How much spending money??

[disney_newbie]

We got the Dining Plan, so our food is "taken care of." How much spendning money do you take a day? I'm sure it will vary, but any ballpark figure would be appreciated.
Thanks, you guys are the best!!

 

[worm761]

i voted for between 50 and 100 dollars a day. whatever i don't spend one day goes into the next days envelop. i love the envelop system. keeps me budgeted. lol.. but i use this money for anything other than food. that is ride photos, little things and big things alike. i have also been know to go to downtown disney on my last morning there and blow $500 on god knows what! lol but 50 to 100 dollars seems like a good figure.

 

[danielle82]

We usually take about $100 per day

 

[ransom]

Hmm. Might want to ask how much people take per person, since larger groups might tend to take more and smaller groups less. Just a thought!

We're on the DDP, so we don't need much spending money. Once you subtract tip money, we take around $20 per person per day - $40 total per day.

 

[Heluvsme]

For us we try to keep it right at $50 a day, but...that's an average...some days will be much more (like the DTD days and others will be less, like if we're riding rides and swimming all day long.

But on average, $50 a day.

 

[dwaddict]

We also try to do about $50 a day. We do the dining plan when we go so that helps alot. Also DS has saved his own money so that should make a difference too! Sometimes we spend more, sometimes less. It really depends on how busy we are and WHO goes into the different shops!!
Some of it depends on how often you go. Is this a really big trip or do you go often. We go often so we tend to spend less on souveniers, on our last trip the kids just loved all the potato head stuff and we ended up buying 3 boxes of those silly things throughout our stay.

 

[lustergirl]

It really depends on you party size and what ages? Do you have younger kids that absolutely have to have everything they see (thank the lord my boys are teenagers, lol). I voted for 50 to 100 dollars a day- that is reasonable. My real souvernirs are the pictures that I take only to go home and go broke getting them developed, I usually have around 300 pictures to print, that is quite expensive at Walgreens, Eckerd, ETC. Having the dining plan is awesome because that is the major part of spending right there. We save up disney dollars all year long before our trip and use them. Last year we took 600 disney dollars and spent them for the whole week that we were there.

 

[jimmiej]

We budget $100/person for souvenirs for each trip, usually a week. If we go over the $100 a little, no big deal. I always told my kids if they wanted to spend more than $100, they could bring their own money in addition to what I gave them. Each person can spend their souvenir $$$ when & however they want. Per day is too much trouble to worry about for me. I just carry some cash for small things & use my credit card for everything else. I write the person's name on the receipt to keep a tab on how much each person has left.

 

[pigget74]

I give money to each kid to add to their money. I make sure they at least have 50 to spend. We are typically gone 5 days. DH and I spend around $150 total on the trip--we buy ornaments for everyone and then will get something for us. So that is 200. We are typically on the dining plan. $250 divided by 5 is $50 per day average divided by 5 is $10 per person per day . HTH.

 

[PeachesDoesHair]

We spent about $400 for the week on souvenirs extra food and tips. That was for four of us for six days. Hope that helps!

 

[TMB1203]

It varies. I usually plan for $50.00-$100.00 per day, not including food.

We also did the dining plan last time and loved paying upfront.

 

[jillyjoey]

I checked over $100 per day. But I KNOW you can do it for a lot less. Our last trip of 8 days w/ddp -- we spent $1200 oop. That said, we also bought some expensive souvenirs -- me particularly -- I lost my Mickey watch in the Charlotte airport or someplace in between -- so DH bought me a new one as soon as we got to WDW. DD also did the BBB and got a new Sleeping Beauty dress- - those 2 items alone were well over $200 combined.

 

[Disneytwinz]

We're planning on taking $20-$30 per day per person. Were on the dining plan. There are seven of us.

 

[jenseib]

I think it depends on what you plan on buying. We were on the dining plan (just a few weeks ago) and bought a couple of extra beverages throuhg out the day, but not alot. I bought my 2YO a couple of shirts and sweat shirts. I bought a few gifts ofr people at home ,and a couple of stuff animals for DD. I also bought a watch for myslef, but it was just a 30 dollar one. One night it was cold and we bought us each a sweat shirt too. But we didn't go crazy really. A couple hundred for five days for 3 people. I found the dining plan wonderful! No worries for tipping, or anything! We did pay OOP one night for DD. She was 2 so not on the plan, she jsut shared, but we got her a hot dog at Capn' Jacks the night we went there.

 

[LoriMistress]

I take about $50 to $150 a day. I guess it depends if you see something at one of the parks that's pricy but you MUST HAVE!!!!

 

[Indianadisneyfan]

I take about $100 a day for a family of 4. We usually eat breakfast before we go in. Then we might eat a lite lunch and then eat a nice supper.

 

[dreamscometrue47]

I think I spend too much....I went back to our trip in Jan 2006 and for 2 of us (DS and I), who were on the dining plan, for a 6 day stay, we still spent $1200...yipes...that's $100/day EACH!!! but in my defense, we did buy souvenirs for my DH and DD who could not make this trip and a couple of very nice gifts for my mom and t-shirts for nephews/nieces......guilt as well as excitement can really get you in trouble......

You can get away a LOT cheaper....

 

[mabenoab]

The first time we went to WDW (when the kids were little) we spent more than $100.00 per day, but now that they're older, we expect to spend about $50- $70.00 which includes tips but doesn't include meals. I'm sure there'll be days we spend that, and other days we won't. I really like the post about putting $ in envelopes and what you don't spend goes in the next day's envelope. I might try that.

 

[disgram]

On our last trip in August, my teenage DGD got a gift card of 200$ and she came home with most of it!!! I, on the other hand, spent close to 1200 on gifts, Pal Mickey and souviners, and then when I got home, discovered that DGD had got me for most of her souviners!!!! What a goofy grandma!!!
This year, I am taking my other two DGDs and they will get most likely, 100$ each for the whole 8 days. They are only 10 and most likely won't need as much. We were on the dining plan last year and again this year. Will be using most of my money for tips, drinks, another Pal Mickey, (2 DGDs, 1 Pal Mickey, not good!!) and Mousekeeping. Hopefully, not as much spending as last year!!!!

 

[Experiment523]

we took about $1000 last year but came home with $500, that is not including the Disney dollars the kids had and the birthday money they both had. I was pleasently surprised we didnt spend as much as we thought we might. We made that decision based on the fact we took $500 for our honeymoon in 2000 came home with nothing . So we doubled it for 4 people last year. we found that if you have the DDP you tend to spend less money. we would have spent about $1100 on food alone last year if we didnt have the DDP.