Spending Money Budget - HELP!!!

[LeeHarman]

My family and I (My Wife, 8 year old & 4 year old) will be visiting WDW at the end of this year from the UK. We are trying to work out just how much spending money we should take for our 2 week holiday :shrug:
I know its really difficult to judge or advise on, but would a $200 a day budget for us all be a resonable amount to take? :veryconfu

We are not part of the dinning plan so included in the budget would have to be food & drink.

As I said before I know this is quite a difficult one to answer, but I just wondered if other people work to a budget or do you go with the flow and worry about it when the credit cards bill comes in!?:lol:

Thanks in advance for any pointers.

 

[hls1023]

$200 a day for yourself? Or $200 a day just for you. When I go I bring about $150 - $200 a day and it works out great.

 

[LeeHarman]

I'm sorry I have amended my posting to read more clearer. $200 a day for the family. Wife, 4 & 2 year olds and myself.

 

[tigsmom]

We spend, on average, about $200/day for the 4 of us. Our kids usually have some spending money of their own that they have saved also.

 

[kirst_al UK]

I'm sorry I have amended my posting to read more clearer. $200 a day for the family. Wife, 4 & 2 year olds and myself.

Hi there :wave:

When me and my partner goes we base our daily money on $200 for us both......it goes far for us two (gives us more to shop with on our shopping days :animwink: !) so im sure it would be ample for a family of 4.

 

[amandagibbins]

being from the uk it takes us two years to save for our Disney trip so we usually have about $250 a day but we dont spend that every day we usually save over a few days then blow it at the premium outlets stores my husband and son like timberland cheap nike etc we never do the dining plan and we only have one child who usually takes ten dollars a day to spend on himself but we always had money left at the end of the day i hope that helps

 

[beanbunny]

I don't know if this helps, but we usually plan on spending about $25. per person per day for food. If you don't plan on any table service meals and limited souvenirs, I think you can do it for $200. per day. Don't forget to budget in tip money for the hotel - someone had a great idea of tipping a couple of bucks each day instead of waiting til the end of your trip - that way the housekeeper who actually does the work gets the tip! Have a wonderful trip! :wave:

 

[GoofyDadKB]

Budget

As long as you stick to counter service you should be fine. You should have enough left over for 2 to 4 table service meals too. For a family of four you can figure on $25 to $35 per counter service meal. If you start adding in desserts and sides to each meal the cost is going to go up.

 

[Heatherbell]

When my husband and I went with our child we rarely spent over $100 a day. But we ate at counter services when we went that time and we only did one character breakfast. I think if you are going to stick to counter services $200 should be more then enough. If you want to do some table service just figure that in...it is always better to have a little more then not enough :O)

 

[slowbee]

everything depends on what you do. Are you strictly eating on property.. if so... you'll need more money per day...

A side from the gifts... if we look at what we budget for the day on meals... we, for a family of 4, spend about 125 on meals. Breakfast is usually just cereal.. lunch would be a quick counter service or McDonalds/Subway and then a big dinner....

 

[santa's surpriz]

My family and I will be visiting WDW at the end of this year from the UK. We are trying to work out just how much spending money we should take for our 2 week holiday :shrug:
I know its really difficult to judge or advise on, but would a $200 a day budget be a resonable amount to take? :veryconfu

We are not part of the dinning plan so included in the budget would have to be food & drink.

As I said before I know this is quite a difficult one to answer, but I just wondered if other people work to a budget or do you go with the flow and worry about it when the credit cards bill comes in!?:lol:

Thanks in advance for any pointers.

I guess the first question is how many members are in your family. And how you typically eat meals (i.e. restaurant style/fast food.) I have budgeted $100-150 spending money per day not including food. (I am a shopper, and WDW diminishes my will power.) I planned my WDW trip with the dining package so that I would not be nickeled and dimed on food. I did not want the stress of passing up a souvenir b/c I needed to save my money to eat. Something to consider. If that is not your preference I would set a food budget and a souvenir/extras budget. Many of the websites have sample menus and pricing to give you a better idea on your budget goal.

Another to thing to consider is what type of spending do you and your family have. I have pre-planned a bit of the souvenir savings, by hitting disney shopping online and the Disney Store clearance (I do not know if the Disney store is in the UK) I am planning to leave Disney Santa gifts (I am going Mid December and this trip is our Christmas present from Santa.) Another idea I have to save money or least reduce the I whining on the trip is Santa is also leaving snack gift certificates and disney dollars and/or souvenir gift certificates. (I went a little crazy with Microsoft Publisher one night.)

Hope this helps!

 

[santa's surpriz]

My family and I will be visiting WDW at the end of this year from the UK. We are trying to work out just how much spending money we should take for our 2 week holiday :shrug:
I know its really difficult to judge or advise on, but would a $200 a day budget be a resonable amount to take? :veryconfu

We are not part of the dinning plan so included in the budget would have to be food & drink.

As I said before I know this is quite a difficult one to answer, but I just wondered if other people work to a budget or do you go with the flow and worry about it when the credit cards bill comes in!?:lol:

Thanks in advance for any pointers.

I guess the first question is how many members are in your family. And how you typically eat meals (i.e. restaurant style/fast food.) I have budgeted $100-150 spending money per day not including food. (I am a shopper, and WDW diminishes my will power.) I planned my WDW trip with the dining package so that I would not be nickeled and dimed on food. I did not want the stress of passing up a souvenir b/c I needed to save my money to eat. Something to consider. If that is not your preference I would set a food budget and a souvenir/extras budget. Many of the websites have sample menus and pricing to give you a better idea on your budget goal.

