Daily Budgets?

[BabyPiglet]

Okay, we have a family of three. Two adults and one teenager. We will be in Florida September 21-October 6. And we will be going to Sea World one day. We also have the DDP, which we got of course, for free.

My question is, How much money should we plan on daily? We've been before, but I just want to get everything under control this trip.

Thank you in advance.

 

[neonurse]

My last trip I allowed $200/day and that was without the DDP. We brought alot of snacks and ate only a few meals in Disney the rest of our dinners were off property. I think you would be safe with less than $100/day but I guess it depends on how many souveniers (sp??) you plan on buying. I am thrifty and bought alot of gifts etc off property. I think the best thing for me was not to use plastic...only cash or travellers chqs. I would think that at least 1/2 of what you brought for spending last time. Have fun!!!

 

[Freyja]

Tough question. It really depends on what you´re used to spending. Do you buy a lot of souvenirs, extras? We are a family of 6. 2 adults and 4 kids. If we were on the dining plan and staying on-site (no need for rental car or gas) we probably wouldn´t need more than $50 a day. Most days less. We don´t buy a lot of souvenirs. Usually everyone gets 1-2 souvenirs in the $10-20 range, over a 10 day period.

 

[DizznyChick]

you have the dining plan so dont figure in the food
but water can get expensive
even with the dining plan i order groceries
you can have water and juice and bagels and cereal delivered
i usually spend about 100 and order some beer or smirnoffs
having breakfast in the room is a money saver but i do it for convenience

we dont buy any souveniers unless my son saves up for them or my mother gives him money (which she usually does)
so i guess you'll need only drink money, and i have no idea about anything outside disney - maybe you can get park tickets to seaworld cheaper if you buy them in advance

 

[mom2luncate]

Where do you order your groceries from?

 

[Ratpack]

You will get a lot of different answers on this simply because it comes down to your own families needs and habits. We are a family of 5 with kids 9, 4 & 1, and we budget $100 a day while we are at WDW. Now we don't buy a lot of souvenirs either, mostly pins and small items. Plus a character meal would be a special so I budget the money for that in addition to that day, so it may $150 for that one day. Otherwise, we allow $100 a day. Before we leave, I print out envelopes with each day on them, then place $100 in each and seal. We open the envelope on that morning and that is our money for the day. And most times we have have money left over at the end of the trip which goes towards the next trip. We have gotten so good at conserving our money now that on the last couple of trips, we are opening Tuesday's envelope on Wednesday or even Thursday. But, agian, this works for our family, yours will most likely be different.

 

[dameodie]

My target amount savings-wise is $150 a day, not on the dining plan. Driving days, park days, water park days, whatever... the water park days should (should!) be cheaper, and some days will be more expensive. But that's my goal!

 

[Freyja]

My target amount savings-wise is $150 a day, not on the dining plan. Driving days, park days, water park days, whatever... the water park days should (should!) be cheaper, and some days will be more expensive. But that's my goal!

Sounds very realistic to me. Last time we went to WDW we went with 2 kids and a baby. We budgeted $150 a day for dining, parking and whatever and had no problem. Most meals were CS, but there were also a couple of charater meals. This year I expect spending $200 a day with 4 kids.

 

[G's mommy]

We are a family of 3, two adults and one DS10. We budget about $100 a day for food (we have DDE, so 20% off TS) and drinks, etc. We visit WDW often, so don't buy many souvenirs. My son usually has about $50 of his own money to spend on whatever he wants. I also use the envelope system and whatever we have leftover for one day, goes into the next day's allowance. We almost always have money left at the end of the trip. We eat only one TS per day, the rest is CS and we have breakfast in the room. I have used gardengrocer.com for grocery delivery and will be using them again next week.

 

[The Sweetness]

We're doing the DDp, and I plan on a daily food court breakie (oop) and as much as $20 p/day fro additional snacks and water for me, DH, and the 2y old. I have budgeted for 3 alcoholic drinks at dinner (2 beers for DH and a cocktail for myself) and also a glass of milk for the baby. I'll also be buying her milk or juice at breakfast and lunch. There will also be plenty of $$ spent on souvies, and balloons

Now that I think about it, we can get the baby a glass of milk instead of Dhs soft drink at dinner, since he'll want a couple of Heinies and some water

 

[txmomto1]

When we went in January, it was Myself, DH, and DS 4. We had DDP, and we where there for 5 nights. We spent a total of $275.00. $65 of that was on an outfit for DS, because it was so hot one day, and we had him in jeans. So the other money went to a charm for my charm bracelet, a baseball cap for DH, and water, soda's etc. I was pretty impressed with how we did.

We found after our first day, that after our TS breakfast, we where not hungry, so we would split our CS meals. Just a thought.

 

[mkycrzy1971]

Where do you order your groceries from?

Gardengrocer.com ....we used them during our may8-15th stay and everything was delivered when promised....no smashed muffins or anything! I was very impressed....I threw an extra duffle bag into my luggage befoer we left home and put what was left at the end of the trip into this bag as checked luggage...worked great! PM me if you have any questions.

 

[mkycrzy1971]

we used our snack credits for ice cream, smoothies, chips, etc and bought our drinks OOP....we took one bottle of water each (those that carried a bag/backpack) in the am, then ususally ended up getting 2-3 drinks throughout the day to share between the 5 of us in addition (this did not include our drinks with meals...they were included in the dining plan...ask for large when getting meals...sometime they will give them to you, sometimes not)...I would say $25-30 a day at MAX would be good (covering drinks and maybe one extra snack...not including souv.)...also, that is if you eat breakfast in the room as we did...we ordered cereal, muffins, bagels, and poptarts from garden grocer....worked great! have a great time!!!

 

[Hartbrken38]

Do you fly or drive down? This is our first visit and we are trying to figure the whole thing out. I also have some questions about the adr's and leaving the parks. If you feel like answereing some questions I would be very greatful.

 

[txmomto1]

Do you fly or drive down? This is our first visit and we are trying to figure the whole thing out. I also have some questions about the adr's and leaving the parks. If you feel like answereing some questions I would be very greatful.

We fly. We figured with the price of gas over $3 a gallon here, 2 nights hotel, and food on the road, it was cheaper to fly. You might try Delta if they fly out of where you are. They have flights for $178 PP from Texas to Orlando right now.

 

[Hartbrken38]

We looked at that, but we can drive for around 400.00 the most and we have free hotel rooms for the drive. So unless it comes down a little I think we are still cheaper driving. Plus the kids have yet to see the ocean. I am interested in renting a minivan or suv if anyone knows how to do this cheap.

 

[Disneytwinz]

We have a family of 7 and were also on the dining plan. We planned $22 for each person for 6 days. We really didn't even touch it. We were so busy we bought momentos on the last day. I would say we spent about $10 a day each.

 

[BabyPiglet]

Oh I'm sorry I forgot to mention this does not include my daughter's budget. Or SeaWorld.