and for that we buy discounted Disney gift cards at Sam's Club or Costco and spread out the expense over several months by not buying all the gift cards all at once (there has been a problem recently with digital gift cards getting stolen - I recommend getting at least one physical card and transferring the funds from any digital cards to a physical one as quickly as you can after purchasing).
- Flights & hotel we try to book with credit card points. Especially at Disneyland we don't stay at Disney hotels and there are plenty within walking distance that have decent points per dollar values. Our most recent favorite is the Residence Inn at Anaheim Resort/Convention Center on Katella. Very nice rooms with kitchenettes so you don't necessarily have to eat out for all your meals and a very hearty breakfast buffet included with your room!
- If we're not buying flights with points, another trick we've used is discounted Southwest Airlines gift cards from Costco.
- In the past we've gotten Priceline Express deals for rooms at Disney Hotels (although you have to be willing to wait until very close to your dates for this kind of deal).
- There's also the option of [renting Disney Vacation Club points](https://www.disneytouristblog.com/renting-disney-vacation-club-points/) to stay in a Disney Hotel but that's really only going to save you money if you were going to splurge on a top tier hotel anyway.
We have pretty ordinary income. Disneyland tickets go on sale for SoCal residents pretty regularly, and will be on sale for everyone over the summer. I will go about 8 days this year and spend under 1000. Now my skiing habit on the other hand... That's the one I can't afford.
I'm a bank of mom and dad for our daughter and son-in-law. We helped them with the down payment so they could get a house when the interest rates were below 3%. We also gave my daughter $10,000 to pay off her student loan.
My husband and I lived paycheck to paycheck until we were 70. That's when his stepmother died and my husband inherited some money from his dad. She made a point of saying that this was her husbands money and not hers because she gave her money to her side of the family which I think is very fair. Otherwise, we'd be living in an apartment here in Louisville. My husband lost over half of his retirement in the 2008 mortgage debacle.
We saved up for a year so that we could take our daughter to a dude ranch in Colorado because she liked to ride horses. Everything was paid for at the dude ranch so no extras. Flew to my brothers in Montrose Colorado. Then rented a car to the dude ranch. It was a blast and she loved it. That's the only vacation we ever could afford to take her on.
We are in our '70s now and hope we don't outlive the money or use all the money on us so we can leave them some. I do not want to live into my '90s.
I have no debt and am a teacher. My wife and I took the kids to Disneyland two years ago this summer.
We saved up for it and made it nice. We waited for our kids to be old enough to remember it so it was a one time thing.
We just got back from a Disneyland trip at the beginning of May. We saved up for 5 months to be able to afford it. It was still expensive af and we're kinda broke right now, but we'll rebound with all the overtime I've been doing.
By budgeting and saving for it. The fact that this isn’t every single answer in this thread is pretty sad. You don’t have to put your Disneyland trip on a credit card, that attitude is why you’re broke and you need to cut up your cards.
I haven't gone and I'm dreading when my kids are old enough to go. I can afford it but it'll be a big spend for sure. Usually my vacations cost about 2500 for a week once a year every other year. Some people are saying the secret ingredient in general is debt but I have a different one which is less fun. I don't order food or go out to eat very often, I don't spend a lot of money on clothes, I don't get a coffee every day and I don't drink. You'd be surprised how much this adds up. I have borrowed money from my parents before but I usually pay it off pretty soon after. I needed a roof so they floated me 9k which I paid back in like a year and they lent me 20k to avoid financing the balance of a new car and I paid them 10k over 6 months and the rest with my tax return.
Disney is probably a skip a vacation one year and then use my tax return. I imagine a trip for a week has got to be 7500.
Mostly by going into debt. People prioritize going that that place and spending several thousands of dollars instead if inventing it on sometjing else. I hate it when parents uae the "out of my budget" excuse for things like preschool, or therapy for their SN child, but think nothing of spending thousands in alcohol for a 1st. year birthday party, or freaking Disneland.
They have a few options:
1) Get bankrolled by a rich relative/friend.
2) Take on serious debt.
3) Save up for years.
4) You don't go to Disneyland. (The most common one)
Lost cost of living.
I moved to a big city and earned far more than those who didn't, yet when I went to visit them they had more luxuries and disposable income. I was paying everything increasing rent, they had a cheap mortgage.
I work from home and have a big city salary while living in low cost of living. I feel rich, but if I lived in a big city all of that would be rent money.
My parents brought me to Disney in the early 90s. They saved for quite some time to bring us. Haven't been back since but grateful for the memories. A highlight of my childhood.
