Food Budget for a 7 day trip

[theostwalts]

Just wondering how much you guys budget for a 7 day trip when you are not on the dining plan. On our past trips we have had the dinning plan and all meals were prepaid. This year we are thinking about going but not with the dining plan. With the economy being down, gas prices up, I am trying to figure out how to save some money over previous trips. I am thinking of maybe one or two table service meals, but doing counter service the rest of the time. there will be 4 of us, me DW, DD (12) and DD (9).

Any input would be great.

Thanks

 

[gramto2boys]

Just wondering how much you guys budget for a 7 day trip when you are not on the dining plan. On our past trips we have had the dinning plan and all meals were prepaid. This year we are thinking about going but not with the dining plan. With the economy being down, gas prices up, I am trying to figure out how to save some money over previous trips. I am thinking of maybe one or two table service meals, but doing counter service the rest of the time. there will be 4 of us, me DW, DD (12) and DD (9).

Any input would be great.

Thanks

I have decided we will be having garden grocer deliver breakfast items and snacks... also they have very cheap strofoam cools. we will only be having dinner in the parks ( there is 4 of us) it was wise on my part as it costs to darn much for foods and I am saving about 500.00
we will be going for 7 days to, coming home on the 8th. the dinners alone will set us back 600.00 . garden grocers saved me a ton. I ordered snacks, chips, licorice, our milks and 30 count boxes of cereal, 2 cases of water, nuts, fruits,muffins etc. and it was less then 150.00 plus 12.00 for delivery.
I am packing snack baggies, and the kids can have fruit, water and snacks in there back packs. breakfast in the room.

 

[frdeb1999]

We budget about $200 a day when not on the DDP. Although my kids are much older then yours and there are 5 of us. I think at most CS resturants you could probably get away with splitting meals in many cases for your little ones. I know my dd and I did this often. Depending on what type of TS you do I think you could easily stay in that range if not lower. I tend to budget a bit more and am more then happy if it turns out to be less in the end! Good luck planning!

 

[hoosiergirl7]

That depends on how many TS or CS meals you're looking at. If you're doing one CS & one TS a day then you're actually better off doing the DDP. Your 12 yr old will most likely not be allowed to order off the children's menu at a TS location.

Even so if you all do CS for your meals for the entire trip you could easily be looking at $30 - $40 per CS trip for 4. Disney is not cheap. That's approximately $60 - $80 for 2 meals not including snacks (this would be if you ate breakfast in your room).

There are 3 of us DH, me and DS 4 and we easily spend $100 a day for food and snacks. Therefore it actually makes more sense for us to use the DDP because we save money.

 

[karenr766]

Just wondering how much you guys budget for a 7 day trip when you are not on the dining plan. On our past trips we have had the dinning plan and all meals were prepaid. This year we are thinking about going but not with the dining plan. With the economy being down, gas prices up, I am trying to figure out how to save some money over previous trips. I am thinking of maybe one or two table service meals, but doing counter service the rest of the time. there will be 4 of us, me DW, DD (12) and DD (9).

Any input would be great.

Thanks

Good question. Our first on site trip in 1997 was before I had internet access and we did not know how much to bring, so we just guessed. If I were you, I would look on this website and allears.net. On these websites you will find menus and some of them have the prices included. We have stayed on site two times and planning on a third in October. The first time we payed for our meals OOP. Sorry that I cannot give you a rough estimate- 11 years ago and prices have jumped drastically. Hope this information helps.

 

[rentayenta]

Just wondering how much you guys budget for a 7 day trip when you are not on the dining plan. On our past trips we have had the dinning plan and all meals were prepaid. This year we are thinking about going but not with the dining plan. With the economy being down, gas prices up, I am trying to figure out how to save some money over previous trips. I am thinking of maybe one or two table service meals, but doing counter service the rest of the time. there will be 4 of us, me DW, DD (12) and DD (9).

Any input would be great.

Thanks

For the 5 of us, I figure about $150 per day including tips; some days are way less and some are more but it seems to even out. We are big into sharing because I hate hate hate to waste food so we can actually eat really well and not spend a ton.