Spending money .....how much

[aaronandterri]

Ive been thinking a lot about spending money lately, wondering if we have too much , not enough etc,
How much do you usualt take per person, per day or overall?

Ob We will have cards on us etc, but just wondered what everyone else does?

were going for 19 days, and have the dining plan for 10 of them while at boardwalk, a few other meal etc are already paid for inc sea world, dinner with shamu, discovery cove , and have meal ticket passes for universal for 2 days, And we hired a car.

Theres 2 adults and 4 kids.
The kids have some disney gift cards with dollars on but will prob need more.

 

[jen_uk]

For the 2 of us (15 nights) we usually take about £1400 and come back with about £100.

 

[JohnnySharp2]

A good question but also a very difficult one to answer.

Have you already got your theme park tickets, where are you staying, hotel or villa?
How much shopping will you do?

Genarally over the years we have started taking more dollars with us, mainly to stop us using the credit cards (always handy as a fallback).

Last we took close to $4000 but brought $1500 back home, we had to cater for groceries etc as we were staying in a villa, shopping - we do like to shop in Florida , we didn't eat out too much and we had our theme park tickets.

I would always 'over budget' with the exchange rate very good it's always best to take more than possibly not enough. I would advise $3000 as a minimum, but as I say it's very difficult to answer really.

 

[Summer-Caitlin]

Wow, you guys really take that much? We are going for 3 weeks but are on the DDP for 14 nights, on the DCL for 3 nights and also have Discovery Cove booked so that is about 18 days taken care of. We don't intend to shop much as we are moving abroad in about 18 months so there isn't really any point. We have bought all of our tickets Disney/Universal/Sea World/Busch Gardens and Discovery Cove. We were thinking of taking £1000 cash and always have the Credit cards to fall back on.
When we went to California and Vegas we took £2000, and we came back with about £400. But we forked out loads of money on travel (was in Newport, nowhere near Disney!!!) and tours which we have no intention of doing this time. We are not hiring a car but we are staying on Disney property for the majority of our vacation and near Universal for the rest. I am hoping we won't spend too much as the vacation is costing alot as it is

 

[Boo Boo Too]

I would always 'over budget' with the exchange rate very good it's always best to take more than possibly not enough. I would advise $3000 as a minimum, but as I say it's very difficult to answer really.

I think that is true - everybody spends differently.

My suggestion - depending on the ages of the kids - is maybe to come up with a budget for them (obviously some kids are too young to cope with the idea of a budget...). You decide how much to give them for the duration of the holiday (or each week of the holiday) and they decide - within reason - how to spend it. That way it reduces over spending on big heaps of junk and helps teach some financial responsibility...

Otherwise, it depends on where you are staying and what you intend to eat whilst you are not at the Boardwalk. Will you have a car (i.e. petrol - not that it is very expensive over there ) and how much souvegnier/clothes shopping you intend to do. Plus buying drinks (can mount up quite a bit for a family of 6 at the parks - if it is hot, you will want to drink quite a lot).

Boo

 

[MrsJobba1]

HI we ususally take £500 pp and a credit card for emergancies

 

[Boo Boo Too]

Wow, you guys really take that much? We are going for 3 weeks but are on the DDP for 14 nights, on the DCL for 3 nights and also have Discovery Cove booked so that is about 18 days taken care of. We don't intend to shop much as we are moving abroad in about 18 months so there isn't really any point. We have bought all of our tickets Disney/Universal/Sea World/Busch Gardens and Discovery Cove. We were thinking of taking £1000 cash and always have the Credit cards to fall back on.

That probably sounds about right - all you really have to buy are drinks/snacks (if you aren't full on the DDP... ) and any souvenier shopping.

On a 7 night cruise, our shipboard account (we don't spend much at all on the islands) is about $800 (so maybe £500) - that includes drinks, photos, excursions, tips, speciality meals, lots of internet (husband has his own software business). Would imagine that yours would be a LOT less...

