Quote:
Originally Posted by disneysteve
I didn't address this part of the question. I'm not in that situation, so I can only be hypothetical, but I don't think I'd give up vacations. I would make vacation as inexpensive as possible while still being enjoyable, but I wouldn't cut them out.
There are always ways to pay for college - jobs, loans, scholarships - but you can never replace those family vacations and experiences.
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However, when your child is an infant or even a toddler, they are not going to notice or even remember where you took them.
DH and I were married for 4 yrs before DS came along. When it was just DH and I--we saved money for a down payment on our house. We mainly visited family or stayed in some really cheap accommodation's (camping) or just took day trips in the car when it was just to two of us.
But, to be honest neither one of us took expensive resort type vacations when we were growing up, so we didn't know what we were missing.
We didn't take our first real family vacation until DS was about 2 (still kind of young to remember) because that is when we felt we could afford it and we saved up for it for a year in advance. I agree that taking your children around to see things is important and believe me DS has done more traveling than most--he earned his first free frequent flyer ticket before he was 5.
If all we had in our budget was to visit the nearest National Park (of which there are quite a few near where we live), then that is what we would have done. But, the college funding has always been first in our priorities.
I don't think I could enjoy a vacation if I knew it was at the expense of DS's college. (And my way of thinking, it would be a pretty expensive vacation if you end up financing college and paying interest on it as a result...)