Am I naive to think

[auprincess]

I replied earlier, but forgot to say, like others have mentioned, tip did take up a nice amount of our money ~ I had planned ahead, looked at menus, and knew around how much to have for each TS meal.

Also, on our last trip, we were there 8 days; I didn't give my 6 and 3 year old a set amount of money, but we spent around $50 for souvineers on each of them and that included a stuffed toy, a princess barbie, and a pin ~ we usually buy them ears, too, but they didn't need new ones for this trip (just the baby did) and I had made autograph books prior to our trip. I don't get t's at WDW ~ they're cute, but too pricey for me. And then my DH got a coffee mug and I got a charm for my chamilia bracelet. Don't forget to check your receipt from CS meals ~ we often had a 20% discount on the bottom of ours and that helped a lot!

 

[AuroraRora]

Your little girl sounds so sweet!!

One thing I'd suggest, is don't let your kids spend their $50 right away. Its easy to see something they like and snap it up, then go to the next store and see something better, then something even better in the third store. They mostly have the same things at every park and the popular items in the resort hotel shops too, so if they see something they like there's no need to rush and buy it. You should have no trouble on the last day or two asking them to decide which souvenir they've thought about and liked most, and being able to find it. When I'd go as a kid, I'd try to buy everything I saw that I liked, and I'd have spent all my money before I'd even seen everything. Now I can look at it as an adult, and we always save our shopping for the last few days so I know I've had a chance to check out everything that's available.

 

[geenerbell]

I find it hard to help the kids budget their spending money. Especially if they are really wanting something in one of the parks that we won't be visiting again. I know that most things can be found at The World of Disney in DTD but not all things. I give the kids their spending money and then on occasion I'll buy them one thing above and beyond their budget. Usually on the last day of our trip.

 

[eeyoresmom]

Be prepared that most attractions exit you into a gift shop! We had the hardest time with DS until we told him he could look at the merchandise there, but we would be buying at the huge World of Disney store toward the end of the vacation. We would take pictures of the merchandise he thought he really wanted on my cell phone so we would remember what he really liked. We would purchase a very few small items on the spot (the gift shop exiting Pirates of the Carribean is pretty cheap!), but he looked forward to getting huge ice cream sundaes at Ghirardelli's at DTD, then shopping at WOD later in the trip. BTW, I don't think he ever bought ANY item we photographed! It all went out the window when we walked in that store!

 

[DanInMN]

January will be our first trip with the dining plan, and I'm planning minimal extra spending. I like to walk through stores and look, but have no interest in buying anything. We have too much stuff at home already! On the other hand, my wife...

Avoid renting a car! Rental fee, gas, and tolls add up. On one trip we returned the car a little late and the extra charge was more than the entire week rental was supposed to be!

 

[Sphinx610]

Only you know who you are. Nobody can really answer that for you.

I know for me I would not go without at least 1000.00 to spend on whatever. I hate having a budget on vacation so I budget way more than what I know I will spend and I usually come back home with extra money.

But I mean that's just me. I know for a fact that my SIL could budget 150.00$ for the whole week and not spend over that.

It's all up to you and your spending/discipline habits.

I completely agree with this!
There are ways to cut back costs it just depends on what you are willing to do to accomplish that. We brought gift cards and Visa cards that we saved up through the year prior to the trip. Asked family to give us Disney gift cards or Visa cards for birthdays and holidays, etc. We also put away cash here and there. By the time the trip came up we had over $300 in cash and cards to spend! As a family of 4 we only put $400 on our cc the whole week. We did get snacks and drinks delivered to the room from gardengrocer.com and got resort mugs the first day so we had a jump on food and snacking. I ink we only bought snacks 3 times the whole trip. And most of that was pretzels as they are my daughters fav food. And they were shaped like Mickey! Who could resist that? Even with a $4.75 price tag... Haha

 

[Keegansmommy]

We are bringing $100 cash with us next week. Our tips will come off from our Disney Visa Rewards and both of our kids have $50 Disney gift cards (that they earned/gifts).

The majority of that will go to lunch at T-Rex. We're on the dining plan but will be cheaper just to share an app at T-Rex and let my boys split a meal.

 

[scoutie]

Your little girl sounds so sweet!!

Aw, thank you! She has a very sweet disposition! I can't wait to see her face at Cinderella's Royal Table on Wednesday!

Thank you for all of the great tips and suggestions. I didn't think of many things you've mentioned!

Gigantic Ghirardelli's ice cream sundaes, you say? Maybe I am in trouble.

 

[rookie78]

The things that pop up for us the most is food/drinks. Souvenirs not so much, b/c kids have a certain amount to spend. I think it is more of the little things, a coke here & there, popcorn, or ice cream. Oh, and tips at table service meals, if you have not accounted for those.

 

[PALionKingfan]

You have to remember that even though you are on the Dining Plan you still have to pay for the tip. If you don't want any souveneirs then you should not spend anything more other then tip money.

 

[nicki.momof3]

It is easy to limit what you purchase - don't go into the store and if you do say "NO".

The one thing you really can't control is tips. You are on the dining plan so you are going to be eating at places that you have to tip - 18% is typical. Unless you stiff all your servers I see no way you can go a week on $100 with the dining plan. Tips will cost more than $100.

 

[nicki.momof3]

I would say with the dining plan, tickets purchased, a great place to stay, a the children understanding what they have to spend then you are set. As far as I'm concerned all you need is $ for the airport/travel portion. This is how we vacation. We go every year and they know they can save whatever $ throughout the year to spend if that is what they want to do. The snack credits go far for our family. We often allow them to go to the candy store because we have unused snack options.

