ARGH Florida spending money

[MrsSnape]

I know this has been asked before but with the current economic downfall I'm finding it really hard to save up.

I will be paying for just me and the two kids (aged 10 and 8). All park tickets are paid for.

We're hoping to do a trip to a mall one day and a trip to clearwater/st. paul's beach...the rest is themeparks, seaworld etc.

Self catering.

Realistically, how much am I likely to need for one adult and 2 kids for 2 weeks? The kids have a bit of spending money of their own. I'm really panicking that we're going to be really skint when we get there.

How long are you staying there for?. I'd try and budget for around $50-$100 per day.

Where are you staying in Florida?. I ask this because if you are staying in the Orlando area it will take around 3 to 4 hours each way to travel to the Clearwater area. Will you be hiring a car?.

We stayed in Orlando and my mum took £2000 but she was a bot erm extravangant I'd say about 50 to 100 dollars a day would be fine.

We went last year when the dollar was 1.5 to the pound and spent £6k so you have to be careful not to go mad because it's really hard to say no to all the disney crap.
Having said that $100 a day should be absolutely fine for meals and ice cream.

We spent around $250 a day when we were over there last year. That was for me, DH and DS (who was 12 at the time)

What are you planning to do at the mall each day?

I would think that $100 per day would be plenty for food.

You can look up the cost of theme parks online.

We got on ok with $100 a day.

$100 a day will be enough - we took that and ate all meals out (was bliss, no food shopping, no cooking, no clearing up). Had lots left over too, food is cheap over there.

When you eat out, you can ask them to box up the leftovers. You take these back to your place and reheat them for lunch the next day.

There are disney outlets too which sell Disney stuff much cheaper than in DisneyWorld itself. I would set the kids a budget of say $10-15 a day to spend on stuff in gift shops, they can spend it daily or save it up for something bigger at the end of the holiday. That way you aren't constantly handing over money for Disney stuff. The novelty doesn't wear off and every ride ends in a gift shop!!