How much do we truly need for spending money??

[Angelboys3]

Ok, here's my question.

How much do we truly need for speding money at WDW? We will be there for 7nights/8 days. Me, DH, and 3 DS's all 10 and under. Trip is completely paid for, on DDP and have money set aside for gratuity. Boys each have a $50 gift card that they can use for souvineirs (sp?). How much do we really need to have on hand if we don't plan on doing a lot of shopping? We have PH and WP on our tickets so we can do mini golf and DisneyQuest. On a tight budget and stressing on not having enough cash while we are there!

 

[tzolkin]

Ok, here's my question.

How much do we truly need for speding money at WDW? We will be there for 7nights/8 days. Me, DH, and 3 DS's all 10 and under. Trip is completely paid for, on DDP and have money set aside for gratuity. Boys each have a $50 gift card that they can use for souvineirs (sp?). How much do we really need to have on hand if we don't plan on doing a lot of shopping? We have PH and WP on our tickets so we can do mini golf and DisneyQuest. On a tight budget and stressing on not having enough cash while we are there!

Honestly... none.

Of course there are people who budget $500 or $1000 for spending money, but that's certainly not needed.

My kids usually each get one thing (ears, toy, etc) and they're usually about $25, so the fact that your kids already have $50 each I would think should be more than sufficient.

You've budgeted for tips. The only other thing you might want money for would be extra snacks like ice creams or lollipops. We only did the dining plan once and we didn't wind up buying anything extra. We actually found that we were wasting a lot of food and we had a bunch of snack credits left over at the end that we bought treats to take home.

 

[Anthony1971]

I agree no one has to buy anything... and when you see the prices you may just do that.
I was there in Feb of this year and last week and all I can say is
most toys have gone up between 25-40% in that time....
a few examples The matchbox disney truck was 20 in feb it is now 28. figure sets (new this year) were 10.95 now 13.95 tee shirts on average are 35.00
on the good side the lego store still has good prices if they like legos...
If they like other things look close as most be can be bought at Target or Walmart for a lot less-- star wars figures are 14.95 not park exclusive.

 

[pigletto]

I am here right now. We have done budget trips and spendy trips.
We are on the ddp and have tips covered. Until this morning we had spent exactly nothing extra. Not a penny.
The kids each had a hundred dollars and we just went to DTD where they spent half each. Dh and I bought a family ornament. We used to get one a piece but we have many now so we found one we all agreed on and got that instead.
I didn't really see anything else I wanted or I would have gotten it.
We used a bunch of snack credits at Goofys because we haven't been using them on our park days.. we're just too full.
So honestly you can have a fabulous time and not feel deprived or like you are missing out if you don't spend extra.
I did get the boys a Groupon for parasailing at the Contemporary and the girls might go to a movie in DTD tonight. Other than that, there really hasn't been anything we have wanted or needed.

ETA) We did stop and get breakfast items and snacks before we arrived. You might want to do that. But plan carefully. We spent about 60 and we'll end up leaving half of it behind. The DDP is a lot of food. Especially in this heat.

 

[Zim]

Agreed - I've gotten to the point now where we buy our souvenirs before we go! Either during one of disney store's online sales or even ACMoore, WalMart and Target can carry some cool Mickey toys, shirts and big character signing pens. The only time we get an actual park souvenir is when it's something someone REALLY wants and we know it's not on the website.

Case in point, last time I went without my DD14. I found a $50 hoodie with Beaker on the back. I thought she's LOVE it, she's a Muppet fanatic, but she didn't care for it at all. So it's going back with us next month to exchange and that will be her park souvenir money to spend this time around... (Yes, the CM assured me it could be returned 6 months later with tags and receipt for at least store credit)

Still can't believe she didn't like it!

PS... and to answer your question, the only other money you might spend is if you go outside the DDP for a special restaurant like Rainforest Cafe, House of Blues or Planet Hollywood.

 

[leebee]

You really don't need any extra money at all, seeing as your kids each have a $50 gift card. We never spend that much money when we go to WDW, especially when on the DDP. DD18 and I are very thrifty! We are pretty hearty eaters, but DD and I are happy to split a breakfast platter each morning (or one of the pancake platters) so we only use one QS credit for breakfast, and split our lunch, too, which means only 1 QS credit for lunch. That leaves us each a TS credit for supper, where we each have our own meal. The snack credit gets used for a mid-day (or late night) Mickey bar or something. Not knowing how much your sons eat, you might want to bring breakfast food along with you, but if you pack cereal and plastic bowls, you can buy milk (quarts) at the hotel and have a cheap b'fast in your room. That'd give everyone his own QS credit for lunch, TS credit for supper. Don't forget the snack!!

We never spend very much on souvenirs. Honestly, it's all so overpriced and hard to pack in suitcases that we just don't spend a lot. Occasionally DD will do pick-a-pearl (which was about $16), once she bought a dress for $25 (she was sopping wet and see-through as she got off KRR) and has worn it dozens of times here at home. Once we bought a small stuffed Minnie Mouse that is currently packed to return to college on Monday! I have a $3 cutting board from POP Century. Other than that, our main "expenditures" have been on pressed pennies (51 cents each) and compressed washcloths (about $4 each, not sure they do them anymore). As you can see, with your kids having $50 each, they have enough to cover a decent souvenir AND extra snacks if they so desire!

I always look at it this way: If you can't say no, you're gonna spend a bundle. If you keep an eye on the budget and don't want to go home to credit card bills, you'll be fine!

( The only thing you didn't mention was money to tip the housekeeper, but honestly, that's not required. Housekeepers are paid at least minimum wage and Disney doesn't consider it a tipped position, so tipping is at your discretion. Can't make suggestions as there's a tipping thread dedicated to this... we don't talk about religion, politics, or tipping in "polite" threads on the DIS!)

 

[Claire&TheBoys]

I agree with the others; you probably won't need very much extra. When we go for a week, I will usually take ~$300 for "cash on hand." That's for extras, like a bottle of water (we don't usually 'waste' snack credits on bottled water) or light-up toys from one of the vendors. That will also include tips for the housekeeper ($5/day), one of the big souvenir popcorn buckets, and snacks to eat on the road en route to/from WDW. While I do bring breakfast food from home, I will say that after a day or two of that, my kids are begging to eat a hot breakfast in the food court, so you might be prepared to buy a couple of extra CS meals. We usually come home with maybe $50 or so between us.

 

[carebee21]

The only extra spending money we would absolutely need would be for drinks. We drink a ton and honestly, we all think the tap water is nasty. So instead of carrying 10+ sealed water bottles in my backpack per day, we each carry one in and then just buy cold ones as needed throughout the day.

And we also enjoy having adult beverages a few times during our trip. DH likes a beer with dinner and I love some of the drinks in Epcot, so we need extra money for that.

So I would recommend bringing a little spending money for drinks

 

[TheRatPack]

We take extra for souvenirs, wine/beer and other treats at Epcot's F&W Festival that aren't covered on the DDP. We also take extra for the make your own treats, and caramel apples as they aren't covered on the dining plan snacks either .

Our kids get anywhere from 50.00 to 100.00 in souvenir money but then we do an arrival basket with some of their 'wish list' items that we've managed to get on sale or clearance and with that they don't usually find too much else at the parks or DTD that they want.

They usually get a PIN or a charm and maybe a toy or something....it just depends.

Last year we spent roughly 900.00 on all this 'extra' stuff. That isn't just souvenirs, but extra snacks, wine/beer drinks at Epcot, ponchos, tips.