Spending money - how much?

[MinnieEars22]

Hi all

I know this question could be how long is a piece of string but how much spending money should I be budgeting for?

Looking at one night in Rosen Inn, 2 nights Hard Rock and 11 nights Disney with DDP.

Will need food money until we check into Disney, tip money for Disney, planning one day in the outlets (not major shopping but wouldn't pass up a few bargains) and Disney spending money.

3 adults and 1 child (who will have his own spending money)

Anyone any idea? x

[Andybear]

Whenever I go on holiday, wherever it is I'm going, I never set myself a budget for spending money - I just save however much I can. I find setting myself a budget just puts unnecessary pressure on me. A few weeks ago I started saving £2 coins for my trip to WDW next year. I counted it a couple of days ago - in 6 weeks I've managed to save £50. I'm also saving coins of 20p or less. Plus after I've paid the balance of the holiday I'll keep on saving however much I can out of my salary until I go. I'm not going until September 2018 so I'll see how I get on.

[Donald Ducky]

Your outside disney and universal resorts will be quite reasonable for foods
But you've got to take into account if your having buffet service or seated restaurant meal
At universal or Disney there's tipping to take into consideration.
Disneys price are inflated and although your not paying for meals as you are under the ddp
They still expect grats. The more you spend on the meal the more expensive great they expect.
Personally I think it's wrong should be a set flat rate no matter what you spend. This can soon take your spending money up.
Quick service there no tipping so you can budget by alternating.
Then drinks in the parks can soon add up at $3-4 a bottle of water. So if you can get some at supermarket before and store in room. The kitchen at hard rock is nice and great food though it can soon add up especially with grat on top. You can view prices on universals website.
It's usually 15-18% grat for buffet
And 20-25% of bill total on top for more up market restaurants.

[lam]

A minimum of around $1000 each for the adults.
That covers roughly $30 tip for each evening meal x 11 nights
Money for little extras in the park extra (ice cream) or things not covered by DDP-$20-$30pp.

The rest for hard rock/rosen inn and shopping!

Have a good think about it and take a credit card as back up

Enjoy your holiday
Regards

[loves2plan]

Other than tips you don't really need money for any extras on the dining plan. Extras like ice creams and treats are covered with snack credits. You can get free cups of iced water from any quick service restaurant, so no need to buy bottles of water either. If you do want a bottle, then use a snack credit. Not the best use value wise, but better than spending money and then having credits left over - we had 21 snack and 11 quick service credits left over last month and definitely didn't go hungry. I wrote a food report - QS only, but will give you an idea of the amount of food available - link at the bottom of my signature.

As a family of 4 with 2 teenagers, the most we've ever taken is $1000 plus we had the $200 gift card which covered the majority of our tips for 2 weeks. The $1000 covered taxis (not cheap Uber ones either) for 4 offsite days out, food, photo packages and some shopping and souvenirs. If you're not big shoppers, then you won't need too much, but it's good to have a credit card as back up in case you end up buying more than you thought

[lam]

As a family of 2.
We 'averaged' out our expenditure and it worked out like this (for a 14-26 day holiday at disney and/or offsite):-
$150 per day (for non dining plan days) and about $50-$60 per day for dining plan days.

We found this budget covered our OVERALL expenditure, including taxis, trips, restaurants (on days not covered by dining plan), tips,shopping etc.
Basically all our shopping needs and we usually come back with a few hundred spare $'s which we keep for the next year.

[MinnieEars22]

Thanks for the replies guys.

Ideally I'd like $5000 but realistically it will probably be $3500 - $4000. Good to know I should be covered with that though 😁

[Shani]

We went last year - Sept/Oct for 2 weeks. 14 nights at OKW with the dining plan and 1 night at RPR in the middle - so had to pay for 2 days food whilst at Universal. We're a family of 5 - kids then aged 10 / 12 / 15.

I had a total of about $1500 between cash and my fairfx card. $200 x 3 of that was the kids own spends, so I had about $900. I still have $170 left in cash now, about $50 on my fairfx card and put about £200 on my credit card whilst out there (meal at Toothsome Chocolate Factory the credit card mainly was).

You can go with as much or as little as you like, especially as you have the DDP. We're not big shoppers at all, the only thing I bought for me was a swimming costume from the shop at the Poly!

[yehacantwait]

You cant hold in your hand what you havent got

[Edin]

We are taking about $1000 each we are staying offsite but I will be taking my credit card just in case