How much spending money

[trevorsem]

Just occured to me that I really don't know how much spending money to take this time .

I've got my Disney & Flex tickets already.

Will £1,500 be enough for three weeks?



Trev

 

[VSL]

I'm planning on taking approx. $1000 for 16 nights (that's for me only - Jay will probably take about the same for himself).

But we won't be buying lots - we're planning on spending about $600 each on food (we only drink water and will go without at restaurants depending on the cost!) so we won't have much left to spend anyway!

 

[angel659]

Hi

To be honest I would not of thought it would be enough for 3 weeks. Depends on how many are going, if you are planning on seeing any other parks, fuel etc.

We went last yr and we went through so much money it was unbelievable. Drinks were $2.50 each for a bottle of coke. Meals were around (adult) $6.99 with no drink and kids were about $3.99 with no drink. Also pends if you are sharing a villa and if so how much grocery shopping and cooking you will do.

I would take approx $50-60.00 a day for food and drink min if you are eating 3 times a day.

Then you need to work out how much you want to allow for spending and incase you want to do anything else.

We are going in October we are taking approx £2,000 spending money for 2 weeks based on a family of 5. 3 kids are aged 5,2,2 and we have already bought our disney 14 day tickets. We have allowed for everything to dinners at character places to even universal and seaworld tickets.

I would work out exactly what you are doing, how much you want to spend on food and drink and then if you are planning any extras so you know roughly how much you will be taking. Personally £1,500 I do not think it will be enough, but thats me perhaps I am wrong.

Hope this helps

 

[trevorsem]

Angel ,

There is me, DW and DS & DD (8 & 9).

We are staying along US192 and plan on eating out in the morning and evening. Any major purchases for Dinner Shows , etc will go on plastic .
I'm thinking about food , park purchases (drinks , ice creams) and fuel .



T

 

[carolfoy]

I think if you're using a cc for major purchases then you'll be ok, its usually food thats the big spender (well that and shirley bassey ) We usually budget about $15 per person per meal based on 3 a day and that more than covers us for food

 

[angel659]

Hi

As Carol said if you planning on using cc then I am sure it will be enough. Especially staying where you can choose to eat. We stay at All Star Movies and we are limited where we can eat and have to pay higher rates

I am sure that will be fine and I hope you have a great time 3 weeks I am jelous lol.

 

[samphe]

I am leaving next week for 3 weeks too. There are also 4 of us, 2 adults, DS 6 & DD 3.
We've been wondering the same thing. We've already purchased all of our tickets etc. We were estimating £1500, for food, drinks, snacks,fuel & souvonirs etc (bearing in mind that as we have a villa we'll probably do a BBQ sometimes which won't be as expensive as eating out). We thought that if we decide to purchase any larger items when we're there then we'll use the cc for those.

If the worst comes to worst and we go over budget, so be it, we're there to enjoy ourselves!

Can't wait now....only 7 days to go!!!!!!

 

[paulh]

Just bung it on the CC better if its a nationwide one We plan on £100.00($180 aprox) per day for for food and drinks for fam of 4 (2 adults 2 kids 16 +9)ect budget extra for tickets car insureance we allways have mony left over better to be on that side rather than not having enougth we are going for 3 weeks we are taking £500. tc £250 in dolars and we will put the rest on cc
Paulh

 

[paulh]

We use cc for most purchases but if the restaurant takes card away we would use the cash instead so supermarkets for food and beer cc no prob
Paulh

 

[vernon]

I had done a very nice long post with average costs of different class restaurants, and a whole load of other stuff, but unfortunately the websirte didn't seem to want to accept it. So here is the concise version of that rather long winded ( me surely not LOL)

With the using lower end of all the different choices I came up with a cost of GBP 1350 (that was using BK/McD's/dunkin donuts) at least 3 times a week as breakfast and dinner options and not allowing for buying some sort of food at lunch in the parks (which would add about GBP 300 to the total)

Mid scale (Denny's/Shoney's/Olive garden) came in at about GBP 2,000 (2,300 if you eat lunch in the parks each day)

Midscale and a couple of splurges gets you close to GBP2,500

As far as "cash needs" obviously almost all of those restaurants will take plastic, but as far as budgetting the expense ( or if you'd rather not have that big a CC bill when you get home) I think those are reasonable estimates to go by.

Much depends on the level you like to eat at, and if you like a beer/glass of wine or two as alcohol is relatively expensive in the USA. That could easily add $20-30 per evening meal ($600-900 for the 3 weeks)

Couple of things to minimise your (soft)drinks bills in the parks. Share a larger drink between 2 (or more) instead of getting a smaller one each and order it with no ice. Ice makes up about 50% of the volume of the drink and it either get's thrown away or waters down the drink until it tastes unpleasant, then gets thrown away. Also taking a drink (or two) each from the supermarket/hotelroom/villa could easily save you $15-20 a day.

