How do you decide/budget? About This Page:

[trixiedixie]

I am blessed to work in schools and have summer off. This year we are going to go to WDW in late May. We drive. We will also be skipping some early june time by going to Georgia and Vero Beach before coming back to WDW for some more fun. My concern is how long to make that second WDW trip....How do you decide what it is going to truly cost? Points wise I think we are ok, the AP's are paid for as long as we use them by July 15th. So is Food the only factor? Just trying to decide what to do and looking for any tips....
Thanks

[poohbr2015]

Food, tips, spending money. Guess you have to decide what types of meals you will eat each day or just create a budget of what you would like to spend each day adn stick to it. Do an envelope for each day.

[chezp]

Food is the main cost. I tend to use my PassPorter to see how much we can expect to spend on meals...

[poohbr2015]

does the passporter have the menus and prices in it?

[spiceypj]

since you drive - consider those costs - gas, oil, wear and tear on the car.

the big one is the food - but since you have a car you can go to the grocery store and have most of your meals in your villa.

besides as hot and humdity as WDW is in the summer - you will be back to your villa for lunch.

remember to leave when it is too crowded, you get hot, or the weather makes someone in your party in a bad mood.

you will be back - that is what is so great about DVC - you will be back.

[Disney Dork]

Originally Posted by poohbr2015

does the passporter have the menus and prices in it?

You can get menus and prices on allears.net

[Kynna]

So far we just save up for the DDP & driving expenses but we are prepared to start having meals in the Villa's as time goes on. I know you were only asking what to budget for but for us 2 trips is still a stretch so here is how we do it:

We don't really buy a lot of souveniers anymore so the budget for that is pretty small. The kids save their own money.

I ask for Disney Dollars and gift certificates for road trip restaurants for my Birthday & Christmas presents.

We pay bills with the Disney Visa or Chase Rewards to help with the DDP. We use all annual yard sale and rebate cash towards trips and turn in change to add to our Disney savings account.

I order samples for trips so I don't have to buy travel size items. We bring Dollar store lightsticks, water bottles, and coffee with us.

[pandao]

We use a taxi to go to church, shop at the premium outlet mall - character corner and get groceries at the Publix. The money we save on food and disney stuff- pins, lanyards, photo albums... more than pays for the $ 10. to 20. each way to do this. We talked to a cab driver in downtown disney and he said negotiate the fare before you even leave or get in the cab. He said it is ALWAYS negotiable and if they won't walk away. He gave us his card and we have used the same cab several times. the publix is a local grocery store so they charge the same prices there as in all parts of florida- no price gouging of the tourists. We also pack a brita picture and filter water to bring in our own water bottles. That saves alot when you consider water costs $ 2.50 a bottle in the parks. Those are some of my top tips! I hope that helps.

[saremca]

We eat 95% of our meals in our villa. We budget $250 for the week for groceries and eat like we eat when we're at home.