Spending $$

[emcreative]

How do y'all figure out how much spending money you will take with you? I never worried about it last time, and then there was a problem with our debit card and of course it was a weekend so we had the cash but we couldn't get to it! It was so frustrating!

We're doing the dining plan so meals/snacks are covered (of course there are tips, etc).

Do you figure XX amount a day? Go per adult/child? I'm just so totally lost. I want us to be able to indulge, but can't figure out how much I should budget and have readily available in some form other than the debit.

 

[TinaLala]

I let my kids save up about $50 in disney dollars and that's all they bring - we usually end up bringing most of it back. We bring a full M&M tube of quarters and pennies for the press machines. Then we'll be bringing about $100 for tips and 'other' snacks, but besides that I'm not looking to bring anything else to spend.

 

[amandaraye]

Our family of 5 spent $400 on our trip in April. This included 4 souvenir travel mugs; food for our daughter (she was under three so not on DDP); All gift shop purchases for the entire week and alcohol. (hey, it's vacation...we indulged!). We don't feel like we held back any either.

 

[sohappy]

I am doing the tips ahead of time in envelopes (with some extra money in my bag in case of amazing service). Other than tips last time, we barely spent any money. I never thought of my debit card not working- that was an almost weekly occurance with my old bank, but not so much anymore.

I would NOT recommend the prepaid VISA cards. You have to activate them before you use them by calling a number- annoying, esp if you don't know in advance. Plus, you must use them completely in one transaction or it is a HUGE PITB to use them again. You have to know exactly how much is left on the card, then the cashier has to know what she is doing- ugh. Just don't buy them.

I will probably just go the debit route. My parents will be there, so they can pay if something happens to my card.


On another note- I finally convinced my boys to go to MNSSHP as Phineas and Ferb. I am going to be Isabella, I think. My mom and dad are going too. I thought about being Candace, and mom and dad could be the parents. I think my dad HAS to be Doofinshmerts (sp?). So mom might be candace

 

[davidsprincess]

We had $200/day. Tips for housekeeping were already enveloped before we got there and for our dinner with the princesses we had that already in another envelope.
We wanted to go and enjoy ourselves and if there was something we really wanted we would be able to get it. Whatever we didn't spend that day went back into the envelope and we started over fresh the next day. We actually ended up coming home with half of our spending money, but never felt deprived.

 

[AmyBWV99]

We are a family of 4, 2 kids-4 yrs & under 2, not on the DDP we budget $300 a day. That's for anything meals, alcohol, tips and souviners doesn't include things like airfare, rental car, or any hotel costs. Those are budgeted as travel not 'vacation'.

We had done the DDP in it's past form and I cannot remember how that affected our budget. Once they started making all the exclusions, etc it was less convienant.