Anyone not plan a budget before going?

[CaliforniaDreaming]

Does anyone not plan a budget for their trip, and just spend what it costs? We have never planned out a budget before we went, and haven't spent more than we "thought" we would. Is this okay for a Disney-addict to be doing?

 

[MinnieMe2]

We usually have a sort of broad range, and we don't do much in the way of blow-out meals. In an 8-day trip, we may do one nice sit-down dinner. And we may go to Whispering Canyon Cafe for one breakfast. Otherwise, we do fast food at the parks and drive off-site for meals. Our philosophy is that food is the only thing we can control, so we do. And we always know that a trip to Disney is going to cost, but we love to go anyways!!!

 

[Biyanna]

a relative of mine does. She buys airline tickets,car and books the hotel in advance. (Not much if any deal hunting)Then AMEX's everything else and then pays it off in a couple of months. I would never dream of asking her what all of that nonplanning cost because it works for her. She and her hubby hate alot of fuss and details. To each his own. In addition to your broad budget I would suggest you bring a credit card or two, just in case, and you should be fine. Have fun!!!!

 

[Disneydays]

I give a big..thumbs up...to anyone with the resources to go to WDW without a budget in mind!!

I..for one..would never be able to do that...being a single mom...AND...the type of person whose only actual..real..honest to God..wake me up in the middle of the nite...nitemare..is one that has to do with worrying about money......
I don't actually have a budget "per-say"...if I did...I would never have the real honest to God..wake me up in the middle of the nite...nitemare...worrying about money!!!!
I DO need to have an idea about where we are going to eat...what extras we are going to do....how we are going to get to the Parks from the airport and in return as such....
I also need to include pet boarding while we are gone...on and on...
I for one....would absolutely need to have at least a
very good estimate of what everything was going to cost........BEFORE....I go..
Sure enough....If I went to WDW..."willy-nilly"...not worrying about money....I would arrive home to a broken water pipe...flooded kitchen...dysfunctional furnace/AC...you name it......
Give me a good "estimated budget" any day!!!!!

 

[RussH]

I am another non budgeter type. This is when I go solo which is really easy compared to families. If I set a budget for anything it is lodging. When I get great resort rate I stay longer. Not really big on trinkets and only do maybe 3 $$$ sitdown meals a stay. Lucky that some expense items are fixed for me. I drive down so it's only gas and have a AP which when broken down a average of 20 days a year is really reasonable.
The only negative of this method is when someone ask me what is the admission price or how much is a cocktail at Tune-In or Dawa (this I should know) I say "sorry I have no idea"
Really if I had to plan every penny I would not have any fun.
RussH

 

[sablair]

I would LOVE to be able to set out and not even think about money! But, Im a little compulsive and have to set limits or else I would spend a ton in three days and worry about it the rest of the trip! My budget keeps me sane. Its just a guideline to stay on track so I can relax and not worry about the balance in savings. Some people are very good at saying no to impulse buys and not over spending, but Im not one of them. I dont have a strict budget but I have to have something day to day to keep me out of debt! We have our entire trip Jul payed for except misc and meals. I am so relieved... I dont have pre-vacation spending anxiety! I say, if you can go without a budget and have a great time - good for you!!!

~Sheila

 

[Saffron]

I wish I had the income to not budget or save forever but, I do not so, I must budget!

 

[susy]

My Dh and I have been investing money (300.00) per month since our son was born -he will be four in Nov. One of our accounts is our "vacation" fund. We have only used the money once (to put towards our new Windstar last year). We have already built up that account again. We just sent our deposit for the resort (three nights at WL, pool view for 639.00). We should be able to pay for the whole trip without going into any debt. We have budgeted about 2000.00 for three days. We are doing 2 days at MK and that's it.

 

[wdisneyaholic]

We don't necessarily do a budget but, we drive down to save money. We try to find a good rate on hotel rooms but we stay on site. We usually eat where we want at any sit down dinners. We usually go to Disney every 2 years so we figure that when we are here we want to enjoy ourselves. If we do a sit down meal or buffet then we try to do the rest in lighter meals.

I am not going to just eat a counter service just to save money. When I go on vacation I want to enjoy it. Maybe if I traveled more often to Disney I would do a budget.

 

[DisneyFix]

We never have a budget, but maybe we should! We don't budget at home either. I wouldn't know where to start.

