How much do you save up to spend in Disney?

[ILoveDisney-Angie]

DH and I usually spend around $2,000 for 12 days but that includes food, souveniers, mears, and tips (bell services, mousekeeping - $3 a day, mears workers, etc.). We tend to eat at the Epcot resorts so that is where a lot of our money goes (we never really come home with a ton of souveniers).

 

[pooh2001]

You posted just for souvies over 7 days.

This is what we do - $100 per child - no matter how long we go for - 7, 10 or 14 days.

My oldest DS did not spend any till we went to the Lego store in DTD. He pocketed $40 for a PS2 game (to be bought at home).

My youngest DD spent about $5-$10 per day - on braclets, pens, pins, keychains, ... trinkets. We bought her a Disney themed bag to put it all in (our cash).

For us, DH & DW, we buy 2 beach towels each time we go - about $30.
The beach towels have been our most useful sovieneer.
We also buy Goofy's salt water taffy. The taffy is just taffy. The box it comes in is really cute.

We like to spend more money on sit-down meals, tours the family can go on,
illumination cruises (if we can snag one), mini-golf, HDD show, Disney Quest, renting boats, popcorn in tubs and Mickey ice cream bars.

Most Disney items can be bought on-line or in the Disney Store (look for sales).

Our purpose of going to WDW is to enjoy the magic of the wonderful place called Walt Disney World. To be a kid again, no matter what your age is and
to spend time with our whole family doing one thing we can all enjoy - just like what Walt Disney wanted the theme park to be

Read a book about Walt Disney - he had a facinating life and great values.

Sorry if I was rambling
The Pooh Crew
:thewave:

 

[kjs1976]

We budget around $50 a day for DH and me. This year we will not be souvinier crazy...maybe a nice thing or two for our home. On our 8 day honeymoon we took $1000 for food and spending and only spend $900. We bought a lot of souvies and ate every meal at the resort/parks. I think now that we buy b-fast items at a grocery store and eat in our room, we cut down on about $5-7 a day.

But you never know when something really cute will catch your eye!

 

[opal]

Our first trip (15 years ago) we bought tons of souvenirs. We were so excited to be there and thought we would never have the opportunity to go again for years (we have been a least once a year since) and we just couldn't help ourselves!!!!! We made alot of impulse purchases. Not that we regret it, after all we had a great time and parting with your $$$ is part of the magic of WDW. And these items still make me smile when I run across them in the basement Of course, not all have been sentenced to live in the basement, the princess hat dd bought on that first trip still occupies a place of honor in her bedroom, the Snow and Dwarf desk set on my desk at work and my watch that plays the MM March are a source of amusement to my co-workers and occasional meal from the WDW cookbooks helps my family last until their next "real" Disney meal.

 

[3princesses&amouse]

We figure on a budget of $300 a day spending money for a familly of five the kids are six five two and six months. To my surprise we hit our budget almost every day, hotel and tickets were already paid for. We stayed for 12 days, the total trip cost in the neighborhood of $9000 but was worth every penny.

 

[slk537]

We generally figure for a week to 12 day trip to go with the $1500 on the room card (attached to one of our checking accounts so it's budgeted), $500 cash, and another $500 on a different account's check card. This is for DH, DS3 and me. Please keep in mind though, this includes all our restaurant meals, groceries for the room, rental car, hotel with park and fly near home the night before the trip, and experiences. We go twice a year, so we like to spend more on activities instead of things...we do the Wishes fireworks cruise, boat rental for the boys (DH and DS) and that sort of thing. The week trip in May usually results in money coming home, the 12 day one in December never does. However, we buy most of our Christmas gifts during the December trip and ship them home.

Our DVC membership is budgeted into our monthly expenses, so when we go down, we don't have to budget separately for lodging. That makes such a difference in what we spend. So did the DDE card this past trip - WOW!!! that was fantastic!

My advice? If you see those little impulse things - pins, bracelets, pens, keychains, candy - and you really think you'd like to have them and use them at home then buy them. It may seem expensive at the time, but they are a little reminder of a wonderful trip. But I do agree 100% with the rule "never buy there what you can get at home". DH fell in love with a Mickey popcorn popper at a shop at AK, but I had already seen all of those appliances at Target.

Oh - and another thing we do with our money...we go to the Lenox or Mikasa outlet and buy wedding gifts. My dad has lots of friends' kids getting married all the time, and we generally have a wedding or two to attend. So we buy $60 crystal bowls and such for $10 and ship them home. It may seem strange to budget that into a WDW trip, but it is so nice to wrap up a lovely present once we're home and know that we saved $50+ on it. Crystal and china ornaments are also nice (and small) gift ideas.

Enjoy your vacation!

 

[FanofG00fy]

Budget $50.00 a day per person also. But I very very rarely spend that everyday. Since it just BF and myself, it $100.00 a day and that includes Food and Souviners. The first couple days, we basically spend it on food: one good sit down lunch/dinner, and snacks (I bring breakfast foods with me.) Usually around the last few days of the trip we have about $75 to up to $100 dollars a day a piece. The last day is souvenier day, any money left over and it's spend spend spend! Last trip I had over $400 dollars for souvies!!!

