Food Budget

[THESCHULTZFIVE]

I'm sure this has been discussed, but I did a search and can' find exactly what I'm looking for. I know some of you are masters at this so here goes. Our group is me, DH, DD9, DD3, DD1 and my mother. How much food money do we need? We are not doing sit-down meals this time(except for 1 dinner). We will probably eat breakfast, lunch & dinner. Is there a general guidline of how much to bring for food? TIA

 

[mom23boys]

I'm sure this has been discussed, but I did a search and can' find exactly what I'm looking for. I know some of you are masters at this so here goes. Our group is me, DH, DD9, DD3, DD1 and my mother. How much food money do we need? We are not doing sit-down meals this time(except for 1 dinner). We will probably eat breakfast, lunch & dinner. Is there a general guidline of how much to bring for food? TIA

When we went in August we both sit down and counter service. We ate breakfast in our room except for Cape May Cafe.

Our Counter Service meals ran us about $45 for 5 of us (Me, DH and 3 DSs).

I would probably budget in $150 a day for food. We really did not snack, it was too hot but we got alot of water bottles. We did have icecream, but I mostly shared with our litte one. The portions were huge.

Allearsnet has all of the menues it was a great tool to budget. But most times I was off, because the kids did not want to share or wanted something else.

I hope this helps.

Sharon

 

[disneysteve]

It varies a lot by what, where and how much you eat and you'll see lots of responses, but here is mine.

The more people you have, the easier it is to share which helps reduce costs. You say you are not planning sit-down meals which also lowers costs.

We average about $20/person/day. I would not include the 1 yo in that since she will probably eat off of everyone else's plate, so I'd estimate $100/day for your crew. A little higher if you plan to do many buffets and/or drink alcohol with your meals.

 

[SwedishMeatball]

I would say with 3 adults and 2 kids around $40 per meal. I would go with $150 per day to allow for snacks as well. I always overbudget for food though. I don't want to stress too much about having to think if it's ok to get a bag of popcorn or a bottle of water.

 

[ElizaB39]

Two can share one adult meal. Either two kids can share or one adult and one kid (usually me because I was more flexible with what I would eat). Also, you can get some decent counter kid meals and eat those as an adult. I did that a few times a save a few bucks for that meal. We ate in our room, suitcase full of food from home, bought lunch and dinner each day. 100 to 120 sounds about right for the 5 of you, did not count the 1 yr old.

 

[aka-mad4themouse]

It's hard to predict what another family's dining habits will be. DisneySteve is great at dining for $20/person per day but it may not work for you. On the other hand, I've got a teenage boy (read that to mean "teenage eating machine") and a DH who likes to have nice sitdown meals once a day. We average about $37/person per day.

A good way to get an idea of costs is to look at the menus at
AllEarsNet.com - Menus From Around the World
You don't have to map out where you'll dine of when but this will give you a pretty good idea of what food costs in WDW and what is available. Remember that restaurant food is taxed in FL and the rate is 6.5% in most of WDW.

 

[THESCHULTZFIVE]

thanks all for the help.

 

[lc1965]

I budget $50 per day per person for meals & rarely even come close. Sometimes, though, I end up at a sitdown even when I hadn't planned it, so I can toss the savings into there. I budget about $8 on breakfast, $13-14 on lunch the same on dinner. Add several dollars for bottles water & soda & that's where I get the $50 per day. Sometimes I carry a Brita filter, sometimes bring sodas from off-property, sometimes bring snacks from home. Lots of things affect what you spend, of course. Have a great time planning & playing!