how much

[happy2bme34]

We(me,35 DH,35 and 2 DD,14 and 9) are leaving in 28 days and I was wondering how much money does everyone spend? This is our first time to go to WDW and I'm trying to figure out if we have enough to be comfortable. On average what would be your spending and food money? Just trying to get an idea.
Thanks,
Tracey

 

[dizagain]

Hi! I'm guessing my family leans towards the "cheap" side, but we had a BLAST and felt like we were living it up!


We did five sit-down meals, two of them character ones, and the rest were counter. We ate a couple of breakfasts in the room (pop tarts, cereal, etc.). We bought four refill mugs and used them all the time. We snacked when we wanted to throughout the day - gotta have those Mickey Bars!

Souvenir spending for us is where I think we get out cheaply. I gave each of my girls $70 and they both added a little of their own. They chose how to spend it and believe me, they were both scrounging the last day to spend it all! We bought DH a shirt for Father's Day and I got a t-shirt and two Christmas ornaments. We bought no photos at all...that's why I take a million pictures myself!

We spent about $1100 on food,souvenirs,tips,and whatever else over an 8-night/7-day trip. Not too bad! Oh - we are a family of four, me, DH, DD's 9 and 11 ( yes, both ate kids meals, which might make a difference!).

Have a wonderful trip!!!

 

[Laurajean1014]

For the three of us on a 10 day trip. We spend $3000 on food and souvies.

We prepay the room and the airfare.

 

[EthansMom]

For my family of 2 adults, 1 preschooler and 1 toddler, I budget $750 for food & snacks for 7 nights and $350 for souvenirs. Last trip, we came in at about $550 for food and snacks and $50 for souvenirs.

With my young kids, I let them each pick out one toy to bring home. For your older kids, you may want to give them a budget...say, "You each have X dollars ($50-$100 each, if it were my kids) to spend however you want at Disney." Let them know that when it's gone, it's gone and also let them keep any money they don't spend.

Looking at the prices on menus might give you more of an idea about food spending: http://www.allearsnet.com/menu/menus.htm

Enjoy your trip!

 

[ladyelle]

We are a family of seven (DH, DW, DS8, DS8, DS6, DS6, DD6) and just returned from Disney on Sunday. We spent about $1200.00 for 8 days and 7 nights on food, cocktails, and souvenirs. We had a great time.

The kids each got $50 to spend on souvenirs.

We ate breakfast in the room which was usually fruit, granola bars, muffins and juice.

For lunch we ate pool counter service a couple of days, Liberty Tree Tavern, Primetime, Tusker house and Tony's.

For dinner we ate at Chef Mickey's, Citros, Kona Cafe, Chef de france?, Earl's and my daughter and I went to 1900 Park Fare. We also ordered pizza room service a couple of nights.

Regarding snacks, the kids had ice cream and candy one night. Other than that I brought tons of snacks and juice boxes from home. I also brought cocktails, water, and juice from home. So other than wine with dinner or a frozen drink by the pool we didn't spend much on drinks either.

This amount also included the Peter Pan Club one evening for 3 hours while my husband and I went to dinner at Citros. Cost $150.

My husband and I shared lunch twice. My kids are not big eaters so sometimes we just ordered 3 kids meals and they shared and it was plenty. Other times we just ordered 5 and then my husband ended up eating all the leftovers.
Good Luck with your planning.

 

[fac]

Do you have a car? or will you be using Disney transportation?

How many days will you be staying in WDW? do you stay on-site or off-site?
Do you plan to visit other parks?

In the worse case, Disney has the dining plan, with 3 adults (your DD14 will be counted as adult) and 1 child, the dinning plan cost $115 per day and you shouldn't have to spend more than $115 per day on food.

 

[ElizaB39]

I am currently planning on 100 a day for food for me DH, DD11 and DS8. Each child has 50 of their own money for souvies and we will buy them one additional item for around 30 or less (favorite ride item). I usually spend 20 or less on myself for souvies. DH doesn't buy anything for himself but that is because he chooses not to... On the other hand, we won't limit ourselves to this budget, it is just a rough outline at this point. I am bringing snacks for breakfast and to bring to the parks. The search for Brita water bottles commences tonight!

I also bought mister fans from Wal Mart for $5 and the kids will decorate next week. I bought glow sticks from Dollar Tree and will look for more tonight at Wal Mart. They will decorate these next week as well.

We will spend money for water, that is just a "have to" in my book. I'll do my best to economize as far as filling up at eateries and etc. but that is not always convenient. We also do lots of food sharing as DS mostly has eyes bigger than his stomach so I usually help him finish his food items.

DH was freaking a little bit about the vacation at first, so I was trying to budget and economize and etc and then a few days ago he says, "it's vacation lets not go overboard on trying to 'save' money." AAARRRGGGHHH!

However, this is really music to my ears (hee hee pun intended as I am still earning them).

Thanks for keeping me up to date with all the ideas!

P.S. I am going through all of our toy bins and discovering some Disney light up toys I forgot we had. They will be refurbished and then we can bring them to the parks for dark rides...

 

[Cdn_Tink]

I am curious to know how much counter service meals would cost for 14 days for 2 adults. We do not plan on buying souvenirs so I am just looking at a food only budget right now. I plan on having granola bars, jiuce and coffee in the hotel room for breakfast. We are going to pick up some sandwich fixins for our lunches but know we will need to eat at counter service places for at least one meal a day, probably supper. What are we realistically looking at for this?

 

[paladin]

One thing that can be helpful is taking a look at the menus posted on Deb's site, especially if you have any places that you know you want to eat. This will give you an idea of actual costs (though of course they can change at any time).

http://www.allearsnet.com/menu/menus.htm

 

[Jakesmom1]

We usually budget $100 day for food and drinks,for me, my dh and ds(11).

Sometimes we go over and sometimes we dont even spend $100. With the change in menus to now include 11 year olds as adults, I probably will wind up spending more since we have several ps made.

My dh always starts saving months in advance so he has his own money for sovies. I usually will buy him one nice item on our last day.