Realistic budget for family of 4

[mekia2001]

I have been obsessed with reading 100's of threads a day and I have learned valuable information. However I can't seem to get a realistic idea as to how much money people end up spending at WDW. I know this varies per family but I am hoping to get some sort of idea as to what people spend.

We are staying off site, got a good deal on a home with a private pool. So I am planning to buy food and cook breakfast before going to the parks. We will be there for 7 days. We might also eat some dinners at the house as well. I'm thinking that at some point my DD's will want to just relax and we might leave the parks early a few days. I am thinking for lunches, we will just grab something quick in the parks and not do a table service meal. I also plan on taking snacks to the park as well, maybe even some sandwiches. I do have a gift certificate to the HOB that I got for $2 on restaurant.com so that's one dinner.

We are driving from Ohio in a rented minivan so we have to included gas in our budget. So now I am trying to figure out the rest. My DH thinks I'm over estimating which is better than under estimating. I am doing all the planning for this trip and I'm started to stress out! This is our first time to WDW and I have no idea what to expect.

 

[prncess674]

I think you need to make a realistic budget for you and your family based on your touring and eating styles. The easy parts to populate on your budget are lodging, park tickets and transportation (rental car, airline, parking at parks, parking at airport, gas, tolls, etc.) The other parts are a bit more subjective. I would start by making a meal plan spread sheet and list out what you "think" you might eat for B, L, D each day. Then based on that you can determine how much that will cost. Other areas of flex are in park snacks, drinks and souvenirs. If you are going on a tight budget and only plan on $200 for a family of 4 then give each kid a budget and say "when it is gone, it is gone, so no whining later for something else."

I think you need to come up with a better outline of how you and your family plan on vacationing and listing out each budget item associated. Sneaky items on the budget are: park photos, tips, WDW parking, balloons, snacks, sunscreen, forgotten items such as hats for the brutal summer sun.

There is no one size fits all budget for a family of four. If you plan on in park table service meals then plan on $25 per adult and $10 per child per meal. If planning in park counter service then plan on $12 per adult and $6 per child. These numbers can fluctuate so you can check out allears.net for specific menus and determine how/what your family may eat.

If you plan on eating at offsite restaurant you can assume the local TGI Fridays is probably fairly comparable to your hometown TGIF. Don't forget to allow for vacation splurges like dessert and soft drinks at meals.

If you are trying to have a cheap night in your condo, check to see if your condo has a DVD player and maybe pick up a DVD at your local store that your family wants to see but hasn't yet. you can then order in pizza and have a cheap movie night.

 

[KNJWDW]

I usually overestimate as well, but there are a couple websites that are very helpful for budgeting your food and gas expenses. We drive as well and use this to help with the gas budget: http://www.gasbuddy.com/Trip_Calculator.aspx. Check out this website for planning any onsite dining you might like: http://allears.net/din/dining.htm. There are numerous grocery stores in the Disney area, like Publix, Super Walmart, Super Target, etc. that you can buy food to have at your rental house. I hope this helps a little. Happy Planning!

Amy

 

[sherriepaul]

We are a family of 4 staying in moderate (POFQ) in park 7 days with hopper. We are flying down and are planning on spending right around 5-5200$. Since this is the first time the kids (DD7 ,DS7) will be seeing WDW and might be a long time till we come back, we are kind of planning on this being a vacation of a lifetime!

 

[prncess674]

Another benefit to making a meal plan is you will already know what spices and pans you will need. If your meal needs specific spices you can put premeasured amounts in ziploc baggies. Also since this is vacation and your driving go ahead and hit your dollar store and buy the appropriate disposable pan to make your dish. I don't mind cooking up quick meals on vacation, but I loathe doing dishes!

 

[JennSaint]

We are a family of 4 staying in moderate (POFQ) in park 7 days with hopper. We are flying down and are planning on spending right around 5-5200$. Since this is the first time the kids (DD7 ,DS7) will be seeing WDW and might be a long time till we come back, we are kind of planning on this being a vacation of a lifetime!

did you use any discounts to book your room? There is a public code for 40% off rooms and you can still add tickets and dining if you want.

