Money

[DisneyAggies]

Ok, we've been to WDW several times and each time we go I budget money differently.

So, it is getting closer to our next trip (43 days! [img]graemlins/clappy.gif[/img] ) and I was wondering what you guys/gals do to come up with a budget for your trip.

[ June 06, 2002, 12:13 AM: Message edited by: DisneyAggies ]

[EmisDisneyMom]

I allow $150 a day. At the end of the day if there is anythig left over I put it with the final days money. On the final day that is the money I spend on shopping for gifts and things. We have plane tickets, ground transportation, hotel, and park tickets already purchased prior to arriving so the $150 is for food.

[imported_Melanears]

Hey Amanda!!

Here's how we budgeted for our trip in March - Income Tax Return ---->Blow it ALL at WDW!! [img]graemlins/shakehead.gif[/img]

Sorry, I wasn't much help! I will leave now!

[Roland]

When I go alone for 7 days, I figure about $300 for me and that is just for food. I rarely buy souvenirs anymore because all they sell is junk. I have some of the older stuff when it was quality (well, somewhat) pieces and you can tell a great difference in the appearance, feel and weight of their stuff now compared to only a few years ago.

[Katmegali]

It really depends on how big your family is.
We judged 800 for food and souverners for our family of five for 5 days. It also depends on where you want to eat.. some places are more expensive.
Do a daily budget of how much you want to spend. Add it up for the time you are staying and then add in room and tickets.
Thus saying.. We blew our budget [img]graemlins/blush.gif[/img]

[AndrewJackson]

I don't really have a set amount for each day, each day is very different. We stay at the campgroud, so on days we just relax at FW, we don't spend much on food. I actually have an Excel spreadsheet that I keep. I have done it for several trips now.

This is what I do. I set a budget, and figure meals, fun money, tickets, campground, gas, everything. Then I charge everything that I possibly can to my campsite. When I return I take all the receipts and enter them into the spreadsheet, kinda a before and after. I have found that the first couple were way under budget, but now I can get pretty close to the actual cost of the trip.

[harperwi]

I also use a spreadsheet. I have three columns for each day and one row for each spending "category" (b'fast, lunch, dinner, dessert, snack, drinks, souveniers, gas, rental car, tickets, hotel...) and then I figure out how much I would spend as a max on each day in each category. The only one I average out over the whole trip is souveniers - I pick a max amount to spend and then divide it across all days.

I know pretty much where we'll eat each day, or at least when the SPECIAL meals will be, and that the rest will be pretty much counter service. That way I can check out the menus online, figure what selections will be likely, add tax and tip and plug those amounts in.

The three columns per day make it easy to use in printed form in the hotel. First column is budgeted amount. 2nd is 'actual.' Finally, the third is over/under. An underspent amount means I can decide where to transfer the money for subsequent days (more souveniers!!). An overspending means I have to borrow from something else (no snack on Friday). I almost never overspend, because I pad my budget a little in each entry.

Last trip I ended up with a pretty fair amount extra at the end, mostly because we decided to go counter service instead of Chefs de France and I opted not to get a snowglobe - things like that.

Personally, after this type of budgeting (which is really more fun than work), I would never do the "$x per day" approach again.

Best of all, if anyone wants to see the spreadsheet I have, I'm more than willing to share. Email me for more info.

Jon

[Swedish Cath]

We budgeted $150 a day for food and souveniers for three of us (including 11yr old) and that wasn't really enough. We are not big eaters or drinkers and we didn't really buy many souveniers but we were suprised how much money we went through. Everywhere in WDW is so expensive. We only avoided going WAY over budget by eating several cheaper meals offsite in our second week.

If you plan on eating in any nice/expensive restaurants in WDW and you plan to have at least a sit down breakfast and dinner I would say that you can count on $75/person/day. If you are going to bring your own breakfast and eat snack lunches you may get away with $50/person/day but not if you want to drink cocktails or eat at the Californian Grill every night.

Typical meal costs for the three of us when we were there in May. (not including tips)

Breakfast at Boma: $40
Breakfast at CBR food court: $23
Lunch at a fast food place in the parks: $25
Dinner at Chef Mickey's (one glass wine 2 beers): $68
Dinner at Californian Grill (2 glasses wine, 1 beer 1 single bourbon): $130
Dinner at pasta restaurant in DD (1 glass wine, 2 beers): $105

Add drinks and icecreams etc while we are in the parks and it soon gets us over budget.

We spent approx. $2300 in 14 days and only $50 of that was souveniers. We ate or drank the rest!!

Mind you had a fantastic time!!!!! just have to live slim for a month or so now we are home [img]graemlins/silly.gif[/img] [img]graemlins/laughing.gif[/img]

[DisneyAggies]

Originally posted by Melanears:
Hey Amanda!!

Here's how we budgeted for our trip in March - Income Tax Return ---->Blow it ALL at WDW!! [img]graemlins/shakehead.gif[/img]

LOL Melanie, believe it or not, that was last year's budget for WDW!!! [img]graemlins/doubleeek.gif[/img] (great minds think alike, huh? ) However, this year that money is going to a new fridge for the new house. I've got to get more creative with my budgeting this time!!

[ June 06, 2002, 11:01 AM: Message edited by: DisneyAggies ]

[disneygoofball]

I was planning on using my income tax return too, but after I did my taxes, I owed money!!!!

So...this was my solution: I booked the deluxe package because it included food. I now have all my souvenier(sp?) money saved up (as long as my car holds together - lol), and I will just cut lots of corners to save up the money to go. I've been saving my spare change and dollar bills. For me, it's easiest this way because I know how much money I have to save up, but I don't have to worry about budgeting for food - it doesn't matter how much or expensive the food is (in fact, the more expensive, the better!)

Just a thought. If you have the money to do it, it is a great idea for some people (I figured out how much more a day it would cost, and it's worth it for me, but it's not for everyone). [img]graemlins/mickey.gif[/img]

[AmyKane]

We never budget! It is so different every time we go. "Buy now - pay later"