How much money?

[brookies_mommy]

Haven't been to Disney in a long time- this will also be DD(3) first time, and her 4th birthday.

How much do you typically spend while at Disney, and what do you usually get? Not including food and hotel. Those are taken care of. I just need to know how much I should plan on taking for shopping

 

[Potterswife]

I'm sure others spend more...we allow $20 per kid (3 kids), since we go more then once a year sometimes we don't buy anything.

 

[darph nader]

Depends on what you want as far as suvies. (check my 'tags') My self,abt $10.00 for a sixer from the motel 'gift' shops. My wife on the other hand, thinks it's her sworn duty to keep Disney and Visa in business.

 

[DaddyDeuce]

I just need to know how much I should plan on taking for shopping

All of it?

 

[teatime]

I just buy candy to sneak home :lol: but my kids use there own money to buy things. I think it teaches them the value of money number 1 and number 2. it saves my pocket book. they are all taking 40.00 with them this trip, but its there hard earned money so Im sure they will choose wisely.

 

[brookies_mommy]

I want to get us each a sweatshirt, maybe a shirt too. I want to get Mickey ear car decals. And IDK what else. My DD will probably get a few toys. She has the fun card though. But Im thinking at least 200?

 

[kari12177]

We try to take a little over a grand for 4 days, thats for the 3 of us, it includes all meals, taxi to and fro the airport, souvieners-tshirt, and such

 

[LuLusApple]

We don't buy suvies unless it's a special occasion or a really long
family trip. We do spend $ on candy, churros snacks etc. But all that comes out of a daily allowance of 35-40$ for food. unless of course we do character meals that is another story LOL
if DD12 wants something extra she will plan for it before we go, save her own $ for it

 

[brookies_mommy]

We try to take a little over a grand for 4 days, thats for the 3 of us, it includes all meals, taxi to and fro the airport, souvieners-tshirt, and such

Our meals are all paid for ( I did a meal plan) and I wont need a taxi or anything. Do you think I am budgeting too little for souvenirs?

 

[Canyon girl]

Our meals are all paid for ( I did a meal plan) and I wont need a taxi or anything. Do you think I am budgeting too little for souvenirs?

Just keep in mind that DLR's meal plan doesn't work like WDW's plan does. You may have to pay in addition to the vouchers. Many of the vouchers are for a specific monetary amount. Budget it closely because there is no change back. If your meal is more than the value of the voucher, you will have to pay more. When we did the meal plan on our first family trip in 2007, we vowed to never do it again. I just wanted to warn you; since, you seem to be budgeting very closely.

 

[JenDisneylandlver]

We take $500 in "fun" money with us. Most of that goes to souvenirs. We buy a lot of snow globes, Jim Shore statues (love those!), shirts, hats, toys (like the Potato head pieces). Pictures and picture frames, oh and prints. Precious Moments statues. Liscense plate covers, and window decals. Just about anything that looks good. LOL We typically drive so we can pile it all in the car. LOL Which is my poor DH's job! LOL

Sometimes part of that money will also go to another DTD meal or something special like that I didn't plan for.

 

[brookies_mommy]

Just keep in mind that DLR's meal plan doesn't work like WDW's plan does. You may have to pay in addition to the vouchers. Many of the vouchers are for a specific monetary amount. Budget it closely because there is no change back. If your meal is more than the value of the voucher, you will have to pay more. When we did the meal plan on our first family trip in 2007, we vowed to never do it again. I just wanted to warn you; since, you seem to be budgeting very closely.

I've heard that from a lot of people. I over did the meal plan (6 days) and we will only be at the park 4 1/2. Just so I would be sure. I know that will take a little as everyone has said go a lil over so you dont lose money.

I plan on having more than what I budget for our trip.. ya know just in case or an "I have to have this moment", or an emergency or something.

But I want to have an idea in my head what Im looking at number wise.. does that make sense?

