Food budget for one week??

[amybowles9]

We are going to be staying at Disney for a week, the end of January. We will not have a car, so will need to eat every meal there. We will have a grocery stop on the way to the parks, but other than breakfast--I doubt I can get everyone to eat in the room much.

There are three of us! Where can we eat fairly inexpensively? anywhere?

I am afraid we will get tired of burgers.

I am thinking $500? is that enough.

 

[aka-mad4themouse]

$500 would come out to a little over $70/day. Two adults and a child can easily survive on that amount, especially if you plan to do breakfast in the room each morning. It might be a good idea to load up on a few portable snacks when you make that grocery stop. It will be more convernient to break them out when you're waiting in line and the between-meal munchies hit you.

To get an idea of the cost of food in WDW, check the menus at AllEarsNet.com - Menus From Around the World . You can get a pretty good handle not only on the costs, but also on what type of food is available. Remember to add 6.5% to your totals.

 

[canwegosoon]

What I like to do is check the hotel charges, so I see where I am on the budget. There are also some great tips on park eating at www.mousesavers.com/meals.html if you are worried. It really depends on the type of eaters you are...my DH can blow $100. on a dinner...he is used to the business picking up the tab.

 

[LauraAnn630]

Your going to have to be very careful! We kept getting thirsty. Buying drinks can add up very quickly. We took a drink in with us but that wasnt enough. Then wed see people snacking, "mmmm lets get that!" someone would say. Popcorn, ice cream, nuts, eggrolls...its easy to spend money snacking!

 

[Rebeccapaige!]

Hi, I am planning a $100 a day for Me, my dd 5, and dd under 3 by 2months
so since our luau is paid for our first night, I am bringing $700 for food. Granted we will be eating at sit down meals every night but one. so that adds on the the bill, I would definately check out that menu place listed above that will be GREAT help in figuring out your bill! don't forget tax and tip if you do sit downs!
Becky, Paige and Hailey

 

[disneysteve]

Last trip in November, we averaged $60/day for all food, snacks and beverages. But we did eat several meals offsite which helps keep costs down. But if you pay attention, share, and eat breakfast in your room, I think $70 is plenty.

 

[Grand2me]

$500 is a good amount. When we went(June 2004), we brought snacks(Goldfish, Granola Bars, and Snickers), Water and little finger sandwiches. It was just my husband and I. We wound up splitting lunch and dinner portions and the portions were huge. We came out like fat rats in the food department and were able to spend more on the outlets and Souvenirs. I can't wait to go back.

 

[JodyTG]

Get a Brita refillable water bottle if you want to save money on drinks. I don't want to drink sodas all day anyway and it works out very well. I just learned where all the water fountains were and filled up at each one.

 

[bigbabyblues]

It depends on your family size and ages, but I budgeted $140 a day for our family--we were me, DH, then 3-yo DS (almost 4), and 15-mo DS who was free at character meals. We ate 1 sit-down or character meal each day, a couple days we did 2. We didn't bring any snacks to the parks, just had a few things in the room for late evening and things. We didn't spend all of our food $, but we didn't have a lot left over either. One thing that helped me was to look at the menus on allearsnet.com and see the prices. Of course, you can't know who will order what, but it gives you and idea.

Steph

 

[powellrj]

we will keep drinks in our room and thats a huge budget saver. We will get a case of pop and a case of water, some snack type items and breakfast items.

 

[doubletrouble_vb]

$70 a day is plenty if you make sure you eat each meal and bring along fatty/protein snacks....like gorp. Apples would be good as well. As long as you got a good meal in your stomach the snacks don't look so good.

If you happen to be in Epcot one place I thought was great for an inexpensive meal was Tangerine (sp?). The food is healthy and its filling. If you want to spend a little more go ahead and have lunch or dinner in Morocco. Again not particularly expensive, tasty, filling and its got live entertainment.

Also make a point of eating something other than hamburgers and the usual fastfoods...chicken or chicken salads for example. I found a well rounded meal does me much better during the day than the fast ones. That way I don't spend unnecessary money snacking and I can choose to buy the snacks I truly want...like a Mickey Bar. ...And that way you come out LIKE a fat rat but not looking like one!

PS. Water Bottles make a big difference. If you are flying in see if you can get some of the little ones from the flight attendant. You can refill those at the fountains but they won't take up much space in whatever bag you are carrying around the park.

 

[Grand2me]

PS. Water Bottles make a big difference. If you are flying in see if you can get some of the little ones from the flight attendant. You can refill those at the fountains but they won't take up much space in whatever bag you are carrying around the park.

This is a great idea. When we went, webought the "BIG" sized Capri Sun(they come in various flavors) and froze them overnight. Then we packed a bag with bottled waters(the water in Orlando has a bit of an odor ) and little boxed juices and let the frozen drinks act as ice packs. By the time we wanted to drink them later in the day, they had defrosted. We saved alot of money like that.

 

[wannabebelle]

On our grocery stop, we bought a case of store brand (Publix) bottles water and a big pack of Capri Sun. Also bought breakfast items and snack items. Our travel party consisted of myself, my husband, and my 5-year-old niece.

Each morning, we packed about 4 bottles of water and a Capri Sun. If DN got hungry in the mornings, we gave her a grocery store snack from the backpack. My husband and I shared a water until we finished a bottle. Then DN could open her Capri Sun (in the mean time she could have water). As you probably know, you can't exactly put an opened Capri Sun pouch back in a back pack, so we would pour the remainder in our now empty water bottle.

At lunch, we would order a counter service meal for my husband and one for DN and I to share. Usually it was more than enough, but if not, we would eat some of my husband's food. None of us were ever hungry after lunch. The soft drink cups are huge, so we never finished those drinks, but we poured the remaining Coke into whatever empty water bottles we had.

During the afternoon, we always let DN get a snack, usually ice cream. She could never finish the whole thing, so my husband and I chose one of us to get an ice cream snack and the other just ate DN's leftovers. Granted, I felt slimed by the end of the week, but we saved a lot of $$!!!

We usually ate off property at night.

 

[Kimberlyfamilyfv]

this is what i do when we go to theme parks. First thing is to get everyone a fanny pack. Then i find things that i can put in them that will not melt. And I put one cold drink box in.

Usually i make sure i have a mixture of both salty and sweet to help curb purchasing snacks.

granola bars
skittles
licorice
suckers
pretzels
goldfish
crackers n- cheese
raisins
cookies
peanut butter and jelly sandswhich
and a must -- wet papertowel in a baggie-- perfect for cleaning up little messes

each person gets to select the items they want in their snack baggies to put in their fanny packs.


I have done this for the last 10 summers, and child or adult it works great.


However, that being said I still budget eating breakfast in the room, one hotel meal out, 1 snack each, and sandwiches in the room for the other meal.

With my 2 sons and myself it costs me about 60 dollars a day.

Kimberly

 

[PattiPB]

One of the things we do is order in two nights from a pizza place (we use Flippers). One night we order pizza, and another night we order other things (meatball parm, garden salad, etc.). They deliver directly to the hotel, and are reasonably priced.

We actually order before we reach the hotel, so the food is on it's way while we're heading back to the resort. The front desk calls the room when they arrive, and DH goes down to pick it up. It's a great idea we picked up on the DIS, and it's a nice and CHEAP break from "theme-park food". One time we ate at poolside instead of in the room...it was a fun change.

HTH~

 

[Blair]

I read somewhere on this site where a family had small brita bottles with a filter and would fill them up at the fountains. They said it took all the bad taste out. I use a big one at home and it works great. I hear buying water at the park is expensive.
Probably could buy them at wal-mart