 

[Carlyzmom]

We are a family of 4 staying in moderate (POFQ) in park 7 days with hopper. We are flying down and are planning on spending right around 5-5200$. Since this is the first time the kids (DD7 ,DS7) will be seeing WDW and might be a long time till we come back, we are kind of planning on this being a vacation of a lifetime!

That sounds about right to me. We stayed at AKL (with a good deal at the time) for 7 nights plus 7 day park hoppers. Ate out nicely, and bought a TON of souvenirs (our kids first time there ) I would say we spent around $5500.

 

[crisi]

Its really hard to generalize. For instance, one family might spend $200 buying princess dresses and accessories. Another may spend a lot on Disney's photopass, another may eat out a lot - eating expensively, while a forth might spend $10 a person on souvenirs, eat most of their meals from the grocery store, and manage to get buy with gas, groceries, park tickets and parking. Disney is an easy place to spend as much money as you wish to - but its also a pretty easy place to be frugal - they will let you bring snacks and water - even sandwiches - into the parks. No one forces you to buy souvenirs.

You can't escape - park tickets - even from a discounter there isn't much of a discount. Parking - while there are ways to not pay for parking, none are "legal" unless you are a Disney hotel guest or annual pass holder - so plan on paying for theme park parking each day.

Try www.mousesavers.com and www.allearsnet.com for some general budget advice and ideas.

 

[gillenkl]

Every family of 4 will have a different budget as people spend money differently - here is our budget for family of 4:

Driving down from just outside Philadelphia
taking snacks and food in car for breakfast/lunch
dinner - $50
hotel - $100 (includes hot breakfast)
gas - $200 (will have to increase this amount)

Disney
camping at Fort Wilderness 10 nights in our camper, no DDP - $636
park tickets - $1920
golf cart - $630
table service meals - $400
food at campsite (breakfast +1 meal per day) - $300 (erring on the high side, stopping at Winn Dixie on our way into Ft Wilderness to stock up)


Drive home:
bringing snacks/drinks in the car
lunch $20
dinner - $50
gas - $200 (will have to increase this amount)

so roughly $4500 for 10 nights

the kids have saved their own money for souvenirs - I think they have $150 each and DH/myself usually spend maybe $100 each.

This will be our last trip until 2013 when we plan to take a disney cruise for our 20th anniversary.

 

[Jitzy]

Every family of 4 will have a different budget as people spend money differently - here is our budget for family of 4:

Driving down from just outside Philadelphia
taking snacks and food in car for breakfast/lunch
dinner - $50
hotel - $100 (includes hot breakfast)
gas - $200 (will have to increase this amount)

Disney
camping at Fort Wilderness 10 nights in our camper, no DDP - $636
park tickets - $1920
golf cart - $630
table service meals - $400
food at campsite (breakfast +1 meal per day) - $300 (erring on the high side, stopping at Winn Dixie on our way into Ft Wilderness to stock up)


Drive home:
bringing snacks/drinks in the car
lunch $20
dinner - $50
gas - $200 (will have to increase this amount)

so roughly $4500 for 10 nights

the kids have saved their own money for souvenirs - I think they have $150 each and DH/myself usually spend maybe $100 each.

This will be our last trip until 2013 when we plan to take a disney cruise for our 20th anniversary.

Is the golf cart rental from Fort Wilderness? Just wondering since I thought I heard on the podcast that you can rent those from out in town, just like people rent strollers, wheelchairs etc.

 

[gillenkl]

Is the golf cart rental from Fort Wilderness? Just wondering since I thought I heard on the podcast that you can rent those from out in town, just like people rent strollers, wheelchairs etc.

We rented directly from the Fort - I've heard different reports on the Camping Boards about Disney trying to stop offsite rentals of the golf carts and their delivery on disney property - so I'd rather be safe than sorry and don't need any added headaches on my vacation. This is a big help to us in the June heat with our autism spectrum DS. If I had rented from an offsite company I would have saved probably $300 but I didn't want to risk any "issues" that might come up.

