Budget for food OOP per day?

[pigletto]

I have seen this question asked so many times here over the years but I've never really paid much attention since we have always gone with the DDP.
We booked an incredible rate at the Grand Floridian but to get the deal we can't get the ddp.
I'm kind of relieved to be honest because I've wanted to try to go without it and always end up with it for convenience sake

We will have a TIW card.
So here is what I am thinking. We are at Universal for 3 days of meals, and then we move to Disney. At Universal we have a car. We are thinking offsite for a meal or two since there is so much in the area. Otherwise it will be counter service for the most part. I budgeted 400 for food for those three days.

Having a little more trouble with the Disney portion. I think we will do 1TS and 1CS per day. We don't often order dessert and choose water most of the time (especially in August).

So with that and snacks what would you budget for 6 full days?
There are 5 of us. 2 adults, 2 vegetarian teens with decent but not huge appetites, and one 8 yr old.
Thank you for any suggestions.

 

[Darcy03231]

I budget $10/pp for CS, $40/pp for TS and $10/pp for snacks/drinks and usually come home with money.

 

[clanmcculloch]

I always like my initial budget to be on the high side so I have a tendency to use the DDP price for my preliminary budget. As I'm booking my ADRs, I refine it based on the most expensive things we like at these restaurants and add maybe $12pp per CS meal plus $20 per day for snacks. Our breakfasts are generally food we bring and/or buy via Garden Grocer so I ignore that amount. We ALWAYS come in under budget even after tips doing this and that's how I like it.

When we stay club level we typically do a big TS lunch and don't end up doing any CS so the budget is much easier to figure out.

 

[pigletto]

I budget $10/pp for CS, $40/pp for TS and $10/pp for snacks/drinks and usually come home with money.

Thank you. Do you pay TS tips out of that amount as well? It's only about 100 off of my estimated costs with tips so that makes sense.
We'll have donuts, coffee, juice, milk, cereal and some fruit in the room for breakfasts. It should be doable.
Also, the heat really squashes the appetite for us. So while I won't count on not being hungry, we always left a lot of food uneaten on the DDP.

 

[pigletto]

I always like my initial budget to be on the high side so I have a tendency to use the DDP price for my preliminary budget. As I'm booking my ADRs, I refine it based on the most expensive things we like at these restaurants and add maybe $12pp per CS meal plus $20 per day for snacks. Our breakfasts are generally food we bring and/or buy via Garden Grocer so I ignore that amount. We ALWAYS come in under budget even after tips doing this and that's how I like it.

When we stay club level we typically do a big TS lunch and don't end up doing any CS so the budget is much easier to figure out.

I like that plan.. budget high and then there is no surprises.
I always end up with the ddp to avoid surprises and not have to watch my wallet all day every day. But to be honest, we would split an appetizer, and eat a entree, and never order desserts if we weren't on the DDP.
My 8 year old could be a little more adventurous too. Last trip he was pretty sick of the standard chicken nuggets and cookie.
I am liking this idea more and more.
Thank you everyone.

 

[mountdew1]

It never hurts to check out the menus as well. Admittedly you may not know exactly what you want to eat, but it will definitely put you in the ballpark. And with TiW, the price you see if the final price you will pay. (Since the discount essentially offsets any gratuity). If you share drinks at TS or drink water, $10 pp is pretty much spot on. I think we are closer to $25pp for CS, since we just do entree and drink. And with the exception of a dole whip and Mickey bar or two, all our snacks were packed down in our suitcase.

 

[Nomad70]

We budget $150 per day for our family of 5, also with two teens and a 6 year old. We are able to eat one nice TS meal, CS lunch and we can eat breakfast at the resort on that or sometimes we just have cereal or pop tarts for breakfast in the room. Either way we usually don't use all of it. We also are able to get a snack or two. This is why the DDP would never be economical for us. lol We aren't there to eat fancy food (I can do that here at home) or spend a fortune trying foods we may not like, we are there to have fun.

 

[KY*Figment]

We are DVC members & choose not to get the dining plan but we budget our dining on what the dining plan cost plus 19% for tips. It's pretty close.

