$Food spending$

[Hopefully]

Be careful with this, though. It was not adjusted to include the alcoholic and specialty drink options. I know it's easier than doing your own math, but it's nowhere near accurate to the way my family likes to eat on vacation. The averages it uses are not my averages.

I agree as well I find it no where near accurate for us

 

[Miffy]

As a PP said, keeping the receipts and tallying them up day by day is a good way to keep track of what you've spent.

I'm vegan and I travel to WDW with either my sister or DH, both of them vegetarians. I don't know if this has anything to do with being vegetarian, but I've never even come close to paying for food what the dining plan costs, and we eat every meal at WDW. Besides the cost, I prefer the ease of just ordering what I want and not having to wonder how many credits something is or whether it's included, etc. There are many threads on the DIS that discuss the dining plan's merits and drawbacks so I won't go into them here.

 

[rwdavis2]

We don't keep track. We order what we want. Sometime a meal is expensive and most of the time it's not. I'm sure we don't vary much from trip to trip.

 

[ErinBoBerin]

Okay another question - if we pay for everything with our magic bands and then take care of that later, can you include the tip on the magic band or do we need cash for that?

 

[siren0119]

Okay another question - if we pay for everything with our magic bands and then take care of that later, can you include the tip on the magic band or do we need cash for that?

We paid all of our food expenses, including tip on the magic bands, and then I settled up at the hotel each night using Disney Gift Cards (Thank you, Target RedCard discount!!!)

As far as budgeting, most of the menu prices are available online through sites like TouringPlans - so when planning our big trip last year I made a spreadsheet (I'm dorky like that) of where we would likely eat each day, looked up the prices and picked what was most likely for my family to order. I tallied up the local tax as well as the tip, then totaled it so I could have a pretty accurate idea of food budget. We ended up UNDER our food budget and had extra money for souvenirs.

We did not choose a dining plan, because Eldest DS was 10 at the time but would have HATED just about everything on the adult menu. In retrospect, we probably would have been OK with just a QS dining plan, and paid a la carte for sit down meals so he could get what he wanted.

 

[ErinBoBerin]

We paid all of our food expenses, including tip on the magic bands, and then I settled up at the hotel each night using Disney Gift Cards (Thank you, Target RedCard discount!!!)

As far as budgeting, most of the menu prices are available online through sites like TouringPlans - so when planning our big trip last year I made a spreadsheet (I'm dorky like that) of where we would likely eat each day, looked up the prices and picked what was most likely for my family to order. I tallied up the local tax as well as the tip, then totaled it so I could have a pretty accurate idea of food budget. We ended up UNDER our food budget and had extra money for souvenirs.

Woop great thank you!

 

[Nancyg56]

Okay another question - if we pay for everything with our magic bands and then take care of that later, can you include the tip on the magic band or do we need cash for that?

We always do. The only day we do not is our departure day. On that day I write "CASH" for the tip on the reciept when we use our dining plan credits. I do nto want to chance any charges on my room because I have that settled the night before we leave.

 

[goodeats]

We spent an eyewatering amount on food. When I tell people they look at me in shock! But we didn't scrimp - did Tusker House, CRT, Artist Point, Narcoosees and several other pricey TS restaurants. Including alcoholic beverages (hello Territory Lounge wine flights!) and gratuities we averaged $300 a night for a family of 4. We probably could have made the regular dining plan work for us, but we would have had to change out some restaurants. We obviously could have done it cheaper, but we don't make it to the World very often.

I horded Disney Gift Cards from the grocery store at home and paid the room charges with them every few days.