What do you budget for spending money?

[Mike Mouse]

Im going in june for 16 days and im budgeting $3-3500 for food, drinks, and souvenirs for two people. Seems high but with a good restaurant being $100, martinis are $10 each, it adds up quickley. Edit: since now I saw that im not to include food, I would say around $2000 for just merchandise

 

[ekendall2]

We usually take along a 150 dollar disney gift card from our Disney Visa.

Usually spend another 150...i would say 300 total on Me, Wife, and Son.

Impulse buys do happen though! lol

 

[ancestry]

Honestly we have spent $0 dollars on stuff like this the last few trips. We go so frequently that we no longer buy souvenirs.

 

[AnnaL]

We budget $100 a day and then DD has her own separate GCs to buy souvenirs. We don't usually spend everything but we don't deny ourselves on vacation either. We spend a bit on snacks and alcohol, especially when we visit WS. This is just spending money for extras not dining (as we usually have the DP).

 

[Rosco1]

My family of 3 usually takes about $400 for a 4 day trip. We like to buy new ornaments, hats, and a shirt each.

We have been about 15 times in the last 4 years, so we do not spend as much as we did in the first year.

On a side note, you will rarely see my husband in a non Disney shirt.

 

[ariel326]

We aren't big buyers on a trips. We have a few things that we buy no matter where we go
DH- coffee mug
Me and DS - a Christmas ornament with the year on it

DS - a t-shirt and or hat. I'm going to assume that we will also get him Mickey ears and some sort of plush and a few other little things. Its his first trip so I am going to assume that there will be a few other frivolous things. I am going to load a Disney gift card for him.
DH- a baseball hat
Me- one other item that is special

Other then that, we just really spend the money on good food while we are there (and good booze too).

 

[supergoofy]

I know the World is different than Disneyland but we usually give the kids about $100 each. We usually hit DTD on/near last day so they can see all sorts of stuff over the course of the trip.

 

[kathy884]

I think I'm looking at this question differently than other people. For my family for miscellaneous incidentals (just three of us), I budget $50 a day - that's $400 for a week long trip - I include travel days (varies quite a bit from day to day). That covers tolls, airport parking, theme park parking charges, tip for maid and valet parking if we are staying in a hotel, snacks at parks (not meals), anything we might buy at a drugstore like Walgreens -- sunscreen, aloe gel if someone gets too much sun, anything someone might have forgotten at home, gas for rental car, covers mini golf if we do that, covers little speed boat rental if we do something like that (spur of the moment recreational activities we didn't plan in advance), covers film processing if we decide to print pictures before going home). Typically I come in under budget, but I like to have the cushion budgeted.

DH and I don't get souvenirs, but DS likes these. He's in High School, and I give him $100 for the week long trip. If DS wants to spend more than that, he has his own money he can use. I also let him keep the money if he doesn't spend it to discourage wasteful spending.

When he was little I just gave him $15 a day vs. all the money up front, as he then wasn't so good at planning (more into instant gratification vs. delayed), and I know would have run out of money if he had it all up front. I worked with him if he admired something to save up money for a few days, so he could come back and buy it. Sometimes that didn't work, because he couldn't resist getting something little instead, but that meant he didn't have enough for the bigger ticket item. Sometimes it worked because the bigger ticket items was just so special to him that he passed up the other things. Back then though we had to remind him about what he was saving his money for.

My vacation budget line items are:
-Air
-Hotel
-Theme Park Tickets
-Rental Car
-Kennel for dog
-Special Meals (Any Disney table service planned go here as they can be quite expensive)
-Food (groceries, counter service meals, take out, meals at chain offsite restaurants)
-Miscellaneous -- covered above $400 for the week ($50 per day)
-Money for DS to use for souvenirs -- $100 as stated above for the week

 

[StuckInKS]

