Aussie Disneyland Planners come on in and lets plan together :)

[kel77]

For the USA part of our trip we are taking $8000 AUD which yesterday equated to approximately $6500 USD. We will also have a credit card and about $500 cash. That is for 5 of us:- Me, Hubby, Master 9, Master 6 and Miss 3.

 

[gogo65]

For the USA part of our trip we are taking $8000 AUD which yesterday equated to approximately $6500 USD. We will also have a credit card and about $500 cash. That is for 5 of us:- Me, Hubby, Master 9, Master 6 and Miss 3.

Wow that is some serious money for 2 weeks in the US. A little shopping maybe

The USD is now over 83 cents

 

[aussiegirls]

My budget is the same as Kel77's. Plus the kids will take some money they have saved (probably a few hundred each), to buy all those things that I won't buy for them . I am happy to take spending money for all of us but I find with my kids if they have their own money they will think twice about what they want to buy and won't buy it unless they really love it and want it. So I will buy the standard things like Mickey ears, a t-shirt/sloppy joe and I promised a build-a-bear but extras will come from their own wallet. Then when we get home they tend to take better care of things they have spend their own hard earned dollars on.

xxx

 

[Ms. Shuttergirl]

Wow that is some serious money for 2 weeks in the US. A little shopping maybe

The USD is now over 83 cents

My DH and DD plan on doing some serious shopping while we are away. I have pointed out it isn't really cheaper if you paid thousands of dollars to get there and all you want to do is shop, .

And how on earth will be get all of their shopping home i ask you

 

[LesleyP]

I'm hoping to take about $3,000 AUD for the 2 weeks I'll be there. It's just me going, so hopefully that'll be enough!

I'm definitely planning on doing some shopping! I'm doing the old take a suitcase within a suitcase trick!

 

[aussiegirls]

I had been telling myself that when the dollar got to 0.80 I would grab my Travel Card. It is now at 0.8150 and I keep wondering if I should hold off another day and maybe it will go up another few points of a cent. But I have decided that today is the day and I am going to grab the exchange rate at whatever it is.

I was reading the Aussie dollar update on 9msn and they mentioned about the fact that it was being artificially inflated (I tend to agree) and that it is likely to drop to a more normal rate soon. If that happened and I lost out on a few hundred dollars on the exchange because I was gambling on another rise I think I would kick myself.

Anyways, to cut a long story short, am going to get my ANZ travel card today

xxx

 

[kel77]

Serious cash for a serious shopper

We are visiting my Mum in Philly and she says that as it'll be the end of Summer there will be some serious clearance sales I am hoping to be able to buy the kids, Hubby and myself a new Summer wardrobe for the coming Aussie Summer

We are taking a suitcase with gifts for relos so that will be filled with our shopping bargains

We are getting our CBA travel card on Thursday afternoon. Fingers crossed the dollar stays where it is or goes higher. I might get scared though and get it sooner

 

[rossip]

I see the CBA is selling today at 82.31 that is a pretty good rate !!!

Dont forget the Post office too you can buy TCs and cash PLUS they have no commision - we grabbed some TCs last week and the rate was only marginally less than the banks .

I really dont know how much we will take just yet but like the others we are going shopping !!!

 

[keptwoman]

I spent a couple of hours last night online trying to figure out the different banks exchange rates and fees and gave up. None except Bendigo gave full information (incidentally from what I can see their rates are very good!) So tomorrow I'm going to spend a few hours on the phone and try to nail the information down a bit more.

 

[Andona]

We are visiting my Mum in Philly and she says that as it'll be the end of Summer there will be some serious clearance sales I am hoping to be able to buy the kids, Hubby and myself a new Summer wardrobe for the coming Aussie Summer

When are you going, Kel?
We were there in October last year and visited several outlet malls and shopping centres - I was so disappointed that the only clothes I could find were winter ones - I was only interested in summer shopping. We're going pretty much the same time this year so I don't have much hope for clothes shopping.

Hopefullly if you are going earlier you will get the end of summer sales.

I am definitely going to bring home the Skymall catalogue this time though - they have them on almost all the domestic flights over there and it's fascinating.Sort of like the Innovations catalogue on steroids
It kept me occupied almost the whole flight from L.A. to Washington D.C.

They do ship internationally but I don't know if I'll ever order anything - it's just fascinating to see what you CAN buy over there.

I also love visiting the big supermarkets - the range of food products is pretty amazing too. This time I'm going to bring home some tins of clams ( I hope customs will let me bring them in!) I looove Clam Chowder and I have a recipe but I've never been able to find clams here - not even in David Jones food hall.

What sort of things do the rest of you hope to buy while you're there?

