Spending Money

[wicket2005]

Hi

My bro, sil, niece 8 and niece 5 are off to orlando for the first time staying in a villa. It has been a couple of years since I have last been.

He has asked me how much cash to allow. Any ideas of a rough ball park figure?

Thanks for any help.

Bev

 

[wilma-bride]

Hi Bev, nice to see you here again

Even though we stay onsite, we nearly always eat all our meals offsite and we usually allow $150 per day for main meal, snacks and drinks throughout the day and other extras, such as the odd souvenir etc.

However, if they are staying in a villa, will they want to have a few meals in the villa or do they still plan on eating out the majority of the time?

It is a difficult question to answer, without knowing their eating/drinking/spending habits but I would say that $150 per day would easily cover most things, including at least one decent meal 'out' every day.

If we make larger purchases - shopping, etc. we put them on the credit card.

 

[darthtatty]

we stay onsite and budget £100 per day, so that's about $150 for 3 of us. we eat onsite, some days will spend it all and some hardly any. we also include travel day & going home day-just so we get a bit extra.
our son usually takes about $200 spending money too.
We don't go shopping but do buy a few souvenirs and usually have enough.
Staying at a villa should save them a bit but too.
Like Joh says, it really depends on their eating habits & if they shop much.

 

[wayneg]

Paid our Credit card off yesterday so know exactly what we spent last month.
It included almost £200 for gas, expensive meals at places like Blue Heaven Key West & Cheesecake factory, cheaper meals at places like Logans Roadhouse, Alehouse etc. Also included an Everglades tour, parking, Tolls. 2 very large bottles of vodka, snacks...
We did a lot more than usual this trip, total I paid off today was £1,300. Thats $46pppd (14 nights, 3 adults)
If we were just doing our usual 14 nights in Orlando rather than a roadtrip as above we average nearer $100/day for 3 of us but I do collect a lot of coupons for free meals or good discounts from all the restaurant websites.

An average day to us(3 adults) is no breakfast, lunch in a park around $30, TS evening meal at somewhere like AleHouse, Logans etc around $40-50.

 

[wicket2005]

Thank you that's a big help

 

[bex7583]

Paid our Credit card off yesterday so know exactly what we spent last month.
It included almost £200 for gas, expensive meals at places like Blue Heaven Key West & Cheesecake factory, cheaper meals at places like Logans Roadhouse, Alehouse etc. Also included an Everglades tour, parking, Tolls. 2 very large bottles of vodka, snacks...
We did a lot more than usual this trip, total I paid off today was £1,300. Thats $46pppd (14 nights, 3 adults)
If we were just doing our usual 14 nights in Orlando rather than a roadtrip as above we average nearer $100/day for 3 of us but I do collect a lot of coupons for free meals or good discounts from all the restaurant websites.

An average day to us(3 adults) is no breakfast, lunch in a park around $30, TS evening meal at somewhere like AleHouse, Logans etc around $40-50.

i think i better rethink my £100 a day spending money budget then , looks like its a bit unrealistic for 5 of us !!

 

[crabbie1]

Depends where u eat Bex. There were 3 of us this time but purely ate on site as had no car. We had pre booked all TS but ended up cancelling half of them as was just too much food. We loaded our Ffax card with $1650 and have $186 left on it. We did buy cereals bagels sausages bacon milk and OJ for the room as ate breakfast there most days out of that budget. We had 8 TS meals as well.
Tbh I will be glad when DB will drive but it was his first visit this year so we can go off site and try all these great places for half the price.
We also took £1800 spending money BUT we did spend £1000 in prime outlets due to buying uggs loads of clothes an ipad and birthday presents. Normally would prob spend half of that. Still have over £300 left. I think for 5 if on site with no TS booked I would allow $50 per meal to be on the safe side but u can always share an adult for 2 kids. We had kiddies meals some days for lunch. Hope this helps

 

[wilma-bride]

i think i better rethink my £100 a day spending money budget then , looks like its a bit unrealistic for 5 of us !!

I think, in the Keys, that is unrealistic. If you look again at my trip report for the Keys, I think I have included a lot of the costs.