 

[brookies_mommy]

We take $500 in "fun" money with us. Most of that goes to souvenirs. We buy a lot of snow globes, Jim Shore statues (love those!), shirts, hats, toys (like the Potato head pieces). Pictures and picture frames, oh and prints. Precious Moments statues. Liscense plate covers, and window decals. Just about anything that looks good. LOL We typically drive so we can pile it all in the car. LOL Which is my poor DH's job! LOL

Sometimes part of that money will also go to another DTD meal or something special like that I didn't plan for.

How many people do you budget that for? This is a very special trip and I want to be able to get what I want, as well as my daughter, espeically because it will be her birthday but I dont want to go overboard, or under lol at the same time

 

[Kayla's Mom]

I want to get us each a sweatshirt, maybe a shirt too. I want to get Mickey ear car decals. And IDK what else. My DD will probably get a few toys. She has the fun card though. But Im thinking at least 200?

IMO $200 or so would probably be pretty close. Sweatshirts I have seen are typically around $50 (at least for adults), shirts are going to be probably $25 and up depending on the type. So depending on the type of toys your DD would want, I think you could get close to that amount. Have you considered trying the character warehouse nearby? You could probably do better on the cost of sweatshirts and t-shirts there. It can be hit or miss though....

 

[brookies_mommy]

IMO $200 or so would probably be pretty close. Sweatshirts I have seen are typically around $50 (at least for adults), shirts are going to be probably $25 and up depending on the type. So depending on the type of toys your DD would want, I think you could get close to that amount. Have you considered trying the character warehouse nearby? You could probably do better on the cost of sweatshirts and t-shirts there. It can be hit or miss though....

We won't have transportation there all the time, so that may be difficult to pull off. But that gives me some ideas on planing budget wise.. I'm glad I heard the 50 a sweatshirt before I saw it lol

 

[LuLusApple]

When we went in April for 6 days I took all the kids and they each had a 200$ gift card to spend. It was actually hard for them to spend it all LOL
They got ears sweatshirts, glow things ( although I had brought some from the dollar store!) candy, a yoda backpack, a roxy backpack, silhouettes of each and frames 2 candy dishes from the crystal shop, 2 tubs of figurines, keychains, 2 balloons and gosh I am sure I am forgetting stuff, but they mostly still had $ left on their cards LOL
So I know for us it was too much. We don't purchase gallery art and are not big pin collectors, so having a ton of souvie $ isn't a big deal. Thank goodness.

 

[brookies_mommy]

When we went in April for 6 days I took all the kids and they each had a 200$ gift card to spend. It was actually hard for them to spend it all LOL
They got ears sweatshirts, glow things ( although I had brought some from the dollar store!) candy, a yoda backpack, a roxy backpack, silhouettes of each and frames 2 candy dishes from the crystal shop, 2 tubs of figurines, keychains, 2 balloons and gosh I am sure I am forgetting stuff, but they mostly still had $ left on their cards LOL
So I know for us it was too much. We don't purchase gallery art and are not big pin collectors, so having a ton of souvie $ isn't a big deal. Thank goodness.

Awesome thanks! I totally forgot about ears!!

 

[teatime]

Our meals are all paid for ( I did a meal plan) and I wont need a taxi or anything. Do you think I am budgeting too little for souvenirs?

did you know you can get every souvenir the parks have on ebay? every year I go there and get all kinds of things for the kids stockings. I even get them plushys as there way cheaper even with shipping and new! I just sneak them into the suit cases and when we get there I suprise them with them.
Ido not pay disneyland prices, there way to high. last thing I got for all three of my kids were these.....

for the fun of it. and for almost 75% less then disneyland will sell them !

 

[teatime]

Also there are many tee shirts and swaet shirt and so forth at motels all along harbor . half of what disney sells them for and there really nice to

 

[andee2000]

If you are looking to save money this is what I did last year. We went late July and the local Disney Store was having awesome sales. I bought several Disney toys for each kid (as well as pin lanyards and some pins) all on clearance. I put them in my suitcase and handed them out each day (3 days). I also bought a few cute Disney shirts on clearance there too and they wore those for the trip. I still let each kid buy one thing and ended up buying my daughter a shirt because she got wet at the spray area in DCA (I had packed a swim suit, but my mom didn't know that and let her go in with her clothes on.) We did budget and buy mickey ears since it was their first trip.