How much spending money??

[emerymt]

I have no idea. We just take cash and credit cards!

 

[beattyfamily]

Like others have said, it really depends on a few factors; how many people, if its an annual trip or a once in a lifetime trip, if you love buying souvenirs, if you will need to buy LOTS of waters (July/August) etc...

My family of 4 on the dining plan would 'budget' $100 a day to be safe but we probably in reality would spend about $200 on souvenirs and about $30 - $50 a day on incidentals (extra tips, snacks and drinks and any meals not covered).

We'd carry over any un-spent money. On a trip where we stayed 6 days and brought a $100 a day, we've gone home with about $200 left over.

Even on the dining plan, you could spend quite a bit on drinks and snacks. I ran out of my snack credits half way through my trip.

 

[Scrappy Tink]

WOW I would like all your spending money! We have meal plan so no need for money there Last year we had disney points of 350.00 that is all we used for 7 days that was all souvenirs and mugs at resort. But we had not gone in a long time so bought too much! This year I hope to only spend 200.00 and already have 150.00 on disney points visa Gotta love that card! Charge everything then pay it off when bill comes ! Even called some of our utilities and put it on the card every month to build up points! Like free money!

 

[mom2my3kids]

I plan on bringing around 1,000-1,200 with us, we will be on the dining plan. I assume we will be bringing some money back home with us.

 

[lawlesslovewdw]

We budget $150 per day for a family of 4 without DDP, but always end up with another $1000 on credit cards! ( we are usually there for 2 weeks) and that includes a trip to florida mall and all the must buys because things are just so cheap in US!

 

[jenseib]

Alot of people keep mentioning tips???? What for? I was on the dining plan, so tips were included. I did tip Mousekeeping ,but only a few bucks a day. ( i was told 1 dollar per person per night) So what are the extra tips you are talking about?

 

[beattyfamily]

Alot of people keep mentioning tips???? What for? I was on the dining plan, so tips were included. I did tip Mousekeeping ,but only a few bucks a day. ( i was told 1 dollar per person per night) So what are the extra tips you are talking about?

I tip more on the DDP, 20% total, so I always left a few more dollars.

We always order one day of room service.

We sometimes valet park.

If we use the bellmen.

The guys (also bellmen) that hold your luggage when your room isn't ready.

Airport tips (sky cap, shuttle).

That's off the top of my head.

 

[Disneyanajc]

We use CC or charge to room, figure about $100.00 per day.
JC

 

[mmessler]

I chose the $50-$100 bracket, but like others have said, it depends on how many in your party, ages of children, frequency of trips. My last trip, I spent about $1000 myself over 11 days, but that was including food. With my eating habits the DP doesn't make sense to me, so I don't use it. So I'd say on the dining plan, I would probably spend half that on souvenirs and extras, which would've been less than $50 per day. Depends on how budget conscious you can be.

 

[LMO429]

When my boyfriend and I went last october for 7 nights.. We were not on a disney dining plan..We sat at least one table dinner per day (which ranged from about 70.oo to 110.00 a restaurant but about 40% of that is alcohol), we bought alot of beers/wines and different types of food at the food and wine festival, we went to pleasure island one night, got room service 2x...and bought ALOT of souvenirs (some of which we used as xmas presents for my boyfriend neices)...We when got our express checkout bill it came to $2200 for the two of us!!!!! BUT we didnt mind because we were on vacation and LOVED every minute of it!!! IMO money well spent...

 

[1000th happy haunt]

DH and I (it's only the two of us) usually take only $200 for a week's stay. We tend to charge things (usually back to the room) instead of carrying a lot of cash. We're not big souvenir people, so our biggest expense tends to be meals.

 

[Bethnde1]

From the time my teen was a baby, we had a 5 gallon water jug that money goes into. All loose change, money found, money the kids get, etc. goes in the jug for them. Even $20 bills are in there. A couple days before we leave we cash it all in. That's the kids spending money for everything, , snacks drinks (although the ddp comes in handy nowadays), souvineers,etc. In Sept '04 both kids had about $300 for 11days. The lil one will pick a penny up on the street, to put it there. Our last trip my kayla at 6 year olds saved $400 for a 1 week trip. She thought she was so cool that she literally bought almost everything she wanted, and still had money left for this upcoming trip. .

I always pick myself up the same stuff, a t-shirt, photo book with the year, a christmas ornament with engraving that has our trip date on it, something specatcular to do like a carriage ride, this year a ill. cruise,, Last year I bought Christmas presents (and spent too much money), and maybe a couple of pictures, but now on I plan to just buy the photopass after we're home.

I like the $50 envelope idea, and that's what I plan to stick to this time, thanks for the idea

 

[MariaEllerºoº]

I voted for less than $50 a day. However, that's per person. The children have their own waist packs and they each have $25 a day for souvenirs. Whatever they don't spend rolls over to the next day. My husband and I have money for extra drinks and snacks and then our own $25 each for souvenirs.

 

[islandmum]

For us its our first ever visit and likely to come back in 2-3 years time (dont live in the US) so we'll go mad with spending money!!

DH has madly, stupidly and insanely told me theres no limit - does the man not know the heights that I could possibly reach with the Amex??!!

 

[jojoandhb]

This is our first trip, and we are taking $200 a day. This may be excessive since we have DDP also, but I don't know what to expect. I want to take my daughter to the Bippity Boppity Boutique, and I'm sure we'll want some t-shirts or something.

 

[*MickeyFan*]

I voted $50 and under. This is the first year we will be on the DDP, so I am going to bring at least 50 per day to spend. Last year we brought 100 a day, that was for food though also. We did fine on 100 a day, sure there was more I would have liked to spend but nothing I couldn't live without . There are only a few main things that I HAVE to get this time around, like a hat for each kid, the fan misters (DS really wanted one last year), photo album, picture frame, and at least one shirt. We are bringing the stuffed animals (mickey and minnie) from last year, a sword and wand filled with candy from the Disney Store. I am bringing smarties to fill them with if we run out. Glow bracelets for nite time. That should keep the kids happy, although I think I am usually the one with issues jen

 

[byoung]

The DDP helps out a lot.

 

[mabenoab]

DH has madly, stupidly and insanely told me theres no limit - does the man not know the heights that I could possibly reach with the Amex??!!

ROFL!!! I wish my husband would say that!

 

[emerymt]

For us its our first ever visit and likely to come back in 2-3 years time (dont live in the US) so we'll go mad with spending money!!

DH has madly, stupidly and insanely told me theres no limit - does the man not know the heights that I could possibly reach with the Amex??!!

Sure he knows. It's called a "credit limit"

But then, there's the Visa, and the Discover.

Have fun!

 

[jenseib]

Does Disney take Discover? I thought I read it didn't ,but I could be thinking of something else.