Daily budget?

[Fargoman2]

I'm trying to get a handle on how much to budget for daily expenses at WDW for a family of 5.

Assuming that will eat on the cheap for most breakfasts (cereal in the room), fast-food type meals for lunch, and sit-down dinners at night, what do you think we'll need a day for food?

And what about souvenirs? I don't want to be a Scrooge but I don't want to blow a ton of money either. Aside from the obligatory "Mickey and Minnie ears," are there any other souvenirs that are true treasures?

Thanks.

[mommyto3]

We also have a family of 5 and we plan for $200 a day for food. That includes breakfast in room, counter service for lunch and a nice sitdown for dinner. (Just like you.) That may seem like alot, but that's what we spend. That doesn't include snacks and drinks through out the day. For spending money we usually say $100 per child. (Parents have no limit.) We don't buy alot of stuff. Last trip we got each kid a shirt and I bought a photo album. That's it! On our next trip in Dec. we will probably spend more because of the Christmas stuff. (Oh, I forgot, we also bought the two younger ones glow-in-the-dark swords.)

[HAH]

We are a family of 5 also. We are staying for 6 nites. We are planning to eat breakfast in the room except for 2 character breakfasts. We snack for lunch on those days. We have a few "good" suppers and all of that for around $750 for the stay. We have been several times ,so this is an educated estimate. And by the way, we eat very well. Hope this helps.

[Super Mom]

We are also a family of 5 (all three children are under 10). I used the menus on www.wdwig.com to help plan my budget. We are averaging about $165/day for food, and the children get $10/day for spending money. So I figure $200-$250/ day when you add in Mommy's souveniers.

[mainey-mouse]

My kids loved collecting the pressed pennies. The collector book is in the $6- $10 range I think. It holds 36 pressed pennies if I remmeber correctly, plus a few pressed quarters - so its $18-$25 to fill. We didn't know the kids would take to this until they did - but it would have been a shame to have to tell them not to do it. They loved the challenge of finding the machines - and if they weren't allowed to collect, they'd have been reminded frequently - at every machine sighting. Worth setting some $$ aside for, I think.