spending money

[Justsyd2]

DH and I budget $100/per day per person. We always have money for what we want/need, and don't have to worry about finances while we're on vacation. We rarely spend it all, but it's so nice to have!

 

[queenofhartz]

When DH and I want to save money, we try to avoid Downtown Disney. Since it's your first trip, you'll probably want to see it. But, beware....there are so many neat stores and cute things with price tags tucked everywhere in DD. Everytime we go to DD, we usually end up buying the latest Mr. Potato Head pieces for our son, a couple of Disney racers (little cars) for our son, a few Christmas ornaments, and inevitably, something from the Lego store. By the time we leave, we've usually spent over $150. Granted, these are usually Christmas gifts for our little one, but this is truly where we spend most of our $$. So, just prepare yourself- you may want to remind your kids that there is a Toy Store in Downtown Disney and they might want to check that out before spending their allowance of money on the cheap color-flashing bracelet they saw at the parade.

Also, I have heard in the past some parents have their children spend their own allowance if they want a Mickey ice cream bar or if they have to have the Mickey rice crispie treat. Otherwise, they are expected to eat at mealtimes, and some parents pack a few snacks in a bag to take along (you could even get a Mickey-shaped cookie cutter and make your own Mickey rice crispie treats to take with you if you wanted.)

 

[khrivnak]

i may be naive, but i really think my kids will be more interested in seeing the sights/rides/shows/character dinners than in souvenier shopping. I hope so anyway. we didnt really budget any money for this trip because it was a bit of a surprise (early Christmas present from my in-laws). when we booked we were already within our 90 day window, so I didnt have much time to save/plan. I definitely want to keep the spending to a bare minimum, especially because a little after a month after we're there I have to start worrying about Christmas.

I very much appreciate all of the suggestions. I didnt want to go down there and not have enough money, and I certainly appreciate all the "spending tips" I'm getting here.

Does anyone have any idea how much the autograph books are? Id like to purchase one for each kid... I hear there is a book with a place for a signature and a picture to put in there with each character. If they arent outrageous at Disney, I'll just buy them there. But if they ARE, I'm going to start checking ebay.

 

[justwinnie]

Does anyone have any idea how much the autograph books are? Id like to purchase one for each kid... I hear there is a book with a place for a signature and a picture to put in there with each character. If they arent outrageous at Disney, I'll just buy them there. But if they ARE, I'm going to start checking ebay.

The plain autograph books (blue cover) costs ~$7. The ones with space for pictures costs ~$11. However, the picture book has very few pages. Some characters will sign really big so you can't have multiple signatures per page. We went through that book in one day!

We found really cute spiral bound autograph books at an Orlando CVS for $3.50. The pages were lightly printed with a background and a princess border. They had tons of different characters available.


Since you'll have a car, definitely check off-site places for souvenirs. The local Target, Walmart, CVS, Walgreens, etc all carry Disney items like lanyards, autograph books and pens, and other items for less than the parks. However, I do prefer to buy plush toys and clothing at WDW. I used to love shopping at the outlet store, as a previous poster mentioned, for all our souvenirs. We no longer rent a car so we don't go anymore. I'd buy clothing, pins, coloring books and craft things, figurines, watches, toys, and christmas ornaments. My daughter was able to make a charm bracelet for less than half of what they charge at the parks! Now we just add a charm each visit to WDW.

Another budget thing I like to do is to pre-buy any Disney themed snacks at home and bring them... Like HSM raisins, Princess graham crackers, Pooh bear animal crackers, Disney granola/breakfast bars. The snacks can get a little pricey there, so a few weeks before a trip, I just start picking up the extra things at the grocery store a little at a time.

I love the idea of taking pictures of things your kids want and then letting them decide towards the end of the trip on what they want. It works out, since there aren't many items that are store specific any more. If you find something you like at Magic Kingdom, you'll likely find it elsewhere. The only exceptions would be attraction-specific items like Splash Mountain tshirts.

