We don't necessarily try to save money on food at Disney, but some of the things we do end up saving us money in the end. We drive, so we always bring breakfast foods, snacks, and a case of bottled water for the room. None of us are big breakfast eaters (or certainly not a big breakfast every morning) so eating in the room works perfectly for us. We usually take granola bars, pop-tarts, bagels, cereal, and some type of pastries or donuts. We pick up milk and cream cheese at the resort. We don't bring our own water to the parks with us because we prefer to travel "bag free" to the parks and we also want our water to be cold when we drink it. We buy a few bottles of water throughout the day when we need them. Bringing your own water to the parks is definitely a way to save money but it doesn't work for our family. We also take microwave popcorn, pretzels, and crackers to keep in the room for late-night snacking. We eat at quick service restaurants for the most part -- again, not because we're trying to save money but because that's what works for us (we don't want to be tied down to ADRs every day). At the QS restaurants, even though the menus show everything as a combo meal, you can order just the sandwich. I almost always only order a sandwich or salad for myself and pick at the sides from the kids meals because they never eat them all anyway and I don't eat much. I will sometimes order a kids meal for myself because that's more than enough food for me most days. We will also usually order a pizza or 2 for a meal one night -- that's an easy and inexpensive meal.
We decided not to do the dining plan at all to have more flexibility....
