I spent $250 on Food for 6 days at WDW!!

[Littleroo]

For 2 adults and a 5 yr old. My son eats like a bird, so the snacking kept him satisfied. He couldn't eat a "meal" if we tried. This doesn't count the snacks I packed in my suitcase from home. But even if I add that in, it's still not THAT much.

Snacks from home:
-----
peanut butter
crackers
raisins
fruit chews
instant oatmeal
apple sauce cups (in ziploc bag)
goldfish
Craisins
teddy grahams
cheez-its
mini-choc chip cookies
homemade trail mix (chex, peanuts, m&m's, raisins, etc)
nutrigrain bars
(and nearly a whole box of sandwich size ziplocs)

Grocery stop in Orlando (used Tiffany Towncar)
----
These groceries ARE in the total
bananas
oranges (not good)
grapes (spoiled quickly)
oreos
archway cookies
12 packs of coke, diet coke & lemonade

Typical Bkfast
------
coffee (did buy 1 refill cup)
banana/oatmeal/nutrigrain bar

Packed for park
-----
2 or 3 lemonades
raisins/craisins
cheez-its
cookies
tap water in bottles

Lunch (eating after 2pm! less crowds)
-----
snacks
an ice cream here and there
shared 1 lunch or 2 children's lunches

Dinner
----
we snacked so much and ate a later lunch, that a couple nights we weren't even hungry!
Did pizza
Big sandwiches from food court

Treats
----
Chef Mickey's late breakfast
H&V early dinner

[happygirl]

WOW you did really well

[bali]

Ya-hoo!! I love your ideas! I don't know what I'd do without my nutrigrain bars and juice boxes in the mornings at WDW. It's become a tradition!

[HappyLawyer]

i always cathc a cab and eat off property but you did great on your expenses

[Luckymommyx2]

We're doing our final preparations this weekend by hitting Costco for as much of our snacks as possible. This is our first trip taking a lot of things to eat (breakfast, snacks and dinner) so I love reading what everyone else has taken and how much they spent. Thanks for the post!!

[kilee]

Wow-- that is a great figure. I can't even come close to that for my family of 3. Then again DH says if it's vacation then we're eating out. Not watching pennies. I still budget, I just cut other corners.

[LauraR]

Great job---thanks for the inspiration!

[Cindy B]

I did a budget for $50 a day for 14 days for four people.. it can be done!

I'm not a big eater on vacation, I'd rather do stuff, and eat something small later!

[owensamo]

We did $40/day for 7 days in January for myself, my DH and my 21mo DD. We were staying at Old Key West so had a full kitchen. We didn't cook a lot - we had a Stouffer's lasagna for dinner one night, and had cold breakfasts or toaster waffles in the morning. We had lunch in a park every day, and even had breakfast at the Crystal Palace one morning, and lunch at the Whispering Canyon on our last full park day. We tried to eat dinner (sandwiches, etc) in the room at night, but did have a couple of evenings where we ate in the parks.

We did share meals, but not all of the time. Our DD's not a big eater, so she generally ate off of our plates, or we got an adult and a kids meal and split those. Honestly, there was more than enough food in general that we didn't feel at all like we were "on a budget". It might be tough if you're not used to doing it, but it certainly can be done!

[Littleroo]

I'm glad everyone appreciated this! And it's not like we are twigs and eat like birds ourselves (just our son). For a week, it can be done.

We do usually eat out all the time on vacations. We never pack food along. But between the airfare, hotel and 5 day park hoppers, I had to find SOMEWHERE to pinch pennies. AND most of all, I wanted to make this trip financially do-able so it wouldn't be a once in a lifetime trip.

And airfare, hotel and park hoppers have very little room for savings (although I made sure we traveled at the lowest hotel $, got airfare under $200 each from New England, and pre-paid hoppers), so the amount we spent on food was TOTALLY up to us. I like having control over something.

[Littleroo]

I also saved on Tshirts! I wasn't planning on doing this, I just happened to be at a Disney store a week before we left. For those that have time, I would scope out the local Disney stores for specials!

Here's my savings: Local Disney store - Adult tshirts were $13 and kids were 2 for $16 PLUS $10 off with a $40 purchase! So, for 2 adult and 2 kids tshirts I paid just $32!!

AND the adult tshirts were the classic mickey ones. We had people come up to us asking where we got our tshirts!!

[woodybuzzy]

Do you know if the grocery stores (on the 15 minutes limo stops) have those styrofoam coolers? I wanted to get some can pop and juice bags and keep them cool in the room? then just toss it when we leave.

[Littleroo]

I didn't look for coolers, but my guess is yes. We stopped at Publix.

We just used the hotel ice bucket for soda. One submerged in ice got cold in 10 minutes it seemed, so as soon as we got to the room, we'd fill the bucket. We didn't have anything that needed to be cold throughout the day (like yogurts and milk).

I could not believe the price of milk at the food court vs. around the corner in the gift shop!! That seems so ridiculous. I can't remember the exact prices, but a quart in the gift shop was about the same as a pint in the food court. Something like $1.40.

[Letsbgoofy]

The stores do have the syrafoam coolers - we always use them. Our biggest expense (summer) is water, so we always buy cases of water along with soda.