 

[lilpeople]

for my family we are going june2 til june 8th.
7days 6 nights at all star movies
quick service dining plan '
6 days of tickets to parks
2100 ( kids stay and play free promo)
gas 500 ( way over estimating, but we are driving from east texas)
hotel for coming and going 500 ( again over estimating, but we are spending two days at the beach after disney)
500 for souvenirs ( this will be our first time for all)
500 for food while we are on vacation
total 4100 or less. trying to be frugal while we are there
since we will be staying at cheap motels going to flordia and coming home plus the two nights we will be staying by the beach. ( luckly i get a discount on hotels through waltmart)

 

[mekia2001]

I went on allears and found all the menus so it was easy to get an idea on the food. We have more than enough spending money but I still want to give us a limit. The tickets and house is paid for. The rental car will be put on our cc and the money to pay that bill is in the savings account already. So the only thing left is to go. Come on June!!!

 

[Mom B]

We are a family of 4 staying in moderate (POFQ) in park 7 days with hopper. We are flying down and are planning on spending right around 5-5200$. Since this is the first time the kids (DD7 ,DS7) will be seeing WDW and might be a long time till we come back, we are kind of planning on this being a vacation of a lifetime!

Look out! Chances are you'll get hooked (I know we did)!

 

[juliebean]

The last time we went we did a similar setup for 4 people. Our condo and minivan was $900, we did fly down though, so obviously less gas, but airline tickets...

We did breakfasts and either lunch or dinner at the condo and then one meal at the parks. I spent about $200 at the grocery store, but wish I had brought things like salt, pepper, laundry detergent, etc. - that would have saved probably $50. We spent about $500 more on eating out. We did spend $100 just on one table service meal at Epcot - it wasn't worth it honestly, but we were hot and tired of counter service. We did bring water and snacks in our stroller, that saved us a lot.

Our tickets were basic tickets (for us the park hoppers are just a waste of money, and our kids were young enough that the water park wasn't a must) and with parking it added up to about $1000 for six days.

Overall, it came out to about $3-3500 - not bad for a week at DW. This time we are staying on site and are paying for 3 kids, so it's more like $5,500. There is just a huge variation in costs, but you can have a good time at either end of the cost spectrum!

 

[kimkoz]

We're a family of 4 (one is under 2 though so no park passes)

We are leaving next month so our flights, tickets and such are accounted and paid for. Ticket prices you can find online if you haven't seen them yet. We opt for no park hopper. It was a waste for our 1st trip with kids and I will not buy again until they are much older. We have no problem doing 1 park a day.

We're off property and this is what I did - Made a spreadsheet for each day and put totals next to them

Park Day - (average park day for me)
Lunch/Snack 80
Dinner 80-120
Fun Spending 80

Off Day - (we have 2 and normally got to DTD)
Lunch 40
Dinner 80-100
Shopping Money 100

We're away for 8 days total. I know we'll eat breakfast at the house, and we'll pack some small snacks and a couple waters per day. I know I am over estimating. I'm the type of person that likes to eat out on vacation but I know since we are sharing the house with other family that it just will not happen so eventhough I am putting 80-100 a night for dinner mostly likely we'll BBQ most of the nights and eat out maybe 3 times (cheaper places too, chain. My youngest isn't the best at sit down so I really think even 3 days is high). I'd rather just have it figured in there just in case. My kids do not eat much at all so its really 2 adults. We're doing no character meals, my kids aren't huge fans yet so I'm saving money until they want to and can actually eat thier price in meal. lol.

Like I said thought I really did an excel sheet and listed things daily. For us we are going to another airport other than home so we are spending the day at a museum in that other town to get the kids sleepy
So we have to think of Tolls, Airport Parking, Park Parking, Gas for Rental and Personal Car, Airport Food, Groceries.

I say stick with your over estimating

 

[ICF]

We are also a family of 4 and drive from Indy and stay-off site.....

