How much spending money do you bring?

[GOOFY4DONALD]

We usually say $150/day that's for tips/souvenirs/extra. For tips if it's a TS that actually brings your food to u we do 20% tip. For the buffets where they only bring drinks to u we usually do 15%, unless the service is absolutely exceptional and they go out of their way to make us feel special. My older son is on the spectrum and he's a picky eater and sometimes restaurants can be challenging. When we were there in April there were a couple buffets that went out of their way but there were also a couple of buffets that barely said 2 words to us and we had to track them down to get refills and I'm sorry I am not going to tip 20% to them for that type of service just bc we are in disney world lol. Anyways our extras that I referred to are usually when tipping hotel staff or if we need gas in our car. We never usually go through our allotment but I'd rather have more money than not enough lol

this is about what I have after food. We are only going to 2 TS places so not a lot of tips. However I do pick up some gifts while I'm there and since dd17 isn't going I'm sure I'll buy her more than my other 2.

 

[hddanis]

This was from my last trip (Jan '08), but it came in handy while planning my budget for my upcoming trip. This trip will only be me & DH and I'm planning on $400 for souvenirs, $150 for OOP food & drinks (we're doing deluxe dining plan again this trip), $150 for dining tips, and I always budget an extra $150 for "unexpected expenses"



This trip was for 4 nights, 1 adult, 1 DD13, 1 DD9. We stayed at the Pop Century, Standard Room. We had 5 day Park hoppers & Water Park and More Tickets. We also had Deluxe Dining. I originally budgeted $3500 for the trip.

Airfare: $371.40
Rental Car for 5 days: $69.73
Gas for Rental car: $15.04
Airport Parking: $35
OOP Dining: $88.63
Tips to servers: $103.44
Souvenirs: $347.39
Photopass Share: $20
Room/Ticket/Dining: $1601.53
Mousekeeping: $12
Internet usage @ Pop: $19.90
World of Sports Admission: $30
Meet fee for gymnast: $110
Pirate and Princess Party: $107.22
Tolls: $4.75
Tips to Shuttle Driver: $18 (he jump started my van on way home)
Tips to skycap: $4

Total cost: $2958.03 ($541.97 under budget)

 

[Shelly F - Ohio]

$150 is what I bring knowing there are Chase ATM everywhere.

 

[Scottishbrit]

When I went back in March I had $100 on each gift card for my 2 kids. They didnt even spend it all. Plus my kids are not big eaters ( actually my daughter ate little to nothing the entire 10 days. Stressed me out! ) so theyd share 1 kids meal and not even eat it all.

 

[disneydude365]

im 22 and i go with family whose motto is for food and shopping everyone pays their own i usually try to have at least $300 budgeted just for that (which i somehow managed this year lol) holiday trips are our family christmas celebration so thats where our extra comes from we pay to spend time together instead of shopping for gifts for each other

also this year will be attending a conference which will be providing a few meals saving us some money and we get a few nights paid for at the contemporary resort. Thank you MPS society!!

we've been a lot so while $300 may not sound like a lot even though to me it was 5 months of saving. it will buy me some meals and a souvener like a pin or a vinylmation, and i hope i have enough to buy two mickey ears one for me and one for a friend. but for blow money i think $300 per person is fine if you budget

 

[bellelayne1]

I like to figure to bring about 1/3 of the price of our vacation. And if we bring some home GREAT!! That could be the start of the savings for the next trip!

 

[Networth]

Between 3-6k when it comes to non-souvenirs. It all depends if we get lost in Wyland or Art of Disney those places are not friends with my wallet. Yet my wall and eyes love them. Last year we purchased two signed pieces and an original sketch for 5. This year I am going to attempt to not buy anything as I have been eyeing the document that incorporates Walt Disney Corporation signed by Walt for my office instead.

For other little “nick knacks” say 200-800 or so, clothes, gifts for the parents, nephews/nieces/in-laws/grandparents/friends, ornaments, little mementos, etc. Really varies from year to year. We have no kids of our own yet so I know this figure will jump when the time arrives.

 

[GOOFY4DONALD]

Between 3-6k when it comes to non-souvenirs. It all depends if we get lost in Wyland or Art of Disney those places are not friends with my wallet. Yet my wall and eyes love them. Last year we purchased two signed pieces and an original sketch for 5. This year I am going to attempt to not buy anything as I have been eyeing the document that incorporates Walt Disney Corporation signed by Walt for my office instead. For other little “nick knacks” say 200-800 or so, clothes, gifts for the parents, nephews/nieces/in-laws/grandparents/friends, ornaments, little mementos, etc. Really varies from year to year. We have no kids of our own yet so I know this figure will jump when the time arrives.

wow 6-8k. What does that include?

 

[Networth]

wow 6-8k. What does that include?

Paintings mainly. I don’t spend thousands on a dump truck of of Mickey ears and souvenir mugs I promise I warn you stay out of Wyland Galleries at the Boardwalk and Art of Disney at Epcot unless your ready to drop a few thousand. I warn you stay away or you may need another room in your house just for walls to hang pieces on. I have made a pact with my better half we will not buy something this year because I really want the incorporation document Walt signed.

My avatar is a quick picture of one of the paintings we bought last year by Rodel Gonzalez.

 

[sunflowerfields]

We gave each grandchild two $50 Disney gift cards to spend any way they liked. Turns out they weren't interested in souvenirs much. I was surprised when the two younger ones, (5 & 11) wanted to spend their money on a box of pop corn and a balloon.

 

[GOOFY4DONALD]

Paintings mainly. I don’t spend thousands on a dump truck of of Mickey ears and souvenir mugs I promise I warn you stay out of Wyland Galleries at the Boardwalk and Art of Disney at Epcot unless your ready to drop a few thousand. I warn you stay away or you may need another room in your house just for walls to hang pieces on. I have made a pact with my better half we will not buy something this year because I really want the incorporation document Walt signed. My avatar is a quick picture of one of the paintings we bought last year by Rodel Gonzalez.

That does make sense. What a wonderful hobby.

 

[nkereina]

We just returned from 6 days/5 nights. Two adults. We were on the dining plan and I had budgeted $250 for tips and only spent $100, including our TS restaurants, bell men, etc.

We planned several meals and snacks over our dining plan allottment, which we were ok paying out of pocket for. We didn't go crazy on souvenirs but did buy some clothes and toys for our niece and nephew for Christmas, two t-shirts, and a few other miscellaneous small items.

We charged everything to our magic bands and at the end of the stay, I was floored to see we had charged $800 - and that's not including tips (we had cash for that). I guess it is true that Disney favors the MBs because people are inclined to charge more. And since we were too lazy to check our charges at the end of each day, they really added up to more than what we expected. Lesson learned!