Spending money - how much?

[DJ Disney Kid]

When not on the dining plan we always assume about $500 per person for food and souvenirs for a Saturday to Saturday trip.

 

[BluOrchid2]

On our upcoming trip we are going to be there for 10 days, with just our 5 yo daughter this time. We've already told her we're going to spoil her rotten, and buy her whatever her little heart desires. (I'm thinking it will mostly be popcorn and cotton candy.) LOL We got lucky with DH getting lots of overtime pay and we can't wait to GO CRAZY!!!

 

[disneynewbee]

Wow if you have ever considered adoption I'm available. LOL Your family is very lucky I can't even get my mom to go and I've offered to pay. Don't think she wants to be around the kids that long.

1) Grandpa pays for the entire extended family EVERY year. *
2) This includes allowances for souvenirs.
3) The family usually is given
. . . $25/day per child
. . . $30/day per adult
4) This typically takes them through the week, with change to spare.
5) But, for a first trip, I would double this.

* I am grandpa.

 

[BelleNBeastie]

I will probably bring about $500 extra dollars too. We are on the meal plan and I think last time I brought $700 and we only spent about $350. I do give the kids $50 each in Disney Dollars that I purchase before hand. I let them get a pin almost every day, they really seem satisfied with that ( they are now 5 and 8). We get a shirt each trip but we usually buy them at the Disney Outlet Store, we save quite a bit on shirts there. I always bring my own Disney souvenirs from the dollar store. The one by us has princess and pooh crayons, stickers, coloring books, large pens on a necklace, pads, and that kind of stuff. I pack them and them pop them out as needed. The kids use there money on the one or two big things that they want. And maybe on some junky candy or food that I won't buy.

 

[writersblock42]

Can Rustyscupper be my grandpa too?
Actually I just got some money from my Grandpa for graduating grad school-
I plan on saving $500 for three people but that also includes gas to get down there. So about $300 for a week plus probably about $50 in Disney Dollars for my son to spend. That should cover little snacks here and there and some souviners and an additional dinner.

 

[Mara]

Hmm... Okay, my post won't be quite as relevant - I have 5 siblings (who would be going to Disney), so there's 6 of us in all, plus Mom & Dad. Mom does all the budgeting for snack money... so I wouldn't know of that.
However. For souvenir money, we (my siblings and I) are all told to bring our own money to spend as we please. Weeks before leaving, my parents (and grandparents) will find little jobs for us to do, to earn extra money. The youngest of us - 4 yr. old & 7 yr. old - get additional spending money when we arrive there. They usually only purchase a few things a trip - a monorail toy here, a plushie there, 1-4 pins...

The only thing I buy there is pins, plus the occasional gifts from the World Showcase. I bring about... $25 - $35 for myself, for the whole trip.

 

[lazydazy8]

My DH and I with DD7 and DS5... I'm planning on approximately $800. We have diningplan, so that will be for souviners and drinks...

 

[sherreis]

I think we've come up with budgeting $700-$750 for spending money based on most recommendations. Of course, hoping we bring home some money. DH keeps saying we're going to need more money for snacks/food - we're doing DDP. Don't know what DH is thinking cause I don't think he's going to be hungry very much.

I know that DS10 who will be DS11 tomorrow is getting Disney money from my parents and my sister for his birthday. We are going to give the boys a small amount each day to spend and something they can put aside for the end of the week. I will also be buying them t-shirt and sweatshirt.

 

[dgboos]

We are taking our Dn(10) with us. She has a special needs brother that prohibits them going as a family so shes ours for the week. We are doing the following. $50 Disney Dollars from us to our DS and DN. We were refunded 400 from our trip from Visa!!! so that became fun money and DN is getting the money her dad was to give us for her part of the trip. In otherwords, The word "No" will not be used on any purchase they want. If this is her only trip to the mouse we want it to be as magical as possible. Plus she gets the breakfast with Cinderella in the Castle,MNSSHP and Fantasmic to boot.

 

[jjarman]

DS16 and I are going in March and I am budgeting $150.00 a day for food and souveniers. DS doesn't buy much in the way of souveniers so some days we will spend less. What I do is have an envelope for each day with $150 in each one. What we don't spend that day goes into a "Fun Envelope". That is the money we use for extras such as watermice, extra t-shirts, etc. I love doing it this way since I can see exactly what I have to spend. I use travelers checks with just about $200 in cash. You can cash a travelers check at the hotel and everywhere in the parks take them except maybe some of the small vendors selling popcorn or little things. Then I have some cash for that.