It just depends on the people... I seem to remember mushumadness posting that she had a £2000/£3000 budget for "personal shopping" (i.e. things just to buy for herself, her home, friends and family) when she is at Disney. Whereas when husband and I are at Disney we will maybe spend about $300 on things to bring home (DVDs and gadgets normally). But we spend money in different ways.

Boo

 

[scottishsue]

We usually take around £2000 and (sometimes) come back with around a couple of hundred.

We usually get our Theme park tickets and pay for the car before we go though. So only have meals and shopping to cover for - but there are 3 of us, and DS spends a lot !! (And we go for 3 weeks).

 

[PoppyAnna]

This is facinating, I really have no idea what to budget either but have figured the following, for myself DH and 2 DD's (no dining plan, staying in appt so will be catering own b/fasts) I was thinking $3000 cash, cards for shopping outside of theme parks (clothes, toys etc) I also have $400 that I have been saving from ebay sales over the last few months both DD's got $200 dollars each from granny for xmas as did DH so all in all we should have $4000 - is that enough? We plan to eat one TS and one CS meal each day. We already have park tickets.

 

[aaronandterri]

Thanks for replys, its nice to have an idea of what others do.

The children will be 9 1/2, Turning 8 while we r away, 4 and 18 months

Everythine big is paid already ie car tickets, d/ cove seaworld , universal, space center etc, all that is not paid is the dining plan, as you pay on arrival with dvc, and spending food etc, we have a week at a private friends villa at ventian bay first then boardwalk, then nick for last two days.

We probably do a fair amount of shopping.

Those of you who gives kids a budget what do you give them at what age

Also on the dining plan if we have credits left on check out can we use them afterwards or do you lose them at checkout , as were there for 2 days longer after we check out at the nick and have a meal booked after we check out?

thanks agian.

 

[JohnnySharp2]

This is facinating, I really have no idea what to budget either but have figured the following, for myself DH and 2 DD's (no dining plan, staying in appt so will be catering own b/fasts) I was thinking $3000 cash, cards for shopping outside of theme parks (clothes, toys etc) I also have $400 that I have been saving from ebay sales over the last few months both DD's got $200 dollars each from granny for xmas as did DH so all in all we should have $4000 - is that enough? We plan to eat one TS and one CS meal each day. We already have park tickets.

I would say you are just about spot on, you certainly have enough I would have thought and you will probably like us bring some home with you.

Wow, you guys really take that much?

It depends on many things how much you take as our holidays can vary so much, you are on the DDP for example whereas we have to cater for Grocery shopping.
In addition over the years we have used our credit cards for a lot of the clothes/souvenir type shopping but now prefer to use cash, hence we take more - if like last year we bring quite a lot of $ back with us so be it.

 

[wideeyes]

we will be taking $50 per day which should be plenty as we have booked a package with tickets and dining plan. we will give DD (5)$100 to spend on Disney stuff of her own choice. we gave her 50euros on our trip to DLP last week and it really helped her decide what to buy. Once she realised the stuff she was asking for was coming out of her own spending money she suddenly did not want it any more. so she just brought stuff that she really wanted.

We may rent a car when we get there for a couple of days however DBF can use his credit card for this. we don't plan on doing to much shopping as DD will get bored easily.

 

[Boo Boo Too]

we will give DD (5)$100 to spend on Disney stuff of her own choice. we gave her 50euros on our trip to DLP last week and it really helped her decide what to buy. Once she realised the stuff she was asking for was coming out of her own spending money she suddenly did not want it any more. so she just brought stuff that she really wanted.

That sounds like a REALLY good way of doing it and a sensible amount

Boo

 

[wayneg]

Last Disney cruise we did was for 7 nights and had $200 onboard credit from Disney, we struggled to spend it, took 12 cans of Bud onboard and a bottle of Vodka, That was more than enough for a weeks drinking for us.
3 of us spend under $100/day in Orlando for meals, snacks and drinks. Don't do shopping.
Whatever you spend put it on a card if poss and don't take cash. Nationwide Credit card gets a lot better rate than exchanging for cash or travellers cheques and its safer.

