holiday budget

[gerry67]

does anyone have any idea how many dollars you would require to take with you for 2 weeks for 5 people.I have already bought all my park tickets.

[florida4sun]

It all depends on how you want to spend your money. I would say anything from $3000 - $5000

<blockquote id="quote" class="ffs">quote:Originally posted by gerry67
does anyone have any idea how many dollars you would require to take with you for 2 weeks for 5 people.I have already bought all my park tickets.
[/quote]

[Kazzie]

Hi Gerry,

As Martin says it all depends what you intend to do while you are there. If you are staying in a villa you have the facilities to cook at home or maybe bbq which will obviously make things a little cheaper. There are many many restaurants which vary quite a lot in price so you can make things more or less expensive as you please. Some of the restaurants like Dennys and Perkins you can use the discount coupons, you can pick up these booklets at WalMart etc. Try one of the many places that do a buffet breakfast before you get to the parks. Also you do not state how many children are in your party of 5. Many restaurants have childrens menus which are a good price.

If you have already bought your theme park tickets that is the main expense out of the way.

It really is a hard question to answer, its a bit like asking how long is a piece of string. There are many ways of making your stay not so costly or making it cost a fortune. Hoever much you are thinking of taking, add a little more as there are many bargains to be had in the shops too[msnwink]

Enjoy your stay.

Karen

[pieman790]

It also depends on the ages of people as a 2 year is going to cost you alot less than a 16-18 year old. As already stated many factors will affect this including what you intend to do, purchase, eat out? etc.
I see that you are based in the UK so with the exchange rate going in our favour so anything you buy/spend will be cheap compared to here in the UK.
We as a family of 4 would normally spend around $4000-$5000 per 2 week trip.

[steve-w]

hi gerry

on our last trip , we took $4000 spending money for me the missus and 3 kids '4 10 and 15'
had villa,tickets and car all pre booked
and still come home with some change[msnsmile]

all depends how mad your gonna be with your souveniers and clothes shopping etc etc

steve

[LL]

Its always difficult to gauge how much people will spend. We have been going for years and the amount can vary considerably depending on how much shopping is done and if we eat in the theme parks or in the villa.

We cover this by making sure we have money on our current accounts and our credit cards with us. We use the Nationwide because they don't make any charges and use the debit card to take cash out of the machines and the credit card for main purchases. If you have access to the internet then you can monitor the account online.

If you eat out you can get breakfast from about $5 and dinner from about $15+ each. Its obviously much cheaper to eat in and food can be much more expensive than that if eaten in better restaurants.

[Appledore]

As everyone else has said it depends so much on what you are going to do. But if you take too much of course the exchange rate is excellent at the moment so if you can afford to hold on exchanging any left over cash, wait until the dollar strengthens and then change it back and you could make a little profit.

Elaine

[Steve and Dawn]

Clothes shopping is the killer, everything is so much cheaper there it is easy to get carried away. If you are not going to bother too much with that then I would say $3-$3500 should be plenty

[mizzy]

if the kids are old enough then it's a good idea for them to have their own spending money, it stops them pestering you all the time to buy things and i've found that when it comes to handing over their own cash they are more likely to think about how much they want the item

my two had quite a few dollars that we split up into days and then they carried fwd anything they didn't spend

we took $3,500 this last trip (2 adults 2 kids, 11 and 13yrs) and still had a few hundred left coming home[msnsmile]

[Stuart Bairstow]

Hi Gerry - Our family is 2 adults and 2 teenagers and we always take $2000 but we pay any large amounts ie good restaurants/shopping items/any large gifts by card. We find that having a budget in cash helps to keep track of money for everyday needs. If you are staying in a villa it is great to have cheaper days which are much appreciated by all of us rather than going out to eat every night!
I agree with Mizzy - the kids have their own money/budget and that helps although mine are older so don't witter for the cuddly toys anymore..... When they were younger we found that buying the cuddly toy at Disney at the beginning of the holiday meant they didn't ask 'much' for anything else from the Disney stores.
Have a great holiday

[alfie]

just got back spent $6000 for 2 weeks, did stay at top hotels and ate at expensive restaurants also kids got new clothes etc and i did pay $630 on car insurances. plus mgm tickets kids are 14 16 and 16 so adults sort of. we did do parasailing, jet skiing etc so no expense spared normally for 2 weeks without paying out for theme park tickets, insurances and eating out all the time at a mix of expensive and middlish restaurants do about $3000 for 2 weeks and that is not skrimping on anything. have a great time.

[steph_goodrum]

The easiest way to do it is to get something like a Nationwide account to put your spending money in and take some cash/travellers cheques with you and pay from the card for the rest. You dont get charged and at the end of the holiday if you havent used it is is still in Sterling so you wont lose out changing it back.