With the dining plan how to you only spend $ at the airport. Don't you tip the servers at TS.

 

[nicki.momof3]

It's not naive, its about knowing boundries and sticking to them. You can spend as little or as much as you want. Our kids rarely have more than $100 to spend even on a 10 day trip. When thier money is out, its out. No more no matter how much they have to have it. That works well with DH and I was well. We have went before on a 5 day trip and spent $8 only outside of what we prepaid for (DDP, Tickets, room). It's very possible.

$8 a day for DDP tips - seems like a VERY SMALL tip.

 

[Hopefully]

The only other thing I can think of is you may want to budget for some taxi's. I always budget (and don't always use) money for a couple of resort to resort taxis for our evening ADR's.
I know you know that you need to plan for whatever adult beverages you want. They are expensive at Disney.
We also order food from wegoshop.com. I order juice, fruit and breakfast things, We always have a quick breakfast in the room before we head out. Also case(s) of water, soda, beer, wine and snacks. I believe that I save the delivery fee on the cost of the water alone. At $2.50 each it is expensive, but it is important to keep well hydrated in the heat.
Have fun

 

[tinkerbellybutton]

After all the rooms, tickets, food has been paid for the only things I can think of that we spend extra money on are for tips, adult beverages, souvenirs, and the occasional taxi.

I set my kids up with a limit, much like you have with the gift card, and once they spend their limit that's it. It's not that hard to do if you set, and keep, those kind of limits at home. My kids limit is usually $100, plus any birthday, Christmas, chore or report card money they have saved specifically for a trip. Sometimes they don't even spend the $100, sometimes they spend it all and a bit of their saved money, but never much more.

I typically like to have $1000 in extra spending money just in case. We don't always spend it all, but there are times we do. Just depends on the trip I guess. But you can absolutely get by with much less if you want/need to.

 

[tinkerbellybutton]

The one thing you really can't control is tips. You are on the dining plan so you are going to be eating at places that you have to tip - 18% is typical. Unless you stiff all your servers I see no way you can go a week on $100 with the dining plan. Tips will cost more than $100.

I agree with this. For our family of 4 our tips at any of the TS locations are easily $20-$30 at each meal. If you are there for a full week and eat a TS meal each day you can be looking at close to $200.00 just in tips, maybe more!

 

[SmallWorld71]

Lots of good responses.A few of things that have helped us stick to budgets in the past:

1) Pressed Pennies - Soooo many attractions exit into a gift shop. When our kids were younger, we let them get pressed pennies at attractions etc... that they really enjoyed. Much cheaper than the stuffed animals they would have wanted. That way, they had a nice little collection showing their favorite things for a small amount of $.

2) Maximize the dining plan:
** you don't have to order everyone a CS meal every time. If we did, we used to end up throwing food away. 3 or 4 meals is generally enough for a family of 5 (although this is changing now that we have teen boys) and then we would use the extra CS for breakfast or last day meals or whatever
** you can usually substitute "dessert" - whenever we ate at our resort CS, we would get something like a fruit cup, yogurt, pastry etc... that served as breakfast or a late night snack. With a dessert at TS meals and the included snack, we often didn't want dessert with our CS meals.
** if you eat at your resort CS, use your refillable mug and then take the bottled beverage that comes with the meal back to your room. We would usually get milk or juice to use with breakfast.

3)Bring the incidentals from home - rain ponchos, razors, sunscreen --- whatever you family is likely to need. All available at WDW, but at a higher price.

Honestly, we're not big shoppers so sticking to a souvenir budget isn't very difficult for us.
The big thing, as others mentioned, is the tips. That always runs me more than I think it will, as the food prices are high and I always have had great service and want to tip accordingly. I'm not sure if you mentioned how old your kids are, but remember that anyone over 9, will be eating/ tipping adult prices.

 

[1stvisit0909]

Our biggest expense both of the last two trips were the tips for the TS meals. Without those we spent almost nothing. 3 adults, 2 kids, Dining plan we spent under $400 for 7 days and that included all the tips for the TS meals. We bought almost nothing that was not a snack credit or wasn't something we had said was a must have (I get a Disney photo album for each year we go so that is a must)

This. My kids had spending money from Christmas, so all I've had to pay for is tips, which has been about $250 on this 8 day trip.

 

[maxiesmom]

$8 a day for DDP tips - seems like a VERY SMALL tip.

I'm hoping that is not what that poster meant. I spent more than that on a tip for one meal!

 

[stindall]

With the dining plan how to you only spend $ at the airport. Don't you tip the servers at TS.

I'm hoping that is not what that poster meant. I spent more than that on a tip for one meal!

They never said they had a dining plan that including TS. If you get the QS one you don't have to tip anyone.

It's not naive, its about knowing boundaries and sticking to them. You can spend as little or as much as you want. Our kids rarely have more than $100 to spend even on a 10 day trip. When thier money is out, its out. No more no matter how much they have to have it. That works well with DH and I was well. We have went before on a 5 day trip and spent $8 only outside of what we prepaid for (DDP, Tickets, room). It's very possible.

We rarely choose to buy souvenirs but if we do we set a limit or pick one or two items we really want. (usually photos are our souvenirs.) If there's something you really want but don't want to buy, take a picture. When you get home you can describe it to someone at Disney and purchase it then.