Ok now im getting worried ...

[*love*2*shop]

we arent concerned about you being on a Budget..its that you have barely any money At ALL that you are bringing...

Yes I have debt. Who doesn't? I still pay my debt off every month. I booked this quick budget trip as a reward for getting my a.a degree . I really wish people would stick to the topic and not jump down my throat because I under budgeted. I'm not the first and I'm sure I won't be the last person to go on vacation on a budget .

 

[carebee21]

If you're going to be at the resort for the entire trip (aside from the Halloween party) I would get groceries delivered from somewhere like Garden Grocers. IMO, without perishables (milk, fruit, veggies) you're not going to have complete meals by trying to ship your own groceries and if you're already going to be at the resort swimming/relaxing there's no reason to have to eat out when you have a kitchen in your room. For $100 you could have everything you need, and have $200 to spend on just the couple of meals you'll need at Disney World and maybe even a couple snacks there.

Here's what I would do:
For breakfast:
Box of Cereal and Milk
Dozen Eggs and bread for toast

For Lunch:
Top Ramen or Cup of noodles
Sandwiches with the bread you used for toast and lunch meat and cheese and small sizes of mayo/mustard
Crackers and lunch meat and cheese (like your own lunchables)

For Dinner:
A bag of pasta, ragu sauce or a frozen lasagna (if your room has a freezer and oven?) and a bagged salad and a tomato and/or cucumber and a small bottle of your fav dressing
If you got cheese with your sandwiches, grilled cheese and canned soup
Frozen Pizza and salad
Rotiserrie Chicken and ask them to pick up a premade potato or macaroni salad, or garden salad
Hot dogs and hot dog buns and chips

Then pick up a case of water, a box of capri suns, some apples, bananas, oranges, yogurt and a couple other sweet treats and you will be more than set.

Also, if you have time, I'd run to dollar tree and see if they have any fun little things you can purchase in your case your children get a case of the I wants. Glow sticks, stickers, small little trinkets, even the theater sized boxes of different candies.

 

[carebee21]

deleted- double post

 

[HersheyKisses]

That was awesome advice ! I love the little meal plan you created . Unfortunately GardenGrocer is not doing any more orders on Sept.11 &12th it's on the website in red. I did a little grocery shopping. I bought snacks/drinks and some lunch items for myself. I can easily slash the food money spent by not getting any quick service meals for myself at the resort. I will eat in the room and purchase kids meals for the kids My family has offered me money to cover the character breakfast and hotel extras and I declined. I do not like to take any handouts. The kids wont miss the character breakfast and the money I save from eating out I can spend on the 4D movies for them. I always bring too much money on vacation so Im looking forward to seeing how far I can stretch a dollar .

If you're going to be at the resort for the entire trip (aside from the Halloween party) I would get groceries delivered from somewhere like Garden Grocers. IMO, without perishables (milk, fruit, veggies) you're not going to have complete meals by trying to ship your own groceries and if you're already going to be at the resort swimming/relaxing there's no reason to have to eat out when you have a kitchen in your room. For $100 you could have everything you need, and have $200 to spend on just the couple of meals you'll need at Disney World and maybe even a couple snacks there.

Here's what I would do:
For breakfast:
Box of Cereal and Milk
Dozen Eggs and bread for toast

For Lunch:
Top Ramen or Cup of noodles
Sandwiches with the bread you used for toast and lunch meat and cheese and small sizes of mayo/mustard
Crackers and lunch meat and cheese (like your own lunchables)

For Dinner:
A bag of pasta, ragu sauce or a frozen lasagna (if your room has a freezer and oven?) and a bagged salad and a tomato and/or cucumber and a small bottle of your fav dressing
If you got cheese with your sandwiches, grilled cheese and canned soup
Frozen Pizza and salad
Rotiserrie Chicken and ask them to pick up a premade potato or macaroni salad, or garden salad
Hot dogs and hot dog buns and chips

Then pick up a case of water, a box of capri suns, some apples, bananas, oranges, yogurt and a couple other sweet treats and you will be more than set.

Also, if you have time, I'd run to dollar tree and see if they have any fun little things you can purchase in your case your children get a case of the I wants. Glow sticks, stickers, small little trinkets, even the theater sized boxes of different candies.

