Planning a Trip in 2019? Let's Share Our Budgets!

We are planning a Disneyland trip for February! It will be my husband, myself and our 2 boys (ages 11 and 9). We are going for 7 days but only 4 days in the parks. We will be staying off property

Hotel: $1,186
Tickets: $752 for 4 day hoppers (military tickets)
Food- $1000
Plane Tickets: $800
Souvenirs- $300
MaxPass+- $160 for 4 days
Uber (to and from both airports)- $100
Dog sitter- $105
Total budget for whole trip is- $4,403

Saved up so far: Change - $65
Ebates- $6
Credit card rewards- $99
Extra app savings- $21.45

Total still needed to be paid- $4,211.55
 
Wife and I, plus SIL, 2 adult nieces, and 2 great-nieces (9 and 2)
Driving (2 cars, ouch!) in Feb. 2019
Our (wife and I) share of:
Gasoline - $350
2 nights at Cabana Bay Suite - approx. $170
5 nights Pop Century, 2 rooms - $860
2x Universal 1 day p2p - $340
Food - $1000 ($20 per meal per person per day- we'll eat primarily QS - for wife & I, plus 'Ohana, Akershus character breakfast, & Hollywood and Vine character breakfast for wife and I plus the little ones)
Misc. snacks & souvenirs - $500

Florida total:$3220
Hotels and park passes paid for already, thankfully. The rest is cash in hand (again, thankfully.)

(Plus a non-Disney 4 or 5 day cruise somewhere... -$?)

At least that's the budget. What we'll actually spend? Probably way more... :D

(edited to add) So my wife & SIL decided that we need an adults trip before our trip, so...

Airfare - $410
4 nights at Towneplace Suites Flaming Crossings - $375
Car rental - $200
2x weekday select annual pass (buying now instead of Feb.) - $620
Food, souvenirs, misc. expenses - $500

Going to MVMCP, but SIL is paying (we're picking up the rental car costs)

November total - $2105 (but it takes $620 AP expense away from Feb.)

Grand total for 2 trips (not counting our cruise) - $5325
 
Last edited:
We are doing a WDW/Eastern Caribbean Disney Cruise
2 adults, 2 kids 12 and 15

Airfare: $1190 (paid)
Cruise: $8700 (975 paid)
Ground transportation: not exactly sure $120?
5 nights at either Animal Kingdom or Beach Club Villas w tickets: estimating 4000
grocery delivery $100
dining: $300
souvenirs: $150
universal 1 day passes: 460

Anything I'm missing?
total of $15,200
 
WDW August 15 -27 Pop Century 2 Adults

Hotel 12 nights and 10 day park Pass w/ Park Hopper, Free Quick service Dining ($3200)
Airfare $750
Uber/Lyft $100 (when waiting for the bus is problematic)
Grocery Delivery $125 (water, Pepsi, and some snacks)
Sit Down Meals $300
Souvenirs $100-$150
Mouse-keeping $60
 


WDW May 4-8 2019 Cornado Springs Solo Trip

Hotel: $1012
3 Day Hopper Ticket: $394
Food: $395 (DDP: $302 + $48 for tips + $45 for extras)
Alcohol: $225
Airfare round trip RIC-MCO: $289
Souvenirs: $100
Mousekeeping: $25


Total: $2440
 
We booked bounce back so for the 4 of us it will be 3700.00 for 10 days with free qsdp and memory maker. Will use Disney rewards for alot of stuff. Just a standard room at pop with free QSDP for 10 days with a 6 day hopper. Will buy Halloween tickets, one character meal and one desert party. Hoping to get air for 1000.00-1200.00.
 
Going Sept 2019.
2 Adults and (hopefully) 2 kids. (10&9)

Rental car + gas- $600
** we're renting car on Saturday, driving to WDW overnight(15 hours) dropping car off on Sunday and re-renting on the following Saturday).
7 days, 6 nights at BWV (1bed). -$0 (using parents DVC points)
7 day park hopper×4- $2200
Grocery- $250
Spending money- $2000

We plan to eat at least 2 meals in our room most days. My boyfriend and his son have never been to Disney World so we're planning extra money to "splurge" on typical Disney things. If we're not able to take BFs son we will cut back spending money to $1200.