 

[maureen4200040]

Hi

I took my mum to disney in 2003, and we took $1300.00 between us. I found that we could only manage to eat one meal a day, mainly in the evening at the hotel resturant.

We had cereal & banana for breakfast, at lunch we had salad and sandwiches. Food shopping at walmart helped - we brought bread rolls, ham, salad, fruit, water etc for around $25.00. All stored in the fridge in our hotel room.

I think you'll eat less while your over there because it so hot. This year I'm going with my niece who's 12 yrs old, and I taking $1500.00 plus my credit card for any emergencies. If I did'nt have a child with me I would'nt bother with the credit card and I would take less money.

 

[maureen4200040]

error - duplicate message delete - pls ignore.

 

[Miffy2003]

On our first trip to Florida we were on a pretty tight budget and survived (happily) on $2000 for a 2 week trip for 2 adults and 2 children.

We tended to have breakfast before getting to the parks (often just a snack from WalMart, sometimes IHOP or Denny's), drinks in the parks and ice creams, sometimes a counter service meal, sometime not. This was in August and some days it was too hot to eat in the day! Tea was usually a Denny's / Shoney's or Perkins style restaurant though we did have 2 character meals during our 2 week stay. We had McDonald's for 1 night only.

The $2000 coverd all our meals and sounvineers (we didn't go mad on these but I would say we spent $25 a day in total on souvies.

I would say for a 3 week trip you might need a little more than £1500, but it depends on what you are likely to buy in the parks and where you eat

 

[dynamite100]

Just occured to me that I really don't know how much spending money to take this time .

I've got my Disney & Flex tickets already.

Will £1,500 be enough for three weeks?



Trev

Depends. Does your missus like to spend lots of your money?!!!!

 

[Night-train]

We took $7,300 in travellers checks and cash (no cc!) for 3 weeks in April and came home with around $400!! Ok, about $600 went on paying for our hotel in West Palm Beach, we did 3 character breakfasts, ate, on average, two meals a day, filled up a Lincoln Towncar 4 times and brought back 6 suitcases full of clothes, footwear and souvenirs. It all depends what you intend doing when you're there, and since we like to shop as well as go to the parks, then we go armed accordingly! It's the same old story; diff'rent strokes for diff'rent folks!!

 

[coombsyl]

As we go in a villa we most tend to eat breakfast at home - not just because of cost but we find it relaxing eating by the pool and not so unhealthy. However it does save us a lot of money.

I think it is nice to be going and, if you are on a budget then so be it - at least you are there. I should divide your spenders equally between days and then, if you spend a bit less for a couple of days, you don't feel guilty about splashing out a bit on the third day

Taking your own bottles of water into the park can save a lot - you can fill them up from the water fountains - ok it's not as cold and clear as mineral water but it rehydrates you just the same.

This year we had a suprise opportunity to go in three weeks time - we haven't had the usual time to save up but we will enjoy ourselves hugely nonetheless.

 

[ely3857]

Hiya

DF & I will be taking $3000.00 for two weeks. Not really big on souveniors (sp?) except I do like to but the ride photos!

Most of money will be on food. Chipping in for the shopping at the villa & 3 PS's booked for character breakfasts.

We will have our CC as a back up should we go mad but I think this will be plenty, It is the same as I took for two weeks/two people in Oct' 02.

IMHO I wouldnt think £1500.00 would be enough for 3 weeks. Our $3000.00 for 2 weeks cost us £1600.00.



Jodie

 

[shellbell]

Were taking £1800 in tc and cash for 3 weeks but were also taking DHs CC which will be used for alot of the meals. Don't want to put anymore than £500 on the cc though so all in all were going to be spending around £2300(about $4200). I think $100 budget a day for food should be ok. Some days will be cheaper than others and were not at Disney for the full 3 weeks the last week were on the gulf coast. DD has $200 as well so she has a bit of spending money too

Michelle

 

[Danauk]

We are taking £2000 for 2 weeks for 2 adults, but out of this we will also pay for our park passes at WDW, a day at universal and a day at Busch Gardens. Plus we plan to do some clothes shopping and our evening meals are nearly all sit downs.
IMHO I wouldn't think £1500 would be enought for 3 weeks unless you have bought park passes etc beforehand.

 

[slinky101]

in 2003, we worked on $100 a day for food etc,( we are 2 adults and two kids 7&9) we will be doing the same when we leave this week, we usually fill up at breakfast at ponderosa or similar,take pringles and drinks into park to snack on during day, maybe buy ice cream or something during the day then have a big meal at night, we find it much too hot to eat in the day. we will have a CC for major shopping and to pay for iluminations cruise,but the $100 a day should work out ok.
I agree with the other post about splitting it up, we took $100 a day and had some spare TC,s in back of wallet for emergencies, we found this worked really well, we were aware of what we were spending and had days when we brought some back which made up for the days when we had character meals and went over.
you can go absolutely crazy with money but I want to go again and don,t want to be paying for this trip when i should be saving for the next
you will have a great time however much you take