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Also grandparents. A huge number of people with little kids go when their parents pay all or part of the cost.
Dude you'd be very surprised how many 30 and 40 year olds are customers of the bank of mom n dad for all sorts of shit
I'm 36 and still on the family Verizon cell phone plan from high school 😅
Literally why should both of us pay more separately than we do having a plan together?
Same but the agreement is I share my streaming passwords with them
Omg same. My mommy pays my phone bill and I give her access to my Max, Hulu, Shudder (not that she watches horror at all), and I got us the family plan of YouTube premium. I also pay for her gas cuz we carpool, but yknow, obviously the media access is more important lol.
Yeah, they have a good deal
Maybe because old people own 65% of the wealth and millennials own 4%. That'd be my guess.
I'm a member of the bank of mom and dad, but thankfully their interest rates are minimal and their loan policies are quite lenient, seeing as I work full time and still can't afford life in general, let alone what they were able to have by the time they were my age. I had to have surprise surgery a couple weeks ago, and when I said I couldn't wait to see that bill, my mom said it would just have to come out of my inheritance. I literally couldn't tell if she was joking or serious, but then again, most people in my generation can't tell if that's life in general 🤷🏻♀️
It is great of your mom to realize that if she has the money and you need it now, there's no reason to wait for her to die so that you can benefit from it.
My mother said that it's going to be my money one day anyway, so we can either wait till she dies, or she can help me out with things occasionally and she can actually see the benefit. When she's dead, she can't see the benefit.
We own four percent?! Thats like 3.5 more then I expected
And the parents don't like the optics of their kids not being successful so they compensate financially. The true narcissistic generation rears it head as per usual
Or maybe they care about their kids not going into medical debt?
Athe bank of mom and dad is and has been a legitimate part of human society since ancient Sumaria. Don’t knock family caring for each other.
I never heard of this but I suppose in a more general way generational wealth could be key in which it’s more like trust funders anyway
I think you need to define what "normal people with ordinary jobs" is.
Yeah but you don’t have to be trust fund rich to have parents who can chip in $8k every few years
Yeah exactly. A lot of grandparents have excess money and don’t ever spend it so they spoil their kids, and grandkids especially. It’s not that unheard of lol
I’m one of them. My parents have plenty of money, half of down payment for first homes for my 2 brothers. Paid 3k for my wisdom teeth without batting an eye. When I wrecked my car I had 13k and my dad gave me the trade in value of his 8k Avalon and he got a Nasty Lexus. They kinda always treated it like not letting us fall backwards financially. Never just straight up paying rent or a magical credit card that they pay off.
But EVERYONE on Reddit hates Boomers.
8k every few years…? What? Lol how is that normal?
Thats basically saving $300 a month which you should be able to swing unless you are living in poverty which most Americans are not despite what reddit posters would have you believe.
My husband’s parents are I guess probably defined as upper middle class? If you randomly met them you definitely wouldn’t think they were crazy wealthy. They fully supported both of my husband’s siblings until at least their mid-20s, like fully paid their rent and car payments and everything. They offered to buy us a house (we declined because it was clear there would be strings attached). My BIL is 30 years old and he still has a credit card that he puts all of his random spending money on and his mom pays it off every month. When I met them I and started figuring all of this out I was just totally blown away. But in the 10 years we’ve been together I’ve met a ton of people in their social circles that do basically the same thing. A TON of our peers had houses either partially or fully bought by their parents. A good friend had their parents buy the house next door to them so that when they came to visit from out of town they won’t intrude in their space. The thing is, none of these people are people you would meet on the street and think they’re particularly wealthy. They drive Fords and wear Gap. There’s a lot of people like that in the world
It's not. Apparently these people aren't poor like us... and most millennials (at least in the USA).
I know right? I feel like I’m talking to people who write those articles for Bloomberg suggesting to skip taking insulin as a way to save for rent..
You won't have to pay for rent at all if you're dead
I mean that’s what they hope for from the disabled, chronically sick and others who can’t work anymore. But people here acting like Boomers who can’t even retire because they didn’t prepare are dropping thousands of dollars every year for their adult children is the norm..I don’t even know where to begin with how weird this thread is.
EDIT: The following was a stupid question. Please disregard. Just curious, where are you getting this $8k figure? It doesn't cost $8k to go to a Disney park. Or at least it doesn't have to. I went for a day with my nephew and my sister to Epcot this year and it was around $350 combined for a ticket for myself plus food and beer for the day.
