Spending money

[joeswife1109]

Hi everyone...hoping you can give me your thoughts on something.

We are a family of 4, myself, my husband, our 12 year old son and 2 1/2 year old daughter. We are so excited to be taking our kids on the trip of a lifetime to Disney in August. We are going for 9 days staying at POR with the dining plan. My husband is driving (he doesn't fly) and I am flying with the kids.

I am trying to budget spending money. Right now we have everything we could think of paid for. Airline, the resort, park tickets, rental car, the regular dining plan, etc. I just paid everything off last week. We are budgeting $2400 for the week in spending money to bring with us. We are not huge spenders at all but since this is going to be the only time we go for a while I want to be able to spoil my kids (with limits lol). Because my husband is driving, I am able to bring a lot of snacks down. We plan to eat lunches in our room when our daughter naps and use the food credits for breakfast and dinner. Our character meals are planned. So basically the $2400 is for "whatever" we need (and gas money for the week). My question is truthfully is that really enough? Am I overreacting thinking I won't have enough? Please let me know your thoughts.

 

[smallblackstars]

Last year on my 11 day birthday trip I took $1000 to spend on 'whatever' for me and DD (2 at the time). DH was unable to come along due to work commitments so it was just us with my Mum. Whenever DH is not around and can't stop me from spending I do tend to spoil DD, I bought her 3 princess dresses with accessories, plush toys, clothes, dolls, a load of Duplo from the Lego store at DTD, a Build a Dino at T-Rex and loads of little knick knacks (fans, light up things for the MSEP etc) and also bought myself a new bag, a purse, some jewellery and other bits and bobs and still came home with just under $250!! Basically I spoiled her rotten and treated myself too and still had $ left over so I think your $2400 will be more than enough!! Have a great trip!!!

 

[gregpso]

Hi everyone...hoping you can give me your thoughts on something.

We are a family of 4, myself, my husband, our 12 year old son and 2 1/2 year old daughter. We are so excited to be taking our kids on the trip of a lifetime to Disney in August. We are going for 9 days staying at POR with the dining plan. My husband is driving (he doesn't fly) and I am flying with the kids.

I am trying to budget spending money. Right now we have everything we could think of paid for. Airline, the resort, park tickets, rental car, the regular dining plan, etc. I just paid everything off last week. We are budgeting $2400 for the week in spending money to bring with us. We are not huge spenders at all but since this is going to be the only time we go for a while I want to be able to spoil my kids (with limits lol). Because my husband is driving, I am able to bring a lot of snacks down. We plan to eat lunches in our room when our daughter naps and use the food credits for breakfast and dinner. Our character meals are planned. So basically the $2400 is for "whatever" we need (and gas money for the week). My question is truthfully is that really enough? Am I overreacting thinking I won't have enough? Please let me know your thoughts.

Sounds like plenty of $ you have everything covered enjoy yourself

 

[joeswife1109]

Awesome thank you! Now I feel better. My husband has told me I was overreacting and we would be fine. I tend to worry but this is a big investment so I want to make sure I have all bases covered.

 

[dpswift]

I spoil DS and we have never spent near that amount. For on thing we do not eat as much at Disney. Three meals a day is too much for us.

I must admit I do not look at Dooney bags. We just buy the regular touristy stuff. Pins are our weakness. But I only buy a few each trip. I try to buy ones that are meaningful for that trip.

The only person that I have ever spent more than $100 on at Disney was DS. My older kids do not want as much.

One tip do not try to hoard your snack credits. I always pay cash for drinks thinking that we will have ice cream or frozen cokes later. Later never seems to come, and I am forced to buy a bunch of low value snacks as we leave.

 

[momof2gr8kids]

I am sure you will be fine with that and bring money home.

Make sure you budget tips in there - probably about $30 per sit down meal.
POR is a beautiful resort. You will love it. There are watercraft rentals, horse drawn carriage rides, surrey bike rentals that can you can spend some of that money on! LOL

Enjoy your trip!

 

[snarlingcoyote]

DH and I don't get any sort of DP and buy whatever the heck we want, including MNSHP tickets and all sorts of errata from WWOHP (Okay, so that's Universal, you get the point) and it usually comes to around $1100. With a dining plan but with kids. . .I bet you come home with a tidy fund to put towards saving for your next trip!

 

[pigletto]

We aren't big shoppers at Disney. When the trip/food/tickets/transportation is covered we can easily and happily get by with $500 for any extra expenses. The kids usually have 100 or so each and Dh will buy a beer or glass of wine here or there. Some money goes to food/magazines in the airport. Honestly I think you will have more than enough.

 

[goofyintoronto]

For an 8 or 9 day trip, i usually bring about $1200 for my son and I.....we go NUTS with spending. That seems to be the perfect amount for us, so i think $2400 for 4 ppl is more than enough, esp since you dont have to worry about spending $ for food!

 

[McDISer]

Where is your dh driving from.
we had a rental car and we used less than a tank of gas driving around WDW, and we went off site to a few places. I would use your car to get to a few parks, but not the MK, use the bus.

$2400 is plenty, I wouldn't be surprised if you came home with money and you could start saving for another trip.
Someone else mentioned tips, that will be your biggest expense some days. Just because it says 18 or 20 % on your receipt doesn't mean you have to leave that amount. If you have terrible service, I will leave a 10%. I once left a really big tip at 50 Prime Time Cafe because I ate solo, had my IPad, and my waitress just smiled and was super sweet and asked how my day was going. I was hot tired and just needed to get out of the sun and have some comfort food. So if a waitress makes your day or does something special, maybe make theirs a little extra special too.