 

[Dr.Girlfriend]

That was awesome advice ! I love the little meal plan you created . Unfortunately GardenGrocer is not doing any more orders on Sept.11 &12th it's on the website in red. I did a little grocery shopping. I bought snacks/drinks and some lunch items for myself. I can easily slash the food money spent by not getting any quick service meals for myself at the resort. I will eat in the room and purchase kids meals for the kids My family has offered me money to cover the character breakfast and hotel extras and I declined. I do not like to take any handouts. The kids wont miss the character breakfast and the money I save from eating out I can spend on the 4D movies for them. I always bring too much money on vacation so Im looking forward to seeing how far I can stretch a dollar .

If you're looking forward to seeing how far you can stretch a dollar, why are you worried about going in the first place?

 

[HersheyKisses]

I think the issue is a "realistic" budget. There are tons of ways to save money on a disney vacation but the bottom line for me is to be realistic.

Any time you go on vacation and have to "worry" about running out of money, that could be a clear indication that realistic planning did not take place.

I live on a budget and I vacation on a budget but some times I have to face the truth and say maybe the budget doesnt allow for me to do every thing I want.

$90 dollars is causing a big problem, you're thinking of shipping all your meals down in order to try and save some money, and you're stressing over the very real possibility that you will not have enough money. what happens is one of the kids wants a toll house cookie sandwich? What happens if you're luggage gets lost?

Exactly how is this relaxing?

If the kids want a snack than I will buy it for them. My kids are not big junk food eaters in general. I'm not shipping all of our meals at all. I'm shipping juice/soda/tuna fish cracker meals(for myself) /cookies and muffins/apples for breakfast. The rest of the meals will be eaten at Nick .

 

[HersheyKisses]

If you're looking forward to seeing how far you can stretch a dollar, why are you worried about going in the first place?

I was worried and I still am slightly worried. I'm used to going on vacation with close to a $1000 for extras (with the dining plan) so this trip will be very diffrent. I got alot of good advice so now Im not so worried . I think we'll be able to manage.

 

[DisneyCrafter]

My best advice to you is not good anymore. It would have been to plan out your meals in advance so you are prepared. You could have even scheduled a Garden Grocer order. The prices aren't horrible and you'd have no taxi/car rental cost.

IF YOU HAVE TIME STILL: As far as souvenirs. I agree with a PP, go to your local Dollar Tree and pick up a couple Disney goodies for you kids. They usually have puzzles, stamp sets, little figurines, etc. that are Disney themed. Water toys may even be a good idea if you are hanging out by the pool all day.

Breakfast: If you aren't big breakfast eaters pack some granola bars/pop tarts. Purchase some juice & milk when you are in FL.

Lunch: If you are planning on staying at the hotel aside from MNSSHP, get some bread, marshmallow fluff & peanut butter, chips, fruit snacks and juice boxes.

Dinner:
1 night: Plan on ordering pizza.
1 night: Plan on making something simple (easy mac, ravioli, etc.) but have microwave popcorn/candy as a special after dinner treat and watch a movie together.
1 night: Stretch that $50 GC for Disney. You won't have to worry about buying special snacks for your kids-there's plenty of candy to go around that night! Your $50 will cover 2 CS meals easily. Get the adult dinners from Cosmic Rays and split them between all of you. Don't get soda, get ice water and put the crystal light packets in them. You'll have some $$ left over, maybe even enough for each of your kids to pick a special treat for say $5.
1 night: Eat counter service at the resort.

Chances are your kids aren't going to care too much about the food. Kids go on vacation to have fun-food is an after thought for them! $300 can work!

 

[DisneyCrafter]

If the kids want a snack than I will buy it for them. My kids are not big junk food eaters in general. I'm not shipping all of our meals at all. I'm shipping juice/soda/tuna fish cracker meals(for myself) /cookies and muffins/apples for breakfast. The rest of the meals will be eaten at Nick .

You are going to run out of money VERY FAST if you buy them snacks all day.

 

[Fjobe]

I think you can do it. You need to decide now what each meal will be and have no flexibility with your plan. If you plan it to the penny now, you should be fine.

Breakfast can easily be taken care of with food brought along. That should be like 10 bucks at the most. Your $50 Disney Gift card should take care of at least one meal that day. That leaves 5 meals (lunch and supper the 2 non Disney Days and Supper the Disney day). At $50 dollars a meal, that would be $250 (and I know you could do it cheaper than that). That leaves $40 for your taxi ride. No souveniers. If you will be there 4 full days, then I think you will need pack 2 meals of Spagetti O's (at $4/meal you would have to reduce one of your other meals down to $40 instead of $50).

