Money and Envelopes!!!

[chucky1910]

When we went in feb 09,
We took £500, exchanged it to Dollars, and then split it by 15,
This = about €65 a day, each day we took a new envelope out and this was our spending money, if we didnt spend it all we had something extra for the next day,
worked really well for us

 

[moniot]

We do the same thing. It works really well for us also. You can see how much you have spent and it was fun to see how much you could save for the next day. We usually had enough left toward the end of our stay to upgrade a couple meals from counter service to table service.

 

[kidsrfun]

Just yesterday I started making my envelopes!! Here's what I do...

This trip is just me and my dh, so amounts are smaller than when we bring the kids. It's free dining, so we don't need to worry about food, but there's certainly plenty of extras to think about!

$15 per tip envelope for every TS meal (Sometimes 18% is more, sometimes less, but it's always close) I split it into a ten and 5 ones to make making change easier.

$5 per tip envelope for each night of our stay

$50 per day for lunch and snacks at non-disney parks (2 universal days and 1 sea world day). We have dinner when we get back to our resort since we're going during free dining

$20 per day alcohol money

$40 per day spending money (VERY RARELY use it all!!)

I also have an envelope for "extras" with all ones in it. It's great for tipping people who help with luggage, transfers, etc.

I know that this sounds crazy... but it works for me! I never go over the amount that I budget this way and I NEVER use my credit card!

 

[reelmom]

We do the same as PP. To keep the envelopes from getting messy or lost, I store ours in a coupon holder.

 

[iNTeNSeBLue98]

We also did this, on our first trip as a family. I had budgeted $100 per day for meals and snacks and whatever else came our way (no dining plan then). If at the end of the day there was money leftover, it carried over to the following day plus the next day's $100 allotment.

Back then the ATM surcharges were so outrageous, so I would withdraw $100 each morning, usually upon entering the parks. It cost $2 then, probably at least $5 in fees now, so I wouldn't be as inclined to use this method.

On our last two trips we added charging priveleges to our room key, linking our debit card. It's not as easy to monitor your spending habits, and best to reconcile all receipts at the end of the day. Your resort can print out your charges upon request.