How Much Did You Budget?

[goofymickey]

Sorry for this being so long. My family (my hubby, my daughter, and myself) are planning a trip to Disney World in October with my brother, sister-in-law and neice. When we started planning for this trip we had everything mapped out on what we need to save and it was do-able. We bought our plane tickets and since then we got off budget with car repairs and having to buy a new car and now I'm looking to see where I can make cuts. My original budget was for the tickets 600 (were going 2 days no park-hopper), 230 for Mickeys not so scary Halloween party, 170 for memory maker, we're renting a house and our share is 430. Now I know these are the things we can't change. My question is who's the best to go through for a car rental we don't need anything fancy or expensive. How much did you plan on for food money and extra spending money. We plan on bringing lunches and snacks so we won't be eating at a lot of restaurants. I was originally planning on 700 for the 7 days but my sister-in-law said I was crazy. Then I got to extra spending money which would include the bibbity bobbity boutique I originally planned on 1000 and was once again was told I was insane lol. I just don't want to get on this trip and regret not being able to do something because of money. We haven't taken a family trip so this is a rare occurrence for us and I'm completely lost. Please Help!

 

[CalDisneyMomof2]

Sorry for this being so long. My family (my hubby, my daughter, and myself) are planning a trip to Disney World in October with my brother, sister-in-law and neice. When we started planning for this trip we had everything mapped out on what we need to save and it was do-able. We bought our plane tickets and since then we got off budget with car repairs and having to buy a new car and now I'm looking to see where I can make cuts. My original budget was for the tickets 600 (were going 2 days no park-hopper), 230 for Mickeys not so scary Halloween party, 170 for memory maker, we're renting a house and our share is 430. Now I know these are the things we can't change. My question is who's the best to go through for a car rental we don't need anything fancy or expensive. How much did you plan on for food money and extra spending money. We plan on bringing lunches and snacks so we won't be eating at a lot of restaurants. I was originally planning on 700 for the 7 days but my sister-in-law said I was crazy. Then I got to extra spending money which would include the bibbity bobbity boutique I originally planned on 1000 and was once again was told I was insane lol. I just don't want to get on this trip and regret not being able to do something because of money. We haven't taken a family trip so this is a rare occurrence for us and I'm completely lost. Please Help!

$700 seems like more than enough for food and spending (depending on how much you plan to spend) for just what it sounds like, 3 park days including MNSSHP. Especially since you said you'd be bringing lunch and snacks and because you're a smaller family. My family of four eats all meals and most snacks there and we're JUST over $100 a day. If you're planning to do a few character meals/buffets it might average just over $100 a day for the 3 of you.

If you want to save a bit, buy a few discounted Disney gift cards for your food and spending money you'll be using at strictly Disney. You could save yourself at least 15%.

Did you already buy Memory Maker? We went to the parks 5 days and it BARELY seemed worth it, unless you're splitting that cost with your brother.

 

[scrapquitler]

If I were in a budget conscious way and needed to save money on my trip, I would cut out Memory Maker and/or Bippity Bop Boutique.
I think $700 is a good budget for food for 7 days, especially if you are eating some meals in the room and bringing other meals into the park. If you eat counter service dinners in the park, 2 adults and 1 child should work out to around $50 a meal, leaving you $50 for snacks/drinks/extra. That's reasonable.

 

[goofymickey]

We're going the 3 days and 1 day at the beach and 1 day at down town Disney. We're not planning for to do any Disney dinners. I did see at Sam's Club they have the pack of 3 $50 gift cards for 143. Our daughters will be both 4 at the time of the trip so this is mostly going to be meeting the characters and it will be split between the two families.

 

[hsmamato2]

If you can, cut out memory maker and the boutique- also go to all ears . net for a complete list of restaurants and pricing.... 2 adults and one child can easily eat for 100 a day in the parks (or much less if you choose) so if you only have 2-3 park days, then the other food budget items offsite should be much cheaper. to me 100 per day is completely reasonable for food, and my guys eat a lot. and we only eat breakfast in our room,all other is onsite food. FWIW I think your dd will still have a great time without the really pricey BBT stuff.....

