spending money

[alliemom]

Hi, my trip with my daughter is August 17-24 and we have bought the dining plan. I am trying to estimate how much more money I need for the trip since basically everything is paid for all ready. It looks like I need money for a light breakfast in the morning as that is not part of the dining plan (I made all dinner reservations) and then spending money for souveniours. Is there anything that I am not taking into consideration for?
Thanks for your advise.

 

[daverube]

We (my fiancee and I) always try to budget in an addition $50.00 per day. Unless we buy a bottle of wine with dinner, we don't come close to spending this much (especially with the dining plan), but we figure we'd rather have surplus cash on the way home instead of a lighter bank account/bigger credit card bill.

Just my 2 cents.

Have a fantastic trip and don't forget the Dole Whip Floats!!!

dave

 

[amykissangel]

If you already have the dining plan, and you will only eat a light breakfast, I would just bring your own breakfast. Breakfast bars, youghert, etc. Since you'll be having a counter service lunch, you can eat whenever you want. If you don't eat much for breakfast, just have an early lunch.

Are you a souvenier shopper? After going so many times, you'd think that the buying would stop, but it doesn't

If you don't bring your own breakfast, figure $10 total for you and your daughter everyday...that's enough for cereal, milk, fruit, or perhaps pancakes in a food court.

You don't have to worry about snacks, as you'll get this on the dining plan.

Perhaps $30-$50 extra bucks a day, in case you find some things you really like?

So jealous...have fun!!!:wave:

 

[Loretta]

Don't forget money for tips. I always try to figure out before we leave how much we'll need to tip the mousekeeper every day, if we need help with our luggage etc.. I hang on to all my singles for a couple weeks, that way, we're
covered. Have a great time and have a Dole Whip on us.:wave:

 

[krueg66]

Not to sound like a lush but if you plan on having some drinks, they are pretty expensive at Disney. Not sure if your daughter is 2 or 21!!! $5 for a draft beer, $8 for a mixed drink...

 

[Nemo14]

Hi, my trip with my daughter is August 17-24 and we have bought the dining plan. I am trying to estimate how much more money I need for the trip since basically everything is paid for all ready. It looks like I need money for a light breakfast in the morning as that is not part of the dining plan (I made all dinner reservations) and then spending money for souveniours. Is there anything that I am not taking into consideration for?
Thanks for your advise.

Don't forget about water! At $2.50 per bottle, it can add up fast if you haven't budgeted for it, particularly in the August heat!

 

[alliemom]

Thank you everyone......the tip about saving up the ones is a great idea as tipping the valet is something I did forget about. My daughter is 5 yrs old so I imagine I should budget for quite a bit of water also. I appreciate the advise from everyone!! CAN'T WAIT........... 20 more days!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[gboiler1]

You also might want to save some trip money by purchasing prepacked snacks like granola bars, fruit snacks, crackers, etc.

Also turn your room key into a charge card by putting cash or traveler's checks on your account. We put $500 in traveler's checks for our 4 days in the parks but only spent about $300 or so, most of it on shirts, scrapbook supplies, potato head parts and a few other little souvenirs.

 

[LudwigVonDrake]

Thank you everyone......the tip about saving up the ones is a great idea as tipping the valet is something I did forget about. My daughter is 5 yrs old so I imagine I should budget for quite a bit of water also. I appreciate the advise from everyone!! CAN'T WAIT........... 20 more days!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

If she's five, budget a little extra for Ice Cream

Have a great trip!

 

[Lucky]

I think you'll find the meals are large enough that you may get by with your 2 counter service meals under the dining plan for both breakfast and lunch, and may get by just supplementing it with a few dollars on a la carte items (e.g. beverages) each day. There are 4 of us (2 adults, 2 kids), and we will only use 2 or at most 3 counter service meals at one time. It's just more food than we could possibly eat.

 

[peemagg]

Something we found the last time we went and used the dining plan was if we used our counter service for a good breakfast, all we really needed at lunch time was just a snack. We would also eat dinner at around 4:30- 5:00. Doing it this way we never felt hungry, and it allowed us more time between the meals to digest the first one before we hit our stomachs with another big meal. You have to think too that they have really expanded the snack list to include more options than before, so you could get by by using the snacks for lunch.

 

[shoppingnut]

We used the CS for breakfast each day and the sit down for dinner too and needed little more than a snack in the middle of the day. However, in August you will be buying more bottled water during the day. I would also recommend buying one or two of the refillable mugs to use at the food court because then if you decide to use the CS for breakfast, you can get bottled water for your drink with breakfast and take it with you to the parks each morning. With the CS you are entitled to a drink and this would give you at least some water to start the day. You'd be surprised how much water you tend to buy in August, I know we bought at least 8 bottles a day for the four of us. Since the bottled water is $2, use your snack options for ice cream or a dole whip, it's a better value.

I know the last time we went with the dining plan we didn't need very much extra money, since all was taken care of. I'd budget maybe $20-$30 a day and this would be without souvenier purchases. Also, many food courts have the toaster machines available for use, so you could bring the Thomas's non-frozen bagels and toast them, if I recall butter is free, but cream cheese you'd have to buy.

 

[Lucky]

You can get free cups of ice water on request at any of the drink stands in the parks. The tap water tastes especially bad in Florida of course, but I prefer that to paying $2 for a bottle of water. We'll save most of our snack credits under the dining plan for Mickey ice cream bars for the kids.

 

[hansel1]

My wife and I budget $100 per day in seperate envelopes. Our change from each day's $100 goes in a "home" envelope that we take back with us. We don't mingle the previous day's money with the next (this prevents us from spending too much any one day).

 

[mickeyforlife]

I go on mouseforless web site and print out how many days I'll be there and print out that many mousekeeper envelopes off the site and put my dollars in each envelope before I leave. then put them in safe in room and take out one each day. I print a couple extra envelopes for people like the person who picks up and leaves my luggage and fix before I leave so all this is ready and I don't have to worry about making sure I have change while I'm there.

 

[marcriss]

Have you budgeted tips for your ADR meals?

Have a great time!

 

[pcarathers]

we too use the envelopes for tipping the "mousekeeping" and also do one for each person, for each park.....if we have any money left from one day, we put it in the next day's envelope. by the end of the trip, we always have a little extra and we do MK last every time, and that seems to be where we spend the most $$.....we usually plan for $75.00/day just to make sure we have enough for tips, meals, snacks etc that are not coming out of the dining plan. plus we buy souvenirs for our neices and nephews who do not come on this particular trip with us.

 

[zurgandfriend]

I figure $1000.00 spending money for a week. That includes airport taxi, all tips, snacks/beverages and souvenirs. If there is any left over at the end of the week, and there usually is, it going back into the Disney fund for next time.

 

[ShadyLady]

Tips

Please dont forget tips for your sit down table-service meals. Many of these meals get really expensive for us, because even though you dont pay, they bring you an actual receipt where you can see how much the tab is, and 18-20% would be another $30-$40.

We do 3 sit down meals a day, and typically leave between $15-25 depending on level of service. But they service has always been really good for us, so we tip more if our server does something extra special.

We would NEVER eat like this any other time, and it really is a treat for us.

We take $500 for tips for an 8-day vacation, splurge on the Deluxe Dining, and save $ by staying at our favorite value resort - All-Star Movies.

We take an extra $500 spending $ for souveniers, and that is it.

For an 8-day family of 4 trip in June, we will spend about $4500 total, and that is driving down from KY (including our $500 tips and $500 souvenier money).