Typcially we eat our breakfast in the condo with the exception of hitting 1 buffet while there at a Ponderosa/Golden Corral or the like. We bring things that wont spoil with us - cereal, crackers and such in the car and then hit the Walmart or Target for cold stuff. I'd say we typcially spend no more than $50 on food / snacks for the Condo.

We usually eat 1 meal a day in the parks. Last time we had a sit down at Sci - Fi and ate quick service the rest of the time. I'd say the quick service meals cost about $25 - $30 for the 4 us (2 adults / 2 kids). This doesnt include drinks for the adults as we usually bring in our own as well as a couple of bottles of water (with a flavor pack) to have during the day.

The 2nd meal each day - we usually ate in the Condo. Sometimes this might be lunch meat or something we picked up on 192 such as Pizza. One night we may go to a more "expensive" restaurant along 192 such as Olive Garden (or something similar) and spend $40 or so.

As for snacks, we usually bring some into the parks but most days we'll get something from the ice cream carts or other snack type things. I'd say for 5 days in the park we probably spent $50 - $60 on "snacks".

We typically buy the kids t-shirts and the like from the local Disney store before going down there. You can also find some locally at the Walmart / Target you would get your groceries from. They will probably be no more than 1/2 the costs you would buy in the park.

On our trip last summer, we gave each kid $20 (to put with their own money) for the stuff they found at DTD or the parks that they wanted to buy as their souvenirs.

As others have mentioned --- only YOU know how your family is going to eat. Since you are off site, I'd make good use of that to save money on the meals....as once you get to Florida, that would likely be your biggest expense. Eating 2 meals a day in the park -- even counter service - could easily run your $50-$75 a day. Throw in some sit-down meals and that likely will cost you $100 or more each meal. Figure out your eating style and you'll likely be able to estimate your the majority of your budget pretty well.

 

[quagmire0]

We're a family of 4, staying offsite for 7 nights. Our budget includes/assumes eating breakfast and most lunches at the condo, renting a car, parking, 7 day MYW tickets, and airfare for 2. We'll be hovering around $3000 as long as we stick within our food budget ($800).

 

[mrssmith06]

This will be our 1st trip to the world also so I know how you feel. We've already paid for our hotel and park tickets in full so now we just need money for our dining, gas, souvenirs, etc. We are staying 5 days/4nights and there are 4 of us going on this trip (2 adults, 2 kids). So this is how I am figuring it... (not sure how much I may be over or under estimating...)
Day 1 driving and arrival day... Just need gas, 2 cheap meals on the road and then 1 QS meal that night, either in the resorts food court or at DTD... So Day 1 = $ 250
Day 2 is a park day with 1 character meal and 2 QS meals = $ 150
Day 3 park day with 1 TS meal and 2 QS meals = $ 125
Day 4 last park day with 1 TS meal and 2 QS meals - $125
Day 5 departure and driving day... Gas, 1 character meal and 2 quick meals on the road = $ 325
Other expenses like souvenirs, drinks, snacks (though we will try to pack snacks and water for the parks) = $ 275

Total needed = $1200-$1300? (though I will want to take more just in case!!!)
Our hotel and tickets are paid for so if the above estimate comes out right plus what our room and tickets cost, we will have spent a total of about $ 2500.

 

[2disneyboys]

on previous trips where we stayed onsite, bought tickets and either paid for food out of pocket or did the dining plan (quick service plan) we usually average around $2000-2500 for TOTAL costs

onour last trip, we upgraded to Annual Passes, so in 2 weeks our trip is going to cost

Gas (Driving from Va to FL) $500 (might increase this a little..)
meals & snacks on the road $100.00 (2 adults, 2 teenagers, 2 kids)
$400.00 House Rental @ Windsor Hills (our share)
Breakfast @ Condo, 4 days Lunch's in the parks, 2 days dinner also in the parks, 4 days dinners/lunches offsite, 1 chararater meal for all $800.00
We have been several times and will be going back several times, so we don't buy souvies anymore... the kids have to bring thier own money for that.