 

[worm761]

I would go over my budget with a fine toothed comb. Actually I did last month. LOL... truck needed new tires so that came from the vacation budget. And truck tires are NOT cheap. Anyway, I decided that we can do breakfast at the resort every morning except the one character breakfast because it is family tradition. I won't cut out DH's birthday dinner (the reason for the trip!). I will carry lunches in the parks if need be. Go through your budget and see what you can live with and what you can live without. I love Memory Maker so will be getting that. DD has no clue that BBB even exists so I can skip that and save it for another trip.

Menus can be found here: http://www.themouseforless.com/walt-disney-world/dining/menus/ This gives you a general idea of what you'll be spending. Look at the disneystore.com website and look at park merchandise to get an idea of what souvenirs will look like. Your trip can be cheap or a once in a lifetime blow out. Your decision. There is plenty to do in Disney that doesn't cost any more than your admission and as long as you don't tell your DD that there is more, she'll never know.

 

[HM]

Take your own camera and have the CMs take picture with it, instead of the buying Memory Maker.
I'd also skip BBB. Takes up a bunch of time and is a budget-buster.
Don't plan on any souveniers with a $100 a day budget.
It can be done.

 

[tina.tina]

Sorry for this being so long. My family (my hubby, my daughter, and myself) are planning a trip to Disney World in October with my brother, sister-in-law and neice. When we started planning for this trip we had everything mapped out on what we need to save and it was do-able. We bought our plane tickets and since then we got off budget with car repairs and having to buy a new car and now I'm looking to see where I can make cuts. My original budget was for the tickets 600 (were going 2 days no park-hopper), 230 for Mickeys not so scary Halloween party, 170 for memory maker, we're renting a house and our share is 430. Now I know these are the things we can't change. My question is who's the best to go through for a car rental we don't need anything fancy or expensive. How much did you plan on for food money and extra spending money. We plan on bringing lunches and snacks so we won't be eating at a lot of restaurants. I was originally planning on 700 for the 7 days but my sister-in-law said I was crazy. Then I got to extra spending money which would include the bibbity bobbity boutique I originally planned on 1000 and was once again was told I was insane lol. I just don't want to get on this trip and regret not being able to do something because of money. We haven't taken a family trip so this is a rare occurrence for us and I'm completely lost. Please Help!

Does your SIL think this is too much money or not enough? Since you are going to be staying together & probably spending a lot of time together with your DDs, you'll sort of have to agree on some things. If I were you, I'd do all the research PPs have suggested and tell SIL that she can get her detailed amounts together and you can do a comparison of how you want to spend your money so you can come to some agreement.

 

[goofymickey]

She said I was planning to much she said 100 for the week on food I'm like umm did we want to starve? so I thought maybe I was thinking we were planning to much for food. We're not dropping the BBB because that is the girls birthday present. And we are doing just the hair and bringing there own dresses from home. This is planned for right between there birthdays. And the memory maker is something I really wanted since this is a very rare trip for us we want all the pictures we can. We're planning on sitting down this week to talk over things so hopefully we will come to some conclusion. Thank you everyone for your advice.

 

[HM]

Will you split the cost of Memory Maker?

So your SIL thinks your food budget is too big? No, it's right in line with what would spend for a family of three on meals.

The PP is right that you need to sit down together and figure out expectations, if you plan on staying together all day (and eating meals together).

 

[Marionnette]

She said I was planning to much she said 100 for the week on food I'm like umm did we want to starve? so I thought maybe I was thinking we were planning to much for food. We're not dropping the BBB because that is the girls birthday present. And we are doing just the hair and bringing there own dresses from home. This is planned for right between there birthdays. And the memory maker is something I really wanted since this is a very rare trip for us we want all the pictures we can. We're planning on sitting down this week to talk over things so hopefully we will come to some conclusion. Thank you everyone for your advice.

$100 for both families or $100 for each family? Either way, that's an unrealistic expectation. It may be possible to do when shopping for groceries at home and preparing all your meals. But even buying a round of Mickey bars for the crew is going to set you back more than $25. I wouldn't even go as low as $300 for the week if that's supposed to include food purchased at the grocery store plus any treats in the park. I'd err on the high side and budget for $500 per family.

Don't forget to budget for gas, tolls and parking if you're renting a car. A car for 4 adults and 2 children in car seats is going to need to be a decent size vehicle - most likely a minivan, especially if you're also hauling strollers along for the girls. Start looking now. Mousesavers .com has a whole section with rental codes for the major agencies in MCO. It's not going to be cheap. Everyone and their brother wants to rent a minivan for their Disney vacation.

