For those that pay OOP for meals, how much do you budget?

[clanmcculloch]

I just don't understand those who don't budget their dining. I'm not talking about limitting dining; I'm talking about having some idea of what it'll cost. A budget doesn't necessarily meal going on the cheap or cutting back. A budget means planning out your expenses. If that means $50 per person for a dinner then that's what it costs but it's at least planned for. Even Victoria and Alberts or eating signature every night and character breakfasts every morning can be budgetted for. It's just a matter of planning out the costs. How do you know that you've put aside the right amount of money if you don't budget? Do you just put it all on a credit card and not worry if you carry a balance to cover your vacation?

 

[summermac]

I don't budget for vacations like that really. I do put everything on the credit card and I pay it off with the next statement. We save all year for vacations and our various camping trips so I always have enough money to cover it in our savings.

 

[krb2g]

I don't budget for vacations like that really. I do put everything on the credit card and I pay it off with the next statement. We save all year for vacations and our various camping trips so I always have enough money to cover it in our savings.

+1. I'm not the one paying off the credit card at the end, but yes, we put it on a credit card and pay it off at the end of the month. We don't go to Disney every year, but we have been enough times to know about how bad the credit card bill will be after the trip, and when we do go, we make sure we have plenty of money saved up to pay the bill off.

 

[Good Morning Dewdrop]

3 people - DH, myself and DD age 11

$50/ day - 2 CS at both lunch and dinner and snacks

We buy breakfast foods (poptarts, cereal, milk, fruit) at Wal-Mart when we arrive and eat those at breakfast thoughout our stay. Also we stock up on cans of soda and drink a lot of CS cups of water - so we don't pay for drinks on this budget. The WM purchases do not count towards the $50 / day

 

[Mrsjvb]

I just don't understand those who don't budget their dining. [...] How do you know that you've put aside the right amount of money if you don't budget? Do you just put it all on a credit card and not worry if you carry a balance to cover your vacation?

not a concern for us. like I say the CC is at zero balance when we leave, and we pay it off again upon our return. I have paid a grand whopping $9.97 in interest on the cc over the last 5 years and that was due to the timing of pay periods and our last Cruise( yes it was a Disney Cruise) and when the interest was calculated.

I should also point out that the hotel is already completely paid for on said cc before we get on the plane. and so are the plane tickets. hell I have a cruise scheduled for next May that is already completely paid for and will be adding OBC after I return from Japan in Mid december( and yes my plane tickets to Japan are paid for too)

we are just fortunate in that we do not have to pinch every penny. where we mostly tighten the belt is souvenirs. We really just limit ourselves to one T shirt or set of jammies and I try and get an Ornament every time we go

as long as I do not max out the CC every month, I can easily pay it off without hurting everyday expenses and still have a hefty cushion for emergencies.

 

[Pakey]

I just don't understand those who don't budget their dining. I'm not talking about limitting dining; I'm talking about having some idea of what it'll cost. A budget doesn't necessarily meal going on the cheap or cutting back. A budget means planning out your expenses. If that means $50 per person for a dinner then that's what it costs but it's at least planned for. Even Victoria and Alberts or eating signature every night and character breakfasts every morning can be budgetted for. It's just a matter of planning out the costs. How do you know that you've put aside the right amount of money if you don't budget? Do you just put it all on a credit card and not worry if you carry a balance to cover your vacation?

We don't budget at all. We just put it all on the credit card and pay it off when we get home. I don't understand why we have to plan our costs. We have never carried a balance on a credit card and we can afford to eat what we want, where we want. I think Disney vacations already require way too much planning without having to plan our spending.

 

[Mrsjvb]

I think Disney vacations already require way too much planning without having to plan our spending.

hell we don't even plan our rides out! we do FP for a few that we really wanna see but in no way whatsoever do we subscribe to touring plans or feel it is necessary to rush to a FP location at rope drop then rush back halfway through the park to get into a line. Its bad enough I have to schedule ADRs for the better venues.

although next trip we have APs so we can actually take advantage of hopping( we never buy it on normal tickets) although I do admit to really focusing on ADRs in resorts.

the only pre planning I do is making note of Early EMHs as we like those( bit not late) so I will try and get an ADR in a restaurant at that park.

 

[niccikatie]

I just looked back at our trip from last year. We spent a total of $50/per person per day for the three of us ($150/day total). This includes all food and souvenirs (we charged everything to the room or a CC, so I didn't separate out the two categories). This also included our garden grocer order. We ate at Fulton's, Biergarten, Akershus, and Chef Mickey's. We also did some counter service, snacks, beers in the parks and by the pools. I've budgeted about the same amount for our trip this year too.

 

[CarrieR]

Just to show that it runs the gamut, my December budget works out to $33/day (for just me, as an adult... I'm single and go with friends so we each pay our own way. ) I think it came out to like $206 or something, although I'll be taking $250 to be on the safe side.

This is for Tuesday through Sunday, plus a snack at arrival Monday night and a refillable mug. I am leaving so early Monday (3AM bus ) that I'm not planning on eating, at least not until the airport Starbucks, lol. It is for what I want, not the most economical option necessarily, so it's not intentionally skimpy.

It includes eating at Liberty Tree, Plaza , Rainforest, Sci-Fi and LC. That said, I'm a vegetarian so my entrees are less expensive and it's quite common for me to opt to just eat an app, instead. We are also doing the dessert party (not included in the above total.) That total may actually come down, as I budgeted for full-on CS meals, but I'm thinking I might do kids' meals sometimes -- we've been on DDP the last few trips and there are tons of snacks and whatnot that I want to try, but haven't been able to because I've been so darn stuffed all the time! I also budgeted for a drink with each meal and may have water. So it wouldn't surprise me to come in under $200 for the six days.

It's pretty funny to me (not in a mean way, just in a "touring styles are so diffferent that it amuses me" way) that others spend in a day what I'd spend in a week, lol.

 

[janabananas]

My plan works like this:

It is only dbf & I, for extended trips. We only eat CS for breakfast and lunch & a TS for dinner. (we almost never make ADR's for bf or lunch)

I always guesstimate the most expensive bf & lunch for where we are going. Usually bf is a max of $10 and lunch is a max of $15, per person.

Dinner is where the actual planning begins. I pick the most expensive app, entree, and dessert that we would be interested in. So our food costs for a dinner could run at about $120 if we get the most expensive items. Then the alcohol comes into play. We do like to drink on our vacations and we budget accordingly. Usually about an extra $50 a night (2 cocktails a piece), maybe more if a scotch or whiskey flight is involved.

We always have extra $$ left over because I don't always eat an app to myself or I may decide when I get there that I am just not wanting a steak and go for a less expensive entree.

I always prefer to over estimate then under estimate. Our last trip in September I had an extra $200 to put aside for our anniversary trip in January. With the addition of that money and extra money left over from F&W, I was able to upgrade from POP to WL CL for our anniversary (thanks to an AP discount).

 

[Couchy]

Dh and I usually spend around $175 a day. We don't really eat breakfast (maybe once a trip). We usually split CS for 1 meal and then have a nice TS for another meal. We share a snack or 2 throughout the day as well. We do have a drink or 2 throughout the day ( especially at Epcot, DH loves his beer ) and then another with dinner . We do not limit ourselves in terms of what we order during vacation.