13 Days, Family O' 7 $2642 Budget!

[eliza61]

Tink - I'm impressed with your trips plans and your ability to stay positive about your plan despite some of the negative posters popping up here.

With that attitude you are guaranteed to have a great time!

We're not negative. She asked for our concerns and we gave them to her, I'm excited for her

 

[englishteacha]

TNK, you and my parents would get along splendidly! My mom and dad planned some awesome vacations for us when I was growing up, but they were all super frugal. I thought it was perfectly normal to pack picnics, take road trips, and camp out. Heck, I still do! I'm the youngest of 8 kids-the only way to do anything with 8 kids is to be frugal! Now I'm married and travel with my DH, so I love the hunt for a bargain! If we don't travel frugally, we won't travel at all. We save all year for a trip. Some of our best vacations have been road trips, hauling our ancient pop up camper, riding roller coasters all day and cooking hot dogs on a campfire at night.

As for your van, have you looked into getting something for the roof to haul luggage in? My sister used to drive a small car but had one of the Sears "X-Cargo" things for the roof. She could fit a ton of stuff in there for her family of 4-5, including camping gear. Just a thought for future adventures.

 

[Miss_Nellie]

Well I've got to admit it - I'm jealous!

To start with, we could never be gone 13 days in any season (public schools) and DH employer only allows 1 week off at a time. He gets 4 weeks off a year but they can't be consecutive. To make it even more frustrating, we can never take a long weekend since his days off are Sunday and Wednesday. And if a holiday falls on a regular work day (i.e., Memorial Day) then he has to forfeit his Wednesday off.

DH also won't drive anywhere that takes more than a day (about 12 hours is his max.).

He's just not very adventurous either. I don't mind stopping along the way to see sights but he minds.

It just wouldn't work for us but I'm happy that you've found a way to make it work for your family. Just think of all the great memories you're making for your kids! I can't wait to read your trip report ... I'm off to read about your last trip now!

Have a great vacation!!!!!

 

[disneymom3]

You expect one roticerie chicken to feed 7 people? Yes, I know one is a baby, so let's say 6 people. And you expect leftovers for another meal for 6?
That's amazing. That one chicken will definately feed my family of 4 with no leftovers.

I also have no idea where you can get a bag of salad for less than $2. They are $2.50 on sale here.

I only have 5 but we have quite a bit leftover chicken after one dinner. I have one extremely big eater, one who loves chicken and one who I would say is average as for kids. And yep, I usually use the leftovers in a pasta or rice dish another night that same week. Generic bagged salad around here is $1.79 most of the time. I guess it mainly depends on how each individual family eats.

 

[disneymom3]

I also think $7.49 kids meals are actually great deal so long as they are not mac n cheese The childrens grilled chicken or maui maui (sp?) meals at Coral Reef are my biggest draw to that restaurant. Can you actually allow kids to split meals at a TS? Are extra plates available? I'd love to do this at Sci-fi because their options are not great but we'd like to experience the atmosphere. Unless Orlando is an exception, Rainforest Cafe has HUGE childrens portions- FYI for anyone interested in kids splitting meals. (sorry about going OT)

Well they certainly don't require everyone to order. It is a rare thing for us to order anything for youngest DS. He just is not a dinner eater and is picky to boot. Usually he eats some of his sisters food or from my and DHs plates. And yes, we have just about always had them bring him an extra plate. At Beaches adn Cream we ordered one kids meal for the older two--there are two mini cheeseburgers in that kids meal adn you need room for icecream afterall. We told the waiter they were sharing that and that DS was going to just eat from me and DH. She not only brought him a plate, but she separated the kids meal for the older two and even brought them an extra little pack of carrots. (She got a big tip!)

I wanted to add that we never request the extra plate but they bring it without being asked. He doesn't even eat enough at dinner out to justify a plate really!

 

[TNKBELL]

As far as the rotisserie chicken idea, I believe Julie was talking about the ones that are already cooked from the grocery store. That would be one meal for us with a little bit leftover that we could add to pasta and veggies for lunch the next day. (not all the kids will eat this however, so pb&j or grilled cheese or other leftovers for them)

I have to quote Suzanne Fowler(founder of the Light Weigh) and say
"Enough is as good as a feast." I mean that when it comes to Disney, I would rather have a great time at a few parks and really savor that experience and have lots of rest before and after than to go commando and do and see everything. Mainly because of all our little ones who will be totally pooped anyway even with the amount we will be doing.

 

[LIFERBABE]

Im from a very large family and we never made it to WDW. I do remember always having plenty to eat and plenty of love. We called the kids with twinkies in their lunch "rich" LOL!!

I think what you are doing for your family is great and will be soooo appreciated by your children. It takes alot of love and dedication to put such a wonderful trip together for your family and I hope you have a most wonderful trip!

Our Christmas trip is our budget trip. We have DVC, but I keep the 2 weeks under $1200 and that includes gas and food. I take lots of items I stockpile in my pantry, take my grocery budget, gift cards, rewards, etc. Even on a budget, it beats staying home and we always have more than enough to do. I enjoy cooking for my family, even on vacation and my boys eat simply and they dont really eat for recreation so we save alot of money on food too. They would much rather eat home cooking than in a restaurant.

 

[mommyof3grlz]

I remember your trip from last time. I am so excited to see you are planning another one.