Another to thing to consider is what type of spending do you and your family have. I have pre-planned a bit of the souvenir savings, by hitting disney shopping online and the Disney Store clearance (I do not know if the Disney store is in the UK) I am planning to leave Disney Santa gifts (I am going Mid December and this trip is our Christmas present from Santa.) Another idea I have to save money or least reduce the I whining on the trip is Santa is also leaving snack gift certificates and disney dollars and/or souvenir gift certificates. (I went a little crazy with Microsoft Publisher one night.)

Hope this helps!

 

[cb3k]

Well....We all know how you folks from the other side of the pond love your pints, and a Disney Guinness or Boddingtons will run you about 3 times as much as you're accustomed to paying for. HAHAHA I'm only kidding....sorta. I think that $200 or 144.699 EUR (according to my currency conversion) a day for three people should be fine. Don't be afraid to buy some deli meats, cheese, chips, drinks, fruit upon arrival. You can then pack your lunch everyday and bring them into the park (plenty of nice areas to sit down and eat..Tom Sawyer Island is quitest to picnic IMO). Just by bringing your own lunch you could save yourself $336 over the 2 week period (averaging 8 dollars a person per day). It will not be that much because of having to grocery shop while there, but you still get the point. By saving here and there, you can splurge and treat yourself to a couple of very nice evenings or more expensive dining (Character Breakfast, Luau at Polynesian, etc...). Unless a lot of souvenirs are on your wish list, I think that 200 a day will be more than plenty.

 

[cb3k]

Woops...Sorry, I misread your OP. I centered my post around your family having three, I just reread and saw that you have 4. In any event, the new "savings" for packing your lunch would be $448. Have fun, and if you have it SPEND IT (being that far, these trips probably will not come often, so make the most of it).

 

[sweetpee_1993]

I agree with the other replies, it really does depend on how your family is accustomed to eating and spending. I have a family of 4 w/2 boys ages 9 & 11. Part of my planning includes visits the menus on allearsnet.com because they post prices as well. Even if there are slight price increases before my visit, I still have a ballpark guess at how much I'll be spending in food. I look up the places/meals I have reservations, figure in any extra snacks (usually about $20 each time we stop for ice cream), and give myself some extra just to be safe.

Last year we were at WDW for 9 nights/10 days. We spent just over $2K not including the boys' spending money that they had or any recreation. That was strictly food & souveniers. This year we are going for the same length of time but I'm budgeting $3K so that I never have to balk at a souvenier or service if any of us want it. WDW is for making dreams come true. It takes away for me if I have to worry about money or spending. I'd rather have too much than too little.

Decide how you want to travel, how you like to eat, and how you like to splurge. Then go from there. Once you know about how much you want to spend for food the rest is easy.

Good luck!!!

 

[gettingsmaller]

I'd say check the menus on allearsnet.com to get an idea of what your food will cost. You can get free water in the park (or take your own). Once you have meals/snacks taken care of, you can decide how much you want to spend on optional things. It really depends on how "extravagant" you want to be... we did WDW in 2005 with no dining, offsite room with kitchen, and carrying snacks and drinks in with us. We are a family of 5 (kids = 6, 4, and 2 at the time), and I bet we made it on about $60/day, maybe less (that doesn't include room, parking, or park tickets, of course). We were pinching our pennies hard, though, and I think we only bought one souvenir. I will tell you that one day we splurged and ate a character meal at the Crystal Palace, and I felt so much more recharged--plus the kids love the characters. So, it's definitely worth budgeting for at least 1 table service meal (and I'd say character meal for the kids). I am living proof that you can make it through a week by eating granola bars, etc. in the parks instead of buying food, but I do think that you miss out on that rest/recharge time that you get when you actually buy a meal...

I'm looking forward to this Sept and the free dining--we've got about 7 character meals reserved. I don't think I could do that without free dining, but I probably would plan 2 or 3 (we have 12 days in the world)...

 

[Jellyfish]

yeh i need to budget my money as well

 

[BRER DAD]

A budget!!!!!! I didint know there was such thing a WDW!!! Maybe I will try that somtime.

 

[Cara1210]

I think that you should be fine on $200 a day, but if I were you, I would have an emergency stash of $$$ or a credit card to use for emergencies i.e. one of you gets ill and needs a quick trip to urgent care and some medicine or your suitcases get delayed by the airline and you need to buy an extra day's worth of clothes, etc. I just like to be prepared.:animwink:

 

[mousebymarriage]

As many others have said before, it truely depends on how your family eats. We love to do character meals and always do 1 breakfast and 1 dinner with the characters. On our last trip we paid for the dining plan and it was well worth it (we did 5 or 6 character meals) and never had to worry about what we were spending on food. Even if you stay on property you can save a little cash by having breakfast in your room (my hubby usually goes to the foodcourt while I am showering and getting the kids ready). We usually have bagels or cereal, which is fine because by lunch time you are really hungry and the portions at the counter service and table service(especially buffets) are more than enough. Also, you may have times that purchasing a kids meal just won't work because the kids meals are very limited and how many times can your kids eat chicken nuggets over a 2 week period. When we went in April my DD was 9 and got to the point where she didn't even want to look at another order of chicken nuggets and grapes, so a few times I had the kids meal and she ordered whatever she wanted from the regular menu. I really couldn't blame her for not wanting to eat chicken nuggets all the time, Disney really needs to give more choices at ALL of their resturants for kids!