 

[kilarney]

I don't budget, but I don't think I could spend much less than I wind up spending.
The major purchases are always planned ahead of time. I book my hotel through Priceline (no kids, so I don't mind staying off-site). I am also a fanatic about tracking airfares and purchasing when the rates are lowest. The same goes for the rental car.
Once we are at the resorts, we use some common sense, but no specific budget. We stop at the grocery store and buy breakfast food to eat in the hotel room. (usually cereal and fruit). Our one sit-down meal of the day is lunch, and dinner is always counter service. We buy just one or two souveniers. Something to remind of us the trip that is also practical. (ie: refrigerator magnet.)
I think the key in deciding whether or not to budget is to know thyself. If you tend to go crazy, then a budget is very smart. If you aren't an impulsive spender, then I see no need.

 

[HAH]

I sit down and review our plans as far as eating, etc. Then I try to guesstimate what it will cost. We don't use charge cards so I do this to make sure we have enough on us to cover. We have always come home with plenty of $$ left. Maybe what I am trying to say is we plan what we want to do first instead of letting 'the budget' determine our plans.

Don't get me wrong - when our family was younger, I took our $ and divided it by the days we were gone. Then I put that amount into an envelope for each day. It was fun 'beating the envelope' and having extra $ at the end of the day for more extras then we had first imagined!

 

[BevS97]

HAH - you stole my tip. We live in the UK, and came to Orlando for 2 weeks - we did what we wanted to do, stayed onsite, etc, but we had to be sensible since we were staying for 2 weeks.

We had prepaid for hotels, passes etc, and took $150x15 days with us, divided up into envelopes, 1 per day. We just put them all in the safe, and retreived one each morning. Nearly every night we had money left, sometimes quite a bit, then towards the end of the holiday we relaxed, went to World of Disney and bought what we wanted, knowing that we still had the last 2 days money safe in the safe.
I found this to be a very easy way to keep on budget - I am not interested in writing down everything I might spend, eat etc and working out how much we needed, but this way I knew that we couldn't go mad. We still had a couple of expensive meals (Rose & Crown, Red Lobster, Wilderness Canyon, and about 4 character breakfasts, spring to mind).
I think if you are concerned about overspending, then it's a marvellous plan.

Bev

 

[thefatman]

I wish we could budget but that word is rude in my house. I sometimes wonder how we ever bought our house in Orlando

Holidays = Gold card

worry later we could be dead by then

 

[tigger2esq]

very rarely come up with a budget. we just go and enjoy ourselves. However, we generally book WAY in advance and by the time we arrive in Orlando--the airfare, hotel and park passes have long since been paid for. we then pretty much charge everything for the week but the bill is never a real bank buster. (and if we time it right --it is spread out over two credit card statements. ). we do some cost cutting things---like not eating three big meals a day or always picking the fanciest restaurant---we generally stick to one big meal per day (fancy restaurant, character lunch etc.) and eat a lot of nutrigrain bars and granola in between--but we dont deny ourselves little luxuries like the awesome frozen margaritas in EPCOT and Mickey ice cream---we save the skimping and saving when we are not on vacation!!!!!! we also dont overdo it on the souvineres--we always get a Christmas ornament and then we usually find one or two things that really catch our eye.

 

[pooh2001]

We sort of budet.
We got DC rates - hotel will be pre-paid 2 months in advance.
We bought our plane tickets at a great rate (1/2 of what Delta offers today)
- they are paid for already.
We bought AP vouchers - again already paid for.

And I hit the Disney store with my DC when they have sales and my kids
now each have a new Disney character t-shirt to wear the first 5 days of our
vacation. If I do laundry- they can repeat for our last 5 days.
I hope that stops their gimmies.
I also picked up some Disney beenies on sale and a few other Disney items on sale
for "pixie gifts". Again, to cut down on gimmies.

Money- I agree with an above post $150 /day for food and ????.
plane, hotel, tickets have already been paid in advance.

My DS & DD will get $50 in Disney dollars to spend during the vacation.
DH & myself - well, I guess if we see something, we'll buy it. We are not big
sovenier junkies.

My DS & DD know at the end of our trip, we will go to the biggest Disney Store in Downtown
Disney. They each get $100 to spend and have their items shipped home.
We are going around Thanksgiving - and their boxes will be placed under the Christmas
tree when they arrive in NY. Kind of like a gift certificate in advance.

So, if that's budgeting, I guess I do.
But this is our first trip to WDW. I want to have fun every minute we are there !