How much spending money?

[becpee]

So, can't sleep

Thinking far too much!

Just wondering what I should be budgeting for spending money?
2 Adults, 1 child

4 weeks away.

3 nights Orlando
7 night cruise (most meals provided, tips not included)
9 nights, 10 days Disneyworld (DDP tips not included)
4 nights New York (eating out)
4 nights LA (eating out)

If all accom is paid for, Disney entry paid, what would you budget per day for a bit of shopping and incidentals?

I know everybody will be different but i'm just wanting a guide.

TIA

 

[Anne_Aus]

I took just over $100 per day for myself and some days I spent far more and some far less. It was pretty much the perfect budget for me, as I came home with less than $10 left.

I was also on the DDP when I was at Disney, but downtown disney got my money so many cool things to buy and those stores are just sooo big.

 

[Mum from oz]

That's kinda hard. How long is a piece of string? How much shopping, souvenirs are you planning on buying? I worked out the cruise gratuities and took that out of the spending money budget. I ended up pre paying them.

For me I would say $5 or $6k to be safe?

We are a family of four 2A and 2C doing:

1 night LA
7 nights Orlando for WDW
7 night Cruise
4 nights SF

All accommodation, car hire, transfers, tickets, cruise and cruise gratuities paid for and we are taking $7k. We are planning on rebooking a future cruise so we will pay around $500 deposit. We have no dining plan as we are staying off site so we will have to buy all our own food. We have pre booked a ADR for a table service meal/character meal for each day we are there but have only paid for HDDR. Food/entertainment on the cruise is of course provided.

But your budget and my budget and everyone else's will vary greatly!

 

[australiankaren]

Oh dear......I really dont want to think about that, or even attempt to add things up....

just thinking about it makes me want to have a wine and a wee lie down...

Whatever you budget, times that by the number of funny hats you see and divide it by the matching family denim shorts/ tie dyed tshirt ensembles....that should give you a rough estimate...

seriously, I budget whatever is left on my credit card....and deal with it when I get home

 

[alicia1506]

we take roughly $1500 per person in cash spending money or eftpos/foreign currency card, plus whatever we have on the credit card as a 'back up'.

that is with all food, accom, flights, tickets, tips, tours, character meals, transfers, hire car expenses etc already budgeted and paid for.

basically when i leave australia, i want to know that any money on me or my cards etc is all for me and my greedy shopping habits. but i'm not a huge spender, i still worry about where i will store stuff when i get home and we usually don't go too nuts (first visit to wwohp not withstanding ) on the spending for stuff.

we also use the spending money for extra special restaurants we may stumble across, or additional tours that might come up that we didn't forsee, or just 'emergency' money in case something goes wrong and we have to get from point A to point B to make a flight etc.

i guess that works out at around $100.00 per day, but really... it's totally up to you and what you think your family will need... and how indulgent you will be

my mum said when she took us kids on vacation when we were little, she would give us a budget at the start of the trip, and she would write down all our expenses each day in a little notebook so that we could see how much we spent & how much we have left... maybe that could help budget/save money for kids souvenirs etc if they know there is a finite $$ amt they can spend for the whole trip

 

[Aust]

For our trip I'm budgetting, for 2 adults and 3 kids, 2 weeks in DL:

$200 per day for food (lunch and dinner plus a bit extra for snacks and 1 or 2 character breakfasts - normal breakfasts covered by concierge).

About $150 a day for spending - not for attractions or transport or anything planned, but purely for souvineers and shopping. This is a bit of a guess and we will spend more on some days and less on others, and if we save more money by the time we go, then I'll add that on if we want.

Plus the 2 oldest kids will have $100-$200 of their own saved up money to spend.

Everything else I will pay before we go if possible, and if not will have that saved too. Trying to avoid putting any of it on the credit card.

 

[battymum]

We did nearly the same trip as you last year 2 Adults 3 teens (all adults as far as Disney goes)

The kids all had their own money - about $500 each (Grandma came to the party and they sold a fair bit of stuff on Ebay) They had intentions on buying all sorts of Disney souvies but when it came to it, they thought "what am I going to do with it at home", which is generally my motto. They spent a lot of their money at the outlets, buying all sorts of trendy US gear, shoes, jeans, tshirts, (which I would have bought for them, but hey, may as well spend their money)

For the family we had $5000 on a travel card, with the option of using our normal credit card if needed - we ended up coming home with $900 still on the travel card. Each TS meal we tipped about $30 and had a couple of drinks - on the cruise we spent $300, mostly alcohol. We spent a fair bit at the outlet malls. Our cruise gratuities were paid upfront.

But basically there were no surprises, if you have free dining, and an all inclusive cruise - everything else is up to you how much or how little you spend.