 

[PoppyAnna]

we will be taking $50 per day which should be plenty as we have booked a package with tickets and dining plan. we will give DD (5)$100 to spend on Disney stuff of her own choice. we gave her 50euros on our trip to DLP last week and it really helped her decide what to buy. Once she realised the stuff she was asking for was coming out of her own spending money she suddenly did not want it any more. so she just brought stuff that she really wanted.

We may rent a car when we get there for a couple of days however DBF can use his credit card for this. we don't plan on doing to much shopping as DD will get bored easily.

This is what we will do. the 200usd that the girls got each for xmas they will be allowed to spend as they wish, dd19mo is too young to understand so as we have promised them both a wdw princess dress of their choice hers will come out of her money and in addition we are treating the eldest to crown package at bibbidi bobbidi. My girls don't get much all year round apart from books so we're happy to treat them at wdw. Any souveniers the eldest wishes to get for her friends will have to come out of the 200usd also.

 

[MorningGlory]

This is something i've been giving alot of thought to as well. We were in Turkey last year (cheap - around £8 for a 2 course meal and couple of drinks in a decent restaurant) - I thought £1400 would be enough for me and DS9, but we ended up struggling a little by the end of the holiday Definitely dont want to do that again!

This year, I am hoping to take around $3000 with me, which will leave me about $1000 in my a/c as an emergency (and to cover the $300 deposit from the car hire company since im using a debit card - dont liek CCs personally). DS is saving everything he can get, and is getting money every week from his gran and granda when he visits, and will likely have around $3-400 by the time we go (I am going to split it into envelopes for him and give him it daily) so I wont have to worry so much this time about buying him gifts, sweets, etc.

The hire car and all our tickets are paid as well, although we are staying in an offsite hotel, so we will have meals, etc to pay for every day.

I just hope i've got it right this time. It will help that granda is there with his CC in case we run out of our emergency fund!

 

[Groovee]

I had $500 left over from NY. Then We changed £2000 in to dollars and have around $3800. Plus we have about £300 still to change

 

[spencem]

DS (11) had saved and asked for $$ for his birthday and Christmas, he ended up with $15 a day when we went in February. I dished this out to him each day and any he didn't spend one day he just kept it for the next. I also loaned him the next day's money one evening when he wanted something big. Some people may have called me mean when I took the $15 from the safe and put it in MY pocket the next morning, but he was happy. It worked really well for us and taught him something about not spending what he didn't have. I paid for his meals obviously.

Three of us stayed 3 weeks in a villa and averaged only $100 a day for all our meals and shopping, not including park tickets which we got in the UK prior to travelling.

 

[Cyrano]

Some people may have called me mean when I took the $15 from the safe and put it in MY pocket the next morning, but he was happy. It worked really well for us and taught him something about not spending what he didn't have.

We always give the kids a budget including the youngest DD4. I think it makes perfect sense and is not mean at all

 

[Miss Stitch]

Last year we budgeted to $100 a day. Our Theme Park tickets were paid for in the uk. We stayed off site in LBV at a great hotel with a brill free breakfast. We only tend to eat Counter Service and found that for five of us to eat was around $35. Some days we ate CS twice and a few days we bought some grocerys and ate in our room (we had full kitchen) maybe costing around $25 - £30 for two or three meals. We had scheduled a couple of shopping days in this and had saved $300 for shopping, not included in our budget. Our three kids had been saving and had $150 each to spend.

We found that most days we had money left over, which we just carried over to the next day, we stayed for 14 days.

We are returning again in Sept. and hope to take a little more this time, just for more shopping. We will still budget $100 per day for food, drinks, etc. We found this was enough for our needs and we even managed to buy a few souveneirs as well from this.

Your budget will depend on how you wish to eat but if you want quick, filling, simple food $100 per day will be plenty