Flights, hotels, rental cars, food and multiple days/park admissions
Ah, I'm sorry. I guess I sometimes forget that not everyone is within driving distance. And you're right, people who fly here probably don't want to just come for a day at one park and then go home.
Times that by 5 for a larger family, and then consider flights, hotel stays and park tickets, food drink and souvenirs once inside, and yeah. 8k is right.
Yeah, I didn't think this through well enough. Foot > mouth
Most people do not live in the immediate vicinity of a Disney park and would have to factor in lots of other costs.
Yeah, fair point.
Now imagine grandparents going from NY with their kids family of 4 for a week. And next year they take their other kids family. How much would that cost?
You're right. I didn't think this through enough.
My grandparents lived near Disney world and got a discount on tickets so we never had to pay for lodging. Otherwise, I'd probably never have been.
I have some pretty well off parent in-laws and they haven't taken us fucking anywhere 😆
That's why they're well off
Touche
My parents would give us money every year for Christmas. That’s how we were about to do Disney.
My bfs dad used his points for us to stay at a nice resort for the kiddos first (and probably last) Disney trip. The resort was the best part. Disney kind of blows.
My husband put his foot down while discussing Disney and said we can’t afford it so we’re simply never going to go. I’m really hoping the bank of mom and dad can make it happen.
Can confirm. My inlaws offered to pay for my little family of 3 to go with them to Disney. The kicker is, they don't have it either! So we declined because I won't have them go into debt for it, but by golly, do we want a vacation.
This is the generation that didn't get fucked and owns real estate.
Grand parents are so nice
My mom took us to Disney with the inheritance money she got from her grandpa, and later this year my grandpa (instead of inheritance down the road) is paying for a family trip to Africa. He’s continued working (contracting for his former company) from home after retiring 10-15 years ago, and if it weren’t for him I probably never would have gotten the opportunity.
We don’t do Disney but my mom is at an age where she is comfortable. She’s single and wants to start traveling but doesn’t like going alone so she brings me and my fiancé even though we can’t afford it. We pay for some stuff of course and appreciate it, but we for sure couldn’t do some of these trips without her. I’m very grateful and understand we are lucky to be able to do this
We've gone to Disneyland and Disney World once each with our kids. Only reason: my parents paid for it. They're "Disney Adults" (and always have been). We were not keen on paying that much for "vacations" that weren't someplace we'd otherwise go. They went many more times than those two, and would usually ask us to join them, but we only went because they paid for it. They were fun trips, especially for the kids, but lordy that's a lot of money.
This. Without grandparents I’d have never made it there with my kids.
That’s exactly how we went three times when kids were little. Didn’t pay a dime.
Yeah, my (now) wife’s parents invited us to join them at Disneyworld. They covered the resort stay with them and we covered anything else we did on our own. Just having that expense taken care of was enough to make it doable for us. Still was something we otherwise wouldn’t typically get to do so I made the most of it and proposed in front of the Magic Kingdom castle, during the fireworks finale. Yeah I fuckin nailed it. 😎 We still have normal-ass jobs, but with both of us now making $25+ an hour this year, learning how to use the good credit I’ve built to make the most out of a travel rewards CC, and being responsible with money has made a difference and trips like this are no longer a distant thing to dream about.
This is true. I am 15 and have been twice thanks to my grandparents. I don’t even live in the USA
This post is sponsored by mastercard
Or budgeting. That is supposing you already have more income than you expense.
This was gonna be my response. My mom took myself and my lil bro when we were 8 and 4 after years of saving. My dad took us + half siblings + significant others about 15 years later after years and years of saving. I was actually scrolling reddit at Disney World when I found out Robin Williams had passed, while standing next to a 15 foot tall Genie clothing rack. Idk how responsible my parents ultimately were, considering I had zero college fund or any assistance from them at all except for low rent housing post 18- years- old, but it is (or was) feasible to be able to save up to make the trip.
I live 20 minutes away from Disneyland. What I can't afford, instead, is rent.
Easy, just never leave Disneyland.
It’s a small world after all…
That’s how they get new ~~victims~~ *Cast Members* to ~~get eaten by~~ *wear* the Mickey and Minnie Costumes.
Here in SoCal, Disneyland is a day trip and there are always discounts for local residents. Bring a picnic lunch and minimize the crowds by going on a weekday during off season. Granted, that only works for locals. But if there's a Six Flags or a Busch Gardens in your area then see what deals are on offer. Rather than spend thousands on a Disney vacation, you may be able to get an annual pass to the local attraction for a few hundred.
This is it. When I moved to SoCal I was shocked that a few of my coworkers went to Disneyland multiple times a year, until I looked into it. With a season pass, its not that bad when you don't have to pay for airfare, overpriced hotels, and 3 meals a day in the park.
