Spending Money??

[netty68]

Hi all, hope you can advise us, we have booked our first Florida holiday for April next year, all done independently, but we are still debating how much spending money to take, there will be 5 of us, 3 kids aged 9 15 & 18 and 2 adults, with car hire already sorted and tickets for Universal.
How much on average would a family of 5 spend on food drinks fuel etc?
I dont intend on spending my holiday in the kitchen cooking but dont mind getting breakfast and the odd meal at home.
Any suggestions would be appreciated thanks!
Jeanette & Mat

[blott]

That's a bit like asking how long is a piece of string! It depends what dining habits you have and where you go, whether you're going to eat out all the time, are suckers for souveniers, intend to do piles of shopping, etc, etc. You won't spend very much on fuel as petrol is very cheap in Florida - unlike the UK unfortunately!

Whatever else you take, don't take all cash or travellers' cheques but make sure you take your credit and/or debit card(s) with you.

[Susan J]

I would say-
1]if you eat at Macdonalds, you'll not need as much as if you eat at the ritz!
2] if you drive a small compact car you won't use as much petrol as a Hummer -
You can see it is difficult to help you here.........
So here are a few thoughts- have a look on Publix web site [.com] for ideas on food prices -you'll probably spend a couple of hundred dollars on basics -bread/butter/milk/ cereals/ sandwich stuff eggs etc
Petrol is $2 a gallon at the moment
If you eat out at, for instance, a Denny's allow about $15-20 a head, if you eat at Outback Steak restaurant, their menu is available on line as many others are....
Shopping, well bring a cash cow and a credit card.........or two.......or three

[Solana]

Jeanette and Matt, difficult question this one but it won't be as expensive as Europe or even the UK.
We generally find that getting a large breakfast most days keeps you going until late afternoon. Taking small snacks to the parks for the kids means you don't have to keep buying food during the day and water is plentiful. We reckon that we don't spend much more on food or petrol than we would here in the UK for two weeks.
The big spends come in buying momentoes for the children and photographs at the parks from the various rides and of course the tivkets are a big outlay too.
Then there is the shopping............. as much as you like to spend here. I think you'll be pleasantly surprised at the costs especially if you pay for tickets and your car upfront before you travel.
Have an amazing trip I'm sure you'll be back.

[shona]

Jeanette & Mat, don't forget your disney tickets!!!![msnoo] no florida holiday is complete without seeing the mouse!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
[clap]

[lafifille]

If you already have your plane tickets, your accommodation, your rental car, and tickets for the parks you want to visit, why don't you buy dollars on a monthly basis, whatever you can save, and then April next year you get to spend whatever you've got, no more. And you will decide there how you want to spend your money: better restaurants, more shopping, lots of souvenirs, side activities...
I bought Travellers Checks (Amex): if there's money left I can always change it back.... as if!

[mu11en]

£2000 each if u can afford it.
and book the extra luggage allowance for everyone

[dsv77]

WOW mu11en are you seriously saying take 2,000GBP each , that amounts to 10.000GBP or around $15,000, that is one serious amount of money to spend on a holiday even a Disney holiday, especially if the tickets etc are pre bought.

I have 3 kids [ all grown up late teens early 20s] and I have never taken or spent over 5,000 GBP and we do a power of shopping, every time we go we ALL buy a watch [ not a cheap one either] plus all the usual trainers, jeans, t-shirts

we were there in Nov , we took 4,000GBP [dollar rate was 1.80] for 5 people we ate out EVERY meal in places like cheesecake factory,olive garden and chillis we spent two days in Tampa and paid for a hotel off that [ Intercontinental 3 rooms @ $100 pn ] , I bought a diamond ring and I still came home with 500GBP .

Oh I also bought a laptop.

we did not scrimp in anyway, infact I think we went a bit daft as it was so near xmas, so I bought xmas gifts for each of the kids too.

We have been many times now and sometimes if we are going 2 or 3 times a year we can only afford to take 2.500GBP yes the rate was at 1.92 then but we managed fine, and no we didnt eat in McDs or golden coral .

My only advise to the OP is take as much as you can afford without getting into serious debt, there are many many ways to enjoy your holiday without remortgageing your home

[Katys Grandad]

<blockquote id="quote" class="ffs">quote:Originally posted by mu11en
£2000 each if u can afford it.
and book the extra luggage allowance for everyone[/quote]Even if I could afford it, I wouldn't allocate £10,000 of my hard earned money to holiday spending anywhere.

I don't think you can do Orlando justice by watching what you spend all the time. A Florida holiday has never been a cheap item and the exchange rate has certainly made a big difference, but I'd have thought that you could have a great time for about half that.

[FraserLynn]

<blockquote id="quote" class="ffs">quote:Originally posted by Katys Grandad
<blockquote id="quote" class="ffs">quote:Originally posted by mu11en
£2000 each if u can afford it.
and book the extra luggage allowance for everyone
[/quote]

Even if I could afford it, I wouldn't allocate £10,000 of my hard earned money to holiday spending anywhere.

I don't think you can do Orlando justice by watching what you spend all the time. A Florida holiday has never been a cheap item and the exchange rate has certainly made a big difference, but I'd have thought that you could have a great time for about half that.


[/quote]

I agree, I usually budget around £200 a day (family of 4) plus £1,000 shopping money (total about £4k).

This year I had to increase this to £275 a day plus shopping money (about £5k) because of the exchange rate drop, but you can have a pretty good time within that budget.

That's of course after buying flights, villa rental, car hire, park tickets etc. in total i have not managed a fortnight trip for under £10k - but that is for the whole thing not just spending money.