Family Spending money

[bjmach]

Ok Myself, Wife, and 2 Daughters.

12 yr old daughter will have a $300 Disney Gift Card that Im putting her allowance on. She has been told that this is what she has to spend the entire trip on anything she wants, amounts to $50 a day.

2yr old daughter will be bought things by myself or wife.

Bringing $1000 for Dining since we aren't using the dining plan.
$1400 spending money for the entire trip. Which equates to $166 a day for food and $233 for misc/souveniers etc...

Is this too much or does this sound like a decent budget for spending money?

Room, Rental Car, Park tickets and Airfare already paid for in full.

Kids and wife first time to Disney so I think they will go a little crazy with things they want etc..

Any suggestions??

 

[dreamalittledream]

how many TS meals are you planing? thse can be 100.00 each easily.
other than that I think it sound like you will be able to have fun and a great trip.

 

[kim_o]

Is this too much or does this sound like a decent budget for spending money?

Definitely not too much - if anything, I think it will be difficult feeding a family of 4 for only 166 dollars a day at disney (unless you eat off of disney property)

 

[bjmach]

Right now have Crystal palace, Liberty Tree Tavern and doing a lunch at Kona Kafe and thats it. Going to do Gardengrocer.com for water and breakfast items.

 

[bjmach]

Definitely not too much - if anything, I think it will be difficult feeding a family of 4 for only 166 dollars a day at disney (unless you eat off of disney property)

Really?? hmmm the 2 yr old eats free so that really only means three of us for $166 a day....maybe I should rethink bringing more....

 

[Colinsmom]

Really?? hmmm the 2 yr old eats free so that really only means three of us for $166 a day....maybe I should rethink bringing more....

The 2yo only eats free at buffets or family style meals (like Crystal Palace and LTT, but not Kona Cafe), unless she exclusively eats off of adult plates. If you order anything for her off of a menu, you pay for it.

 

[brymolmom]

I think $166 a day for 4 is plenty especially if you are doing garden grocer. You eat breakfast in your room....bring drinks/snacks to the parks - then split 3 TS meals (since you have some snacks too - just add a snack or two with the meal and there will be plenty to go around)....That should keep you to ABOUT $30 - $40 per CS meal....I'm not sure how expensive those TS meals are that you have planned - but I'm guessing if you keep to CS the rest of the time - you will have no problem.

When we don't have the dining plan - and we have some "groceries" in our room (and in our soft sided cooler we put in the stroller) - we have no problem keeping it to $100 - $120 a day - even with getting an ice cream for everyone!

 

[southtexasmom]

If you are going to eat every breakfast in your room and CS the rest of the time except the TS's you mentioned above you should be fine.

 

[DevilDuckie]

Really?? hmmm the 2 yr old eats free so that really only means three of us for $166 a day....maybe I should rethink bringing more....

An easy way to keep your bill down is to agree to drink water at restuarants. Your average restaurant charges $2-$3 for a soda. Add tax and the increase in your tip base and you can easily be looking at $10 for 3 sodas at a meal.

 

[danx2plus3more]

ok you plan on spendidng 166 a day on food...are you staying on property?? if so you could add the dining plan for the 4 of you for $140.00 a day..that would save you money and you could order table service..its food for thought. you dont have to buy a package for the little one so really it would only cost you $120.00

 

[bjmach]

staying at Shades of Green so no dining plan unfortunately. But plan on breakfasts in the room and even some lunches back at shades of green when we go back to the room for a nap for our 2 yr old.

 

[danx2plus3more]

my husband is trying to talk me into staying there..let me know what you think..i cant see the savings from sog to por. i know there is one just not enough in my opinion

 

[LynnTH]

My thoughts on the spending money for your DD. If if were me I would not put all $300 on a Disney Card. When we went last each kid had $200 (they were 7 and 4 at the time). We had 1/2 in Disney Dollars and 1/2 in cash. Turned out to be good. My daughter came home with about $50 and my son came home with around $100. So, I'm glad that not all of it was in Disney Dollars or a card. Just something you might want to think about before putting all her spending money on a Disney Card.

 

[cjackearl]

I think that sounds like plenty, especially if you allow some carry over from misc budget to dining budget. Your 12 year old is buying her own souvenirs so maybe you won't need as much there as you planned for. If you go over some days on dining, can you "borrow" some from your misc. fund?

 

[bjmach]

I think that sounds like plenty, especially if you allow some carry over from misc budget to dining budget. Your 12 year old is buying her own souvenirs so maybe you won't need as much there as you planned for. If you go over some days on dining, can you "borrow" some from your misc. fund?

my thoughts exactly

 

[mmccan]

I also think you will be just fine. We just took a 2 week trip in Jan and have a family of 5 (DH, Me DS8, DS6, and DS3) and we only took 2000 for all of our food and souvineers. Granted we are DVC members and ate a few of our meals in our vila but also ate at several table service meals. We ate at Chef Mickeys, Hollywood and Vine (dinner) Cape May's Goofy's Beach Bkfst, Beaches and Cream and counter service at least once a day, along with the endless Mickey Bars and snacks for the always hungry boys. My husband and I also had drinks by the pool several times (and those are not cheap). We actually came home with about 150.00. So that equals about 132.00 a day. Of course we have been several times before and the kids all had their own spending money for souvineers so that did help.

 

[TheDizMom]

I think you would be fine for meals since the 2 year old may be able to eat free or off someone else"s plate and you will do breakfasts in your room, I would keep in mind that a 12 year old may want to order off the adult menu since the kid menus are very limited in my view. My son who was 10 on our last trip, and niece who was 9, never ordered off the kids menu because they didn't want to be eating chicken fingers, mac and cheese, etc. for 7 days . This may mean that your meals at the TS places could be a bit more. On the positive side we often find that we can share a few CS meals and save on money because they are usually so big . If you budget right I think you should be fine.

For spending money I think what you have budgeted sounds good over all. Just a few things to consider. I agree don't put all your daughters money on the Disney card. Perhaps put some on one of those American Express type gift cards, that way if she doesn't spend all of her $300 the Amex card can be used anywhere. The other thing to consider is that if you chose to buy your younger one a princess costume with all the accessories, as I think most 2 yr. old girls would love, they are pricey. At her age at least you can get it a bit big and she'll have a few years to use it, which to me makes it worth the money. We did that in 2005 as our daughter's big purchase and it easily cost us over $100 back then, it's I am sure much more spendy now. They are so much better made then the Target or Walmart ones, and I have it put away now for her to pass on to her own daughter (assuming she has one ). In any case I would say our family of 4 spent less then $1000 for our take home booty for both of our 7 day stays. Another suggestion, since your aren't staying on sight therefore unable to have them send purchases to your room, make your purchases at the end of the day so you don't have to lug them all over the park with you.

Have a great time. The first trip is always the best .

 

[bjmach]

Thanks for all the responses everyone. We also made a big change, cancelled reservations at shades of green and decided to rent a townhome from www.5mins2disney.com Cost came out to be about $100 more than I would be paying at SOG. Plus we would be leaving parks at noon anyway with two year old, now have a bigger fridge so some lunches we will eat at the house. Just wish May would hurry up and get here already.