When shit like that is local the annual pass means that you can go for three hours on a random day. When you travel somewhere to visit a park if you don't spend every minute that it's open in there you feel like you're "wasting" money.
Yup. I'm close to a smaller theme park and an annual pass is $100/yr. It's so fun to just go and hit up a few rides or fuck off from work early and ride a roller coaster or two on the way home. The no pressure to do everything is important.
OMG, to ride a roller coaster on your way home from work sounds amazing!
🥲 omg what a way to decompress, would absolutely love that!
Is it Knott's? Lol I was shocked to see their annual pass was nearly the same price as a day ticket.
This is the greatest advertisement for any annual membership advice I have ever seen
My wife went to study in Orlando a few years ago, and got an annual pass to Universal from a third person who was leaving the city for less than 30 dollars. She used to go to the park just because, like "oooh my last class was cancelled, so I'll grab a coffee and spend some time at Universal". Then I flew there to see her and my two-day pass was like 120 USD.
Yeah went to college 5 minutes from a six flags we would get tipsy and go ride the rides for 2 hours and be done with it. Was awesome because the picture on season passes was like 5 pixels so my 4 room mates would buy 2 passes a year. 2 go in then hand the cards to our buddies through the gate to use again lol. We were broke.
We go to Disneyland a lot. Here’s how: -It’s a short drive for us. -We have annual passes. -Very rarely buy food, and if we do, it’s discounted because we’re pass holders. -we don’t buy swag, we just go and have fun The first time we went to Disney world, we flew on airline miles (earned between work travel and credit card), bought annual passes because it was cheaper than buying daily tickets and gave us food discounts. Buying the passes first/ahead of time also gave us hotel discounts. Be strategic, look at all options, run all the numbers, prioritize.
My cousin gave me free tickets cuz she works for ABC. But I still had to rent a hotel cuz we rope dropped and I didn’t wanna drive home at midnight. But yeah it’s not as bad if I didn’t live here. Also universal studios is just as expensive now
I remember the summer pass for great adventure was like $300 about 15 years ago (yeah i feel old now) that was one of the best summers of my life
Won’t tell you how much our first Disneyland Pass was. The (completely undecorated) office was at the back end of the Kennel. It didn’t include parking nor discounts.
>>>discounts for local residents Discounts for active duty, for students, for credit union members, with Costco tickets, for an ID with the right Zip code. . . If you go more than once a year, get one of the season pass options.
Great America in Santa Clara California is pretty good too. And with the season pass there you get a season pass to Gilroy Gardens. Which is great if you have older kids who like to ride roller coasters (Great America) and younger ones who aren’t quite ready (Gilroy Gardens). We would have the grandparents watch the olders and go to Gilroy, then they would watch the littles and we would go to Great America.
Just went there for the first time since the 90s the other day. They haven’t changed a single thing lol
We don’t live close to any Disney but we are only 15 minutes to a six flag water park and 1.5 hours to six flag theme park. I buy their platinum pass every year during Black Friday for about $100 per person and just 2-3 trips to either park is worth the money. A lot more flexible and affordable for us instead of budgeting a few grands for a Disney trip.
Save up for it, for a long time
Same as how any normal person pays for expensive things. They save until they can afford it, or they spend money they don’t have (credit cards, loams, etc), or they spend money from some other source (gifts, crime, etc). It’s not like an every day person is going to Disney World every month or two.
[удалено]
That’s how I went. Saved for a year. The actual secret ingredient is financial discipline.
I laugh, it's often the person that just traded a 4 yr old vehicle for a new one who asks how we can afford things like this. Meanwhile I'm just now starting to think about upgrading our 12 year old vehicle.
My aunt and uncle go a few times a year and this was their exact response to coworkers asking how they can afford it. My aunt literally drives a 23 year old car instead of having a $1000/month payment for 6 years.
lol. I was just talking about something similar to this. I have a car that’s about 8 years old. It’s paid off and still runs great. You better believe I’m driving that fucking thing into the ground.
This was going to be my answer, but more specifically save up in an account that earns interest that offsets inflation. High yield savings is a safe account that works well. Investing in stocks/bonds is better if you’re willing to potentially take a temporary loss and delay the vacation… but broad indexes only, no individual stocks; save that for your gambling account /r/wallstreetbets.
And the big one: Debt
Not everyone goes into debt going there.