Andona

 

[keptwoman]

I'm looking forward to hitting Gap for kids trousers. They are so well fitting.
Gymboree and Gap for their Halloween costumes, we don't do halloween at home but the kids spend a lot of time in dress ups and 1/the quality sucks here and 2/ it's hard to get dress up clothes in size 10-12
Gymboree for girls clothes as they are beautiful quality.
I'll probably update my cosmetics.
We have a limited edition Mickey and I'd like another one. Plus other Mickey bits and bobs, I love Mickey!!
Charms for my bracelet.
Trousers that fit ME!! I am about a size 6 and it's really hard to get nice trousers that don't fall down and aren't made for 4' tall 10 year olds. Most stores here stop at size 7. I don't know what size that is in the US, I'm thinking somewhere between 0 and 2.
That's about it I think.

 

[marvel]

hey the dollar is kicking butt! Have to get some more. Never can have enough. We had one suitcase just with food, various cake mixes, candy, and rib rubs ! I am going to do some online shopping as well for some seasonings and steak rubs. I love Abercrombie and Fitch, not cheap but really cool stuff.

The sales are amazing, especially in Macy's. Fall season should have all the summer stuff on sale, and they really discount. Regular Levi's were $25US last time, ridiculous prices and Calvin Klein underwear was over half the aussie price, this was after converting. I bough nine pair of shoes both casual and formal. The outlet malls are real outlet malls. Particularly the vegas ones but we plan to go to Carlsbad ones as well.

Oh, just bought hannah montana tickets for the wife and DD11. Online with ticketmaster, she is in anaheim 23rd Sept so that was unbelievably lucky. Will have to take the DS9 to the baseball or something, he refused to go!

 

[keptwoman]

Oh I didn't think about food! We are taking quite a bit of food with us so we will have that space to fill on the return journey LOL.
I can't have gluten so until I figure out brands and stuff it's better to take some cereal and other bits so I don't starve or get sick.

Are any of you seeing people over there you are taking gifts for? I'd love some creative ideas! We are staying with friends for 3 nights so I plan to take them some NZ wine and something else and gifts for the kids. We are meeting up with our 10yo's penpal and family so I want to take some stuff for them too. Plus last time on our road trip we had lovely people do nice things for us a couple of times and fortunately had some things with us to give them as a thank you.

 

[kel77]

We are leaving not this Saturday but the next!!!!!!!

Mum says we are coming at a great time for bargains She sends me things for the kids and she always puts the receipts in the package so I can see how cheap things are

I also plan to go to the supermarket to see (and take photos of) the enormous range of the same product.

I am taking Vegemite (old and new), Cadbury Dairy Milk, Nestle Milky Bar, Maggi Receipe Bases (Beef Goulash is the requested flavour), Tim Tams, Scotch Finger with a Chocolate Back, Fry's Turkish Delight, Flake, Milo and I think that's it food wise I also have Socceroos, Wallabies, Broncos and Bundy Rum shirts. Oh and ofcourse the duty free Bundy Rum for Mum

 

[aussiegirls]

marvel I am soooooo jealous about you getting Hannah Montana tickets. I would love to be able to surprise my girls with tickets to see her. By the time we get there Hannah will be in Dallas though

I got my Travelcard today. Got 0.82 which I thought was pretty great. Must stop looking at exchange rate now or I may kick myself

xxx

 

[keptwoman]

dreaded double post

 

[melbarkwith]

What sort of things do the rest of you hope to buy while you're there?

Andona

I'm also going for the food and kids clothes. I was reading the other day that there's a Gymboree outlet at The Block at Orange - very happy about that! I usually order the kids stuff from Gymboree online when it's on clearance, so it will be good to actually look at it before I buy. Last time I spent hours and $$ in Old Navy, I'm looking forward to doing the same again My kids love the clothes I got from there b/c they are so soft.

And sad as it is, I'm looking forward to going back to Target I had a ball last time!

Also on the list to bring home are some Mickey's Hot Cocoa (got one tin last time and it didn't last long enough), some Tigger Tails, these Mint Pattie type things from the Candy shop at DL and Goldfish Crackers.

 

[becpee]

Some of you are on the same page as me (bring back cake mixes LOL)

I still have nearly three months to go, i'm dying here LOL

 

[aussiegirls]

Could someone please explain the cake mix thing to me? What is so good about US cake mixes, and how are they different to ours here? I would hate to miss out on bringing back something awesome just because I didn't know it was awesome

xxx

 

[platypus67]

Aussiegirls I think the biggest difference is in the types available. They have so many different flavours that we don't have here. Check out usafoods.com.au and that will give you an idea of what is available.
My food purchases when over there are usually ingredients for cooking, Things like peanut butter chips for biscuits, baking chocolate, graham wafer crackers and crumbs and maple essence. A trip to a US supermarket is always good fun.