Help for a new "budgeter"! Tips for saving in the parks and at resorts?

[lauradis]

http://www.earlofsandwichusa.com/

 

[lauradis]

Hi. Im going to Disney in September. Ill be solo one day in September 10. When do I sign up for the Club so I could receive a free sandwich. I would love to do this.

Thank you.

http://www.earlofsandwichusa.com/

 

[lauradis]

http://www.wdwinfo.com/wdwinfo/dining/diningmain.cfm

After hotels and tickets. Food is the biggest expense. Here is link to all the menus. Counter service has lots of nice options.

Small things like light up toys, rain gear, sunscreen, meds can be found at a dollar store before leaving.

Really planning before hand will save you a lot of time and money.

Depending on what your kids like autograph books can be made or found cheaper at home.

If they want to try Disney pin trading ebay is great place for starter pins by the lot and cheaper.

Even Mickey ears can be found on ebay

The couple of times my parent took me, instead of my grandparents, we always had packed food from home for breakfast lunch and dinner. Our big purchase back then was Mickey Icecream.

Best place to start is write out a budget of what you can spend total, then work the plan, leave a little extra so your not stressing.

 

[LMCT88]

Is the Earl of Sandwhich coupon good at any location.

 

[friend2Figment]

When you sign up it asks for a location so it might work at other locations but I am not sure.
I know the show 30 days they are good for but some people have reported that if you don't print right away the valid to date changes.
Our trip is less then 30 away and my day is the week we will be there so once I get my coupons I can report back.

 

[LeslieLou]

My boys are 6 and 9 and we typically will pack their lunch several times - have done both every day and just sometimes on a trip. I don't pack for me/DH, but my boys love PBJ/Applesauce/Juice/etc and it's close to what a kids meal is anyway. I bring squeezable jelly and PB with me in my suitcase as well as drinks/applesauce/etc. I buy a loaf of bread and chips at the hotel store. We bring a ice packs too. This helps make lunch cost $15-20 instead of ~$35 on those days. We do bring breakfast as well, because we stay in villas fairly often, we always make our own coffee. We only get coffee as an afternoon treat in the parks, which is not all the time.

Beaches and Cream and The Plaza are very inexpensive table service restaurants and they feel like a treat, so a good choice if you want to save on sit down. We also find Via Napoli to be good and reasonably priced. We try not to eat at buffets as they are very expensive generally. We try to go to a la carte restaurants. We do not typically bother going off-site, but that's an option.

We've really enjoyed ordering pizza at the boardwalk pizza window and watching a movie on the beach at the beach club. Wilderness Lodge has something similar.

At CS restaurants - don't get the side items. For example, only order the hamburger or if there are multiple people share fries but each get a sandwich. This will save you $2-4 each meal that you forgo a side item for.

Agree with getting water in the parks - free ice water in cups at any CS. Take the drop flavoring or packets if you want to make lemonade or other drinks.

I know everyone loves the Target 5%, but with the Amex Preferred you can get 3 or 6% back (depending on the version of the card) on groceries plus fuel rewards if you have Kroger or Giant Eagle (or another chain). We use gas cans to get the full 35 gallons on every fill up. We save a full 20% on our gift card purchases. My $500 GC will truly cost me $400.

I'm a small person - but my DH would never imagine sharing any plate. I'm lucky to try a bite of something he has. But, I can get away with eating kids meals sometimes - if it's hot or I'm just not super hungry that day.

 

[kymom99]

http://www.earlofsandwichusa.com/

I'm going to use this when I go to Vegas!

 

[judeis]

Thank you thank you thank everyone for such great information and for your time in sharing it! You all are the best!!!

 

[Tygerlilly]

I'm still in the planning stages of our trip, which had to be postponed from this November to next November, when our trip will include one extra tiny person. However, these have been my main staples in budgeting for the trip. We will be driving, so we will have a car.

1) Every pay day I reload money onto two gift cards: One is a Disney gift card (food and hotel) and the other is a visa card (gas and other non-disney purchases).
2) We are bringing a box of cereal, $1 bowls, granola bars, beef jerkey, etc. I'll stop and pick up milk and some bottles of soda/water at the store on the way in and keep them at the hotel. Cereal will most likely be an after park snack since we aren't breakfast people.
3) No park hoppers. Just plain tickets.
4) Hoping for a pretty good room discount. Since our food will essentially be paid for in advance with pre-loading giftcards, the biggest savings will be the room discount.


