Do You Watch What You Spend At WDW?

[DisneyMomx7]

No, we really don't watch what we spend. The kids have all their own Disney Dollars (about $150 each) from holidays and presents so we let them buy whatever they want instead of trying to "help" them get something reasonable. We don't stress because it's their money. We know what food will cost (way too much!) so we don't stress over that. If we really want to buy something we buy it - neither one of us really have ever gotten crazy. ALthough when we went to Paradise Island this year I forgot a sweatshirt and had to pay $90 for a plain Atlantis sweatshirt. I hated doing that but DH was like - hey you need it, we're on vacation, just do it.

If I was going to stress it would be over the price of everything we've paid before we left - 17 nights in FLoriday (GF and HRH hotels!) airfare for five, five annual passes, five Universal passes etc. If I did this we would never go again. LOL.

 

[mking624]

We don't budget what we spend because we really don't buy a lot to begin with. We have three things we ALWAYS buy: pin from the resort we're staying at, pin for the year we're there, and an ornament with the year we're there. Otherwise, we really don't buy anything. MAYBE we'll buy one tshirt. For example, I saw a shirt of the Swedish Chef meant to do a play on the show "The Iron Chef" which is one of my favorite shows, so we got that. That was the only extra in terms of souvies that we bought.

As far as food goes, we basically stick to only one full service meal a trip. It just gets too costly for us otherwise. We rarely buy snacks...we have a couple things we get and that's it.

Neither of us are huge spenders, so it's not really a big deal for us.

 

[ely3857]

Hiya

Airfare, Accomodation, Car hire & Park tickets all paid for, So out of our budget of $3000.00 for 2 adults over 2 weeks I dont think we will have to watch the pennies.

We will have $200.00 a day (I always include day of arrival & departure when spreading my funds across the holiday incase of delay etc) but if that seems unreasonable then any 'must haves' will be added to our credit card. Neither of us are big on souveniers, So food, Petrol & Ride photos is all we should need $ for. Oh....and a Minnie Mouse balloon!



Jodie

NB) Although I think this will be plenty for us we wont be watching were it is going too closely, We are on holiday and will behave like a couple of kids regardless of the cost!

 

[Stitch Inside]

Do I Watch What I Spend At WDW?
Yep, every penny as it's usually me signing for whatever.
Do I keep track of it?
Nope, not until I get home and go

 

[minmate]

We definitely limit spending. But not in a crazed, tensed out fashion -- if that makes sense. My kids (having four of them) have to share a lot of stuff at home (toys, rooms, on and on), so on vac. we only do that sometimes. When we see they are able to cope with sharing a meal or a drink, they do. But, sometimes, when they're tired and want different things, it's not worth fighting over how many french fries sister got, so even if they don't polish off their meal, we just let them have their own.

As for souvenirs, the kids get a set spending limit and we try to encourage them to save most of it for one intentional trip. With that money they can get whatever they want, but I do encourage them to try to get something they've never seen elsewhere and will remind them of the trip and something that they will play with or wear or use and enjoy.

I try to do a good job of packing what we need so we don't have to buy and $30 bottles of aspirin or anything either. But, if we find we need something, we'll get it.

As for dh and I, we don't spend much on ourselves at all. I like to look a bit, but that's about it. I don't NEED a ton of souvenirs as I am big into taking pics and the scrapbooks are my souvenirs. I do like to collect magnets and am unintentionally starting a postcard collection though -- both of which are pretty cheap things to collect.

Outside of the four main expenses: airfare, accomodations, park hoppers and food... we spend very little. As for food, our weekly grocery bill on average is $250, this last trip, we paid for the dining plan and spent $700 on food for 8 days. That's a pretty big difference and if we were stay at a DVC property in the future, I will try to do more at-home meals to cut down on that expense. It is nice to do some meals at the resorts and parks, but pound for pound, feeding my kids $6 chicken nuggets vs. $2 ones made at home, there's just not a big enough difference to always have to eat from places in the parks!

 

[bdrex95]

Do we watch our money at Disney?
Yes, I watch it go right out of my hand and into someone else's.

Seriously, we do set a loose budget. On our last trip, I brought cash and traveler's checks. I left them in the safe in the room, and only took out a certain amount per day. That was to cover food, souveniers, etc. We limited the kids to one smaller souvenier per park. Then we got something bigger at DTD. DS6 got a lego set, DD3 got a princess stuff, we got a big snowglobe to add to our collection.

We never really had to watch our spending super close, as I always had enough to cover pretty much whatever we wanted to do. I wound up coming home with about $50 left - not bad, if I do say so myself.

 

[lsteadman]

1) All expenses are paid prior to trip in cash/debit card. No credit cards used!

*SuperShuttle pre-paid tip included
*Disney All-Stars myw plus dining pre-paid
*FL Tours $50 one-way (cash already in envelope)
*Mousekeeping Tips $35 (7 night X $5 =$35 cash already in envelope)


Since we already have food with our plan, I give my daughter $200.00 in Disney dollars to spend on whatever she wants and I give myself a budget of $300.00 on whatever I want.

No charge cards, no bills when I return! I don't want to still be paying on my vacation 6 months after I am home. I want to be working on the 2006 Ultimate Disney experience trip soon.

 

[nataliesdaddy]

I know that most of us here are planners and want to get the best deal on our airline, tickets, and hotel. But, once you are actually on vacation do you watch what you spend?

I know that growing up my parents did everything they could to pinch a penny on vacation. So, maybe that is why I have no desire to do so. If we see something that we want, we get it, within reason. We don't look at the prices when we eat. We just do what makes us happy. One year I spent $80 on pajamas. I would NEVER do that. Heck, I usually only wear a t-shirt to bed.

How do you spend?

