Stupid Budget Question

[MattsPrincess]

OK...we're going to be in the parks from October 4th-8th. Considering these factors:

- we're driving in from tucson, and won't be driving again until we leave to go home.
- we get breakfast with our hotel, so won't need to pay for that.
- we're going to do one MHP
- we'd like to do one dinner at Goofy's Kitchen, will get the voucher from LMT.
- i don't eat real food in the parks, just snack here and there. DH will need to buy lunch in the park tho.
- mcd's right next to the hotel, so won't need to buy dinners in the park either.

Does this budget seem reasonable?-
Hotel- $490 (already booked, that's the actual price not a guess)
Tickets- either $340 or $375, depending on where we buy them
Goofy's- $69 from LMT
Gas- $80 ($20 fills us up, so that's two stops both ways)
MHP- ? somewhere around $100 im guessing
Food- $90 (not including goofy's)
Other- $80 ($40 each for souveniers, etc)
TOTAL- around $1,300

 

[sonnyjane]

What is MHP?

For food, I think you are FAR under budget! A meal at the parks is usually at least $10 (without a drink sometimes!), snacks about $5. If you're at the parks 5 days (assuming you are going each of the days you are there) you will need more money than $90 for the two of you for 5 days. Also, even though it is McDonald's, because it is the McDonald's near Disneyland, the prices are a lot more than at regular McDonald's, so keep that in mind!

ETA: Another thing to consider with your hotel is whether parking and hotel fees are included in your price of $490. Many hotels near Disneyland charge a fee per day for having a car, some as much as $14 (the same price as the parking structure at Disneyland itself!)

 

[Mister Toad]

OK...we're going to be in the parks from October 4th-8th. Considering these factors:

- we're driving in from tucson, and won't be driving again until we leave to go home.
- we get breakfast with our hotel, so won't need to pay for that.
- we're going to do one MHP
- we'd like to do one dinner at Goofy's Kitchen, will get the voucher from LMT.
- i don't eat real food in the parks, just snack here and there. DH will need to buy lunch in the park tho.
- mcd's right next to the hotel, so won't need to buy dinners in the park either.

Does this budget seem reasonable?-
Hotel- $490 (already booked, that's the actual price not a guess)
Tickets- either $340 or $375, depending on where we buy them
Goofy's- $69 from LMT
Gas- $80 ($20 fills us up, so that's two stops both ways)
MHP- ? somewhere around $100 im guessing
Food- $90 (not including goofy's)
Other- $80 ($40 each for souveniers, etc)
TOTAL- around $1,300

Couple questions/things to think of

1) Does that Hotel include tax and fees? Those can stack up fairly quickly, which is something to think of.
2) What kind of car fills us for $20! I want one!
3) Does the hotel have free parking?
4) What is MHP? I am not familiar with it.
5) If you are snacking, that can add up fairly quickly. If you guys do fast food outside the park, I would guess 15/person, plus another 10/person snacking each day. I would guess at minimum, $25/person per day for food/snacking, but i do tend to overestimate and be happy at the end.

Hope this helps.

 

[darph nader]

Food budget a 'tad' shy. AND,,,,,what the heck kinda car you got? Gas in Cali and along the freeways are 15/25 cents higher than in Tucson.
Personally,I'd add about $300.00 and bring it home if you don't use it.

 

[MattsPrincess]

2009 Ford Focus. That's what it cost us in gas the last time we went.

MHP - mickey's halloween party

I'm not sure about the hotel fees. We're staying at the Camelot...anyone know?

