how do you budget for disney?

[jojo]

How does everyone budget? do you save a certain amount and then you just blow it all at Disney or do you allow yourself a certain amount on a credit card?

Do you plan every meal and approximate cost or what?

We have a certain amount saved but its the extras I know will blow the budget and its how to stay sensible whilst not spoiling the holiday by penny pinching

[DisneyFreak]

How does everyone budget? do you save a certain amount and then you just blow it all at Disney or do you allow yourself a certain amount on a credit card?

Do you plan every meal and approximate cost or what?

We have a certain amount saved but its the extras I know will blow the budget and its how to stay sensible whilst not spoiling the holiday by penny pinching

We generally budget a certain amount per day and try and stick to that, whether it be for food, drinks, souvenirs, etc....

[Taja]

Everyone is different. I don't like to use credit or debit cards for general expenses, as it's easy to lose track. I reserve them for paying for the room, tickets, rental car or other large expenditures. Occasionally a meal, if it's for a larger group and at an upscale venue. But I usually know that I'll be doing that in advance. And I carry my debit card for emergencies. Real emergencies--medical, transportation snafus, etc. Shopping doesn't qualify as an emergency for me, unless it's a prescription or someting similar!

You can use the menus on this site to get a general idea of the cost of on-site meals. Off site meals typically are a bit less expensive for the similar types of meals on WDW property. If you plan to dine at WDW TS (table service) restaurants, you will need to make ADRs in advance--I think it's 90 days out for most locations, with exceptions for dinner shows at CRT.

That gives you a good idea of food/snack costs for budgeting. Shopping? We're back to everyone being different! I'm not much of a shopper, so my shopping budget tends to be bare bones, unless someone has asked me to pick up something for them. Others set a total budget for the trip, or per person for the trip or daily. If you have children, you'll need to consider how you want to handle that, depending on their ages. Adults buying something periodically for the very young, reminding toddlers that they can buy something (with a little steering to appropriate price range by adults) at the end of the day or before leaving the park, or giving older children a budget or allowing them to earn some money with extra chores before the trip. I sound like a broken record: everyone is different!

[Mari]

Well.. lets see...

We paid the holiday by CC. planes/resort/park tickets.... but it is all paid off before we actually go.

We take some cash (aobut 1000usd) for general expenses: tips/snacks/some souvenirs/meals

And we take our CCs for shopping, but with a set amount.... that way I know how much I can spend without getting into debt, but I dont have to carry all the money around

[ukwdwnut]

we just save up as much as pos, simple as that really. pay for tix, flights etc on the card as and when we have it so pay it off right away. then scrimp and scrape to get as much spends as we can

[tb2830]

i'll be living on beans on toast for the next 3and half weeks

[Mari]

i'll be living on beans on toast for the next 3and half weeks

You just made me spit my water

[Tinkfan]

This is one reason we usually get the DDp, so we don't have to worry about the cost of meals! Breakfast we pay oop but since none of us are big breakfast eaters $20. per day is more than enough to budget for all 3 of us. We're not big into shopping, something for each grandchild, Ty saves his money and brings about $25 a day to spend and usually he comes home with the majority of it! i swear he's been taking the same cash for the past 4 years! usually we bring about $600. in cash. We have our debit for emergencys'

[Ursula]

We eat air... I have some good recipes for air!

[Dawn]

We pay as much in advance as possible - car, tickets, etc.

Then we don't eat for 6 months prior to going.

We are off site eaters so that cuts the food budget a lot. We have a very loose daily budget that seems to balance itself by the end of the holiday and carry a credit card for emergencies of that ican'tgohomewithoutthat purchase.