 

[mickeyfan2]

You expect one roticerie chicken to feed 7 people? Yes, I know one is a baby, so let's say 6 people. And you expect leftovers for another meal for 6?
That's amazing. That one chicken will definately feed my family of 4 with no leftovers.

I also have no idea where you can get a bag of salad for less than $2. They are $2.50 on sale here.

ITA

 

[madge]

You expect one roticerie chicken to feed 7 people? Yes, I know one is a baby, so let's say 6 people. And you expect leftovers for another meal for 6?
That's amazing. That one chicken will definately feed my family of 4 with no leftovers.

I also have no idea where you can get a bag of salad for less than $2. They are $2.50 on sale here.

I have to agree about the chicken - we are a family of five (one is a teenager, though, LOL) and have a hard time making that last for one meal... let alone two. Maybe the Publix chickens are larger than the Kroger's ones that I'm used to.

As for the salad, Dole bagged salad is on sale at Publix this week, for $2 a bag It might be the same price when the OP takes her trip, who knows?
http://specials.publix.com/index.as...3f2019a339&uniqueid=10424343&circularid=10953

 

[graciegirlie]

WOW, I admire this budget TNKBELL. This is how we used to vacation when I was growing up. Now I am the polar opposite but I still admire your budgeting skills!

We are going for 13days in Dec and will be staying at WDW resort the whole time. I would love to do a mini budget vacation in Aug for 6 but I had my budget at 4k....lol This is staying at Disney though and having 3day tix, dining plan and the P&P Party.... Ok, gotta rework the budget....

 

[ckoncurat]

eliza61, if you add the 150 from our normal weekly food budget(75 per week) and 50 in mypoints GC for Walmart and 76 from Disney Rewards that can be used in the park..it's not bad, it seems low but it is very doable(???is that a word???) The Restaurant.com GCs help a great deal as well. I pretty much have everything planned as far as food goes for each day. I will be posting a trip report when I return with the details. We won't be eating TS except for a few of the GCS and Chef Mickey's.

Ok, so this bumps you up to $44 a day for food? I have a family of eight, and one mcdonalds meal is about $30.

 

[TNKBELL]

Ok, so this bumps you up to $44 a day for food? I have a family of eight, and one mcdonalds meal is about $30.

We usually eat off the value menu, each getting 1 item and then split fries and we drink water. That is less than $8...the baby doesn't eat yet.


To answer another post, yes I do Sunshine rewards... I only have $5 on it now, if the offer takes too long to do, I skip it.

I will be watching the price of Entertainment Books near the beginning of Sept, if it gets cheap enough, I'll order one. In 05 a diser posted they wanted to give thiers away since they wouldn't be using and only charged shipping for it, so that was awesome!! We used at Bennigans and this was a great savings and also we used it at DQ and did a B1G1 on 2 large sundaes, it was a great treat. That's all I remember.

 

[Plantlady]

Very interesting read. This is how we vacation, most of the time.

Disney was our one exception, but, now that we've done it commando style, we have plans in place for cheap trips in the future.

I"ll look forward to reading your report when you get back.

 

[Tinkerbelle32]

If you only spend around $8 for a fast food lunch does that mean all six of you share 1 order of the dollar fries. I hope I'm not sounding negative here(not trying to be) but my hubby would flip if he only got one small dollar burger and a 1/6 order of a med. fry. It just sounds like a very small amount of food for so many people.

 

[TNKBELL]

We don't eat large meals and eat several snacks per day. With the 2 little ones, Dh usually finishes what they don't. I also don't eat more than a couple fries myself. As Americans we eat entirely too much!! Our stomachs when the proper size are only as big as a fist, so we should only fill to that capacity. A Big N Tasty is plenty.

 

[bookgirl]

subbing so I can see how it turns out.

 

[mickeyfan2]

We don't eat large meals and eat several snacks per day. With the 2 little ones, Dh usually finishes what they don't. I also don't eat more than a couple fries myself. As Americans we eat entirely too much!! Our stomachs when the proper size are only as big as a fist, so we should only fill to that capacity. A Big N Tasty is plenty.

I agree in general we americans eat to much. But a Big N Tasty is not on the $1 menu.

So do you guy 6 $1 items, only double hamburger/cheeseburger here, and two $1 fries for 6 people?

 

[TNKBELL]

I agree in general we americans eat to much. But a Big N Tasty is not on the $1 menu.

So do you guy 6 $1 items, only double hamburger/cheeseburger here, and two $1 fries for 6 people?

It is on the Value menu and Dh usually gets that, the kids get cbs, I like the snack wrap and we don't always get fries just occasionally. Mcdonalds is just an example, I confess we mostly eat at Wendys because the dks like nuggets.
Eating out is a treat.

 

[madge]

If you only spend around $8 for a fast food lunch does that mean all six of you share 1 order of the dollar fries. I hope I'm not sounding negative here(not trying to be) but my hubby would flip if he only got one small dollar burger and a 1/6 order of a med. fry. It just sounds like a very small amount of food for so many people.

there are 5 in my family - and we can eat at McDonald's for around $8:

DH & DS - McChicken sandwich ($2 for 2)
DS - double cheeseburger ($1)
DD - plain cheeseburger (89 cents)
me - hamburger (79 cents)
3 orders of fries off the dollar menu.

we all drink water.