As far as food...I guess I should clarify that a bit. I won't eat much at all the whole time we are gone. I have some sort of food related anxiety that keeps me from eating outside my home. The last time we were there, the first day i had a bag of popcorn, the second day a mickey pretzel, and the third day a mickey pretzel and dole whip. that was it the whole trip, so i spent about $20 on food total. *now i pigged out when we got home, but that's another story! lol* I also forgot to mention (knew i would forget something) that i am bringing snacks with us. So, free breakfast the whole time. All but a maximum of 8 (one each per day) snacks brought from home. No actual meals for me from anywhere. So, basically, a few snacks and DH's lunch for Tues.-Fri, and his dinner Tues-Thur. If any of that makes any sense, lol. **ETA** we'll eat before we leave monday morning and pack sandwiches to eat on the road, and will be home for dinner on friday

 

[skiingfast]

MHP=Mickey's Halloween Party without the Not so Scary

I have to agree that the food could be short. But maybe not.

I stayed at a hotel which had free parking and breakfast. Though the breakfast was just barely good. It wasn't nearly appetizing enough to get me to eat enough to make it until dinner.

Though I will say if you have free breakfast, drink water, share lunch in the park, share dinner out of the park. Probably 0+0+10+15 is $25 a day. That's pretty conservative for 2 adults and doesn't allow for a single Mickey Ice Cream Bar, Churro or Dole Whip.

 

[Mister Toad]

2009 Ford Focus. That's what it cost us in gas the last time we went.

MHP - mickey's halloween party

I'm not sure about the hotel fees. We're staying at the Camelot...anyone know?

As far as food...I guess I should clarify that a bit. I won't eat much at all the whole time we are gone. I have some sort of food related anxiety that keeps me from eating outside my home. The last time we were there, the first day i had a bag of popcorn, the second day a mickey pretzel, and the third day a mickey pretzel and dole whip. that was it the whole trip, so i spent about $20 on food total. *now i pigged out when we got home, but that's another story! lol* I also forgot to mention (knew i would forget something) that i am bringing snacks with us. So, free breakfast the whole time. All but a maximum of 8 (one each per day) snacks brought from home. No actual meals for me from anywhere. So, basically, a few snacks and DH's lunch for Tues.-Fri, and his dinner Tues-Thur. If any of that makes any sense, lol.

Ahh Micky's Halloween Party..too many acronyms!

Tax for hotels in Anaheim is 15% plus any resort tax of $0.50 to $2.00 a day (source: http://www.anaheimoc.org/faq/faq.asp)

For that I would tack on another $75 for taxes/fees. From looking at the website, parking is included for hotel guests. If you did a prepay sort of thing with the hotel, then all taxes/fees should already have been charged.

I still think $90 is a little light for food. I would up it to $150-200 to be safe, just go expecting to spend a little more and if you get out for less, all the better. I would say bump up the total to $1500-1600 and you won't likely go over it, gives you a little more wiggle room.

 

[sonnyjane]

Oh. In that case, parking at Camelot is free. I have stayed there twice (in March and April, so fairly recently) because of the location, but likely won't again. It's a great location, but the hotel itself is not that fantastic. They screwed up my reservation (gave us a king bed instead of two doubles, even though I'd booked months in advance and checked in on time). The bed was hard.as.a.rock!!! Also, the "free breakfast" is pretty horrible. I actually ended up just walking to McDonald's after the first day. It was horrible out-of-the-box donut holes, corn flakes with whole milk, and red apples. The beverage choices while I was there were coffee and watered down orange juice out of the dispenser - not even water! You're better off bringing granola bars or Pop-Tarts from home and calling it a day, because their breakfast blows.

 

[Angel Ariel]

Even if you're not eating much, $90 is low. 2 churros and a bottle of soda was $10 for DH and I a few weeks ago...

 

[Shimmer]

Will you have a fridge in your room?

What kept our costs down was taking lunch and snacks into the park. We used a soft-sided cooler which worked great. Plus, it was nice having food to eat right when we wanted it and didn't have to go stand in line for it.

 

[Mister Toad]

Will you have a fridge in your room?

What kept our costs down was taking lunch and snacks into the park. We used a soft-sided cooler which worked great. Plus, it was nice having food to eat right when we wanted it and didn't have to go stand in line for it.