Also, the person who asked about selling gold brought up a great option. I sold some of my scrap jewely last summer (earrings I had lost the match to, jewelry from my early teen years, etc.) and walked out with $200. I was shocked!

 

[carebee21]

That was awesome advice ! I love the little meal plan you created . Unfortunately GardenGrocer is not doing any more orders on Sept.11 &12th it's on the website in red. I did a little grocery shopping. I bought snacks/drinks and some lunch items for myself. I can easily slash the food money spent by not getting any quick service meals for myself at the resort. I will eat in the room and purchase kids meals for the kids My family has offered me money to cover the character breakfast and hotel extras and I declined. I do not like to take any handouts. The kids wont miss the character breakfast and the money I save from eating out I can spend on the 4D movies for them. I always bring too much money on vacation so Im looking forward to seeing how far I can stretch a dollar .

There are other websites you can use for grocerys. The only other one I can think of off the top of my head is wegoshop.com but if you google you may be able to find a couple others, if you're interested in that.

If you're not doing groceries, I would pack your carry on with food that you can't pack in a suitcase in case it gets squished. Things like bread, bananas, muffins. Also, I don't think you can take an icepack on the plane, but you can freeze grapes and use that the same way. Place them in an insulated lunch bag and depending on the length of your flight, you can probably keep cheese sticks, maybe lunch meat, yogurt, those premade, frozen peanut butter and jelly sandwich things (i can't think of the name right now) or a few lunchables cold. Plus, then you have some grapes to eat too

 

[CdnCarrie]

I would cancel Nick hotel and stay at a value. Save the resort fee and the taxi.

 

[MarriedToAPrince]

I might be the odd man out here, but if you are cutting a 3 day trip that close I wouldn't go at all. I would stay home and do something fun close to home and work on saving more money for my vacation.

 

[Dr.Girlfriend]

I might be the odd man out here, but if you are cutting a 3 day trip that close I wouldn't go at all. I would stay home and do something fun close to home and work on saving more money for my vacation.

 

[MrsPete]

Yes I have debt. Who doesn't? I still pay my debt off every month. I booked this quick budget trip as a reward for getting my a.a degree . I really wish people would stick to the topic and not jump down my throat because I under budgeted. I'm not the first and I'm sure I won't be the last person to go on vacation on a budget .

I don't have any debt. None. You asked.

No, you're not the only person to vacation on a budget -- we're quite comfortable financially, but we still set a budget for every trip. Not because we don't have the money, but because that's how we keep to a reasonable amount. Spending your last dollar on a vacation is kind of crazy. Likewise, spending without a plan just because you can is equally crazy -- but in a different direction. Planning a vacation you can afford within the grand scheme of your financial situation, researching all the details, then sticking to your plan makes sense.

But your facts don't add up, and literally not having any more money or any available credit (which you said early on) just isn't a good choice. Likewise, spending your emergency fund for bills (which you said later) isn't a good choice. Being a responsible adult and a parent isn't always fun.

I might be the odd man out here, but if you are cutting a 3 day trip that close I wouldn't go at all. I would stay home and do something fun close to home and work on saving more money for my vacation.

No, you're not the odd man out at all.

 

[HersheyKisses]

I don't have any debt. None. You asked.

No, you're not the only person to vacation on a budget -- we're quite comfortable financially, but we still set a budget for every trip. Not because we don't have the money, but because that's how we keep to a reasonable amount. Spending your last dollar on a vacation is kind of crazy. Likewise, spending without a plan just because you can is equally crazy -- but in a different direction. Planning a vacation you can afford within the grand scheme of your financial situation, researching all the details, then sticking to your plan makes sense.

But your facts don't add up, and literally not having any more money or any available credit (which you said early on) just isn't a good choice. Likewise, spending your emergency fund for bills (which you said later) isn't a good choice. Being a responsible adult and a parent isn't always fun. No, you're not the odd man out at all.

If I stayed home it would be too huge of a lost. I'd lose the airfare, the resort (non refundable as well) and the MNSSHP which are already paid for. That's just not gonna happen. I dont have alot of money but Im sure I have enough . I've read similar budget threads where the OP had way less money than I do for thier trip. If I absolutely have to tap into the money I don't want to than I will but I'd prefer to stick with my budget. It's not like im feeding my family ramen noodles and cooking hot dogs in a coffee pot to feed them.