 

[LynnTH]

We were just there for 10 days. There was Me, DH, DS14 and DD12. We spent about $1400 and that included all of our meals. So, I think you have plenty of money especially being on the dining plan.

 

[mm1971]

Hi everyone...hoping you can give me your thoughts on something.

We are a family of 4, myself, my husband, our 12 year old son and 2 1/2 year old daughter. We are so excited to be taking our kids on the trip of a lifetime to Disney in August. We are going for 9 days staying at POR with the dining plan. My husband is driving (he doesn't fly) and I am flying with the kids.

I am trying to budget spending money. Right now we have everything we could think of paid for. Airline, the resort, park tickets, rental car, the regular dining plan, etc. I just paid everything off last week. We are budgeting $2400 for the week in spending money to bring with us. We are not huge spenders at all but since this is going to be the only time we go for a while I want to be able to spoil my kids (with limits lol). Because my husband is driving, I am able to bring a lot of snacks down. We plan to eat lunches in our room when our daughter naps and use the food credits for breakfast and dinner. Our character meals are planned. So basically the $2400 is for "whatever" we need (and gas money for the week). My question is truthfully is that really enough? Am I overreacting thinking I won't have enough? Please let me know your thoughts.

That sounds like a reasonable amount. Remember that tips are not included in the meal plan. If you have a character meal that is $150, tip is most likely $25-30. They add up if you have a lot of sit down dinners. $600 per person seems reasonable though. We are a family of 4 and usually do 7-8 days and we spend around $1500 on souvenirs and other things. This does not include Flight/Hotel/Car/Tickets/Food. Just any other activities or things we buy. We do things like "pick a pearl", a few new shirts, boat/bicycle rental, etc...

Have a great vacation!

 

[wiigirl]

Sounds like plenty of $ you have everything covered enjoy yourself

 

[Blessedwith3boys]

I think you have plenty!! We are a family of 5.... We have the dining plan also.... We will not spend more than 750.00 that week... That includes gas and eating on the way down and back! Enjoy your trip!

 

[TheRustyScupper]

Because my husband is driving, I am able to bring a lot of snacks down.
. . . super idea
. . . better to bring too much than not enough

We plan to eat lunches in our room when our daughter naps and use the food credits for breakfast and dinner. Our character meals are planned.
. . . looks like the "meals" are planned
. . . just need snacks and you souvenirs

So basically the $2400 is for "whatever" we need (and gas money for the week). My question is truthfully is that really enough?
. . . sounds like overkill
. . . sounds like WAY overkill
. . . sounds like WAY, WAY overkill

Am I overreacting thinking I won't have enough? Please let me know your thoughts.
. . . I would think $300/adult, $200/teen, $100/child is ample
. . . unless you plan upon buying the place out
. . . or, stocking up for the next ten years

NOTE: With the exception of buying "big ticket" items like quality
watches or jewelry, we have never spent more than $200/adult
on souvenirs during the week. One thing to remember, most of the
souvies you buy get used once or twice and discarded to the trash
or to the sock drawer. Better to by 1-3 decent souvies at the park,
then buy el-chepos at the nearby souvenir shops - especially for
kids.

 

[joeswife1109]

I feel much better now....I talked to my Disney travel planner too and she said we will definitely have enough. My husband is driving from Pennsylvania and already has money/gas budgeted for his trip. So the $2400 is truly for "whatever". With hubby driving its making our lives so much easier being able to bring our own food down. I now can relax and enjoy waiting for our trip to get here.

 

[Hisgirl]

Hi Joe's Wife!

A little about me first: I am a financial counselor. I've helped folks for over 25 years live within their means and make wise financial decisions.

Here's my take on your comments and questions.

First, I really admire you for your budgeting and saving to get the money together to treat your family to this trip. It can't be easy to pull that kind of money together in this day and time. You're going to have such a great time!

If you have your meals and transportation and whatnots paid for, and say we take off $100 for gas for the 9 days, that leaves $2300. Assuming 50 for each breakfast so 10 X 9 for breakfast tip is $90 which leaves $2210. Then lets say another 9 dinners with a $20 tip (guesstimate) so 20 X 9 is $180 which leaves you with a little over $2000.

That's $500 per person for 9 days at $56 per person per day.

Honestly, that does seem like a lot. It appears you will have more than enough to make some fun purchases (tees, Christmas ornaments, etc) and not have to mull over the costs.

But....I sure would love to see you not feel you have to spend all that money. Every dollar you save can be banked for your next vacation.

Congrats on living within a budget to save up for Disney. It's almost as important as retirement!

 

[luvmy3]

Not including food $, I'm only budgeting $500 spending money for our family of 5 for the week, so I think what you plan on bringing is definitely enough. Of course, its really a personal choice. I do a lot of my spending on myself before our trip so I don't get a lot at WDW, I get a lot for WDW (new purse, clothes, pins for trading, camera accessories, etc). My kids are 15, 12 and 9 so they aren't into all the little toys and things anymore so that can cut down drastically on what we buy in the parks. Its fine if we go over that budget though, I am just not expecting we will.
The only advice I have about spending money is spend what you can afford and are comfortable (as in not taking out of bill funds and emergency funds) with. That amount will be different for everyone.

 

[navywifetill2002]

Hakuna Matata!

I know you mentioned breakfast on the DDP and lunch in your room but you may want to consider reversing that unless you have a TS planned for breakfast. QS breakfast is usually not a very good use of your credits and eating breakfast in the room while your getting ready can be helpful. At lunch while DD is napping you could grab QS at the resort to eat in the room or 2 of you could eat and swim while the little one is resting.

 

[stsomewhere]

We think that is is not worth it to use a food credit for breakfast.

We like to bring cereal, disposable bowls etc to have breakfast in the room.