As far as souvenirs go, The first trip my kids (four at the time) each got $100 from a family member and bought ear hats and autograph books with that money. I then bought them each a shirt ($17 each) and one for myself and a picture frame. The next two trips I don't remember buying any real souvenirs. This time, we went all out. It was time for the kids to get new ear hats and autograph books (plus the youngest two had never had any), the oldest three discovered pin trading, they all got a few toys and/or plush, I got three shirts, a backpack, Mickey crocs, a picture frame, a throw, a beach towel, most of the kids got a clothing item or shoes (oldest DD got both and then a second pair a sandals when she lost her first pair ), etc. We did hold back some, but not as much as usual. I will say check disneystore.com first. I wanted a hoodie for $65 at WDW, but have seen it under $30 on the website after returning home and a lot of the 2013 stuff was going for $6-$10 before Christmas. They don't seem to have everything on there though.

 

[Networth]

$300 or so for souvenirs. Than another 5k or so for paintings and house items if we plan on purchasing any that trip.(we only buy paintings every few trips)

 

[KYfriedPanda]

I collect Vinylmations so I bring 100 for those, but I've never spent all of it... I'd say another 200 on top of that for any miscellaneous stuff. I spend a LOT of time in the World Showcase, so I tend to spend most of that other 200 on unique baked goods and candies. Karamell Kuche ought to just set up a tab for me.

 

[Mousemommy1]

We go every year, and stay 10 nights/11days each time. We typically bring $1000 for our family of four for spending money.

We always say we aren't going to buy as many souvenirs, but once we get there....

We are all pin collectors, and usually end up with at least two new ones each. We also each get a new Christmas ornament and then one"other" Christmas decoration for the house.

My DH is a huge Jack Skellington fan, and typically has a Jack shirt on whenever you see him..his collection is impressive....so he usually buys more down there.

And my girls.....oh, the princess dresses.....even though my 9 year old was insistent she didn't want one on our past trip in April, as soon as she laid her eyes on them, it was on....maybe she won't want one this year as a big 10 year old???

So yeah, we have pretty specific stuff that we get every trip.

 

[pittsburghmom]

On our trip last year, we were on the QSDP and it was sooo much food for us. So no extra $$ for treats/meals. We spent a total of $100 dollars for some keepsakes....a small photo album, a mug, a throw blanket a couple of plush animals, picture frame, etc. We plan on spending the same for our trip in Jan.

 

[amberpi]

Its just me and DH. We both travel a lot for business and for pleasure. We aren't typically souvenir people. We're both kinda minimalists and HATE things around the house (although I do have my first Minnie figure from when I was a child in a modernist bookself). That said, we buy what we want. A couple of trips ago - April 2013, there were a number of retro Epcot shirts, my DH bought all he wanted - and wears them all the time. I bought a ton of that beaded jewelry that they sell made by the women in Africa for gifts and for myself. It was SUPER cheap and really different. We have bought so many random articles of clothing at WDW (thought not Disney specific) its kinda hilarious. Its usually from forgetting something, but some of our favorite things have come from these random purchases. My DH's favorite swimsuit came from the Dolphin or Swan gift shops because he forgot his. My favorite cover up was a likewise purchase. If we see something the niece/nephew want, we buy it. We treat it like regular shopping we'd do at home, if its over $500, we take time to consider it, otherwise, we either want it, or we don't want it. We don't buy a lot of stuff normly, nor do we at WDW, but if we DO see something we want, you can dang sure its ours. There are a large number of trips, we haven't bought a thing that wasn't a consumable, there are other trips, I've come home with half my holiday shopping done. We go often though for shorter trips, so YMMV depending on your travel habits.

 

[Son of Gadsden]

We normally spend $1500 total. I usually budget $60 for food per day. We eat QS pretty much the whole trip with one or two table services (no dining plan). That's normally about $20 per meal, and we skip breakfast here or there. So our trips normally being 7 park days, that's about $420 in food. That leaves us about $1000 for other spending...that's obviously going to include some overspending on meals and snacks. We don't always spend that, but for our Christmas trip we spent that, which included a lot of ornaments and such. For us $1500 is a splurging trip, so actually normally a bit less than that. So, that gives us plenty of breathing room. $1000 on a room, $1500 on spending, $800 on park tickets is our normal trip. Also, it's just me and DW, no kids.