 

[A Mickeyfan]

Wow!!! Judgemental much ? Some of you are very nasty and accusing me of being other posters ? Seriously?

Yes I took other vacations this year and they were not budget vacations. This trip Iisa budget vacation . I booked the trip knowing i'd be on a tight budget . I just did not think it would be this tight. I did not budget correctly at all and that is my fault. I usually bring too much money on vacation and this trip I did not think I would be coming so far under budget. I am not visiting the Disney parks . The Nick Hotel IS the vacation. Last month I decided I couldn't go to Florida without going to Disney so I purchased the MNSSHP . It's alot cheaper than a regular park day .

I thought $300 -$400 would be reasonable for three nights 4 days .I took all of my "emergency" money and paid bills (student loan ,credit card debt etc).It's not like I can get that money back so to everyone who gave me useful advice thank you. I will try to manage as best as I can and im sure the kids will have a good time without all the extras.

wow... all I can say is wow.. oh, how does the shoe feel when its on another foot...
Now that I am done with that rant.. $300-$400 is reasonable for the length of your trip... with a credit card to back you up for emergency expenses.. I think that is the point many are trying to say here.

Congrats on getting your AA.. Did you just get it now? Odd time of year to have gotten it???? Or are you just celebrating now since you wanted to do MNNSHP?

If you don't mind me asking? Why did you book a place with a full kitchen but you have no access to go grocery shopping? It really is a waste of money when you could have gotten away with a room that had a mini fridge, microwave & coffee pot You will only be there 3 nights, you have no car to go grocery shopping;, the only food you will have is the food you bring down. You really cannot bring food down that will be full meals that need to be cooked in a kitchen I would have skipped that, saved my money and not stayed at the Nick Hotel period.

The $90 resort fee you state is just crazy in my book for 3 days anyway! When you booked, did they not inform you of that fee? I know it is clearly stated on their website... and they are $25 per day.. I don't think they charge tax on the resort fee.. I could be wrong.. so that would really come to $75..unless there is tax. .. every little bit at this point will help you when you are on such a tight budget.

http://www.nickhotel.com/html/orlando-family-resort-faq.asp

 

[MrsPete]

If I absolutely have to tap into the money I don't want to than I will but I'd prefer to stick with my budget. It's not like im feeding my family ramen noodles and cooking hot dogs in a coffee pot to feed them.

Earlier you said:

Unfortunately I don't have any credit cards or any extra money . The $300 is left over after I pay the resort and the hold. Im hoping the character breakfast does not cost us more than $70

 

[A Mickeyfan]

If I stayed home it would be too huge of a lost. I'd lose the airfare, the resort (non refundable as well) and the MNSSHP which are already paid for. That's just not gonna happen. I dont have alot of money but Im sure I have enough . I've read similar budget threads where the OP had way less money than I do for thier trip. If I absolutely have to tap into the money I don't want to than I will but I'd prefer to stick with my budget. It's not like im feeding my family ramen noodles and cooking hot dogs in a coffee pot to feed them.

you cannot feed them hot dogs in the coffee pot even if you wanted to!.. how you going to get those dogs down here.... pack 'em in ice in your suit case you aren't going grocery shopping.. beside, if you had them, you are right, you wouldn't use the coffee pot to cook 'em.. you do have that full kitchen

all joking aside there really would be nothing wrong with feeding them that cooked in that kitchen.... add a veggie and you do have a full meal! There is a 7/11 (or a Walgreens type store) I believe not too far from there on SR 535. You can possibly walk it from there (not with the kids if they are young). You may want to try to get there and get some hot dogs.. pack your noodles and canned veggies!

 

[Evi]

If I stayed home it would be too huge of a lost. I'd lose the airfare, the resort (non refundable as well) and the MNSSHP which are already paid for. That's just not gonna happen. I dont have alot of money but Im sure I have enough . I've read similar budget threads where the OP had way less money than I do for thier trip. If I absolutely have to tap into the money I don't want to than I will but I'd prefer to stick with my budget. It's not like im feeding my family ramen noodles and cooking hot dogs in a coffee pot to feed them.

I thought you had access to a full kitchen..jk

Hey to each his own. Personally if you want to go on vacation and be broke after that's your business. I don't travel that way but if that's what you value someone has to keep the economy running.