Trip for 3= $3500ish
Trip for 4 = $5200ish
 


Spring 2019, still finalizing details but hoping for April. 2 adults and DS. 3 nights in hotel (Value) and three days in the parks.

Airfare: $1200
Hotel: $680
Tickets: $913 (MYW, not PH)
Food: $300
Extras: $100

Total: $3193

So dar I have $300 in Disney points on my CC and about half saved. I pretty much put everything on my Disney CC and rack up the points to spend on the trip.
 
Planning to go in February to Disney world and Disney Cruise at end of September with 3 nights at Disney world before the cruise. Fiancé and I, mid 30’s, no kids.

Trip:1
February trip Sunday to Saturday (6 nights

Airfare: purchased with points ($22 in fees)

Hotel: $2200 looking at POR

Park tickets: $600 AP holders, they expire the week after the trip. This is our 3rd 5+ day trip on them in the past year. So I’ll say 600 as that’s near a third of two AP

Food: $800-1000, doing highway in the sky dining tour, O’hana (dinner), 1900 park fare, and probably a couple others (thinking of skipping California grill this time).

Extras: $300-400

Total $3900 - 4200

Trip:2
September 2019, 3 nights at WDW and 4 nights on the Dream.

Airfare: $700 (have a companion pass from credit card)

Hotel 800-900 looking at dvc rental

Tickets: not sure if I should renew the AP in March or wait until this trip in September. I’ll have to wait to see what the discount is and if we will go for a weekend during the summer. So I’ll say 400 as it’s 1/4 of the cost of two AP.

Cruise/transfer/insurance: $2700

Food: $300-500

Other: $500 (its her BDay so it’ll cost me!)

Total: $5400-5700

I’m prpbably going to break down and buy DVC next year after looking at the numbers. Could break even in 5 years.
 
UPDATE

FREE Cash: $118.18
Vacation Savings Balance: $0
GIFT CARD Balance: $158.00

I also opened a separate Ally Savings account for my plasma money. Up until now, I had been transferring my plasma earnings into the Ally Vacation MM account (earns 0.90% interest) but it was combined with the "family money" (i.e. the $75 bi-weekly direct deposit) so it was difficult to discern what was truly MY money (plasma $$) and what was the family's money. The plasma account has no ATM access so I cannot make impulse purchases or spontaneous trips to the casino (which was a problem for me in the past, but I have conquered that demon for now:wizard:) and it is earning 1.80% interest:thumbsup2. I can transfer $300 at a time with no fees (plasma card restriction, not Ally's) so that amounts to about once a month. For the purposes of tracking on this thread, my "Vacation Savings Balance" will be a combination of the plasma account and the money market account.

So far, I have 8% of my $3500 saved up in free money:banana:. Once we return from our October 2018 trip, if we have any gift card balance left, I will add that to my 2019 budget and that will add to the "free" earnings:goodvibes.

Latest Updates...

FREE Cash Earned: $172.85
Vacation Savings Balance: $0 (...but only 32 days until we leave for our trip, and when we get back, I will have a number to put here:teeth:)
GIFT CARD Balance: $248.00

That brings me to 12% of my total budget so far saved up in FREE money:cheer2:...and I still have just over a year to save.
 
Today, I received the $25 Disney GC from disneygiftcard.com and $25 PayPal from SB. I cashed in for another $25 PayPal from SB and $2 PayPal from Perk (which arrived instantly).

Updated totals:
$1650 in Disney GCs
$986.78 in cash ($25 pending)
$80 Visa Gift Cards
$30 Target GC
I also got the news over the weekend that my two DVC wait lists came thru. We now have 4 nights at BWV followed by 3 nights AKV CL (which should save us some money on food and beverages). But then I began checking airfare for our return flight on American Airlines (Southwest won't be out for a while), and I nearly lost my lunch! $350 per person, one way! And that's coach, without choosing our seats! I think I will wait for Southwest...

ETA 09/12/18: I ran errands today and collected my Shopkicks and Checkpoints wherever I could. I finally earned enough Checkpoints to redeem for $5 PayPal and it came almost immediately. I also redeemed for $2 PayPal from Perk both yesterday and today for a total of $4. I used the $100 Safeway GC to purchase 2 $50 Disney GCs without a problem. Then at BB, I used our second AmEx card to purchase $300 in Disney GCs and should get the $30 statement credit plus SBs and BB Rewards points. I also picked up a baby shower gift at Target which I had ordered online and got about 193 SB pending plus Target sent me a $30 eGC after I picked up. I guess I will use it for incidentals since I can't use it for a Disney GC. Oh well, we will need snacks and earplanes for the trip next month...