 

[alyssa810]

There's 3 of us and we typically budget $100 a day, but we often won't go that high; it always depends on how many meals out we have. For example, if we have a big sit down breakfast or buffet, we might skip lunch and just have a snack and a big dinner....we usually don't do more than 1 TS a day, but we have days where all meals are CS, so those days the costs are less...

We also have TIW, so that helps with the cost.

 

[pigletto]

We are DVC members & choose not to get the dining plan but we budget our dining on what the dining plan cost plus 19% for tips. It's pretty close.

Do you use TIW? I am thinking if I just budgeted what we would spend on the DDP but without the tips because TIW basically covers those, I'd be ok.

I think what I need to do is pour over some menus, set a budget, and put it in envelopes or on a gift card. Any day we're under we can roll it over to the next day.
I will bring extra just in case, but my intentions are to make the food fit within what we ultimately budget. If it doesn't, then we'll make cheaper choices. I'm not talking about mustard from the food court on melba toast I brought from home. I just think if it's looking like one TS a day will put us over budget then perhaps we skip every third day and only do CS that day or something.

We were just there in May so I don't have that sense that everything has to be exactly what we want. There are plenty of less expensive places that we'll be happy with like The Plaza or Wolfgang Puck Express for example.

 

[KY*Figment]

Do you use TIW? I am thinking if I just budgeted what we would spend on the DDP but without the tips because TIW basically covers those, I'd be ok.

I think what I need to do is pour over some menus, set a budget, and put it in envelopes or on a gift card. Any day we're under we can roll it over to the next day.
I will bring extra just in case, but my intentions are to make the food fit within what we ultimately budget. If it doesn't, then we'll make cheaper choices. I'm not talking about mustard from the food court on melba toast I brought from home. I just think if it's looking like one TS a day will put us over budget then perhaps we skip every third day and only do CS that day or something.

We were just there in May so I don't have that sense that everything has to be exactly what we want. There are plenty of less expensive places that we'll be happy with like The Plaza or Wolfgang Puck Express for example.

We do not have TIW. We make our resi then we go through an online menu along w/ a counter service then estimate our cost along w/ tip. We have typically stayed w/ in +/- $100 of dining plan w/o tip. We don't like the little cakes w/ counter services and too full for desert at a table service. We will have desert w/ in the day usually a Mickey ice cream sandwich, caramel apple, or cupcake. We eat breakfast in the room and we each carry a water and I carry 4 more in the backpack. I carry a few snacks into the park such as peanuts, granola bars, & the kids a Capri sun each. This includes us going to one signature dinner. We are big eaters. I don't like buffets but dh does so we usually go to one.

 

[tinkmom2]

Our first trip we had about $700-1000 to spend between the 3 of us and came home broke! I think we were there for 6 days. From then on we've always used the dining plan. Our last trip this past October we didn't get free dining (Columbus day week) We had to pay for the DP. We suplemented our trip with ordering Garden Grocer. We would eat breakfast in our room, things like oatmeal that I made with the coffee pot water, fruit, pop tarts, pb and J etc, soda. (The mugs have become crazy expensive) That helped cut down on cost. We would save our credits for dinner and lunch. Or have a big breakfast and then have a pb and J back in the room.

We then used our dining plan to go to meals we might not normally afford like CRT and the other character meals. My youngest would sometimes share from my meal and we would save that credit and use it later.

 

[DisneyEater]

I'd probably budget $100 per person per day, knowing that it would be too much but then I wouldn't worry about ordering the more expensive meal off the menu or something like that.

 

[limace]

I'd probably budget $100 per person per day, knowing that it would be too much but then I wouldn't worry about ordering the more expensive meal off the menu or something like that.

Wow! I can't imagine spending $500 A DAY on food for my family. And my husband and I love to eat good food and have wine with our meals.

 

[DisneyEater]

Wow! I can't imagine spending $500 A DAY on food for my family. And my husband and I love to eat good food and have wine with our meals.

$60-$75 is probably more than reasonable, I just would rather be way under than over budget. Makes me feel better inside to bring extra money home.

 

[vleeth]

I suggest you look at the menus of the places you plan on eating...pick the most expensive thing that each person is likely to order, add it up, plus tips...and then add 10% to it and you have your budget.