What is your food budget for offsite?

[snoopy5386]

We are a family of 4 - DH, myself, DD6 and DD2. We are staying offsite for the first time in years and I am trying to come up with a food budget. We will be eating breakfast in the condo every day, lunch at a counter service place in a theme park and dinner most nights in a sit down outside the park, figuring sometimes places like Chilis or Outback, some nights places like Sweet Tomatoes, and some nights we'll order pizza in. $100 per day? $75? More? Less? Figuring the counter service theme park meal will run us about $30, is that accurate?

[swilshire]

We eat mostly in, so our food budget is just slightly higher than what it would be at home. With such small children, $100 a day should be plenty.

If it were me, I'd never go to a restaurant in the evening with such small kids, but maybe yours are Energizer bunnies. Mine would be ready for a quick meal in the room and bed after a day in the parks.

What we often did was go back to the resort for a big late lunch and a rest, then go back to the parks in the evening when it was cooler. Then we'd just have a small snack right before bed.

Sheila

[snoopy5386]

Thanks! We are planning shorter days in the parks for the most part. We are only doing MNSHHP as our long day. Otherwise Sea World split over two days, IOA one day, Aquatica another. Since it is low season, I'm hoping to be back in the condo to rest and swim in the late afternoon before dinner. And we are ok with doing takeout too :-)

[TwoMisfits]

A realistic offsite budget per day would probably be...

Breakfast - $10 (depending what you eat and how you grocery shop for it, but coffee/milk/juice, some sort of protein, and some sort of fruit or carb would likely run this sum per day)...
Lunch - $30 (if you drink tap waters in park - $10 per adult meal/$5 per kid meal)
Dinner - $40 w/ tax/tip (again, if adults drink water - $13/adult and $7/kid - that's at the cheaper places)
Snacks/Beverages/Desserts - $20 (the Sea World and Universal parks don't usually allow in food/drinks like Disney does and kids/adults get thirsty...so between park treats and nighttime treats gotten from the grocery store, I'd count on this money)

So, $100/day would be a safe number. On days you get a pizza in for dinner, you spend less. On days you splurge a little (with drinks or apps for dinner), you spend more.

Kristy

[Gina-Gina-Bo-Bina]

Originally Posted by TwoMisfits

Snacks/Beverages/Desserts - $20 (the Sea World and Universal parks don't usually allow in food/drinks like Disney does and kids/adults get thirsty...so between park treats and nighttime treats gotten from the grocery store, I'd count on this money)

Just an idea for the OP....for snacks and drinks at SeaWorld and Universal, you can purchase a refillable cup (at either park, whichever one you happen to visit first) for about $8 that allows you to get refills at both parks for the life of the cup. Refills are under $1 each. Then you have the cup for a souvenir when you go home . Buy one at the beginning of the week, have everyone share, and save a ton on drinks.

A very affordable snack at SW is the refillable popcorn bucket. Aquatica's was $4.99 so I am guessing SW's is the same price, and refills are just 99 cents. You can re-use the bucket at SW, Aquatica, and Busch Gardens too, for as long as the bucket lasts.

Two ideas to snack super cheaply.

[dtum]

Go to Sweet Tomatoes, if you didn't already, and sign up for their coupons. Good discounts. We always hit there at lunch because prices at lunchtime is cheaper. Staying so close to DW, we can leave park, eat lunch and cool off and then go back to house for midday break. Not really fans of eating in the parks. We also put lunch in crockpot or grill hamburgers. We eat very cheaply staying off site.

[ready2vacation]

Pizza - if you Facebook, "like" Flippers and they will post coupon codes (like "Breadsticks" for the best free breadsticks ever). They also post deals if you order online. Their pizza is fabulous (we like it better that Giordano's).

Also, we spent $23-28 total for 2 adults at the quick service we ate - that was an entree and drink, no dessert.

I think you might be a tad low in the $100 per day estimate, but it definitely can be done as others said (drinking water, etc.).

[disneysteve]

We typically average a bit over $20/person/day for food. This year, we came out at about $22/person/day. So I think $100/day for a family of 4 is very doable.

[artemis4]

Originally Posted by snoopy5386

We are a family of 4 - DH, myself, DD6 and DD2. We are staying offsite for the first time in years and I am trying to come up with a food budget. We will be eating breakfast in the condo every day, lunch at a counter service place in a theme park and dinner most nights in a sit down outside the park, figuring sometimes places like Chilis or Outback, some nights places like Sweet Tomatoes, and some nights we'll order pizza in. $100 per day? $75? More? Less? Figuring the counter service theme park meal will run us about $30, is that accurate?

Our total for 7 people (2 adults, 14 year old, 2-12 year olds, 10 year old, 5 year old) was $927 for the 7 days in Orlando. We had expected to keep it lower, but at the last minute, we decided to not eat dinner in the hotel room at all, so we knew that it would be higher than we originally planned. Well, and we way splurged on drinks with our date night because our gas cost was coming in way under budget. Even though our food was $300 higher than we planned, we still came in on budget due to other savings.

Given that you have only two younger kids, I would say you could easily eat well for under $75 per day.

Sweet Tomatoes has a great coupon for $19.99 dinner for 4, and remember to check out Restaurant.com for some savings too. We used Restaurant.com certificates for House of Blues and Giordano's, along with Sweet Tomatoes coupons on our trip. We also brought a lot of snacks like protein bars, string cheese, and landjaegers into the parks with us. Other than our date night and couple of cappuccino smoothies in MK, we only drank tap water, and used Crystal Light Pure flavor packets we brought with us. We also shared treats like Dole Whips, yummies from Main Street Bakery and the French bakery in Epcot, school bread, and ice cream cones.

[cammie810]

Publix has a great family meal deal....fried chicken plus hawaiian rolls and two deli sides for usually around 8 bucks! Easy, cheap and extremely yummy!

[Gina-Gina-Bo-Bina]

Groupon has a great deal right now for Cici's Pizza......$11 for four buffets, or $6 for two buffets.

http://www.groupon.com/deals/ci-ci-s...ando?c=all&p=6

[kathy884]

For DH, me, and DS (17) I budget $100 per day for food.

We have breakfast in (make it at the condo), we do counter service at parks other than Disney and bring sandwiches and fruit into Disney (usually we have two non-park days too and on those have lunch at the condo), and we usually on a six day stay go out to eat for four dinners (maybe two at a theme park and two at a chain like Sweet Tomatoes) and do two dinners at the condo (cook one night and order out for pizza one night).

Staying just one week, we spend a little more on groceries than we would at home (some of those staples you are only going to use for the week, but need to buy anyway -- ketchup, mustard, relish, paper towels, laundry detergent, paper towels, garbage bags, bounce, things like that) are one of the main culprits. Still it's so nice not to have to have all your meals out, to have snacks available, and to be able to have some nice fruits and vegatables that DS will actually eat.

[msr709]

Originally Posted by Gina-Gina-Bo-Bina

Just an idea for the OP....for snacks and drinks at SeaWorld and Universal, you can purchase a refillable cup (at either park, whichever one you happen to visit first) for about $8 that allows you to get refills at both parks for the life of the cup. ....
Two ideas to snack super cheaply.

Great idea, thanks. I was thinking of doing this next year, going to SW and IOA one day each. Was planning on getting the Meal Deal at both places but they didn't include the drinks so this is perfect!