Totals have been updated.
Updating...

I received the $25 PayPal from SB on 9/14. I also ordered and received $2 PayPal from Perk on 9/16 and today. I received a huge chunk of SB points yesterday and was able to order $50 from PayPal. I recently joined RetailMeNot and will hopefully get to redeem a few offers at CVS, Walgreen's and Home Depot if those stores carry Disney GCs in the right denominations. I need to start going thru all of my credit cards to see how much I have in rewards points from each of them. I logged into an account that I rarely used and learned that I have $16+ that can be redeemed for cash. I'm sure that there are a couple of others that have small amounts of cashback that is just shy of the minimum amount needed to redeem. I'll have to use those cards for the RMN offers.

Updated totals:
$1850 in Disney GCs
$1208.59 in cash ($5 pending from EH)
$80 Visa Gift Cards
$30 Target GC
$25 Amazon GC (pending from Perk)
$16 CC cash back
ETA 9/19/18: Ordered and received $2 PayPal from Perk. Ordered $5 PayPal from EH. I ran errands to Walgreen's, CVS, Staples, and Best Buy to purchase a total of $200 in Disney GCs. I should get $40 from RetailMeNot as well as 950 SB, 500 UR from Chase Pay and 150 My Best Buy points. I already used my CC points to erase the charges made thru RMN. The remaining $100 will be taken from cash to pay my CSR bill when it comes.

ETA 9/22/18: Received the $50 PayPal from SB. Redeemed for and received $4 PayPal from Perk. Cashed out $23.81 from iBotta.

ETA 9/24/18: Received the $40 cash back from RMN and moved it to PayPal. Ordered and received a total of $4 PayPal from Perk. Also ordered $25 PayPal from Perk. Loaded Walgreen's, CVS, Staples and HD offers back into my RMN wallet and will buy more Disney GCs today. May do the Chase Pay deal at BB again if I have time.

Totals have been updated.
 
Last edited:
Disney Magic Merrytime Bahamas Cruise
5 Nights - 2 Adults

Cruise: $2,235
Other Cruise Costs (Gratuities, Palo, Gift Basket, Photo Package): $520
Airfare: ~$700
AirBnb: ~$90
Uber (To and From Port): ~$50
Extra Expenses (Souvenirs, Specialty Drinks, Massages, FE, any other extras): ~$500

TOTAL: $4,000-$4,100

We try to keep as tight a budget as we can, but we also like to treat ourselves lol. I plan to pay off some of the extra expenses with whatever I collect in Disney Rewards from my Disney Visa and the (I think) $100 in shipboard credit from Dreams.:cutie:
 
We are FINALLY under the 1 grand mark left to save! We have 3 months and 12 days left to save so I hope we can save it all in time. Here is where we are at
$665.18- Gift cards
$3633- Cash
$55.71- Paypal
$31.16- Visa rewards
$40.75- change
$909.88- package paid
$947.84- flights paid
$169- memory maker paid

Total-$6452.52
Left to save-$977.63

Im tossing around the idea of adding $200 more to save for food and I should consider a night or 2 as an emergency overnight room stay in case our flight is cancelled. I'm going to transfer the money in my paypal to my account then use my redcard at target to buy a...or some...gift cards so I can save a little money.
 
Perfect timing...Since I'm only about $60 short of my goal for 2018's trip, it is time to start looking at 2019:goodvibes.

I have 2 budgets...Cash and Gift Cards. My gift card budget is all 100% free money because all of my gift cards are acquired through rewards programs. I never "buy" a gift card. My cash budget comes mostly from donating plasma but I also have $75 deducted from my paycheck every 2 weeks.

This budget is a little convoluted and confusing but I will try to keep it simple...

First, the backstory...