For some reason though, this trip, I'm going for 7 days and will have around $3000.00 (rooms and tickets are paid) I told my BF about that and he said there was no way he would let me spend that amount of money. Thank goodness for him, but I'm still taking it (Art of Disney here I come )

Have a great trip!!

Chris

 

[mickeysaver]

We tend to work towards a spending money budget of $200 or more a day. This is only the budget for stuff....not food, just stuff. My honey likes to shop and it's the one time of the year that she can say, "I want this!" and I jump everytime. She loves our Disney vacations. lol Maggie

 

[WaltD4Me]

I was there for 6 days a couple weeks ago...just me and my niece and I spent $800, but that also for food, but we didn't eat anywhere fancy.

I didn't think we'd be buying many souvieners since we were just there in December and bought alot, but I did wind up buying alot of Happiest Celebration stuff.

I'm sure you can get away with $700, especially with the meal plan, but if you haven't been in awhile and think you will be buying gifts for family, friend or kids, just to be safe a couple hundred more won't hurt -- you may not even need it, but if you can bring a little more, it would be a nice cushion, just in case.

 

[MrShiny]

It's very easy to spend $200/day on souvenirs without any really big purchases (especially if you buy pins!).

Best practices include having a set amount to spend each day (cash or Disner dollars work very well to keep track).

Food depends on where you eat. $100/day/person is usually fairly ample. Look at the menus on allears.net and see what it would cost you. Keep in mind that after a day in the parks, economy will be the last thing on your mind! You can save $10-20/day/person by carrying water bottles instead of buying soft drinks.

If you can, estimate your costs about a year in advance and at 10 months, start putting away 1/10 of those costs!

 

[Laurajean1014]

We save about $2500 to $3000 for food and souvies on a 10 day trip.

 

[PatsGirl]

I think $100/day is more than enough, especially with minimal food/snack costs and a child at 2 years old. My kids usually save about $15 for each day we will be there and I buy very few souveniers. I do a basket for each kid, usually a t-shirt or sweatshirt, baseball cap, stickers and books, pool goggles, slippers or slipper sox, hair accessories -- you get the idea -- and spend about $30 for each by purchasing before we go (try DisneyDeals, excellent buys!). So the kids money goes for arcades, sodas, face painting, mini-golf, snacks, more souveniers, bike rentals, that sort of thing. I do try to bring something home each year to remember our trip, last year I had a caricature of my daughter done in the lobby of POP for her 7th birthday and we have it hung on the wall in the computer/office room so whenever I'm online here I'm looking right at it. That was one of the best souvies I've bought! This year I expect that they won't need nearly as much $ as we also have the dining plan and they won't have to sacrifice $ for sodas/snacks each day. I, on the other hand, spend most of my "disposable DWD income" on cocktails by the pool and wine with dinner.

Brenda

 

[Mickey and Me]

We budget $100 - $150 (not including money for food) a day! We usually do really good till.......we go to Downtown Disney on our last day! They the budget is busted!!!! This year we are going on the dinning plan, but still budgeting $100 a day for the 4 of us, for 9 days!

 

[kareneast]

For our 6 day trip that was the last week in April, for DH & myself we had a budget of $800 for food, souvies, & misc. items. We ended up using about $500, but we pretty much only ate counter service and we each carried a couple of waters into the parks with us everyday. I do have to admit though that since we had just been to WDW in January and we are going back again in October, we didn't spend much on souvies.

I think you should be ok with $700, unless you are planning on doing a lot of shopping the Art of Disney.

 

[jackskellingtonsgirl]

I am really having a tough time figuring how much to bring, too. Last time we didn't have the dining plan and I think we spent $700 in 4 days. DS9 had saved up a lot of money and I gave him Disney dollars each week before we left. He really didn't buy very much - 2 plush toys, mouse ears, and tons of pressed pennies. I bought him a T-shirt. I bought a bunch of "Nightmare Before X-mas" stuff for myself and shirts for the little ones I nanny. DH never saw anything he really wanted. We didn't go to DTD so we missed all those shops.

We bought a few photos from the parks, a 2005 edition photo album, mugs at the resort, probably a few other odds & ends.

I would like to think we won't buy as many souvenirs this time, but with the MNSSHP and Food & Wine I bet we will spend more than I am imagining.

I'll bring as much cash as we can save up, and I'll bring a low interest credit card as a back up!

 

[Sadie]

We have the MYW plus Dining from June 1-6 paid. We have our airline tickets paid. (Thank you SW for the GREAT deal).

We will arrive early morn. on the 1st and leave late afternoon on the 6th. We are DW39, DH 42, and DS16. I plan on getting some drinks and small breakfast/snack items at the grocery or Wal-Mart.

About how much money do you think we will need? It is so close to time to go and I'm getting very nervous. Any help is appreciated!

We also have a rental car paid. Will we pass by any grocery stores or a Wal-Mart on the way from the airport to POR??

 

[Sadie]

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