Spending money for souvenirs can be as little or as much as you want it to be. But a word of warning: Downtown Disney is a shopping center. It's a pleasant place to walk around and window shop but it is very tempting to spend a lot there. If you're on a strict budget, this may not be an area that you want to take the kids to. You will end up saying 'no' an awful lot and that's not fun for you or the kids.

 

[rideswithchrist]

our f0od budget was $500 for a family of 5 for 6 days. The ONLY reason it worked was because I choose 2-3 cheapest places and calculated our meals ahead of time. We ate breakfast in the room and packed our lunches in with us and ate it when we needed a sit-down break.
We spent $30-45 PER MEAL at the cheapest places for dinner so the $100 would be a per DAY price for food.
I would agree, look at menu prices online. The cheapest meal I found was around $14. And plan on $10 per kid meal. (I spend more than $100 per week on my grocery shopping and Disney is double those prices for sure!)
I budgeted $80 per kid for souvenirs and got a list of all the cheap and free things they could get and we bought pins from ebay for trading and we looked beforehand online so they had an idea of stuff.
DTD was not any cheaper than in the park for the stuff we got, so it was not as worth it (to us).

Kids will buy a bunch of stuff if they are used to buying a bunch of stuff. I wanted my kids to EXPERIENCE Disney, not BUY Disney; (I even told them, we are not here to buy stuff, we are here to see things and ride rides and have fun- this is vacation not shopping and they got it)
I told them one item per day and when the money was gone, it was gone.
There was loads of free things they can get that they were just as happy with anyway.
What I did with my kids was had them look for things that were ONLY available in Disney (If they say something that was ALSO in Target, it was an automatic NO) I also asked them what they saw that was special and unique, not a stuffed animal or doll, but something that was different. They were 7, 2, 4 and they picked fun stuff. (Well, the 2 year old ended up with a monorail, a small train set and a space ship but he spent less than the girls did!).

We skipped Memory Maker and took a camera, the CMs take decent photos with your own AND you get pictures of your family in spots that the MM crew is not at anyway (Like the Tommorowland Bridge in front of the castle!).

Our total budget, including rental car, gas driving from Texas and back, hotel on the road, park tickets, stoller rental, POP Century room, food (Costco and in Park) and spending money was $3400 for a family of 5 (My 2YO was free but we still paid for food for him).

 

[DisPup75]

DH and I budget about $150/day for food, spending money, and miscellaneous charges like parking and tolls. No kids but we eat all of our meals out so maybe it balances out for comparison. We aren't big shoppers (usually just a t-shirt or ears). That budget covers food court breakfast (usually a kid's meal for me), a few shared snacks, table service lunch most days (non-signature, usually an entree for each of us and a shared appetizer or dessert), and a quick service dinner.

For budget starting purposes, I usually figure out how much the regular dining plan would cost for the two of us, and budget that amount for food and spending money. I don't actually get the dining plan (we can't stand it) but usually come out at least few dollars below whatever it would have cost once the food and souvenir costs are totaled up at the end.

 

[Darcy03231]

My general "rule of thumb" is to plan $100 per person per day to include food, drinks, snacks, souvenirs, parking, tolls, gas, etc. (we eat all of our meals out) and I always bring money home. For a family of three going to the parks and eating two meals either in the rental home or packed each day, I would say your budget of $1000 for 7 days is very doable.

I would definitely cut out the Memory Maker and Bibbity Bobbity Boutique.

I also give my children a budget for souvenirs and when its gone its gone.

 

[codimouse]

We are a family of 3. 2 adults and an 11 year old. She is mostly interested in the rides and shows at this point.
We will be at the parks for 6 days. I planned on $100 /day for meals. And because meals are huge we usually share or all eat a childs meal. We are staying offsite so we will utilize the hotels free breakfast.
Usually after our park days we head to Downtown Disney and with any leftover $$ let our DD get what she wants within budget.

 

[eliza61]

Is there any way you can shave your budget NOW at home to save a few more bucks?? You've got a few more months.


I find that I hate going on vacay on a uber tight budget. I would hate to go to the world and worry that a treat at beaches & cream would set me back. I'd go over my home budget and squeeze every extra nickel out of it

 

[JenB1104]

Agree with using the allears website to check prices ahead of time to budget. I did this to evaluate whether dining plan was worth it for us or not. You could take your own dress to Bibbidi Bobbidi and spend a LOT less. We did and got the 59.95 package. The one with the dress was almost 200.00.