The trip is October 18-26, 2019. The travel party will be myself and my 2 daughters (16 and 14), my sister and her daughters (11 and 7) and our parents (71 and 68...well, we come home the day before mom's 68th birthday:cake:). We all took a trip together (with my DH and DBiL) in Oct 2016 and the husbands did not have much fun. They were a hot mess about two days into the trip and so my sister and I decided that we would like to take another trip with just our girls and leave the boys at home...they were 100% fine with that decision...but of course, Dad has to come:love1:. So the dates were set back in 2016.

Now, here is where the budget story starts. As soon as we set our dates, we bought our tickets! We bought 7-day park-hoppers from UCT and I bought them only for my girls. For this trip, I will be using what is remaining of my Gold AP. (*How I ended up with that is an even longer story:rolleyes1) So for my budgeting purposes, the tickets are not included since they were paid for back in January of 2017.

Lodging...well...*I* am not paying OOP for anything:thumbsup2. The plan is that my dad has lined up a DVC member who will be transferring 122 BWV points into my account. I will be using 167 of my AKV points to book a standard 2BR at AKV Kidani for 5 nights (Fri-Tu) and then we will use the 122 BWV points to book a P/G 2BR for Wed-Fr nights. My dad and my sister are splitting the cost of the BWV points.

That brings me to airfare...that's a little simpler. Back in 2016, Dad decided to sign up for the SWA Visa card and get the 50,000 bonus miles. Since then, he's put EVERYTHING on that card (paying it off every month, of course). They even recently remodeled their condo and added another 10K points! Dad thinks that by the time we need to buy our tickets, he will have over 110,000 points in his account...and they never go anywhere! He said that since I am using so many of my DVC points, he will use his RR points to buy his tickets and then he will use whatever is leftover to buy tickets for me and my girls. He said he will get 2 for me and then if there is still enough, he will get one for my sister. So, the way I am figuring it, I should only need to pay for one R/T airfare:thumbsup2. I always buy EBCI for the trip home and I have just found that it is easier to add it both ways, especially when booking with points, so I will budget $500 for airfare, just to be safe.

That means the only major expenses that I need to cover are food and entertainment. We do not use the dining plan since I will have my TIW card from my 2018 trip that will still be valid. My food budget is usually around $1500 but I will have to tweak that when we sit down and decide what TS restaurants we want to try. I also said that my dad WILL be going to the Halloween party, even if it means I have to pay for it so I'm adding $500 to the budget for (5) tickets.

That brings my overall budget to $3300. For now, I will be splitting that into $1800 for the cash budget and $1500 for the gift card budget. I know that the airfare will almost certainly be a cash expense. The food and the party tickets ($2000) could both be paid with gift cards, but I am not sure I can come up with $2000 in "free" money in the next 17 months...that's a pretty lofty goal. The only other thing I will add to the budget is about $300 in random expenses like tips and my portion of the groceries that we will have delivered to the resort.

OVERALL BUDGET: $3500
CASH: $1750
GIFT CARDS: $1750


I have to update my budget a little...

AIRFARE: Dad realized he is going to have close to 130K in SWA RR points. He has decided that after he gets R/T tickets for himself and mom, he will use the rest to buy (3) O/W tickets for me and my girls to get us home. Anything left after that will go to my sister. Right now, my sister and her girls are planning on arriving Friday morning (first flight out) or possibly even Thursday night if there is a cheaper flight. My parents are going to go with her on whatever flight she decides on. She has already decided that her kids will be taken out of school on Friday. My girls will NOT be missing school on Friday so we are tied to the airline schedules. We may need to fly on Delta if SWA does not have an evening flight on Friday night that will allow us to leave after school. Because of this, I told my dad that I will pay for our airfare to get to Orlando. So, my airfare budget is a generous $750 ($250/person) and I also have an additional $75 budgeted for the EBCI for the return flight home. IF we are able to fly SWA, I have almost 10K of my own SWA points so that will be almost enough to get me one O/W ticket and save me even more off of that budget.

Looking at my spreadsheet, my overall budget somehow dropped from $3500 to $3400, even though I changed my airfare budget from $500 to $750. Obviously, I had made some other tweaks somewhere along the line and did not update them here.

I still have a line item of $500 for MNSSHP and I think that is because I am planning to purchase the tickets for my parents. I am 99% sure that they will not let me buy the tickets for them. I know my dad would absolutely love it, but I think it is the $100 price tag that makes him hesitant to go. The fact that they will be there for 8 days with only 7-day tickets, combined with the fact that DVC members and their guests can now get in to the MK at 2pm with party tickets may be enough to sway him to give it a try. Like I said, I am fairly certain that I will only need $300 of that $500 for my own tickets.
 