I hate to admit it but I ...for the most part... just spend - unless it is some ludicrously priced object in the thousands of dollars... or unless my daughter has turned into the "gimme monster." In which case I put on the breaks.

 

[rt2dz]

We have a general idea of what we want to spend and try to stick to it. But we eat (& order) where (& what) we want. We don't overly watch things basically. With careful planning before we go, we already know what lodging is going to cost us & a fairly decent idea on food costs. Then we always leave $$ for the unexpected. Last time we actually ended up doing a lot more than planned & came in exactly on target.

 

[MinnieM3]

Since we've gone on a few trips per year recently, we try not to spend too much, except on our hotel. Food is never a real biggie for us. Usually just a few sit downs per trip. We do like souvenirs, but are getting picky as one other poster put it!

If we were going only once a year or every other year Im sure we'd spend a lot more.

 

[WeLoveThePoly]

No, we don't watch what we spend while in WDW. We don't go hog-wild but we definitely don't pinch pennies.

The most expensive item we ever bought was a $400 Walt Disney World leather jacket for DH. It is so cool. It has patches on the arms for each of the 4 Theme Parks. DH gets tons of compliments on it. He had noticed the jacket when we went to WDW in 2003 and kept eyeing it when we went back last year. He finally decided to buy it.

Debbie

 

[leighe]

We spend pretty much what we want. I usually don't give us a specific budget but sort of try to estimate what we're going to spend. That might change when we have kids. I collect dolls so I know that every trip I'm going to spend about $150 on one of the custom made Engel-Puppen dolls in Germany at Epcot. We usually make 1 or 2 PS's a day so I can estimate food costs. I'm in always in charge of the money because DH can barely take vacations anyway (see the SO vacation thread on the CB) and he would get so stressed out if he was constantly thinking about the money we are spending.

We have a seperate "vacation account" that we put money into every paycheck so we never use credit cards for vacations. I have no problem with spending every penny! Then we start over again next year!

 

[Goofster]

We start out with the mindset to watch what we spend, but as we go its harder and harder to follow a plan so we just wing it!

 

[ArielsMommy]

When we are on vacation we just spend. But because we visit several times a year, we have a pretty good idea of what everything will cost. I feel like we work hard to save all year for our trips so we deserve whatever it is we want.

 

[tinaluis]

We don't really watch what we spend but we don't go hog-wild either. We really try to cut back on souveniers which will end up at next year's garage sale. I try to have each of my 3 DDs pick out one thing that they really like and limit them to that unless we find something that is absolutely perfect for them. Case in point, my middle DD loves music boxes and had already bought herself a t-shirt when we came across an Ariel music/jewelry box. She didn't even have to ask -- it was hers. OTOH if she'd wanted another hat, pen, coloring book, sticker book, t-shirt, etc. I probably would have said no.

 

[vettechick99]

This is a tough question. I'm naturally a little cautious with my money (I said my money which doesn't include DHs) so a lot of times I talk myself out of souveniers that I know I really don't need.

But when it comes to food and drink and snacks and artwork, I'm bad. I'll spend til the cows come home.

$5 for a bagel? What a steal!
$8 for a beer? How about a round for us and that nice table over there!
What's that....$35 for a filet mignon? Why garcon, I'll take two!

 

[Yardbird]

I don't "budget", but I'm alot "pickier" on what I "buy". We eat where ever we want and whatever we want..... I always try to get the best deal for rooms, although we do stay at deluxe..... So I think we "vacation comfortably and enjoyably", but not go all out "vacation crazy".

I have no idea what we spend on our vacation at WDW. DH does, because he does the banking. We aren't really heavy into souvenirs, so don't usually spend a lot there. The last three trips we have taken our oldest grandson, so we do buy him a few things. DH plays golf on property, and we eat where and what we want. I'm sure what we spend isn't an unreasonable amount. However, our last trip was the most expensive because we bought into DVC while there.

 

[NeverlandClub23]

I save all year long so that when I go I don't have to look at prices and can get whatever I want. We started going to WDW when I was 11 and my parents always let us get whatever we want (within reason) when we were on vacation and my parents were by no means rich they just saved all year.

 

[sanctus]

I HAVE to budget while I'm there if I ever want to go!! Plans now are hotel and tix, prepaid of course. I will have envelopes for meals with the money I need for each in it's own envelope. I've spent a good bit of time with the menus, and planned for the most expensive meal I can see us ordering at each restaurant, and put that much in the envelope. Then there's "blow money" for souvenirs, etc. Each day gets a set amount - hoping I can be reasonable generous here, too - and anything not spent can be used later in the vacation. Extra money from meal envelopes also rolls over into extra spending money.

We don't have a credit card, so when it's gone, it's gone. Can't dip into the atm, cause we'll be broke!! And of course, the money to get us home is locked up tight so we can't steal any during the trip!

I'd like to just "go wild" but if we want to go, we've got to go reasonably.

 

[nluvwithmickey]

This year is going to be an easy year to watch our spending....

With hotel,airfare,tickets, and dining all paid for.....The extra money we will be bringing will be for extras and souvenirs. I find with the dining already paid for it is much easier to figure how much you can actually spend on extras.

On our first trip in 2002, with the currency exchange being so hard on us Canadians we ate Counter service mostly....along with maybe 3 table service meals for our 10 day vacation....Let me tell you, when we came back from our vacation, we did not eat at the restaurants for 6 WHOLE weeks...Even I could not beleive it.

It's gonna be fun not having to check the food item prices this year and being able to go for what we feel like trying.

As for souvenirs, well I love jewelry and pins. What I do is buy pins on Ebay and let the kids trade them, while I buy new ones for te collection. I decided on no jewelry this year and will splurge on A PAL MICKEY instead. I'll have alittle bit of WDW with me when I get back and feel those post Disney blues!