DLR on a budget - $50/day for food?

[alicia1506]

hey all,
so i'm an obsessive planner and all of our accomodation/tickets/tours/transport/flights/insurance etc have all been prepaid and organised.

in our original budgeting i had thought that we would budget $50.00 per person per day for food purposes, and my SO, DSis and I are taking approx $100.00 shopping/souvenir money per person, per day also...

as this will be our first trip to the US, we were planning on mostly dining in quick service locations/counter service cafes etc rather than sit down meals, but we have heard varying reports of food prices etc...

what do you think? $50.00 per person per day? too much, too little or just right?

 

[PrincessInOz]

Alicia - are you doing Disneyland Resort or Walt Disney World? I know you've said DLR but I noticed your ticker also said WWoHP/IoA.

And is the $50 per day per person for just the Disney component or your entire trip?


Just to clarify - your budget is $150 per person per day for food, souvenirs and shopping? What sort of shopping are you talking about?

By way of comparison, when I travel with DH and DS (who is now 11), our budget is about $50 - $75 per person per day for food. Shopping is a completely different bucket for me because it really depends on what we want to get. DH likes shopping for musical instruments and I like shopping for camera gear in addition to clothes; so a budget doesn't really work for instruments, camera gear and clothes....because it just depends on what we see and whether we like it or not.

There will be some places where the food budget will stretch so much further e.g., NYC; if you are happy to seek out cheap eats and other days where $75 per person will not seem enough. It usually works out.

I tend to factor in a couple of really good dinners at proper restaurants (with celebrity chefs) as well. For these meal, I don't include the $$$ in my food budget. I don't necessarily pre-book or reserve a table but will have some spare cash set aside for when the occassion arises. I'll usually allow about $150 - $200 for the 3 of us for meals like this.

 

[PrincessInOz]

Never mind. Just read the other thread. DLR but not WDW, and you're going to UA/WWoHP/IoA.


If you're hanging around the UA/IoA area for food, I found it to be a little more expensive and not as good as food in WDW. And souvenirs at UA/IoA are expensive.


You should find value for money food options in Vegas and in NYC; so your budget may be fine for that.


If you're including proper clothes shopping and the like, you're probably going to be stretching it tight.

 

[WAMUMOF4]

I am sure that's enough when we came home and averaged out our meal costs last year we only averaged $110 a day and there is 6 of us but we had breakfast included everywhere we stayed.
I found DL a lot cheaper than i though even after reading everything i could i still thought it would be like the crazy theme park prices on the Gold Coast

DW we spent $1900 in 5 nights and that included CRT,the Fantasmic package offsite eating once all our souvenirs including $350 on 2 Dooney & Bourke bags. I would actually say other than the 2 dining reservations we only spent about $600 on food max eating cs and snacks during we had breakfast in our room before we went to the park.

 

[miss.potatohead]

You also might find that food portions are too large for one person alone and can therefore share a plate with whoever else you are with. We ended up doing this and instead of 4-5 meals we bought 2-3 which saved some money (and our waistlines!)

 

[GrazingGoat1966]

For what it's worth, I'm well North of 100kegs, and whenever we travel to the states, we average no more than $35 a day spent per person for food costs. And that is eating in diners or restaurants 95% of the time.
In summary, a lot cheaper than OZ, and the portions are generally a LOT larger than the portions you get here.
Enjoy your trip!!

 

[alicia1506]

For what it's worth, I'm well North of 100kegs, and whenever we travel to the states, we average no more than $35 a day spent per person for food costs. And that is eating in diners or restaurants 95% of the time.
In summary, a lot cheaper than OZ, and the portions are generally a LOT larger than the portions you get here.
Enjoy your trip!!

did you also find that Disneyland was accomodating to your size? i fit in a regular plane seat (it's the hips that usually do me in) but i was hoping i'd still be able to do rides etc, rather than just walk around holding bags like i do here in Aus...

 

[Sugarglider]

DLR has less options for expensive dining that WDW so I too have spent less than $50 for food there.
I'm with the others - if you really wanted to squeeze more spending dollars you can easily split meals - they are HUGE
Enjoy!

 

[darren123]

Our food bill for 3 Adults in Nov was about $550 for 8 days or about $23 per day per person How we did this we went to Food4Less and brought Cornflakes Milk tea a few jars of PBandJ with some to take home and bread for toast for breakfast. Fried chicken pieces and 99 cent TV dinners for Lunch a few cartons of coke some snacks for in-between and we spent about $250 at the supermarket as well as printing out coupons for subway Maccas etc 2 for 1 deals as we as a few night time meals in Disneyland. When we went to on a day trip to somewhere else we took a packed lunch as for shopping you buy what you want we went to the Disneyland store nearby at Brea Mall and they had a lot of buy one get one free deals we do our Disneyland holidays on a budget.