[ccarcher]

We (2 adults 2 kids) recently came back after a month in Florida and spent £2500

We never paid for anything on cards whilst there, rarely ate at the Villa, apart from lunch and breakfast as never there in the evenings

We also had all our passes before we went

So apart from the meals out, petrol in the car, we also did a fare bit of shopping I would imagine well over £600 if not nearer £800 on clothes kids toys etc

We went with a budget of £100 a day which I think should be more than enough for the average family, and we did absolutely everything we wanted to do no problems

I would imagine you could bring this down a bit if you wanted to, although I think you could be hard pushed to spend more than £100 a day currently on around $2 to the £1

[dsv77]

We are a family of 5 but the kids are all adult now ,although we pretty much pay for all the food tickets ect we budget for $200 per day for food as we eat out most of the time . that usually covers two meals aday we dont eat in the cheaper places like the eat all you can places like the golden coral . We tend to eat in places like the Olive Garden & Uno,s . We can usualy get away with spending around $3500 in total , unless I go mad a buy a new Diamond [high5]

[domster]

We would probably budget for around $200 per day. But it all depends on what you intend doing really. Go to the parks every day and it will be more than sat around the pool.

[Cruella DeVilla]

I always think this is a very personal subject that is difficult to answer it depends on what you plan to do. Take as much as you can afford and if you don't spend it great. A CC is a great backup and I would say a must.

[blott]

We only tend to pay for food and very minor items with cash and use our Nationwide credit card for the rest. With that in mind, we get through about $1k of cash each on a four week visit so $500 each on a two week visit. The rest on the credit card doesn't matter that much as it's paid in UK£s and therefore isn't critical to account for beforehand for exchanging it.

[mfairhurst]

We use a credit card for large things and pay cash for others .
It is easy to over spend as the things are so cheap here compared to UK .
Someplaces children eat free and if it is buffet service can go back for more if they like a certain food .
We love the icecreams and not kids anymore also the jellys .
Have a lovely vacation .
MAUREEN
www.onlinefloridavillas.com/villas/1683.aspx

[Tonish]

My personal experience is to allow as much as you can - say, twice what seems excessive; double it, add on half again and you'll maybe get close to what you will spend.

At least that's if, like us, you're impulse buyers.:)

[chrizzy100]

I take about $300 for 10 days for two...me and my daughter...if its hubby I up it to $500....we mostly veg out at home...I remember taking $100 a day for food alone when my 2 kids were small...that was 14 years ago..

[florida4sun]

How does this does not help your average holiday holiday maker who will require much more than this.

<blockquote id="quote" class="ffs">quote:Originally posted by chrizzy100
I take about $300 for 10 days for two...me and my daughter...if its hubby I up it to $500....we mostly veg out at home...I remember taking $100 a day for food alone when my 2 kids were small...that was 14 years ago..
[/quote]

[chrizzy100]

<blockquote id="quote" class="ffs">quote:Originally posted by florida4sun
How does this does not help your average holiday holiday maker who will require much more than this.

<blockquote id="quote" class="ffs">quote:Originally posted by chrizzy100
I take about $300 for 10 days for two...me and my daughter...if its hubby I up it to $500....we mostly veg out at home...I remember taking $100 a day for food alone when my 2 kids were small...that was 14 years ago..
[/quote]
[/quote]

I think it does...I said...I USED to take $100 a day 14 years ago for food alone...so most normal people would maybe double the amount nowadays for a family of four...

[edlea]

At the risk of sounding pompous and demeaning (I'm not BTW), isn't this question a) a bit daft and b) impossible to answer ??

Surely it's a bit like asking everyone who posts on here how much they need per week in the UK isn't it ?
We're all different ; some drink, some smoke, some gamble, some go to restaurants, some eat at home, some spend three weeks in theme parks, some folk don't go near 'em, some buy clothes, some buy golf clubs etc. etc. ad infinitum.

I can't really believe anyone seriously asking the question in the first place and can't believe anyone giving a serious and accurate reply without knowing intimately your lifestyle and spending habits.

Don't mean to sound too harsh, hence smileys. :) :)

[Bex]

<blockquote id="quote" class="ffs">quote:Originally posted by edlea
At the risk of sounding pompous and demeaning (I'm not BTW), isn't this question a) a bit daft and b) impossible to answer ??

Surely it's a bit like asking everyone who posts on here how much they need per week in the UK isn't it ?
We're all different ; some drink, some smoke, some gamble, some go to restaurants, some eat at home, some spend three weeks in theme parks, some folk don't go near 'em, some buy clothes, some buy golf clubs etc. etc. ad infinitum.

I can't really believe anyone seriously asking the question in the first place and can't believe anyone giving a serious and accurate reply without knowing intimately your lifestyle and spending habits.

Don't mean to sound too harsh, hence smileys. :) :)
[/quote]

I agree everyone's tastes and life styles are different, some people can manage on a £1000 some would struddle with 3 times that. I remember the first time me and hubby went to Orlando, we asked my sister for spending advice (who had been a number of times before) she told us they took £700 for a family of 4 to last them 2 weeks, so with that in mind we took £500 for the 2 of us for 7 days. We managed just, if i remember right we spent the last few $ on drinks at the airport on the way home, but felt right through the holiday we were money watching. We asked sis how they ever managed on the amount they took? found out later they always fall back on their credit cards.

My answer to anyone asking about how much to take in $, is to take as much money as you can, better to take too much and come home with money, than to take too little and run out of money before the end of your holiday. When we go over now we always take as much money as we have saved, usually a minium of $2500 with a back - up of a credit card.