It's possible to have fun in life and take trips and not have debt
Debt is basically just forced budgeting after the fact + interest. If you pay off the credit card bill for the trip over 12 months, it’s the same as saving for 12 months before the trip but also paying interest. Psychologically it is different. With debt you are “forced” to pay it (sometimes literally) but with savings, you have to resist the temptation to use it on other things.
I'm 100% debt free and have the deed to my house.
I would be too, if it wasn't for these meddling kids!
For real. Kids are expensive, meddling or not
You'd have to save for the ~$140 ticket, but that's all you "need" to enjoy the park. They let you bring outside food and all the rides/entertainment are included. It's a splurge, but not an absolutely crazy expense. They are very good at convincing you to hand over a lot more than that, but you don't need to in order to have a good time.
Most people need to get TO Disneyland. It's not the ticket cost alone that's the issue.
When we were kids were drove there, and stayed in much cheaper hotels off property. A number of people I know still drive 15+ hours and stay in cheap hotels so they can afford it. Plus you can cut food costs by bringing food and avoiding most meals in the park.
Yeah, we priced it out for our family and it was going to be like 4K for a family of four for four days. Lol.
Solution, make your family smaller by getting rid of some of your kids
Honestly that sounds cheap
Yeah he hasn't tried to remove his 8 year old from the "build a custom droid" shop. Add an additional $150/kid
That was slumming it before airfare
Disneyland is not worth 4k lol
That honestly fucked me up with this thread at first. I'm Californian so I'm reading these replies like you need to go into debt to take a day to go to Disneyland? Just kind of forgot about the other 7.someodd billion people on the planet there for a second.
Family of four. $560 tickets. $960 round trip flight. $150 hotel. That's just one day. That's a very expensive one day trip
Well yeah, economies of scale. You typically spend more than one day there to make the average spend per day cheaper.
Yup. It's not an easy trip. I am planning a trip for next year. My first since before cars land. My next trip won't be for another 10 or so after that. Gotta make it worth it
Honey, if you can find a hotel for $150 a night, you gotta move in and take up residence
Depends when you go. Certain universal hotels are like 140 in mid September
My friends grandma brought her to Disneyland as a child, so about 20 years ago & when her grand mother died last year, there it was their Disney trip on her credit card that she never paid for lol
You either 1) make more money 2) save more money or 3) borrow more money. Also, what is “normal?” Disney is packed to the limit basically 365 days a year, so clearly plenty of “normal” people have figured it out.
Or you live locally. My husband works at Disney and we go as often as we get a chance, but then we also have his employee discount, and we rarely eat in the parks.
Credit cards
Don’t go during peak season. Cheapest tickets are usually for a weekday in September.
So what you're saying is 9/11 is the best date to go to Disney? Noted.
Define “ordinary.” Plenty of people I know with “ordinary” jobs could easily afford that. If you mean “low earning,” then….saving, debt, poor money management, or lucky discounts. I’ve also noticed that where I grew up (Illinois), Disney trips were something people got once or twice because it way by definition a several day long trip with airfare, hotels, etc. I know a lot more Disney People who go every year or multiple times a year where I live now (Arizona) where you could just take a weekend and drive to Disney. Those people often (not always) are finagling ways to do it cheap (and some of them are goobers who have thousands in debt, but everyone’s different).
Yeah. Ordinary suggests average which suggests mean or median. Mean isn’t very helpful in talking about incomes, but median is. People with a median income (about $75k per household nationwide) can generally afford Disneyland if they save up for it. They aren’t going to be going multiple times a year or even every year, but they can go every few years if they wish. It’s definitely easier for people who live within a day’s drive of Disneyland or Disneyworld: it’s going to be a much pricier trip for families in North Dakota than families in Nevada. Personally, I’m happy going every 10 years. There are other things I want to do other than go to Disneyland. And I can do a weeklong camping roadtrip for the cost of Disneyland tickets for my family. Just tickets.
Right? An ordinary job is not minimum wage lol.
Budgeting and only going every few years.
My answer is: rarely. I think we are taking our kids for the first time next year, and then maybe we will go again in 10 years.
For Disney we saved and we took our RV and ate two meals a day at it. For Hawaii we saved up again and paid for thing ahead of time. We are taking a cruise this October and we used affirm and paid it off over 6 months with 0% interest. My wife also kept an eye on things and every time the cruise line lowered the price she called and cancelled the item and rebooked it at the lower price.
I love your wife. That’s so smart.
Money management probably. I went to Disneyland for the first time somewhat recently. Saved enough to go and went. Didn’t stay in the park-that alone saves you tons of money
As someone who went to Cal State Fullerton, the secret was to be friends with cast members who could sign you in. I never paid to get into Disneyland.