 

[LovesTimone]

Sorry for this being so long. My family (my hubby, my daughter, and myself) are planning a trip to Disney World in October with my brother, sister-in-law and neice. When we started planning for this trip we had everything mapped out on what we need to save and it was do-able. We bought our plane tickets and since then we got off budget with car repairs and having to buy a new car and now I'm looking to see where I can make cuts. My original budget was for the tickets 600 (were going 2 days no park-hopper), 230 for Mickeys not so scary Halloween party, 170 for memory maker, we're renting a house and our share is 430. Now I know these are the things we can't change. My question is who's the best to go through for a car rental we don't need anything fancy or expensive. How much did you plan on for food money and extra spending money. We plan on bringing lunches and snacks so we won't be eating at a lot of restaurants. I was originally planning on 700 for the 7 days but my sister-in-law said I was crazy. Then I got to extra spending money which would include the bibbity bobbity boutique I originally planned on 1000 and was once again was told I was insane lol. I just don't want to get on this trip and regret not being able to do something because of money. We haven't taken a family trip so this is a rare occurrence for us and I'm completely lost. Please Help!

I would cut out the memory maker, and use your own cameras. If BBB is a birthday gift you can't cut this out or can you if you replace it with something equal fun. Also I suggest eating at Earl of Sandwich when you are at DTD, yummy sandwiches and super affordable prices.

I would eat breakfast at the rental house, bring snacks into the parks including juice boxes or capri suns. I used to bring a collapsible/ soft sided cooler into the parks, it would fit under the seat of stroller, make sure to have extra freezer thingy's to rotate out. Do budget for Mickey ears ice cream. Also there are a lot of Quick service meals that can be shared. I would plan on sharing 2 adults meals with your DD. Also you can share meal at a sit down between 2 adults, for instance spaghetti at Tutto( Epcot), the portion is huge. Just let the servers know - a lot of times they will split it in the kitchen for you. When our DD's were little we would order an adult meal for them to share and the portion was larger, it was less expensive than 2 kids meals, this goes for counter service and sit down. Head over to Allears.net to check out current menus, and prices.

As far as DTD, there is a lot to do there, Movies, Bowling, Disney Quest, but this will add to your budget. Instead of BBB you might want to see if the girls would rather spend the day at Disney Quest, I think you will get more bang for your buck. This way everyone can join in. When our DD's were little we would make a day, we would go play for a while then lunch, we even went back to the room to swim and nap and went back that evening for some more play time, and then ended the evening with ice cream at Ghirardelli's.

Check out Groupon, and all local coupons.
Sweet tomatoes - has lots of deals, Kids eat free with and adult purchase, 22 for a family of 4 which last time included drinks, they all run at different times.
Order Pizza and Chinese take out.
Olive Garden - Order a pan( take out) of spaghetti, lasagna, or whatever, you will get salad and breadsticks to go with it. If you do make sure to get extra sauce.
Golden Corral has a cheap breakfast, not gourmet, but you can get filled up on the basic's.
Also go to Landry's some times if you sign up you can get a free appetizer, or some kind of coupon. I think Applebee's, and FGIF's both have this offering.

You and your Sister In Law need to sit down and have a plan. If she think 700.00 for 7 days is way over board, she is going to be shocked, and unhappy about the cost. Everyone needs to know the cost ahead of time.

For us I plan between 100.00 to 125.00 a day per person.

I have a box that I start putting snack and such into for the trip months ahead of time, that way your not buying everything all at once, include OTC medicine, toiletries, sun screen.

Check out the dollar store for glow necklace's, bracelets. So much cheaper than in the parks,

Make sure to budget in- parking at the parks ( 20.00 a day), gas, tips ( with a party of 6 - 18% will be added automatically at sit down restaurant's).

 

[hrslvr142]

I think you are right on with your budget. One thing that I have seen mentioned in this forum before is to remember the amount you would be spending at home for groceries/gas etc at home can be added (if you haven't already thought about this) because you are basically just spending it in a different place. That may give you a bit more to work with. You have done a great job planning. Have a wonderful trip.

 

[Misha72683]

We have the dining plan (we're staying on site) but normally budget about $100 per day for food for four of us, maybe a bit more. As is, we're budgeting $300 for OoP meal costs. For souveneirs I'm budgeting $500 for the week.