Keeping track of spending while at disney

[Princess_Nikki]

Cash or gift cards. I learned not to charge to the room! It's too easy to just charge it and then get sticker shock. We budget a set amount of cash per day and leave the rest in the room as well. AND I always have cash set aside for the trip home. My kids always had their own cash as well. Knowing they had a set amount for souvenirs lessened the asking for stuff all the time.

Yes, exactly!!! Lol! My sentiments exactly and that's pretty much my method now too!

 

[abmitch01]

I was going to do the QS dining plan for me and my 15yo DD. But she still eats kids meals so it wasn't worth it. Someone suggested putting that money in envelopes and using it each day. I'm a total cc person, I charge everything to get points and always pay my balance on full. But I might try the envelope system. I know it will make me want to have money left in the envelope each day

 

[jeepwreck]

Disney the one the one place that i do not keep track of my spending,

but we always do a dinning plan and so the only real spending we do is on souvenirs

 

[stasijane]

Disney the one the one place that i do not keep track of my spending,

Same here!

 

[DawnM]

I haven't used them in at least 20. I remember I used to use them all the time.

My dad will still use them on occasion overseas, but he is finding more and more places don't take them. Or, because they aren't familiar with them, take a very long time to process and use.

I haven't bought them in probably 30 years. Do you find a lot of places that still accept them?

 

[dpswift]

I haven't used them in at least 20. I remember I used to use them all the time.

My dad will still use them on occasion overseas, but he is finding more and more places don't take them. Or, because they aren't familiar with them, take a very long time to process and use.

The other reason Travelers Checks are becoming hard to use is that there are many fakes out there. At Disney you would be safe because they have your personal information, however if you try to use them offsite you may be delayed while the store calls to verify them.

 

[emilik]

I think your strategy depends on your touring style. We are big planners. I knew every single one of our meals and what we would eat there before we left, so it was very easy to calculate our total food budget, and then we decided that everyone could buy 1 purchased snack per day (so I added in $5 pp/day which was more than we needed so I was confident we wouldn't go over). We don't buy souvenirs so that was easy. Other than that, there really isn't anything else to spend money on in the parks, is there? So maybe mainly people concerned about unplanned food budget and purchasing souvenirs? I've never found it difficult to just plan all of our spending beforehand and then only buy what I planned to buy, but I know other people prefer to be more spontaneous.

 

[mom2rose&john]

We charge everything to our room. We keep receipts, and when we get back to the room at night, we look over them to see how much we spent. We also get a printout from the front desk every couple of days in case we lose a slip. We know how much we have saved before we go, and we don't spend more than that. The kids have cash to spend for their souviners and things they want.

This is exactly what we do. I always keep a basic running amount everyday so there are no surprises.

 

[RyannB]

We do the dining plan, so really, the only things we spend money on are tips and souvenirs.

For tips, I have an amount figured up, and I have Disney GCs in that amount (with extra, in case).

For the kids, they will get a certain amount of cash at the beginning of the trip. We usually try to wait towards the end of the trip to let them buy anything, so they've seen a lot and can decide what they "have" to have.

Otherwise, we have all our extra trip budget in cash, and we take a bit of it into the parks or wherever each day. We don't charge back to the room, although I am going to do that with tips this trip and pay them with the gcs at the front desk. It's much harder for us to let cash go than to charge to the room. We don't buy much in the way of souvenirs, but if we see something, we'll pay with the cash we brought for that day.

 

[skysmom99]

This will be our 3rd trip having the QS dining plan. We really like how it is paid for in advance (or free) so we don't have to worry about the budget for that. We use gift cards for souvenir purchases, and each person knows his/her amount to spend.

 

[smcabee]

We charge everything to our room. We keep receipts, and when we get back to the room at night, we look over them to see how much we spent. We also get a printout from the front desk every couple of days in case we lose a slip. We know how much we have saved before we go, and we don't spend more than that. The kids have cash to spend for their souviners and things they want.

With the exception of the kids part as we dont have any. This is what DW and I do.

 

[artemis4]

Any time we are on vacation, research and planning are my stay on budget tools. We remember to budget for each meal or daily snack, and stay in that range when buying. As long as we treat Disney with the same rules we give all of our vacations, I don't have to do any tracking.

Disney is one of the easiest places to stay on budget we've ever been to. Most CS meals are in a tight price range, so it is easy to plan $x for every in park CS meal. We share a few snacks, just like we do on any vacation, so our snack budget is also easy to predict and keep under control. We aren't people who buy many souvenirs. The kids get $20 for a souvenir on any vacation, no more. When we follow our normal vacation patterns, overspending never happens. We were actually well under budget last time, like $400 under.

 

[goofyintoronto]

The best way to keep track is to use cold hard cash! It works for us. We never use credit cards or giftcards. I dont even put my credit card on file when i check into my disney resort. In the past I got a giftcard for my son....but the most recent trips we solely used cash. Much easier. The idea of using a spreadsheet for budgeting makes me .