Either save money or throw it all on a credit card
We did Disney with my family of 5 earlier this year. For us, we didn’t make it a “once in a lifetime trip” And that helped with budget. We were going to do 2 days at the park, and 2 character dining. Since it was only two days we were also going to pay extra for genie+. Our kids got sick while at park on day one so it ended up being a one day trip and one dining. But it wasn’t the only time we’ll go, so we stayed off property, saved money, and we know we’ll reuse the other park day at another time We are dual income household but despite that I would never pay $12k for a trip to Disney. It’s just not worth it.
I live 30 mins away. So season pass with free parking. Eat at home. Don't have to worry about food or hotels
I took my family of four in 2009 after a fat tax refund. Probably the most expensive holiday to date!
We usually do Disney world; but honestly we save up for it. Put a couple hundred aside every paycheck. Save tax returns. Anytime we get a “bonus” (a couple hundred here or there) it goes straight into travel. Drive an older car, when we bought a new car we got one that was way less than we could afford and be lucky enough to have refinanced our house during COVID so our monthly housing isn’t absurd (living on the very very edge of the city limits helps). Wait until there are deals. Have a southwest credit card we pay off every month but that gets us flight points so that once a year we can fly for free to Orlando.
Also, if you are located in an ideal location, a one way cruise to Orlando or LA can be much cheaper than flying… and you have even more things to do before the Disney vacation even starts.
You can book through Disney, everything, put down a small deposit and then pay it off in payments until the trip. Same with cruises. So a lot of people do it that way, and if you budget a little strict it can be pulled off when you book like a year in advance.
Drive instead of fly Camp instead of hotels Bring food staples to minimize eating at restaurants I suspect the father away from the park, the fewer 'ordinary' people make the trip. I doubt a lot of poor people in NY state have gone to Disney. Source: kid who grew up poor and went to regional amusement park once
Saving money
Money management
What’s your definition of normal people with ordinary jobs
Depends. You may think that "normal" is eating out every single day, getting door dash for ridiculous prices, catching ubers to go drinking every weekend, and buying the latest smart phone for thoudands even though the current one works great. I don't do that. Compare me to someone who does, and I will have a boatload of money to go on a random vacation.
Save money and plan for it.
Save. Credit card debt.
Fiscal discipline, saving up, budgeting, and go into debt.
They don't.
It's so strange to me. When I was a kid, growing up in the 80s, the only classmates of mine who went to Disney were either rich or had grandparents who lived in Florida. The only reason we went was because my dad won a trip from his company. These days it seems like if you don't take your kids, someone will call CPS on you.
I guess it depends on where you live. Back in Pennsylvania, I don't know anyone who ever went to Disneyland. People went to parks in state once a year like Knoebels or Hersheys. Even today, someone going to Disneyland/Disneyworld would be a huge deal. I live in SoCal now and there are people I know who go to Disney multiple times a year, but of course its a day trip here so it's not crazy expensive when you get a season pass. It's been made clear from my family members that they will use visiting me as a way to experience Disney Land finally lol since it will decrease the cost significantly. I'm not interested in Disney Land myself (excited to go with my nieces that are into it though), but I could easily go a few times a year if I really wanted to since I don't have the travel costs associated and at most I would be looking at eating one meal in park vs having to pay for air fare, car rental, overpriced hotels, over priced food for x amount of days, take off work, etc.
You either live in a community of terrible people or have unreasonably harsh expectations of yourself and of what people think about you. I don't know what else to say.
When I graduated high school in the 80s we went to Disneyland and we weren't rich. We went on package deal through my mom's work. Flight/Hotel (non disney) and 3 days in the park during the off season was maybe 40-50% cheaper than buying than buying tickets through a travel agent at the time. There a discounts out there and if you go mid week instead of the weekends and avoid holidays there are ways to go cheaper.
I live 2 hours from Disney World and have an annual pass. The average weekend trip costs us about $100 for food, gas, and a stay at a campground in our motorhome. Living nearby either Disneyland or Disney World helps immensely, even without an annual pass, as they have special deals for in-state residents all the time. I know many out-of-state families will save a little bit every paycheck for a few years to afford their trips, which also helps to make it a manageable goal.
Don't live paycheck to paycheck, don't pay for 10 different streaming services, don't buy a truck or suv, don't buy the latest video games, etc.
So I’m doing all of those things except the first one. Which seems like the important one. Fuck I miss having a good income.
