3 weeks in Florida, $100 dollars a day family of 4. We did it!

[hellin family]

Hi all

For anyone concerned about budgeting for spends, we just returned from a fabulous 3 weeks in Florida. Our budget was $100 a day. Here's who we are and how we did it.

Family of four, DS 11 and DD 7. DS always orders from adult menu, DD from kids. We are not drinkers, so only ever soft drinks bought.

We stayed in a villa for the first 16 nts, then went to St Pete's beach in a hotel, room only, for two nights, then finished with the most lovely stay at Loews Royal Pacific resort (club level).

The children took their own money - they were up to $215 each when we went, so they bought their own toys, souvenirs, but not treats snacks ice cream - we got that.

We hammered vouchers before we went:
2 x Landrys cards, one each. We used $50 dollars off (by splitting the bill and each using welcome reward) at Rainforest cafe, making the bill for four of us about $22 dollars plus tip. Second $50 off at T Rex cafe making bill about $28 plus tip.

2 x groupon vouchers for CiCis pizza buffet so we had 2 visits here within the three weeks - these were under $10 each to buy as I took advantage of extra discount offers with groupon. Our groupon was only valid at one Cici's which we wouldn't visit again unfortunately.

2 x Smashburger $20 off coupons, again had discounted groupons so cost me about £6 each. We loved smashburger - would go again. After the voucher came off we paid about $14 for the four of us to eat. Very close to Universal.

1 x $25 dollars off for the Freckled Finn at Holmes beach. Cost after voucher was about $28.

1 x $50 voucher for Hash House A Go Go on I drive - we've been before and love it. Cost after voucher was an incredible $2 plus tip.

We had a restaurant.com voucher for My french cafe. The owner did not accept it. Grrrrrr. Only voucher fail though. DH admitted I did very well with my vouchers!

We also had a character breakfast at Tusker House in AK (approx $130 from memory) and ate at Sci Fi Diner in Hollywood Studios (approx $100).

We had breakfast in villa, and some lunches in villa, although we always had something in the park when we went - like corn dogs/chips at Casey's corner. Lots of snacks, ice cream, Voo Doo donuts at Universal.

When we stayed at Loews it was club level so a free continental breakfast, free drinks all day, snacks at lunch, light evening meal and we found that really saved us loads in our last three days.

Hope that helps anyone planning their budgets. Any mall shopping (we didn't do much) we put on CC but I'd say only about $100.

Highs and Lows to follow seperatly

[lcm23]

You did well with vouchers. We’re planning a visit to hash house a go go. Where did you get your $50 dollar voucher? Was that a groupon too? When using groupons do you have to book a table in advance and tell them you have a groupon like you do here or can you just turn up?

[hellin family]

Hash House voucher was from travelzoo - just put in Orlando and search restaurants, it's still there and costs $29 for a $50 voucher. We love it here and so do the children.

With groupon we never booked ahead, just turned up and presented voucher.

Happy planning

[Burgmeister]

Originally Posted by hellin family

Hash House voucher was from travelzoo - just put in Orlando and search restaurants, it's still there and costs $29 for a $50 voucher. We love it here and so do the children.

With groupon we never booked ahead, just turned up and presented voucher.

Happy planning

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So your $2 bill was actually $31 ($2 plus cost of voucher)?

Don't the Landry's cards cost $25 each? Your posting implies that you get $50 worth of vouchers with each card. Have I understood that correctly?

Well done with your vouchering - how much do you think you saved overall when taking in to account cost of vouchers and the voucher that didn't work?

[Andybear]

When I saw your subject header I assumed that was everything for $100 a day, including souvenirs, shopping etc. Reading your post that wasn't the case. With the kids having their own money of $215 for souvenirs etc that's another $430 to be added to your initial figure. Plus the shopping you put on your credit card. So you spent more than $100 a day.

[cornishfrogboy]

Thankyou for a very interesting post. I am looking into the purchase of 1 or 2 Landry cards as we speak. Whilst the one or two bit doesn’t matter in terms of splitting the bill and using both, it does when both your birthdays occur either just before or during your vacation.
;-)
The key points would seem to be that you break even when you first use them by splitting the bill, then save $25 on each card if you succeed in taking spend on each one beyond $250. (Thus a 10% discount on that $250). If both your birthdays occur at the right time, you get a further credit of $25 on each card. To take full advantage, you must visit the listed restaurants on 3 x occasions whilst racking up a $251 spend before you last visit... I think?

Great if you intend 3 x visits and taking your total beyond $250 by the end of your second one..

[duchy]

Originally Posted by Andybear

When I saw your subject header I assumed that was everything for $100 a day, including souvenirs, shopping etc. Reading your post that wasn't the case. With the kids having their own money of $215 for souvenirs etc that's another $430 to be added to your initial figure. Plus the shopping you put on your credit card. So you spent more than $100 a day.

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Why ?
Shopping and tat aren't essentials ... food is.
It's like complaining someone isn't including the cost of petrol to the airport when they quote what flights cost them !
I don't really understand why you re moaning , the OP has some good tips they've shared

[olgaandcoda]

Useful breakdown of costs in restaurants, thank you.

[Burgmeister]

Originally Posted by cornishfrogboy

Thankyou for a very interesting post. I am looking into the purchase of 1 or 2 Landry cards as we speak. Whilst the one or two bit doesn’t matter in terms of splitting the bill and using both, it does when both your birthdays occur either just before or during your vacation.
;-)
The key points would seem to be that you break even when you first use them by splitting the bill, then save $25 on each card if you succeed in taking spend on each one beyond $250. (Thus a 10% discount on that $250). If both your birthdays occur at the right time, you get a further credit of $25 on each card. To take full advantage, you must visit the listed restaurants on 3 x occasions whilst racking up a $251 spend before you last visit... I think?

Great if you intend 3 x visits and taking your total beyond $250 by the end of your second one..

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Ah, I see. Presumably then the OP had 2 birthdays in order to get their second lot of $50 off their bills.

[Andybear]

Originally Posted by duchy

Why ?
Shopping and tat aren't essentials ... food is.
It's like complaining someone isn't including the cost of petrol to the airport when they quote what flights cost them !
I don't really understand why you re moaning , the OP has some good tips they've shared

See more...

I'm not moaning - far from it, I agree there are some great tips. But I've seen a lot of posts on here where people say they survived on $100 day and that included shopping, souvenirs etc, hence my comment. As regards cost of the petrol to the airport, the OP said that's what she spent there so of course I haven't included petrol to the airport etc - even I'm not that stupid.