My Boyfriend and I are going to Florida in July. How much spending money should we take?|165302

I have paid for my boyfriend and I to go to Florida for 2 weeks in July for his 21st birthday. I have paid for all the flights, car hire and park tickes, also i have family that i can stay with in Winter Park (Florida). We don_t want to stay with family every night as it is a 40 minute drive to disney so we are looking at spending most of our nights in motels. We also want to do a lot of shopping. So how much spending money would you recommend us to take so that we can have a good time and not have to worry about money running out?

Motels: $40-60/day
Meals: $20-60/day
Gas is $2.50 a gallon and your vehicle will do between 15 and 20mpg.

Since you have no other expenses, you should be able to work out how much you need from that.

Minor advice.. buy a cooler and some 24 packs of soda. It will be much cheaper to buy a bag of ice each morning and drink your own soda that you have purchased from the supermarket.

That sounds right. Things are extremely expensive there. You stay in motels, that will cost you an arm and leg, if you have to get your money from an insurance company. Tell
Bonnie and Danny in Orlando that granny says hi. Thanks

How much you_ll spend on motels will depend a lot on how _high-quality_ you want them to be. There are some very basic (clean, with bed and bath) type motels along Highway 192 near Disney that go for about $30-40 a night. Elsewhere you could pay up to $80-$100 a night or more. Summer is the busy season here, so I strongly recommend making advance reservations for anywhere you want to stay.

As for spending money, a lot depends on where you shop. If you buy souvenirs inside the parks, you_ll spend a fortune. However, there are a lot of gift stores outside of the parks (they look cheesy, but they have decent stuff) where you_ll pay a lot less. There are also a lot of outlet centers around Orlando, if you_re planning to do _real_ shopping, including the Prime Outlets and Lake Buena Vista outlets near Disney and the Belz Factory Outlets north of Universal Studios area.

Finally, you have to consider meals. Park restaurants are unique and often have decent food, but they are VERY expensive. If you eat at restaurants outside the parks you can eat at pretty much any chain restaurant you can think of for a lot less (and probably better food in general).

I_d figure it this way:

Say you spend 7 nights at a discount motel at $40 a night: that_s $280 (before 20% taxes [seriously, 20%]).

Then figure you eat dinner out every night you_re in Florida, 12-14 nights at about $35 a meal for two (at least): $420-$490

If you also eat breakfast ($10) and lunch ($20) out every day for 12-14 days, you_re talking $120-$140 for breakfast and $240-$280 for lunch

So depending on how long you_re actually staying, how many nights you stay in a motel (and where), and how often you eat out (and where you eat), you_ll need anywhere from $940-$1190 just for a basic motel room and cheap meals. If you eat at nicer restaurants, stay at a nicer hotel/motel, or do more shopping, you_ll want more. Plus the cost of gas is rising, so factor in the cost of filling your car up a few times while you_re here.

I_d say you should start with at least $2000 to cover your basic costs and then add on however much you_ll want to bring for shopping.

$10,000