Have you checked out the mousesavers.com website? Lots of great tips! This is my favorite list:
http://www.mousesavers.com/freestuff.html

You asked about meal tips..... go to allears.net, check out their dining page for menus. Estimate how much your meals will cost and then figure 18%. DDP will automatically charge you 18% gratuity. $20/TS meal might not be enough.

The refill mugs are usually my only souvenir. I use it daily! The mugs are ~$12. The year we bought one for our daughter (4 or 5 at the time), it was a waste! She doesn't drink soda! Check out the beverage dispenser before making the purchase-- different hotels seem to have different beverages available. Your little ones might not drink anything that's available. We almost always got a breakfast QS meal, and you can get two bottled drinks with it! I would get the deluxe breakfast to share with my daughter and give her the extra drink.

Have a great trip!

p.s. One more thing! Be sure to check out the $10 and under store at Downtown Disney. They have a sale section where the items are 4 for $10-- I've purchased bath mits, light up necklaces, school supplies, and teacher gifts from the sale wall. And if they have grab bags (~$7), pick up one or two.. They're fun and have items worth way more than $7. During one trip, that's all we bought as souvenirs for our daughter. We bought one bag per day and she opened one each morning. I squeezed the bags to try to avoid getting duplicate items, but we did seem to receive an iron-on patch in each bag! Items included: pen, photo autograph book, stickers, erasers, notepads, keychain, post-it notes, window decals. I don't remember it all.
Here's a link-- it's easy to walk past, but it's right next to the Pooh store.
http://allears.net/btp/dd_mm.htm

 

[Smokeyspawn]

Things to consider:

1) You're on the DDP. You will need tip money. A TS meal for a family of 5 will run you well over 100 bucks per meal so about $20-25 per meal for tips. (150)

2) OOP meals. Used efficiently, you could get away with a trip on the DDP with no OOP meals. However, some families want 3 square which would require OOP. Family of 5 thats another $60

3) Drinks. Beer, wine, gran marnier slushes....add 50-100

4) Resort mugs. 12 bucks a piece times 5. 60

5) Disney stuff. My kids get a toy, t shirt, and hat. Thats about 75 per kid plus whatever money they have saved for the trip.

6) Unexpected = $100

Total: About 500-600 for your trip. Have fun.

 

[bxmartin]

I think $100 pp is about right. YMMV

 

[landshark]

I agree that the pressed pennies are good to do but, beware, it can add up fast if you want a lot/all of them. We tried to find as many of the machines as possible this year, for something different to do, and we each went through at least $20+ in quarters. I believe we took $60 in quarters and very little came back. One book at the park to hold coins ($7) will only hold 48 pennies and 15 or so quarters, if I remember correctly (quarter slots could easily be used for pennies instead).

Many of the pin designs are pretty neat, but you're better off to buy them from eBay before or after your trip. I bought 2 Stitch pins while there and, when we came back, I found them on eBay for a fraction of the price. One ran me like $10 and I found it on eBay for at least half. Pretty much any pin currently in the parks can be found on eBay right now and likely for less.

Might also want to encourage everyone to wait awhile and keep looking before deciding on what they really want to buy. A lot of the same stuff can be found in all the parks, but there's always some things that can only be found in one park (Yeti gear only in AK, for example). This is easier if you have the park hopper option on your tickets, but if not, just remember you don't have to buy everything the first day. If you know you're going back to a certain park later in the trip, maybe even write down what's wanted and get it the next time you're in that park.

 

[blondinkaya]

We're planning on $100 for each kid, budgeting $50 of that for each one for the Lego Store on our last day (they love that store). I also have two M&M minis tubes filled with 2 quarters/1 penny, stacked like that to fill them up (one tube for each kid). That in itself cuts back on their souvvie spending because they view getting pressed pennies as finding treasure. That helps eliminate them asking for stuff.

Dh and I usually budget $100 for each of us, although we've never spent that much. We'll have to budget more overall because I'm hoping they have the D&B bags there when we go (I want one and it'd be a real splurge!) and we'll be buying gifts for the kids' teachers.