Did you have leaking gatorade in your soft sided cooler by chance?

You are probably better off with the trail mix in the park or bringing a box of granola bars if the breakfast is that weak. Also a good way to cut some costs down.

 

[sonnyjane]

Will you have a fridge in your room?

What kept our costs down was taking lunch and snacks into the park. We used a soft-sided cooler which worked great. Plus, it was nice having food to eat right when we wanted it and didn't have to go stand in line for it.

OP - that's a good point. One good thing about Camelot is that every room had a microwave and a mini-fridge.

 

[Eeee-va]

Gas is more expensive in California, generally, but gas is one thing you can have mostly planned out. You won't know for sure your exact budget until you go, but you can figure out how many miles it will be if you make no stops through Google. From the U of A to the Camelot Inn is 471 miles each way, so 942 round trip. With today's prices, your estimate is about right if you get, say, 31.4 mpg highway and can do your fill-ups in AZ as much as possible. Your mileage and distance may vary, literally!

Otherwise, just calculate your number of gallons of gas needed. I'm assuming you know how but maybe someone here doesn't:

(miles round trip driven) / (your highway mpg) = number of gallons needed

That number, times your price per gallon, will give you your gas budget in October. (If you want to be really fancy and figure in the California price difference, take your local price for gas and add maybe 10 cents a gallon to compensate for getting gas in California sometimes.)

I hope gas doesn't go higher, but planning for $3/gallon will HOPEFULLY give you some wiggle room.

As for food, if you get 2 snacks/day for 5 days, that's at LEAST $30 (most snacks are more than $3). More likely, your snacks will be $4 apiece, or $40 total. You CAN bring them from home but I don't think that's fun! The good news is the Halloween party will have a lot of candy so that should be helpful.

Even if you are both frugal, your husband's meals will most likely be $8 or $10, unless he's a very light eater and is happy with, say, a skewer from Bengal Barbecue for every meal. So $9 times 9 meals (you have one at Goofy's) is $81. So I'd think $120 is a closer lowball estimate, but I'd budget much higher.

You may be able to "steal" things from your everyday budget...if you or your husband normally buys lunch for $5/day at work, you can plow that into your Disney budget if you want.

Have a great trip!

 

[rentayenta]

OK...we're going to be in the parks from October 4th-8th. Considering these factors:

- we're driving in from tucson, and won't be driving again until we leave to go home.
- we get breakfast with our hotel, so won't need to pay for that.
- we're going to do one MHP
- we'd like to do one dinner at Goofy's Kitchen, will get the voucher from LMT.
- i don't eat real food in the parks, just snack here and there. DH will need to buy lunch in the park tho.
- mcd's right next to the hotel, so won't need to buy dinners in the park either.

Does this budget seem reasonable?-
Hotel- $490 (already booked, that's the actual price not a guess)
Tickets- either $340 or $375, depending on where we buy them
Goofy's- $69 from LMT
Gas- $80 ($20 fills us up, so that's two stops both ways)
MHP- ? somewhere around $100 im guessing
Food- $90 (not including goofy's)
Other- $80 ($40 each for souveniers, etc)
TOTAL- around $1,300

I think it's way too low. I would increase each catagory except for yickets and hotel unless you included the taxes and parking ee if applicable.

If you are dressing up for MNSSHP then what about the price of costumes?

 

[rentayenta]

.

 

[canadadisney]

We are going the same time (Oct 6-9), staying at the same hotel!!! I think out budgets are pretty much the same (except we are flying and renting a car). Our food budget may be slightly higher but it all depends on the day. We have stayed at the Camelot before and usually my husband takes the tray from the top of the microwave (got this hint on a DIS thread) down to the breakfast room in the AM and gets cereals for 2 DD, yogurt, juice, coffee for us and a couple of apples and oranges and brings it back up for us in the room while we are getting ready. We are not big breakfast eaters so we put the fruit and yogurt in fridge and saved it for later in the afternoon. We usually get to the park early, have lunch at the park (hotdog meals etc.) and return to the room for a rest. Before we go to the park we might eat at Mcdonalds etc and then just snack at the park the remainder of the night. We typically let our DDs have 2 snacks a day at the park (churros, icecream etc.) We also budget one character meal a trip.

