SPENDING MONEY FOR 3 WEEKS ????

[oakdale]

[?Hi all,
Would appreciate any advise on how much spending
money in dollars we would need for a 3 week holiday.
Two adults and 2 kids ( 8 & 11 years.) We will have our
tickets and car hire paid for so it will just be for food for
the villa, eating out etc and shopping?
Regards Anna.[8D]

[Claire M]

Hi Anna

We always take 2000 dollars for 2 weeks this is for 2 adults and 2 children 6&2. We never seem to run out of cash and I always come back with an extra suitcase.

Hope this helps.

Claire

[Carla]

You'll also have paid for the villa by the time you arrive, so you really only need money for eating, petrol and shopping. When our kids were younger we used to budget for $100 a day for all the essentials. Sometimes we spent more, sometimes less, depending on where we ate and how many times per day. A good breakfast from some of the buffet places like Ponderosa or Sizzlers, meant that lunch was never needed and we'd just buy an icecream in the Parks.

We then used our credit card for anything and everything else.

Buying soft drinks on a day out can really eat into your budget. We used to put bottles of water into the freezer and take these with us in a coolbag. We would open one at a time and share it - not because we were mean, but because the water can get warm very quickly once opened and at the mercies of the sun, and then no one wanted to drink it.

You can buy 24 bottles of water from Wal-Mart for around $5, whereas the Parks charge you $2.50 per bottle. You have to drink a lot each day, so you can save a fortune by taking your own.

[DMC]

Anna

Now there's a question and one which will be very difficult to answer as it'll all depend on how much you want / have available to spend.

Believe me when I say that Orlando / Disney is set up so that your purse and credit card work overtime, there is no shortage of shops / places to eat, to tempt you from your hard earned cash and in all honesty its not a place to "do on a tight budget".

If as you say you have already paid for your Villas / Tickets etc then that'll help matters, as will purchasing Food Items from Walmart / Publix etc. - if you do go out for breakfast / lunch or dinner, then try somewhere that does an All You Eat Buffett - this is typically around $4-$5 for breakfast and $8 - $10 each for Dinner.

As a rule of thumb most places are around the same price in $'s as the UK in £'s - so as a guide, calculate what the cost of a typical meal in the UK is for your family and then whatever the total cost in £'s is should be around what it is in $'s - off course you will then take into account the exchange rate to get the "true" cost.

So a meal costing around say in the UK £60.00 will be $60.00 in the US - should equate to about £35.00 ( depending on the current exchange rate etc )

Therefore, as a rough guide $120.00 - $150.00 per day for a family of 4 should be enough, don't forget bottle of drink / ice creams soon mount up - if you can buy them outside the Parks and take them in with you that will help keep the costs down.

I guess for 3 weeks around $2500 - $3000 could be the amount on food alone, assuming that you eat out most nights.

The other thing you could try,is to give your children Holiday Spending Money - which is their's to do with what they like - that way they don't keep having to ask Mum & Dad for cash and once its gone its gone !! ( although that's easier said than done )

As far as shopping in concerned well that's impossible to put a figure on and my advise would again be to try and set yourself a budget as it is very easy to let the cost run away with you.

As with food the cost of goods / items etc in general budget on similar $ for £ prices - although there is more choice and you can get good discounts on Sports Goods etc.

So if you have a shopping list, price the list in the UK and do a similar calculation as above with the food.

Hope this helps.

[chrizzy100]

<blockquote id="quote" class="ffs">quote:Originally posted by Carla
You'll also have paid for the villa by the time you arrive, so you really only need money for eating, petrol and shopping. When our kids were younger we used to budget for $100 a day for all the essentials. Sometimes we spent more, sometimes less, depending on where we ate and how many times per day. A good breakfast from some of the buffet places like Ponderosa or Sizzlers, meant that lunch was never needed and we'd just buy an icecream in the Parks.

We then used our credit card for anything and everything else.

Buying soft drinks on a day out can really eat into your budget. We used to put bottles of water into the freezer and take these with us in a coolbag. We would open one at a time and share it - not because we were mean, but because the water can get warm very quickly once opened and at the mercies of the sun, and then no one wanted to drink it.

You can buy 24 bottles of water from Wal-Mart for around $5, whereas the Parks charge you $2.50 per bottle. You have to drink a lot each day, so you can save a fortune by taking your own.
[/quote]

I also use around a $100 aday.....I always used to give the kids some money for spending before leaving....and then top it up if they found things they really wanted......

[bigbrother]

we are a party of 2 adults and 4 children - will 2000 pounds be enough? we also have pre-paid theme park tickets and car hire.

[DMC]

Terry

Not sure how long you are going for, but I assume it will be around 2 weeks, also not sure how old your children are.

If your children are 10 or under then £2,000 should just about be ok,( assuming that you don't shop too much ) if they're older and require adult meals etc then it might get a bit tight.

As already mentoined above Ice Creams / Drinks / Snacks etc soon add up and are a real hidden cost and if these can be purchased from a Supermarket then the cost will come down.

It takes alot of effort to get around the theme parks in the heat and therefore you tend to eat and drink more than you do when in the UK.

[Claire M]

Terry

I would of thought that £2000 would be enough, you can always take a credit card just in case[msnsmile].

Claire

[mm69340]

We are a family of 8 - 6 children and 2 adults and we also budgeted $100/day... And we actually came home with a LITTLE bit left over. Mind you the children were only allowed 2 souvenirs each!

[chrisj]

We are going for 3 weeks, and will have already paid for the car, tickets etc. What we are
doing this year is take $400 in cash $1000 in TC and we have a nationwide debit card where
we can get money from the ATM's commission free

I would agree that £2000 is more than enough, We also give the kids their own pocket money
and once they waste it then they have to wait for the next hand out

$100 a day is reasonable, we used to spend approx $20-$25 on Breakfast (5 of us) $7 on parking
at the theme parks approx $20 in parks for ice cream and the rest on an evening meal or we
had an evening meal back at the villa

We cam eback last year with enough for this years deposit