We always try to overestimate what we might spend, and it's a good feeling to come home with unspent money. Oh ... And, I know it's not the most popular thing, but we use cash. I appreciate seeing it decrease; it makes spending more tangible than using a credit/debit card.

 

[Maiden]

If you feel that your kids are going to enjoy being at WDW moreso than wanting to buy souveniers, you're probably right. Our kids are the same. We would spend $50-75 on each child in the gift shops. The trick is to be very clear with them well ahead of time that they are on a budget. We enjoy the gift shops in the World even though we almost always leave them empty handed- it's fun to look for us.
Budgeting $20 average table service sounds reasonable to me, our tips at buffets are a bit less than other meals. We found the DDP has always provided plenty of food for all of us, sharing TS meals worked very well for our family. Lots of mornings one of us will go early to get 2 breakfasts and bring them back to our room to share. This works great for us. We usually have more drinks than we know what to do with by the end of the week as 2 beverages come with breakfast, in place of dessert.
Be sure you have chosen your budget before you go, and it's not so hard to stick to. I don't think you are missing any big costs, unless you all need 3 complete meals AND a snack every day.

Enjoy!

 

[jiminyfan]

but always plan on spending a good bit even with "free" food. I think that $75-100 per day is low but doable for us.

 

[dalt01]

with DDP paid, we take a grand for the three of us, tips, suvies, taxis, extra breakfasts off the DDP, etc. we usually come home with enough to get the dog out of hock. of course no worrys cause credit and debit cards are in reserve just in case.

 

[nooneshome]

This trip we won't be taking a lot. We have the QSDP, our Disney rewards card, a $200 gift card from our upgrade to APs using the 10% discount coupon and DW is getting a birthday gift card!! We plan not buy a lot of stuff and to just use the cards to buy any OOP stuff.

 

[ajpa]

We informed our little girls that if they saw something they wanted, we would take a picture of it on Daddy's cell phone. On the last visit to that particular park, we would look through the pictures and decide what they wanted the most. It worked tremendously well, and at the end of our trip, we had stuck to the budget to the penny, never used the credit card, and had the absolute time of our lives! Both girls got a few toys and trinkets that they still love and play with.

What a great idea!
I don't think it will work for us this trip though because we are only going to be in each park once (short trip bec we are trying US/IOW).

I am thinking of trying to buy a grab bag of disney pins off ebay and having them try pin trading. That I think will have the fun of "shopping" minus a lot of the expense.

 

[marymoon]

We just got back and came in under budget for our trip. I'm a visual person and what really helped us was having a good accounting app on my iPhone. I was able to create a virtual account for each line item in the budget - gas money, hotel money for the trip there/back, food money and spending money. When we made a purchase, I entered the amount in the appropriate account and received instant feedback on the current balance. We do the Dave Ramsey thing and this was like having virtual money envelopes. Worked really, really well for us. We don't do credit cards so once the cash was gone, we knew we'd be out of money.

Another tip that might cut back on the amount of stuff your kids ask for is to buy one small toy or item for each child for each night of your trip ahead of time. Also ahead of time, write a small, personalized note to each child from Tinkerbell in flowing script with a gold pen - like the characters do when they sign autographs. You can write comments like "be sure to stay within sight of your Mom and Dad" or "thanks for behaving so nicely today at the park!" to reinforce good behavior. Then, after the kids are asleep, leave the note and toy out for each child to find the next morning. This way, they have a new toy directly from Tinkerbell each day and you don't have to feel pressured to buy higher-priced merchandise in the parks.


Have a great trip!

 

[hookedonears]

It just depends. Are you staying on property, or not. We stay on property and charge absolutely everything to our room and then to a credit card when we leave. We take just enough money to tip the driver during our transfers and maybe little more for a few other incidentals, but not more than $200 for a 4-5 day trip. We put everything on a credit card.

 

[Planogirl]

Kids vary. My son always just wanted a t-shirt and a book and he was set. Nowadays he just wants a t-shirt and it has to be "cool".

