How much extra spending money do you budget into your trips?

[BLAZEY]

I am planning on $1200 USD for food & souvenirs for DH, myself and DD6. We have 7 park days and I will be bring breakfast food for in the room and snacks to carry with us. I am sure we will buy some snacks as well but I have one TS/ Buffet meal booked and may do one more. DH & I will be planning soon. If the portion sizes are anything like DL we will be fine. We find the portion sizes in the US to be HUGE and ended up sharing many meals. DD6 will have her own money for souvenirs as well.

 

[mi*vida*loca]

When we've done the DDP we would just charge back to the room but pay tips in cash. For 7 nights with two kids and two adults we charged $650 to the card. Our cash for tips was around $200. We rarely said no to the kids. Included on that $650 was OOP for VN which was around $80.

We aren't big souvenior people. I don't wear Disney clothes or hoodies or purses. I like to get a mug and a few shot glasses. The kids get Mickey ears for the trip. They each get to pick one "special" souvenior per trip (that is a bit higher in price) and we get them a stuffed Mickey or Minnie. I get a year frame and photo album.

This trip we don't have the DDP and my budget is higher but I'm trying places I've wanted to do but wouldn't on the DDP because it wasn't "worth a credit." So we have TS for Plaza, Beaches and Cream, Kona and maybe Trail End's. Lower cost places so lower cost tips.

 

[Goofy'slady]

We are on the DDP as well, having all of our meals prepaid not only is one less thing for me to worry about - since it's factored into the trip package from the beginning I don't have to worry about making a budget for OOP food expenses even for snacks and it's nice. I set aside 20% for tips for each TS meal we have and since we have 9 nights of TS meals averaging $100 dollars or less it comes out to be less than 200 for tips but I will factor in a little more for those meals where the service goes above and beyond and so I'll tip a little more than 20%. So, I plan for 250. Mousekeeping is set a side in an envelope already and I leave the standard $5 dollar a day amount for me and my two girls. We don't require a lot of daily cleaning because I try to make sure we don't leave the room a mess - yes, we're on vacation but that doesn't mean we live like pigs. So, that's another $45 dollars. Tips for help with our luggage I set aside another $5-15 dollars.

I plan on giving my girls gift cards so they can choose how much they want to spend and what they want to spend it on without always having to ask for my permission. They are age differences so I will give the older one (she'll be 17 when our trip in August comes) a Visa gift card with a bit more to spend since her taste tends to run a little more on the expensive side of things. She likes to shop in the Japan pavilion of Epcot so she'll get $100. The baby will be 10 when the trip comes around so she'll get a Disney gift card for $50. They both know once it's gone, it's gone. I will be doing something this trip around that I haven't done since I was a little girl and that's not bringing back family and friends gifts. I will share all of our wonderful photos from our Memory Maker with them all and call it a day. That alone will save me tons of money.

I will buy a frame or special something back for myself or the kitchen that I know I will use on the regular. Last time I bought myself a Mickey apron and I use it all the time. I look forward to getting something like that again. So for myself I guess I will set aside $100 bucks. I will also set aside funds for little things like getting our silhouettes done or fun spur of the moment things we might do like buying smores kits at the Chip and Dale campfire singalong and fun things on the Boardwalk or DTD. So, another $100 bucks. Oh and last but not least I have to factor in transportation to and from the airport. Now I live only 15mins away from BWI so a cab or Uber ride is somewhere around $22-25 each way - so there goes another say $50 bucks.

So all and all - I'm just a little over $700 buck. Sounds real good for us!