Two week trip in May for my DF, me and my DLS. We like comfort and are spoiled. I budget down very well so we can spoil ourselves and we always almost come back under budget.

Hotel CBR 8 nights/ Tickets 6 days/Memory Maker 3700 (before any discount)
Road Hotels 700
Parking 200
DLS spending $ 300
Gas 250
Food 3950 (two weeks worth)
Spending money $1000

Total 10000

Food. 6 days of travel, the day before and the day after we come back, one rest day and dinners are all off site. So I have gift cards to many different restaurants totaling about 2800.00. leaving 350 cash and 800 for Disney food.
DLS $300 will be purely from apps, 150 in pp 150 to go ( I am projected to get this)
gas- already all taken care of in gcs.
Spending money has already been saved. Along with 200 for hotel/etc
I also have 945 saved up on a Disney gift card. That covers the 800 for food and 145 of the parking.
I am projected to get 450 more on gift cards. The last 55 of the parking. And 395 memory maker/hotel.

So I need 3105 for wdw left, 700 road hotels. So 3805 left for vacation which is well within my yearly vacation budget.
 
I have to go find some numbers. 4 Disney adults, DD BF might join us. And nephew might join us at end to join our tour day. We will pay for BF if he joins us, he is in the Navy. Nephew is a true adult and will pay his way.

Dec - Jan 9 nites. Rented DVC for 3 nights, 6 nights used our DVC points.
$1755 DVC rental

DH has a six day ticket left.
We had one 3 day ticket left pd for with Disney rewards. Upgraded it to a six day ticket ~ I think for around $159 more Disney rewards.
Got two 5 plus 2 free days from UCT before the price increase I think $549 a piece.
Might change a couple to AP when we get there after the blackout day passes.

Flights were around $1200.
Airport bus $2/person one way. So $16
Car rental around $350, picking it up one day after we arrived.

Bought 8 passes for escape room when they ran 25% off special $209 pd for with DH and DS one day side gig ~ have around $120 left from that side gig towards supper out afterwards.

Meals will eat breakfast in room ~ prob got enough Disney rewards to cover meals out. Have prob around $200 in Disney gift cards too.
Snacks ~ G MA gives our kids her Disney rewards to cover them :)
Groceries $200 includes fluids.

We have lots of water park tickets so if we go there free day but DH would like a cabana if it is busy; dude its January only the people from Minnesota will be there. Cabana last time $350.

One Tour day $425 /hr. For our anniversary this year, I said I want this. He picked having a 2 bedroom for 6 nights and he moved the date of our trip. And traded to take the tour instead of having two universal days with FOTL passes.

$1755
$1259
$1200
$350
$16
$209
$200
$3000. Leaving off possible cabana. Neighbors watch our dogs for free.

$7989 total plus tips.
 
Perfect timing...Since I'm only about $60 short of my goal for 2018's trip, it is time to start looking at 2019:goodvibes.

I have 2 budgets...Cash and Gift Cards. My gift card budget is all 100% free money because all of my gift cards are acquired through rewards programs. I never "buy" a gift card. My cash budget comes mostly from donating plasma but I also have $75 deducted from my paycheck every 2 weeks.

This budget is a little convoluted and confusing but I will try to keep it simple...

First, the backstory...

The trip is October 18-26, 2019. The travel party will be myself and my 2 daughters (16 and 14), my sister and her daughters (11 and 7) and our parents (71 and 68...well, we come home the day before mom's 68th birthday:cake:). We all took a trip together (with my DH and DBiL) in Oct 2016 and the husbands did not have much fun. They were a hot mess about two days into the trip and so my sister and I decided that we would like to take another trip with just our girls and leave the boys at home...they were 100% fine with that decision...but of course, Dad has to come:love1:. So the dates were set back in 2016.

Now, here is where the budget story starts. As soon as we set our dates, we bought our tickets! We bought 7-day park-hoppers from UCT and I bought them only for my girls. For this trip, I will be using what is remaining of my Gold AP. (*How I ended up with that is an even longer story:rolleyes1) So for my budgeting purposes, the tickets are not included since they were paid for back in January of 2017.