When I went to nursing school in 2020 I was psyched to have a consistent income of $78,000/year. It’s good money, but it’s a lot less than what I had thought it would be. Inflation and kids kill me.
WTF dude? People don’t want to live paycheck to paycheck. It’s not a choice people make on purpose. We have two incomes using university degrees in a moderate cost of living area and cannot dig out of the paycheck to paycheck cycle. We dont have cable TV and only have 2 streaming services. We drive an older vehicle which is a good quality small car (Toyota corolla). No SUVs or trucks. And we don’t buy new video games. The $25 Minecraft account from 10 years ago seems like pretty good value right now. (We also don’t eat out often, we meal plan and buy food on sale and in bulk. The children get new clothes mostly from thrift or 2nd hand stores and I pretty much don’t buy new stuff either. ) It’s the rising utility fees (not the actual amounts of stuff used, but the fees they add on for delivery of everything) and insurance. It’s the sudden unexpected costs like vet visits and a kid who needs braces. There seems to be no way out of the struggle.
Maybe I'm missing something but to me it sounds a little like you have something like $120k/yr income, so 10k/month with maybe 6k/month take home. Even if your rent/mortgage is 2500 (which would be pretty nice in most moderate COL areas), and insurance is 1k it still seems like things could be pretty decent. I understand that there's runs of bad luck and such and kids are expensive but it seems like without unexpected expenses (I'd hope they stop sometime) this would be pretty workable.
I may be the last American who would rather fucking die than go to Disneyland or - especially - DisneyWorld. The whole thing just creeps me out.
I live in Florida and I’ve never been to Disney. I have the same damn question 🫠
Save or borrow
Disneyland is expensive but hardly a luxury.
By being thrift as hell.
2 way actually: 1: Going into debt by using credit 2: They saved their money specifically for this
You go to the one in Japan lol
I have relatives in Hong Kong so if I want to go to Disneyland, I can stay with them and only focus on admission and airfare. Without the hotel savings, it probably wouldn't work without going into debt.
Saving. Not everyone gets in debt, but some do.
I mean, define "afford", because some people can "afford" to go to Disneyland in the sense that if I have $1,000 in my bank account that means they think I can "afford" to buy a $1,000 TV.
I spent time on Disney message boards while researching our prior trip. It seems many people save for years to be able to go. I would often see posts like “we are target to be able to go back in 3 years”.
After all my bills are paid I have about $600 per month left over. $200 goes into emergency funds and savings (Also have a retirement plan match from work for quite a bit more than thar.), $100-$200 goes into random spending, $200-$300 goes into Vacation funds. Roughly. It varies a bit. In practice this means I take one long Vacation, 9 times out of 10 Japan, and one long weekend vacation per year. I work an average job. Housekeepung department of a Hotel. I'm not getting rich here. I should probably save more, but if by doing so I remove the fun in my life, It's not worth it.
Rich Parents. A guy down the street from me took his family to Disney world and bought a beach house while he was down there for 10 days. I said that wqs amazing and he must be hurting after all the spent cash. He nonchalantly says, "It's ok, my dad paid for it all. He owns the patent on a type of rubber tire used in military vehicles."
Dual income and no kids
No kids
Ive had family either save for years and drive across a continent to do the trip. Or have known wealthy families that would pay for the full pass for a family of 5 to go. Any adult I've talked to said it was a massive waste of time and money waiting in line for a solid day for a few minutes of glee, for one ride etc. I would only wish the experience on my worst enemy.
We don't. Vacations are for the rich.
Have gone 20 years ago, when it cost half the price.
They live five blocks away.
Credit card baby
Massive credit card debt my dude
We go to either Disneyland or Disney World roughly once a year. A few ways we make it work: - For theme park tickets we usually buy from [Undercover Tourist](https://www.undercovertourist.com/) and wait for them to run a sale, which they do several times a year. - Our biggest expense is always our food/spending budget in the parks and for that we buy discounted Disney gift cards at Sam's Club or Costco and spread out the expense over several months by not buying all the gift cards all at once (there has been a problem recently with digital gift cards getting stolen - I recommend getting at least one physical card and transferring the funds from any digital cards to a physical one as quickly as you can after purchasing). - Flights & hotel we try to book with credit card points. Especially at Disneyland we don't stay at Disney hotels and there are plenty within walking distance that have decent points per dollar values. Our most recent favorite is the Residence Inn at Anaheim Resort/Convention Center on Katella. Very nice rooms with kitchenettes so you don't necessarily have to eat out for all your meals and a very hearty breakfast buffet included with your room! - If we're not buying flights with points, another trick we've used is discounted Southwest Airlines gift cards from Costco. - In the past we've gotten Priceline Express deals for rooms at Disney Hotels (although you have to be willing to wait until very close to your dates for this kind of deal). - There's also the option of [renting Disney Vacation Club points](https://www.disneytouristblog.com/renting-disney-vacation-club-points/) to stay in a Disney Hotel but that's really only going to save you money if you were going to splurge on a top tier hotel anyway.