As four souvenirs, the wife is definitely a shopper. I keep saying we've been so many times, she's eventually going to get tired of Disney hoodies, etc....yet that day has yet to come. She spends most of our souvenir money. We collect pins, but at this point we mostly trade. I normally buy one pin, the one for the year we are there. If we stay at a new resort, I get a pin for that resort, as well.

I get the feeling vinylmations are a looming collection that we'll get to eventually. DW collects vinylmation pins, so it's only a matter of time.

She says kitchenware is on the hitlist for next trip. God help me.

 

[snorkelyn]

Not counting meals, what would you say you budget for miscellaneous extras - souvenirs, treats, etc?

Our family of 5 stayed 10 days and spent approx. 1500.

We had the dining plan, but used spending $$ for alcoholic drinks (ok, I'll admit...that really added up. DH and I enjoy drinks with dinner and while walking the world showcase!).
Our kids discovered pin trading and came home with a boatload (man, they really add up: with 3 kids getting a starter set + extra pins for each) (TIP: If your not wanting to shell out for this- go for a pressed penny collection instead!)

Kids did pirate adventure cruise at GF ($35ish each)

Beach towels, keychains, Christmas ornament for each family member with the year on it, costume jewelery and trinkets for DD7, mickey ears for 3, sunglasses, t-shirts for 5.

And our budget also included tips from the regular dining plan.

We could have cut back...but...we splurged a bit and enjoyed ourselves!

 

[mickeyluv'r]

It's rather variable. We can easily get by on very little. In recent years it's gotten easier to ignore the shops. (quality, the variety, prices). kids, folks back home, where you are staying, and how long you are staying are all important variables.

Your budget can be almost anything you want to be...though flexibility is always smart.

A big consideration are the little extras that get overlooked. We are not supposed to get into debates about tipping, so please let us not do that. That said, vacations offer many opportunities to tip good service employees of all kinds. One category of unanticipated spending (for us) is extra tipping for exceptional service, or services we don't regularly use (so we didn't think about them in advance). Often enough, more than half the cash I use is for tips.

Along the same lines, sometimes the best way to 'fix' a vacation disruption is the throw money at it: splurging for a taxi vs. the bus. Maybe instead of an outdoors quick serve lunch, splurging for table serve can 'fix' bad weather.

We've also had plenty of times where someone forgot to pack an item. Maybe the weather is far colder than predicted and we end up needing to do laundry. Maybe someone suffers a minor injury and extra service is the remedy.

Once- a family member suffered car sickness. An extra t-shirt (at airport gift shop prices) was our solution.

It is not good to reward bad behavior- so to speak - but sometimes a small purchase can go a long ways to improving someone's mood. This works with adults as well as children.

The Orlando economy is based on convincing folks that little splurges will help make their vacation dreams come true! So the potential options are nearly infinite. They key is to find the ones that work for your family without breaking your bank.

 

[jtowntoflorida]

I'm not a souvenier person in general. In four trips, I've gotten two souveniers for myself...a keychain and a coffee mug. We typically tell the kids they can pick out one thing during a week-long trip, otherwise they would spend whatever their allotment of spending money is on stuffed animals that they'd bring home and never play with again, and I am sick of adding to the menagerie we have in our house already! I think that also does away with The Gimmes and Shiny Penny Syndrome with stuff they're not really THAT into.

 

[JosieMouse]

We're budgeting $500 for 5 days in the parks. That's only covers snacks and souvenirs. Things like BBB and PL are already in the over all budget because I knew the exact price.

 

[wendybeth75]

Usually around $1000 if we stay a week and are on the ddp. We pin trade and spend 100-200 on that. Sometimes I get a Dooney, and sometimes just a cute whatever purse( purse is always my souvenir). We usually buy a print and bring it back as well. We don't buy many clothes or shirts. I should mention that 1000 covers our tips as well.