 

[becpee]

Thanks for all your replies, I know it will vary greatly but even a base to work off is better than none.
Just don't want to be caught short.
The DDP will be a great help, and keeping alcohol consumption to a minimum will help our liver as well as our pockets LOL
We spent a week at DL 3 years ago, I know DW is a whole different thing but considering what we could have spent there we didn't spend alot
Pretty sure we'll have enough, I broke my estimate down to a daily and i'm pretty sure most days we won't spend that much...

 

[Melbourne5]

How long is a piece of string

I would try for $200 a day for food and incidentals. (allow $$20-40 a day on your food included days for tips .)

Hope this helps.

 

[WAMUMOF4]

I allowed $100 a day for food for 6 of us Breakfast was provided at most of our hotels but i would be guesstimating we spent about $1500 a person on souvenirs clothing shoes food etc

 

[abuzzfanfromaustral]

Hi, Our family plan on taking 200 a day for food when we come off the DDP then
we will take extra for clothes and Disney souvenirs so about 7 thousand .All tours and car rental will be paid as will hotels ,transfers.we also take the credit card as back to the debit card and cash.We try to limit our buying to only stuff that is cheaper than home or unavailable here last trip 2008 we came home with money left on debit card (not much).Better to take more than run out.Also keep calm while shopping or else you will have to run out and buy another suitcase when you are packing to leave.It happened to us in 1999 DW had grab taxi to shop near DL and rush back so we could get our shuttle to airport.It may happen again as this is our first visit were our dollar is worth more than US last trip i think it was in the 60 cent range for US to Aussie.

 

[australiankaren]

I'm actually thinking of buying a few disney gift cards..$50 x12..and then using them rather than adding it to my KTTW.....give my wee little credit card a break, and possibly taking control of my budget a bit more (oh god, i now sound like my mother)

that should cover meals, tips,nick nacks and drinks for 7 days as we have DDP for the other 5 days..and then if i have any left over i can blow it at the disney store at orlando airport

all i have to do is convince DH .....too easy

if anyone has done this before, please let me know how it worked for you.

 

[alicia1506]

I'm actually thinking of buying a few disney gift cards..$50 x12..and then using them rather than adding it to my KTTW.....give my wee little credit card a break, and possibly taking control of my budget a bit more (oh god, i now sound like my mother)

that should cover meals, tips,nick nacks and drinks for 7 days as we have DDP for the other 5 days..and then if i have any left over i can blow it at the disney store at orlando airport

all i have to do is convince DH .....too easy

if anyone has done this before, please let me know how it worked for you.

hrmm. this sounds sensible and like a great plan to control your spending ... i think i will talk to carlo about it for us too... that way we know exactly how much we can spend... although we do have a c/card with no international fees/charges/withdrawal fees etc which kinda works for us...

food for thought.

also... i budget now harder and better than my parents ever did. they tried to drill into me budgeting from a young age & it never stuck... then i was out of work for 12 months and i learnt how to stretch those dollars really, really far

now that travelling to disney has become an annual thing for us... i have notebooks full of calculations at home/work and spreadsheets on my desktop etc all full of records and figures which i update daily

and to think i actually failed high level maths at school

 

[dabecs]

I'm actually thinking of buying a few disney gift cards..$50 x12..and then using them rather than adding it to my KTTW.....give my wee little credit card a break, and possibly taking control of my budget a bit more (oh god, i now sound like my mother)

that should cover meals, tips,nick nacks and drinks for 7 days as we have DDP for the other 5 days..and then if i have any left over i can blow it at the disney store at orlando airport

all i have to do is convince DH .....too easy

if anyone has done this before, please let me know how it worked for you.

I will be watching to see how this goes - because we are travelling with my parents I was thinking of letting them use the KTTW as a charge card and we would pay our tips etc in cash or gift cards. I don't to be the one who tries to work out who owes what if we were all putting tips/souvenirs/extras on the room

 

[australiankaren]

hey
so I am now researching where to buy cheaper disney gift cards
i know you can get them somewhere..say $90 for a $100 card..sams club etc...but just need to find them...
plotting, plotting, plotting
will keep you all informed on my progress

 

[aussietravellers]

hey
so I am now researching where to buy cheaper disney gift cards
i know you can get them somewhere..say $90 for a $100 card..sams club etc...but just need to find them...
plotting, plotting, plotting
will keep you all informed on my progress

gift card granny? don't know if they are any good

 

[Beee]

Not sure how much help I am but I am working to a budget of $NZ5000 for 2 adults & 12yr old (who eats almost as much as her father!) for 16 days - 4 days DL, 3 days LA and the rest in Hawaii. That $5000 works out to be about $US255 per day (at today's exchange rate anyway) and is for food & spending money (separate budget for transport/tours/activities etc). We're staying with family in hawaii all but one night so I am expecting that it'll work out more like $US300 per day for DL and less in Hawaii. I'd budget more if I could but this is about all we can save between now and then so if we go over it'll be on the credit card and we'll worry about that when we get home!

Oh and DD will have most of her own spending money so the spending part of that will just be the Mr and I - lets just say me because he's not a shopper