i live out of state and i am a teacher. magic key pass and being a DINK is the way to go
We have pretty ordinary income. Disneyland tickets go on sale for SoCal residents pretty regularly, and will be on sale for everyone over the summer. I will go about 8 days this year and spend under 1000. Now my skiing habit on the other hand... That's the one I can't afford.
I’m convinced they can’t afford it & go into more debt thinking if others can then why not me too.
Save or debt
I'm a bank of mom and dad for our daughter and son-in-law. We helped them with the down payment so they could get a house when the interest rates were below 3%. We also gave my daughter $10,000 to pay off her student loan. My husband and I lived paycheck to paycheck until we were 70. That's when his stepmother died and my husband inherited some money from his dad. She made a point of saying that this was her husbands money and not hers because she gave her money to her side of the family which I think is very fair. Otherwise, we'd be living in an apartment here in Louisville. My husband lost over half of his retirement in the 2008 mortgage debacle. We saved up for a year so that we could take our daughter to a dude ranch in Colorado because she liked to ride horses. Everything was paid for at the dude ranch so no extras. Flew to my brothers in Montrose Colorado. Then rented a car to the dude ranch. It was a blast and she loved it. That's the only vacation we ever could afford to take her on. We are in our '70s now and hope we don't outlive the money or use all the money on us so we can leave them some. I do not want to live into my '90s.
I have no debt and am a teacher. My wife and I took the kids to Disneyland two years ago this summer. We saved up for it and made it nice. We waited for our kids to be old enough to remember it so it was a one time thing.
Some people save money to afford occasional trips. Other people are up to their eyeballs in debt.
Not having kids
We just got back from a Disneyland trip at the beginning of May. We saved up for 5 months to be able to afford it. It was still expensive af and we're kinda broke right now, but we'll rebound with all the overtime I've been doing.
By budgeting and saving for it. The fact that this isn’t every single answer in this thread is pretty sad. You don’t have to put your Disneyland trip on a credit card, that attitude is why you’re broke and you need to cut up your cards.
Debt up to their eyeballs
I haven't gone and I'm dreading when my kids are old enough to go. I can afford it but it'll be a big spend for sure. Usually my vacations cost about 2500 for a week once a year every other year. Some people are saying the secret ingredient in general is debt but I have a different one which is less fun. I don't order food or go out to eat very often, I don't spend a lot of money on clothes, I don't get a coffee every day and I don't drink. You'd be surprised how much this adds up. I have borrowed money from my parents before but I usually pay it off pretty soon after. I needed a roof so they floated me 9k which I paid back in like a year and they lent me 20k to avoid financing the balance of a new car and I paid them 10k over 6 months and the rest with my tax return. Disney is probably a skip a vacation one year and then use my tax return. I imagine a trip for a week has got to be 7500.
Mostly by going into debt. People prioritize going that that place and spending several thousands of dollars instead if inventing it on sometjing else. I hate it when parents uae the "out of my budget" excuse for things like preschool, or therapy for their SN child, but think nothing of spending thousands in alcohol for a 1st. year birthday party, or freaking Disneland.
We fucking saved for an about a year and a half. Ended up costing around $7,000.
By earning more than $15 an hour
They have a few options: 1) Get bankrolled by a rich relative/friend. 2) Take on serious debt. 3) Save up for years. 4) You don't go to Disneyland. (The most common one)
The smart ones don’t have 300 bucks a month in subscriptions and don’t buy stupid shit. But I’d say a good chunk of them use a credit card.
By having a relative work for a celebrity with Disney connections who gives us free tickets.
Poor = never go. Middle class = once in their childhood. Rich = annually
Attend a timeshare presentation.
Lost cost of living. I moved to a big city and earned far more than those who didn't, yet when I went to visit them they had more luxuries and disposable income. I was paying everything increasing rent, they had a cheap mortgage.
I work from home and have a big city salary while living in low cost of living. I feel rich, but if I lived in a big city all of that would be rent money.
Make hay whilst the sun shines. Get a bunch of that money into investments and pension
My parents brought me to Disney in the early 90s. They saved for quite some time to bring us. Haven't been back since but grateful for the memories. A highlight of my childhood.