Now, you could look at it the other way and say "that is my budget" and then you just find places to eat/ways to stay wihtin your budget.

Even though we have quite a generous budget, if we overspend one day, we usually cut down the next to try and counter that.

I would love to be able to go on holiday with the attitude that we can spend what we like but, unfortunately, that isn't going to happen any time soon. If you have a budget, research menus and prices and find ways to stay within it. Maybe look at accommodation that will include a kitchenette so you can have breakfast/lunch in the room - in the Keys that is definitely doable - and look at sharing a couple of adult meals with the kids, rather than ordering separate kids' meals. I share with my DS a lot of the time as he prefers adult meals but it's too much food for him.

Or, as Alyson suggests, have kids' meals for lunch.

 

[Azza1987]

We've just got back (well 2 weeks ago!) from a 4 day New York trip & 8 Day WDW trip.

I still ahve $133 on my Fair FX card, BF has $0!

We didn't have a 'budget' per say I took $500 in cash, and $2200 on the card, BF took $400 cash and $1000 on his card (it was my present to him so i footed most of the bills).

In New York we literally didn't even question the cost of anything, even when I bought 4 white wine spritzers for the girls at $58, I'd have died if I'd had spent that here in the UK! I also paid for my friend who we were staying with dinner a few nights as a thank you.

In Disney world we had the Free DDP, and it was way more food then we needed. We didn't buy any extra food apart from some sweets on the last day as presents for our friends. On days we were at Seaworld/Universal we went to Earl of sandwich the night before and used our QS credits, put them in the fridge overnight and took them as a packed lunch the next day!

We did however go a litle bit overbaord in the outlets, and of course paid for our tickets at Universal and I spent a fortune in the Harry Potter shop

I do think though if we hadn't have bought anything from all the shops (I got 3 t-shirts alone from Disney ) We could have coped on $50 a day between us being on the DDP which would have been for the tips and our drinks. Not on the DDP I think we averaged $100-$160 bill for the TS meals at night (we drink wine by the bottle ) plus tip, then QS meals we would not have got a pudding etc and probably could have shared a meal to be honest.

We also could have been sensible and have used the snack credits for sweets as presents, but that msotly went on treats for us.

I think it can be as cheap as you want or as expensive as your budget allows. On the day we went to Epcot for example, we had a drink in every 'Country' which worked out expensive, 2 tiny glasses of pink champagne in France cost $30

We know we wont be going back until we have kids so we really didn't hold back on anything which was nice, but I certainly wouldn't do that on any other holiday!

 

[Laszkowicz]

Its our first time so we have no clue. 2ad 2 kids. AOA. Will Likely eat breakfast in our room most days.


I'm aiming around $200/250 a day with no DDP. I'm sure at first we'll buy both adults and kids a meal but from what I've been reading we'll soon change that with the large portions

Do you guys think this is realistic.

We will have a car and aren't big eaters or alcohol drinkers. Booked a character dine which is expensive so this will blow one days budget just about , and also have booked rainforest, part from that we'll play it by ear.

We also have a DC day which in a way will cost hardly anything that day.

Any comments appreciated.

 

[Elise79]

Its our first time so we have no clue. 2ad 2 kids. AOA. Will Likely eat breakfast in our room most days.

I'm aiming around $200/250 a day with no DDP. I'm sure at first we'll buy both adults and kids a meal but from what I've been reading we'll soon change that with the large portions

Do you guys think this is realistic.

We will have a car and aren't big eaters or alcohol drinkers. Booked a character dine which is expensive so this will blow one days budget just about , and also have booked rainforest, part from that we'll play it by ear.

We also have a DC day which in a way will cost hardly anything that day.

Any comments appreciated.

I budget $150 to $200 a day for 2 adults/1 child.

We eat at least one TS meal a day which is a mixture of onsite and offsite.

Lunch we usually get DH a full CS meal, I get just the entree no side, DD gets a kids meal and we share the sides. DH & I share a large drink.

Other days we go out for breakfast to somewhere like IHOP and then don't eat to dinner. IHOP costs us the same as a CS meal in Disney.