I know it's less-than-glamorous...but when we've done "seriously budget" trips in the past, we brought in PB&J sandwiches, apples, bananas, oranges, carrot sticks, raisins, and water bottles, enough to eat twice during the day, plus chocolate chip granola bars to satisfy any sweet-tooth snack attacks.
It's funny....while we're actually AT the parks, nobody in our group really cares too much about food when we eat this way. Usually we bring in better sandwiches, but I can remember at least once, when trying to use our AP's for a 5 day trip one last time before they expired, we stayed in the cheapest hotel possible, and ate PB&J, apples, bananas, oranges, granola bars, yogurt, and water the entire trip, lol. None of the kids minded
AT ALL....if they have to choose between
not going and eating PB&J...they definitely opt for going and eating on the cheap.
We also have brought microwave popcorn to the hotel, and popped some to put into baggies to bring into the parks. Obviously, you need a room with a microwave to do this...and we generally pop it during our midday break, to take into the parks in the evenings, when the smell of popcorn throughout
Disneyland is pretty overwhelming (and wonderful, lol).
On one trip a few years ago, I even bought cotton candy at wal-mart before the trip, and brought it into the parks a couple of nights that we were there...it comes in fantastic little resealable plastic buckets with handles, and last I checked it costs a buck. I only needed one bucket for each kid for the whole trip (it was a 5 day visit that year).
You can also buy things like lollipops and other hard candy (even chocolate if you're visiting when the weather is cooler) to bring in. I've made Tigger Tails at home before, and someday, if we ever visit the parks when it's not scorching hot, I might consider making some ahead of time to bring in.
Rice krispie treats, cookies, or brownies made at home ahead of time can all be brought in (and will save a ton of money on snacks). We always just opt for chewy chocolate chip granola bars (my kids tend to get tummy aches from too much sugar at once, so the Disneyland fare would probably send them into a sugar coma, lol). We bring in dried fruit as well, and that satisfies a sweet tooth quickly.
If you're taking midday breaks, there's a Double Deal Pizza or a Little Caesar's in the area that sells pizzas for $5 each (you'd have to pick them up, but it's not far - we did this twice on our last trip).
If you'll have a way to freeze water bottles that you can carry in an insulated backpack, you can make better sandwiches (turkey, tuna, etc.). This is what we usually do.
We get "Disney Tummy" if we don't supplement our Disney eating with a ton of fruit, veggies, and water, so we always bring in a lot of it. Our tummies always feel better if we just eat food we bring in, but it can be a pain to make that much food for 6 people several days in a row, so we usually opt to eat one meal that we bring in, the healthy snack foods we bring in, and then we eat one "Disney" meal in the park each day. The only candy or "junk" food that my kids eat at Disneyland are the Mickey head lollipops (see photo below - they cost about $5 for 6 pops). We've done the Mickey Mouse ice cream bars a few times, too (about $4 each, I think?).
Hope that helps, have a fantastic time...and Happy Birthday to your son!
). I completely agree with Mugglemama that the kids would much rather enjoy the park, mine didn't even want to spend time finding a restaurant, eating there, etc. They were much happier finding a little spot to sit and eat quickly (we loved the little "pier" by IASW) and get right back to the fun. To make it a little more festive for the next trip, I went to the DISign board and had some beautiful name fills made. I will print the name fills on shipping labels and put on the baggies. I also bought a pack of Disney treat bags at Party City for about $2. Target and Dollar Tree also have lots of fun things for about a $1 each so the kids can get a present each day, instead of spending a lot in the park.
ha, ha, that use to be me. Then I had the choice of going cheap or not at all, and I learned to pack in food. The actual BIGGER benefit was that we ate in line, so not only did we save money, we saved the even more valuable time from not stopping to purchase food.
They are the mullet of the fashion world and the Crocs of the shoe world. Horrific, no matter how functional. 