 

[shyjade]

My DD8 has been saving her spending $ for Disney (she's got just over $100 saved). I've been telling her all along thru the planning stages that anything she wants, she buys with her own money. I'll get her a few "essentials" (Passport in Epcot, autograph book, sweatshirt, pearl in Japan, etc.) and plan on surprising her with a little cash besides.

This is our first trip to WDW since 2001 and since she was only 3 at the time, she doesn't remember much. I don't see us going back again for several years, so I want us both to be able to buy what we want within reason.

 

[1DISNEYLVR]

My DD11 is responsible for saving up for spending money at Disney. We are leaving in 15 days and she has $225 saved right now. Plus Grandma & Grandpa always give her some extra money before we go. She'll probably end up with close to $300 to spend & she will spend every dime!

 

[shyjade]

15 days till we go too!!

Where are you staying? Are you going to MNSSHP?

 

[1DISNEYLVR]

We're staying at Pop Century & we are going to MNSSHP on 10/2. How about you?

 

[Trini]

We have two sons, 12 and 14 years old. We ended up giving them $20 per day. We did the dining plan and used that for meals, snacks and things. We bought them each a hat and a tshirt, anything else they wanted they paid for. They used their money to buy a couple little things, but mostly for the arcade games & candy! Which is fine, it was theirs to spend. I gave it to them each morning. We talked about it ahead of time, so they knew to plan if they wanted to buy anything big. My youngest son was tempted to buy this Pirates of the Caribbean framed poster, it was $90. He saved his money for a couple days but then ended up he'd rather not pay that much for a poster & got the $10 one instead and spent his money on other things.

It was a good lesson for them, budgeting and selecting what to spend their money on.

 

[sherreis]

We have two sons, 12 and 14 years old. We ended up giving them $20 per day. We did the dining plan and used that for meals, snacks and things. We bought them each a hat and a tshirt, anything else they wanted they paid for. They used their money to buy a couple little things, but mostly for the arcade games & candy! Which is fine, it was theirs to spend. I gave it to them each morning. We talked about it ahead of time, so they knew to plan if they wanted to buy anything big. My youngest son was tempted to buy this Pirates of the Caribbean framed poster, it was $90. He saved his money for a couple days but then ended up he'd rather not pay that much for a poster & got the $10 one instead and spent his money on other things.

It was a good lesson for them, budgeting and selecting what to spend their money on.

That's what I'm hoping comes out of this. I figure we'll aim a little "high" since this is their first trip. I do help in trying to convince them to not buy something that will break the first time they play with it. I know they want to use some of their spending money in the arcade at the resort but there will definitely be a limit on that as well.

 

[Brooknwdw]

15 days till we go too!!

15 more days for us, too!

What we did last year worked for us so we are repeating this year. We are on the dining plan so no food expenses.

We gave the boys $50 each, plus they saved their own too so they have about $100 each. They will have about the same this trip.

I budgeted $150 each for me and DH, because we buy any T Shirts we want the kids to have. DH likes to get a hat and/or tie too.
I am wanting to get a small piece of artwork of some sort, and a t shirt at least.


For random spending money, I put $25 in an envelope for eachday of the trip ($25 x 7 days= $175)

So total spending money including what they have to spend is about $675.

BTW, we always had money left out of the envelope at the end of the day!

 

[shyjade]

We're staying at Pop Century & we are going to MNSSHP on 10/2. How about you?

We're staying at the AKL and going to MNSSHP on 9/29 (we leave already on the 30th). This is our first trip since 2001 (DD8 hardly remembers it, she was only 3) and our first time ever for MNSSHP & staying onsite. I can't wait!!!

 

[flortlebap]

We have $200 a day for myself, DH, and DD1. We figure she's too young to want much, though. But that 200 includes meals. We could NEVER factor in as much as some people for souvenirs!!

 

[disneynewbee]

Not including meals- On our first trip we each got $50 a day on this trip we will each get $35 a day. They will have to use there $50 if they want any snacks above the one included on the dining plan (that is the rule I set but dh broke that some on our last trip- he's a sucker for the girls). We also buy them tshirts and sweat shirts not included in that amount on our last trip they got the autograph book and lanyard too which wasn't included from there money. We will take these same ones back and save on that this time. We usually take some family money that we can spend for house stuff and not have it come from anyones individual money- on our last trip we bought stockings for all of us, photo frames, and photo albumns. On this trip we have to get our new addition a stocking and will be getting the girls personalized santa hats from the family money.