How much money do you bring/spend?

[Disneymomof3princess]

Not sure if this is appropiate to ask but I'm going to try anyway. Our family of 5 will be at the world for 12 days (we are leaving in 11 days I'm sooo excited) I was wondering how much money do you bring and then how much do you actually spend? We purchased the DDP so most of our food is covered. Basically just kind wondering what other families spend, and maybe what we can expect. Thank you and info will be helpful.

 

[hvivona]

We bring about $1000 for spending money. We do the dining plan too so our meals are covered as well. Plus our kids save some of their allowance and birthday money through the year and usually have about $200 or so each to buy whatever they want.

 

[dzneelvr]

We've found over the years that very little "cash" is necessary in WDW. We tend to charge everything we can on our Disney Rewards (earning for the next trip ). Maybe $50 cash every couple days for incidentals if you want, but remember to lock it up in your room safe or have a very safe place to carry it if it's on you daily.

 

[New_Disney_Lifer]

Not sure if this is appropiate to ask but I'm going to try anyway. Our family of 5 will be at the world for 12 days (we are leaving in 11 days I'm sooo excited) I was wondering how much money do you bring and then how much do you actually spend? We purchased the DDP so most of our food is covered. Basically just kind wondering what other families spend, and maybe what we can expect. Thank you and info will be helpful.

Our family of 5 just got back from the World 3 weeks ago from a 7 day trip( still bummed). This is a tough question as spending is a personal preference...We brought $300 cash and used less than $200 on our credit card for souveniers. The cash was mainly for tips (dinners, magical express, mousekeeping,etc) and any extra food. We did use a bit of the $300 on a few toys and other things but still came home with a few dollars.. Honestly, we found that the dining plan was more than enough food...

Have a Great time!!!!

 

[Disneymomof3princess]

Thank you so much! My DD 9,8,2 have about $200 each that they have saved from birthdays, I personally didn't think we would need over a $1000(and was hoping to bring some home) in cash but my over cautious DH thought we needed more. So to settle the debate I said I'll get other opinions. I know what we spend is in our hands but it's always nice to hear what others allow. Thanks again, I can't say enough how happy I am to of found all you crazy people just like me, thought I was alone for the longest time most family and friends just don't get it!

 

[trennr]

My Kids spent about $150 a peice last year.

DW about $300. (she like character watches.)

Me...I bought a Stitch tee-shirt at Team-Mickey in DTD. and about a dozen or so Pineapple floats at Aloha Isle in MK....so $50 for me.

 

[Liljam]

We don't do dining so we plan to have between $50-$100 per person, per day. Last year we spent less than $1000 and got a ton of stuff and that included food and beer (which is ridiculous priced there!)

We're bringing groceries with us and plan to only eat lunch away from our villa plus dinner at HOB and one other dinner.

 

[canadianmom2three]

We are a family of 5 as well, and were on a VERY tight budget last year when my MIL and FIL paid for a surprise trip to WDW for all of us, airfare included . We were so limited that we told the kids upfront that we wouldn't be buying things from the parks, beyond a lanyard each and one pin from each park for the lanyard. They had brought some money from their accounts, $25 each, and that was to buy one bigger souvineer near the end of the week. We also told them ahead of time that we wouldn't be buying lots of treats and such, we just didn't have the $$, and thankfully we were on the DDP. We probably spent around $250 for the 5 days, DH and I bought nothing, the kids just the pins and lanyards, and a couple breakfast items OOP. I had gone to the dollar store before we left and bought everything disney I could find, spent about $20 and got them each an autograph book and matching pens, a bunch of pins that flash, a bunch of glow sticks, stickers and little notepads, etc.....and also I had gone to walmart and got them each a disney t-shirt which we surprised them with on the first day so they could wear to the park. It worked out really well, they did not bug us for things AT ALL, and we were very relieved to not overspend. This year we are in a much much better place, and will not be so limited, but I still plan to visit the dollar store and walmart for some pre-shopping, because things there were $$$. One thing I will not do this year is be so hungry all the time. Even tho we were on the DDP, there were still lots of times last year when DH and I were hungry, but just couldn't bring ourselves to pay the high food prices, ended up eating a LOT of squished flat granola bars (developed a real aversion to nutra grain bars which I still can't get past, they wil forever be associated with being starving at Disney )....
Anyway, this year the trip is already totally paid for, and we are $900 ahead, so I think I will be much less worried about money, and have a better time.
Anyway, the point being, that a family of 5 can make out OK on $250, but more realistically, $500-$1000 might be a better amount to ensure an enjoyable vacation for all.

 

[SharpMomOfTwo]

I think it depends on how often you go. We are going for the first time with our girls this December, and we don't know when we will be able to afford another trip, (maybe 3-5 years!) so we are probally going to bring a good amount of $$$ and get them (and ourselves, though I don't know what DH would get!) whatever they want. Also, we are going right before Christmas, so a lot of it will be their presents. On top of all that, we are also going with grandparents who go nuts buying the girls anything and everything they want, so who knows how much will be spent! I know personally, I'm bringing about $500-$750 to spend on my girls, and that doesn't count what we are bringing as a family.

EDIT - We are on DDP as well, so this $$$ is just for fun.

 

[mom2taylorandemily]

We bring about $500 cash, but that covers all snacks after our 1 per day on the DDP and tips this year. We also put about $1K in the checking account for the Debit card, which is our charging privilleges on our KTTW card. This is for souvies. Kids each get about $100 in Disney Dollars to spend, which they save out of their allowance. We don't have a Disney store anywhere near us, so when we get to WDW we go a little hog wild buying souvies for the family and we also Christmas shop there as well, since we go in Dec.

 

[Livin4DisneyTime]

We have been stopping by the Disney Store every week and picking up Disney Dollars with my tips (dog groomer). We are up to 150 a person. i had to stop at the begining of this month as I have to finish paying for the trip. We got a 300 dollar gift card for DS for his birthday. I want to get one for my DH and I. We have never spent much on shopping before but are going to splurge this year because we all LOVE to shop We will bring around 500 dollars cash for tips and any unforseen spending. We decided to spend less on the resort and stay at an All Star and enjoy our stay.

 

[Frankiesmom]

Our trip in May; the room is paid for. We didn't do the DDP this time; and we just need to get 1 more ticket for DS 3-PH 7day. We are taking $2500 for food and souveniers. We have a lot of TS meals scheduled and I was happy to save on the switch from the POLY to POP (2 rooms since DD is bringing a friend) so I'm hoping that will be enough and we'll bring a CC for emergencies; but I really would like to stay with that $2500 range.

 

[ilovejack02]

We were there in Oct for 10 days and brought about 800.00 in extras. We were on the dining plan so we spent very little of that on food maybe 75.00 to 100.00 at the food and wine fest , did have our own car.. so went off property to buy a cpl of bottles of wine. The rest was goodies to bring home, toys for my little one and some shopping at the local outlet mall. It was our first trip, so of course some of that was spent on pins too.. which we wont prob be buying much of next trip.