Lodging...well...*I* am not paying OOP for anything:thumbsup2. The plan is that my dad has lined up a DVC member who will be transferring 122 BWV points into my account. I will be using 167 of my AKV points to book a standard 2BR at AKV Kidani for 5 nights (Fri-Tu) and then we will use the 122 BWV points to book a P/G 2BR for Wed-Fr nights. My dad and my sister are splitting the cost of the BWV points.

That brings me to airfare...that's a little simpler. Back in 2016, Dad decided to sign up for the SWA Visa card and get the 50,000 bonus miles. Since then, he's put EVERYTHING on that card (paying it off every month, of course). They even recently remodeled their condo and added another 10K points! Dad thinks that by the time we need to buy our tickets, he will have over 110,000 points in his account...and they never go anywhere! He said that since I am using so many of my DVC points, he will use his RR points to buy his tickets and then he will use whatever is leftover to buy tickets for me and my girls. He said he will get 2 for me and then if there is still enough, he will get one for my sister. So, the way I am figuring it, I should only need to pay for one R/T airfare:thumbsup2. I always buy EBCI for the trip home and I have just found that it is easier to add it both ways, especially when booking with points, so I will budget $500 for airfare, just to be safe.

That means the only major expenses that I need to cover are food and entertainment. We do not use the dining plan since I will have my TIW card from my 2018 trip that will still be valid. My food budget is usually around $1500 but I will have to tweak that when we sit down and decide what TS restaurants we want to try. I also said that my dad WILL be going to the Halloween party, even if it means I have to pay for it so I'm adding $500 to the budget for (5) tickets.

That brings my overall budget to $3300. For now, I will be splitting that into $1800 for the cash budget and $1500 for the gift card budget. I know that the airfare will almost certainly be a cash expense. The food and the party tickets ($2000) could both be paid with gift cards, but I am not sure I can come up with $2000 in "free" money in the next 17 months...that's a pretty lofty goal. The only other thing I will add to the budget is about $300 in random expenses like tips and my portion of the groceries that we will have delivered to the resort.

OVERALL BUDGET: $3500
CASH: $1750
GIFT CARDS: $1750
Donating Plasma? I’m always looking for ways to earn GC’s and extra money for our trips, but hadn’t thought of that! How often do you do that and what do you typically earn from that if you don’t mind me asking.
 
Donating Plasma? I’m always looking for ways to earn GC’s and extra money for our trips, but hadn’t thought of that! How often do you do that and what do you typically earn from that if you don’t mind me asking.
You can go twice a week (max) and the base payout is $20 for the first donation of the week and $50 for the second. There are often bonuses like $10 extra for each of your next 8 donations or $70 extra for your 8th donation of the month so there’s potential to earn more than $70/week. I go to BioLife which is a national “chain” but there are other plasmapheresis centers around and they all have their own rules and compensation guidelines. As long as I stay healthy, I can usually make between $200-$300 a month, which is pretty easy since it only takes a little over an hour each time.
 
You can go twice a week (max) and the base payout is $20 for the first donation of the week and $50 for the second. There are often bonuses like $10 extra for each of your next 8 donations or $70 extra for your 8th donation of the month so there’s potential to earn more than $70/week. I go to BioLife which is a national “chain” but there are other plasmapheresis centers around and they all have their own rules and compensation guidelines. As long as I stay healthy, I can usually make between $200-$300 a month, which is pretty easy since it only takes a little over an hour each time.
Thanks for the info! I'm definitely gonna look into that!
 
WDW August 15 -27 Pop Century 2 Adults

Hotel 12 nights and 10 day park Pass w/ Park Hopper, Free Quick service Dining ($3200) (paid)
Airfare $750
Uber/Lyft $100 (when waiting for the bus is problematic) (already set aside)
Grocery Delivery $125 (water, Pepsi, and some snacks)
Sit Down Meals $300 (will use Disney rewards)
Souvenirs $100-$150 (will use Disney rewards)
Mouse-keeping $60 (already set aside)
 

GET A DISNEY VACATION QUOTE

Dreams Unlimited Travel is committed to providing you with the very best vacation planning experience possible. Our Vacation Planners are experts and will share their honest advice to help you have a magical vacation.

Let us help you with your next Disney Vacation!










Top