Budgeting?

[Grimdogg]

Hi there

I have a few questions relating to daily budgets - specifically for driving:

1) How much to budget for fuel? (we have hired a car for whole holiday)
2) What is the current price for parking at parks?

Also - if dining offsite - what are your plans for budgeting for dining? We are a family of 4!

Mark

[mick]

If you are only driving locally to the parks etc. you'll really find that gas is a fairly insignificant part of your budget. Difficult to be exact obviously but you'll fill a full size car for maybe $40 possibly twice in a holiday. Gas is currently around $2.40 a gallon (although the US gallon is only about 80% of an imperial gallon).

Think my maths are right. US gallon = 3.8 litres. $2.40/gallon at say $1.35/£1 = 47p a litre. Figures rounded obviously.

Parking at WDW is $22 a day.

We are only a couple. Breakfast out every day at Bob Evan etc., light lunch in the villa and dinner at Longhorn for instance. Always inside $100 a day. But does your four include toddlers or strapping teenagers?

Mick

[Grimdogg]

We have a 5 and 8 year old.

[mick]

Originally Posted by Grimdogg

We have a 5 and 8 year old.

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Sadly even all our grandchildren are more than twice that age so I can't remember that far back.

Buffets would be good and there's kids eat free offers but I can't help with specifics I'm afraid.

Mick

[MrsArcher2b]

We are a couple and have a rough budget of $100 per day for food and petrol.

We have a smallish car which will probably cost around $60 for a 2 week holiday.

We eat out for breakfast and dinner and just get a snack for lunch.

[princess allie]

We are a family of 3, 2 ad and 1 ch. We budget for $100 per day. We eat most breakfasts at the villa, we usually go to Golden Corral on the first morning for a massive blowout breakfast. We have snack lunches (wraps, crisps, cereal bars and fruit) and then eat out in the evening. I also buy restaurant deals from places like Groupon before we go, so some of the food costs are covered. You can also buy eGift cards from Amazon for the larger chain restaurants and I buy a few of them too before we go as you can still use any coupons or discounts with them. Petrol is really cheap and we usually fill up approximately twice for about $30-40 each time.

If you are on a budget, make use of the kids eat free cards if you have them. You can also get a big filling meal for a small amount at CiCis pizza and they accept the kids eat free cards. Also, we love Sweet Tomatoes, you can usually eat for about $30 for a family of four (sign up to their loyalty club before you go). It has a massive buffet, but there is very little meat, it's mostly salad, pizza and pasta with ice creams for dessert.

[mrs_dlw]

We are a family of 4, Children just a bit older than yours (8/11). As mentioned above fuel was insignificant really - i think the tank came full and we probably put in around $20 for the whole two weeks. Budget wise car parking at Disney was $20 per day (this has now gone up to $22) this actually over the two weeks took up quite a chunk of our holiday spends! Eating wise we usually had breakfast at the villa, lunch and snacks out at parks at around $50 per day and dinner (either at Longhorms, Bahama Breeze type places) was around $100-$120 dollars per evening - my children eat off the adult menu though and my daughter has a penchant for 'Mocktails". That would also include 1 beer for the husband (driver) and a couple of cocktails or wine for me, it also included the 20% tip. Some evening we just had a pizza from Walmart and stayed in, and also other evenings we ate at Disney (eg Teppan Edo came in at £220! ) or at Citywalk (Buppa Gumps $140 - although this included more alcohol as we were on site so husb could have more than one!). I think before we went I budgeted $200 per day but most days we came in under that x

[ziggyzag]

We are 3 adults 1 child ( age 7 this year) We stay offsite. We budget $200 for everything. We eat breakfast in the Vill, takes snacks to the park and buy dinner on the way home. In 2016 it was a once in a lifetime trip We did character meals etc Most days we spent the $200 (did include shopping) , anything we didn't spend rolled over to the next day, Fuel wise over 3 weeks probably put $30 in.
Last year again we allowed $200 but we didn't do character meals apart from one, we barely spent $100 a day but didn't go without Fuel wise we had a bigger car and put in $40

[Goldia]

Last summer we ate cereal for our breakfasts in the room. Then all meals were eaten out at parks or on I drive. We are a family of 4. The kids were 11 and 9. We spent around $100 a day, sometimes more if we fancied another cocktail. I did a food report and included the prices there's a link in my signature if you're interested.

[Ciano]

We are a family of 4 too our children are 14 and 9. Petrol costs as per Micks post above. Park parking fees are gone mental. We only do a couple of park days now. Universal is free after 6pm!
We love Bob Evans brekkie. For the 4 of us you are talking $40 inc tip. We also love Longhorns! Dinner for 4 of us with 2 pints for hubbie and 2 desserts min $100.
Last yr our exchance rate was $1.04 per € so everything felt v expensive. So looking forward to this yr as we are currently at $1.25 to € !