Of course to keep him from wanting all of the t-shirts I told him that he could have just one and he had to pick it carefully since it would be the only one he got. Once he understood that it became a great science to deciding which shirt was best.

 

[Drusilla]

We are going to WDW for T-Day. The last couple weekends I have been taking dd8 and dd5 and dh to our local Disney Store to DESENSITIZE them to all the stuff! And to tell the truth, it's actually been working. On Saturday, we went to the Disney Store and spent an hour there. All we bought was preordering the movie UP so we could get the free UP pins that you got when you preordered (plus UP is on the xmas list). No tantrums, no asks, perfect behavior from both dd's!!!

I don't expect that to happen during the whole 10 days at WDW, but I do think it will help them not ask every 10 feet if they can have this or that... But it's worth a try, so far so good!!!

 

[Tara922c]

last year we stayed for 7 nights and spent around 900 dollars total, including food. About 700 of that was in food. Since your on the disney dining plan, I would set about 100 to 200 aside for tips, and think about how much you want to spend each day. My advice is let each child pick out something at the end of the night under 20 bucks, or wait until the end of the trip and let each kid pick out something. Souvies can add up quickly. One of my friends makes a stop at the disney store before going to disney. She stocks up on plush mickeys, and toys. When they get back to their room at night, she says, "suprise look what I bought you"!!

Another tip--- advoid the gift shops!! It is hard to do because they are everywhere but try. If you have to walk through them, walk through them fast. There is so much more to do besides shopping in Disney. If you children aren't in the store, they can't ask!!

 

[tinkerbellmichelle]

We told the kids they could each buy one thing each day.. My daughter (5 at the time) was great at waiting until the end of the day and then getting what she wanted most that we/she could afford.


We made a big mistake with our son (3 at the time). He has inherited my love of gift shops, I guess. He thought of WDW as one big store and wanted EVERYTHING. We kept telling him things like, wait, wait, wait. etc. and with 3 kids, it seemed that if one was buying something, he needed something too.

Finally, on our last day, we figured it out. Let him get whatever it was that was beckoning him as we entered the park (within reason) and he was fantastic the rest of the day. He held that pluto plush and didn't ask for another thing all day.

So this year -while everyone is making a mad dash to the rides at park opening, ours will be a mad dash to get the boy something little to hold and feel like he's made his purchase so we can enjoy the park after.

So basically - - -just wanted to let you know that not all kids are the same. Some won't care at all about the souvenirs but you could be surprised. My son who never before asked for a thing while shopping at home became Mr. Greedy Shopper-pants. It was crazy.

 

[mickeyluv'r]

I also have two M&M minis tubes filled with 2 quarters/1 penny, stacked like that to fill them up (one tube for each kid). That in itself cuts back on their souvvie spending because they view getting pressed pennies as finding treasure. That helps eliminate them asking for stuff.

We always try to overestimate what we might spend, and it's a good feeling to come home with unspent money. Oh ... And, I know it's not the most popular thing, but we use cash. I appreciate seeing it decrease; it makes spending more tangible than using a credit/debit card.

Two thoughts - I agree that if you contain the pressed penny fund in M&M's tubes, and don't dwell on locating machines too much - it can be a great ( &simple)way to divert the kids away from the more expensive stuff inthe store. If teh kids kind of are keeping an eye out for the machines then when you hit the automatic gift shop at the 'end of each ride' they will run through it - more or less. Sometimes when you check in at TS places you have to wait for tables, and getting a few pressed pennies can be a fun way to divert hungry kids from the the wait.

If you don't want to carry cash the whole time - you could put some on a Disney gift card. You run the risk of losing teh card - just like cash - but ti's not as bulky as cash. Disney also makes DIsney Dollars - so that can be a fun intermediary step for the kids. Whenever we have a spring trip to WDW, I give Disney dollars for the holidays. The kids feel like they are getting twice!

Some kids really do benefit from waiting until the end to get their big item. Others benefit from having one small thing in their hand already. You know your kids best- both kinds of kids/parents exist.