 

[toby78]

OK...we're going to be in the parks from October 4th-8th. Considering these factors:

- we're driving in from tucson, and won't be driving again until we leave to go home.
- we get breakfast with our hotel, so won't need to pay for that.
- we're going to do one MHP
- we'd like to do one dinner at Goofy's Kitchen, will get the voucher from LMT.
- i don't eat real food in the parks, just snack here and there. DH will need to buy lunch in the park tho.
- mcd's right next to the hotel, so won't need to buy dinners in the park either.

Does this budget seem reasonable?-
Hotel- $490 (already booked, that's the actual price not a guess)
Tickets- either $340 or $375, depending on where we buy them
Goofy's- $69 from LMT
Gas- $80 ($20 fills us up, so that's two stops both ways)
MHP- ? somewhere around $100 im guessing
Food- $90 (not including goofy's)
Other- $80 ($40 each for souveniers, etc)
TOTAL- around $1,300

Wow!!!!I don't know..that seems really low....we spend close to that every time we go about once a month and there are two of us and we stay for only two-three nights...Yeah i understand about your car...my toyota tercel fills up with $20 and lasts me driving around town for two weeks, it's such a gas saver,,even with the price of gas here in san diego at $2.85/gallon......

 

[Funball]

OK...we're going to be in the parks from October 4th-8th. Considering these factors:

- we're driving in from tucson, and won't be driving again until we leave to go home.
- we get breakfast with our hotel, so won't need to pay for that.
- we're going to do one MHP
- we'd like to do one dinner at Goofy's Kitchen, will get the voucher from LMT.
- i don't eat real food in the parks, just snack here and there. DH will need to buy lunch in the park tho.
- mcd's right next to the hotel, so won't need to buy dinners in the park either.

Does this budget seem reasonable?-
Hotel- $490 (already booked, that's the actual price not a guess)
Tickets- either $340 or $375, depending on where we buy them
Goofy's- $69 from LMT
Gas- $80 ($20 fills us up, so that's two stops both ways)
MHP- ? somewhere around $100 im guessing
Food- $90 (not including goofy's)
Other- $80 ($40 each for souveniers, etc)
TOTAL- around $1,300

i can spend 1 k in one day! i think that is too little. but that is just me! i think that eating at mcdonalds every day is a ok choice..but you might get sick of it and so you will need a variety, mimi's is also across the street in walking distance, umm and 100 dollars for mhp seem soo little..but what do i know..other then that i think you have a great plan going!!

 

[TechGuy]

I was wondering about the LMT vouchers. Are they really a value?

If I understand it correctly, the voucher is good for the meal...only. The restaurant also charges a 18% tip and sales tax and don't think those were included in the price. I hope I am wrong...

If you have Disney Credit card, you can get discounts at many of the larger restaurants.

 

[dismom73]

We are going the same time too! We are driving down from Northern CA on the 3rd checking out on the 9th, so we will be in the parks the 4th-8th. I wish that was our gas budget! Anyway, as far as food goes we do a per day budget(but we do eat), we budget $125 a day for food. You know your own body and what you will eat, but I would budget maybe $10 a day for you and $20-30 a day for DH. If he gets one lunch in the park with a soday it can be $12-$15(thats for counter service). Like everyone else is saying it's better to over budget and come home with $$ than it is to come up short. Also, do you already have an idea of what souvineers you want? Because if either one of you is going to want a T-shirt or sweatshirt you'll have to increase that budget too. Unless you are just getting little tiny things $40 doesn't go very far at DL.