Best way to budget W/O the dining plan????

[NHBelle]

I am just trying to figure out the cheapest way for our family of 5 to go to Disney....I can't believe how much it is!!!!! I could get the teacher rate and all 5 of us could stay at the Swan/Dolphin, BUT then we can't get the dining plan. DH says no way....he hates sharing meals and feeling hungry or thirsty. I keep trying to tell him that the food is not free....we are paying for the dining plan, but he is convinced that we would starve without the dining plan. I think he's crazy...with 5 of us when we went a few years ago on our last day we had like 15 lunches and 10 snacks to try to use up and we threw so much food away. I need to convince him that we could just put the money we would spend to buy the dining plan onto our room key or something and use that just like as if we were on the dining plan....any other ideas????????

 

[diskids2]

I feel your pain. DH loves the dining plan and fights with me every trip. We finally decided that we would alternate. Every time we use the dining plan I go through the pain of showing him each and every receipt and show him how we LOST money on the dining plan, but he doesn't care. Makes no sense to me. he swears without the dining plan I wouldn't feed him. Yeah ok. I feed him at home.

Anyway....I have stayed at the S/D and I LOVE it! The area is great. Being able to boat or walk to two parks is unbeatable! The Grotto pool is really nice. It's like being at a deluxe for moderate prices (DH is a gov't employee, so I get that discounted rate too).

You won't be able to use your room key to charge back to the S/D from the disney parks. However, you could take the exact amount that the dining plan would cost you if you were staying at a disney owned hotel and put it on a disney gift card. Then you could use that gift card for all of your meals. Besides some of the smaller stands, I don't think you would have a problem using it anywhere. He might feel like he is on the dining plan if he is not putting a penny out of his pocket. Just think apps and tips could also be debited from the Disney gift card.

As far as saving money on food. We always get a Garden Grocer delivery (we go shop is another option). I spend about $100 and get cases of water, breakfast foods, snacks. Except for breakfast maybe once or twice during our (usual 10 day trips) we eat in the room. We put water in the refrig every night and bring a bottle to the parks. We also bring those crystal light single packets so that you can have iced tea, lemonade etc.

Another way I cut down on food is I belong to my points. I do the surveys. Click the ads. and go through their site when I order online. I specifically use the points for Landry's gift cards (Rainforest and TREX). I'm not sure when you are going, but after a year of doing it...I usually have enough points for $100 in gift cards.

Regarding the disney gift card, if you have the target credit card then you can get a 5% discount on purchase. That adds up as well.

I would check out the budget board for loads of ideas.

 

[sharonabe]

Somewhere on the restaurant board, there is a thread $50 a day at Disney. There's only a couple examples, but it might be enough to show DH that you CAN eat without sharing, and spend less than the DDP. The examples show 3 meals/day, at least one TS, include tax AND tip (not included on DDP) for $50 or less.

You might also want to do your own example. Go to allearsnet.com and peruse the menus. Order what you think your family will WANT to eat at the restaurants you want to go to and tally it up.

There is also a thread somewhere here on the DDP sub-forum that has a spreadsheet that will calculate for you whether DDP or OOP fits the way you eat, but you need to know the restaurants (TS and CS) where you want to eat.

 

[danceintherain]

I am just trying to figure out the cheapest way for our family of 5 to go to Disney....I can't believe how much it is!!!!! I could get the teacher rate and all 5 of us could stay at the Swan/Dolphin, BUT then we can't get the dining plan. DH says no way....he hates sharing meals and feeling hungry or thirsty. I keep trying to tell him that the food is not free....we are paying for the dining plan, but he is convinced that we would starve without the dining plan. I think he's crazy...with 5 of us when we went a few years ago on our last day we had like 15 lunches and 10 snacks to try to use up and we threw so much food away. I need to convince him that we could just put the money we would spend to buy the dining plan onto our room key or something and use that just like as if we were on the dining plan....any other ideas????????

My DH has the same mentality, but I do all the Disney planning, so ultimately I make the decision. I make spreadsheets for every trip with detailed info about what we'd likely order at every meal. DH doesn't really care to see the math.
I'm very honest about what we would order in each case. I put in desserts and drinks some of the time and usually pick the most expensive thing on the menu for at least one person. If it ever came down to less than $100 difference, I'd go with DH's wishes and do the Dining Plan, but the last time before our trip came close to $300...and my numbers after the trip showed that we spent almost $500 less by not doing the dining plan, because I erred on the side of caution.

I don't put any restrictions on what we order. We just simply don't order what the dining plan specifies naturally. We rarely have room for dessert immediately after meals and usually order water.
We usually wait a few hours then get dessert somewhere else.

One of the main factors is that we tend to eat 2 counter service and 1 table service meal a day sans dessert. This means that on the dining plan we end up buying almost a full extra meal for each person every day. This adds up quickly.

I would like it if the dining plan would work for us, but it just doesn't. Maybe once DS is between 3-9 something will change, but we're not fond of character meals, so I doubt it.