If you have older kiddos going, I love the idea of letting them earn their spending money before: chores, birthday and holidays. Just load it all onto giftcards and that's what they have to use on the trip!
Also buying tshirts and light up toys at the dollar stores or target beforehand. HUGE savings there.

 

[Storm98]

We fly but I always pack cereal, granola , treats. We also bring microwave popcorn- the resorts quick service restaurants have microwaves you can use. So we pop our popcorn and sit by the pool at night to watch the movie on the big screen.

 

[LovesTimone]

Breakfast in room, cereal, milk, fruit, instant oatmeal, pop tarts, breakfast bars. My friends bring bagels and bread from home and toast them in the food court, they bring their own cream cheese. I have made muffins, brownies and cookies and brought them with us. I use a plastic shoes box, and pad it with wax paper and baggies with air in them, really helps protect them, a suggestion from another friend is to use rubber bands to keep the lid shut tight.

Take snacks into the parks, granola, cereal bars, apples, crackers, or those little can of Pringles, or those cans of Doritos, just nothing that melts. Water and drinks are another way to save, bring them with you, or order from somewhere like garden grocer.

Sharing meals - lots of QS meal that can be shared - maybe 3 adult meal between the 4 of you would be a savings. Or even 2 adult meals if your girls aren't big eater, which you could use the savings for Mickey bars later on.

Most restaurant will let you share TS meals, Tutto pasta is wonderful and huge portion. Via Napoli you could share a pizza. Tell them you want to share most will divide for you some will give you the plate so you can do it yourself.

Appetizer night, When our girls were this age we could get a large family appetizer and 2 side salads, and it was more than enough food to share, Rainforest, Planet Hollywood, and T-Rex, have the best ones with the most choices ( for what my family likes). You could even get one dessert to share with the 4 of you, or head to Ghirardelli's and share the large ice cream sundae.

Take some time, to check out menus so that you have a idea of what is offered.

Have a great trip...

 

[kokomos]

Adults can order off the kids menu for about 1/2 the price. I would order a kids meal before attemting to split a meal.

 

[ADisneyQueen]

If you are going DTD the Earl of Sandwich if very reasonable and you could join the member club(free) about a month before you leave and you would get a coupon for a free sandwich.
I like to look at the menus ahead of time to see what is offered and aprx cost.

If I sign up now, how long is the coupon good for? My trip is June 8.

 

[kymom99]

If I sign up now, how long is the coupon good for? My trip is June 8.

People have said it is good for 30 days. So don't sign up yet.

 

[js]

People have said it is good for 30 days. So don't sign up yet.

Is the coupon mailed or do we print online?

Thank you.

 

[LovesTimone]

I thought of a couple more things to help with savings.

Gift Cards - Starbucks, Landry's this will help with your food budget. I have bought them at Target and Sam's at a discounted price. You could buy one a week or something like that.
Also they have Disney GC at a discount price.

We used the Starbucks ones for Breakfast one morning, and lunch another day. I had a bit left over for a snack as well, I used the Landry's for Breakfast at Rainforest at AK, and Dinner at T-Rex on arrival night. This just added to our food budget, as I bought them over a period of months.

My friends used this idea, when they were at WDW. They were on the regular dinning plan, so they used the gift cards to fill in for some meals, and snacks.

 

[MommaBerd]

This might seem obvious, but if you have other credit cards check to see if you can get gift cards for rewards points. Even if it isn't Disney, you could try other stores that sell GCs. For example, if you can get a Walmart gift card, you can purchase GCs for places like Landry's and even occasionally Disney.

 

[dprincessmom]

Pretty certain I saw from another post that you are driving down (hopefully this is you).. We stop at the last Ocala exit on I-75 and hit the publix. Get the sandwich meat we use here at home, a package of tortilla shells and some cheese and we have breakfast on the run (ham and cheese wraps). We usually grab yogurt and some portable snacks (peanut butter cracker packages, granola bars etc). The wraps could easily be used for lunch and don't take up much room in a bag. DD is not a huge cereal fan and this has been our strategy for a while. Even when we are on the Dining Plan we do breakfast like this a couple of times and it really makes life easier for getting ready in the morning, not to mention the $ we are saving.

Also, don't overbuy on the cool stuff - our first trip we went we planned to do meals back in the room, but we were ready for a hot meal and it ended up a waste. Now we do snacks and quick foods.

When you are going has historically had Free Dining, watch for discounts that could be added to your room. That would be a huge savings.

We also have an extra rule - I give you $25 for your spending money - anything else is on you. When she is spending her own money, she will be more selective.

Some of the restaurants have lunch and dinner menus - lunch will always be cheaper.