Is this enough spending money???

[yankeeslover]

family of 4 going to the world this august.. including DD5 and DD13... we have the dining plan with one sitdown and one Q.S meal.. unfortuntly do to budget restraints at home i may only be able to bring roughly $1000.00 spending money... we are gonna be there 9 full days... will this be enough spending money? i understand we still have to pay tips, which might also have to come out of that money, so say $200.00 total tips for the week... brings me down to $800.00 to spend on souvenairs and the occasonal beer back at the resort... probably also for some water in the parks(probably gonna order a few cases of water from gardengrocer as i think thats cheaper)...is this not gonna be enough money for us? my 13 yo spends nothing.... my 5yo will be the one that wants everything, but the 13yo never wants a thing when we go away..thanks for the help

 

[DisneyEater]

I think that should be plenty of money for the rest, especially if you use your credits wisely. We limit the kids to $25 for souveniers and make them think about it all week so they can go back and get what they really wanted most at the end of the week. While I could spend $800 on adult beverages, it is probably not recommended anyway.

If just ordering water, I wouldn't use garden grocer. You have to pay a fee. I think you can order from staples.com and get free delivery. Others on here may know of better places.

 

[CatNipRules]

Are you going to be taking it in cash? The reason that I ask is that if you have a Target Red Card and use it to buy gift certificates you can save $50. So, that would be almost like having an extra $50 to spend in the parks. Plus if you use the red card to get your prescriptions then you would save almost another $50.

You get one snack per day on the dining plan so unless your bunch likes to snack a lot while you are in the park I think you should be good where that is concerned.

I would limit how much your 5 year old gets for spending. I know that sometimes this is easier said than done. I would give the 5 year old a set amount that they can spend.

The most important thing that we try to do is to try and keep from buying a lot of things the first day. We always tell our son that he has all week to see what he wants and that he needs to be sure that he wants x instead of y or z. It prevents a lot of impulse buying. We let him budget his money and that way when it's gone, it's gone. And he has no one to blame but himself if he sees something later that he wants and doesn't have the money for.

I'm thinking that you probably will have enough. It's always hard to say though.

 

[julluvsdisney]

family of 4 going to the world this august.. including DD5 and DD13... we have the dining plan with one sitdown and one Q.S meal.. unfortuntly do to budget restraints at home i may only be able to bring roughly $1000.00 spending money... we are gonna be there 9 full days... will this be enough spending money? i understand we still have to pay tips, which might also have to come out of that money, so say $200.00 total tips for the week... brings me down to $800.00 to spend on souvenairs and the occasonal beer back at the resort... probably also for some water in the parks(probably gonna order a few cases of water from gardengrocer as i think thats cheaper)...is this not gonna be enough money for us? my 13 yo spends nothing.... my 5yo will be the one that wants everything, but the 13yo never wants a thing when we go away..thanks for the help

I think you have more than enough! Few suggestions! You can get free ice waters in the parks at any quick service so I wouldnt waste your money on bottled water in the parks. You can prob get free water at the resorts quick service counter I would think. Also I like to put a certain amount on a gift card for each child say $50-75 and once thats gone its gone. also I usually go through each places menu figure out about how much we are gonna spend and figure out the tip then add all tips together. I think you will have more than enough!have a great trip! we will be there in August too!!!

 

[ceecee]

Depending on the days you are going, the tip $ may be low for a family of 4. We paid around $20 (for 3 of us) at most TS meals which was 20%. Mousekeeping we tipped $3-5 a day and the luggage people (we had ours held two times) $5 total. We go yearly and don't buy more than $200 in for gifts and soveiniers. I would get each child a gift card and when it's gone it's gone. We always shopped with DD and had her wait until the end of the trip before actually buying. Usually she got what she really wanted that way.

 

[vleeth]

My DD7 saves her own spending money from birthdays/christmas and doing work around the house. She has $50 disney dollars and $70 in cash (we are going to Universal also). If she runs out of money thats all there is. Of course since we started having her work for money she spends a lot less of it, so I expect her to come back with some.

 

[PrincessSuzanne]

I think you have plenty of spending money for 9 days. What I do it separate my tip money from my spending money by looking at the menus on www.allears.net and figuring out approximately how much I need and then I take an envelope for each restaurant, I write the restaurant name and my reservation number on the outside and place the money in the envelope that way I don't spend that money somewhere else. If you over estimate, then you have some extra spending money.

I would also let the kids look around at souvenirs and then decide at the end what they want and don't spend more than a certain amount. When we took my cousin and her children, I gave each of the children a gift card with $50 on it, they had a great time spending "their" money on something fun. I still spent a ton more, but they loved having something they could hang onto like the gift card.

We do NOT tip housekeeping, because it is not a tipped position. We do use bell services and give them about $1 to $2 per bag, depending on how helpful they are.

 

[alice99]

I think that is plenty of money.

Especially considering you are not buying food with that money.

Have a great time!