Help me save money on food.

[cheermom1]

When I started planing I thought we would stay at the fort b/c of money. However when i did the #'s It will cost us about $650 more to stay at a value. I know you are thinking that is a huge difference right?? Well the thing is we have 8 people in our party sop we will have to have 2 rooms and the suites only sleep 6 so we have to have 2 rooms.

So anyway I am excited b/c I don't have to stay in the pop up.

Now I have a question how do most people do meals? I want to save money on food since we are splurging on the rooms. I want to make sure I do everything the way it is too be done. so can we get a fridge and microwave? Honestly i don;t really know. Mainly b/c I thought we were going a few years ago but that didn't happen so I didn;t want to look into anything then. Which is why I have such a high post count but don't know some if these things.


Thanks

 

[brymolmom]

How fun staying at a value! We're staying at POP Century next week. We love it there.

I don't believe you can get a microwave in your room, but you CAN get a frig. Try to get in on one of the free frig swaps if you can - or just pay $10 a night to get one in your room.

Are you driving or flying? If flying - I would get some groceries delivered. With that many people you can DEFINITELY save money by doing some things in the room. This is what I would do:

Get cereal and bagels and/or fruit for breakfasts and do ALL breakfasts in the room.

Bring a soft-sided cooler or cooler/backpack and pack sandwiches, cookies, goldfish, cheese sticks, etc and do one meal in the parks out of your cooler. If you have a stroller - I would also pack another small cooler with water bottles, juice, and/or soda and bring all your drinks to the parks.

Then I would do a counter service every other day and a table service every other day (likely would do this one for lunch since usually cheaper). This way you're only paying for one meal per day.

Good luck and have fun.

 

[Kellydelly]

When I started planing I thought we would stay at the fort b/c of money. However when i did the #'s It will cost us about $650 more to stay at a value. I know you are thinking that is a huge difference right?? Well the thing is we have 8 people in our party sop we will have to have 2 rooms and the suites only sleep 6 so we have to have 2 rooms.

So anyway I am excited b/c I don't have to stay in the pop up.

Now I have a question how do most people do meals? I want to save money on food since we are splurging on the rooms. I want to make sure I do everything the way it is too be done. so can we get a fridge and microwave? Honestly i don;t really know. Mainly b/c I thought we were going a few years ago but that didn't happen so I didn;t want to look into anything then. Which is why I have such a high post count but don't know some if these things.


Thanks

Confused, where is it that you ended up booking a room?

 

[cheermom1]

How fun staying at a value! We're staying at POP Century next week. We love it there.

I don't believe you can get a microwave in your room, but you CAN get a frig. Try to get in on one of the free frig swaps if you can - or just pay $10 a night to get one in your room.

Are you driving or flying? If flying - I would get some groceries delivered. With that many people you can DEFINITELY save money by doing some things in the room. This is what I would do:

Get cereal and bagels and/or fruit for breakfasts and do ALL breakfasts in the room.

Bring a soft-sided cooler or cooler/backpack and pack sandwiches, cookies, goldfish, cheese sticks, etc and do one meal in the parks out of your cooler. If you have a stroller - I would also pack another small cooler with water bottles, juice, and/or soda and bring all your drinks to the parks.

Then I would do a counter service every other day and a table service every other day (likely would do this one for lunch since usually cheaper). This way you're only paying for one meal per day.

Good luck and have fun.

Thank you for those ideas I like the bagels and cream cheese and fruit. I also like the sandwiches too.

We will be driving and our youngest is 12 so no strollers.

 

[crusoe2]

If one of the free fridge swaps doesn't work out and/or you don't want to spend the money to rent a fridge (that can really add up), you can probably manage fine with a cooler. We've done that on several trips. All the resorts have free ice machines so we use those to keep the cooler stocked with fresh ice.

We usually eat breakfast in the room and also keep some items for making quick, easy meals in the room. We don't do any cooking - just quick stuff like sandwiches and salads, fresh fruit, cereal, etc. We've also taken a small backpack cooler into the parks with water bottles and snacks. We found it was really nice to be able to just find a spot to sit down and break out the goodies in the cooler when we wanted a snack rather than having to wait in line at a snack cart everytime. It was also quite the money-saver.

 

[cheermom1]

Confused, where is it that you ended up booking a room?

i haven't booked yet and I don't care which value I get. I will be booking Fri.

 

[Jty1220]

We started making our own bread and it is cheaper and fresher.

 

[Jty1220]

We also get alot of food at our local farmers market

 

[tar heel]

We bring muffins, granola bars, fruit, juice, cereal, etc. and eat breakfast in our room each morning. We buy a 1/2 gallon of milk at the resort store and keep it in the cooler, which we refill twice a day.

We bring plenty of water, soft drinks and snacks for the road and the room.

We don't do anything goofy like cooking in the coffee pot.

We follow a firm rule that we only buy gas at gas stations.

We eat one quick service and one sitdown meal per day. Often, the sitdown is for lunch because it's cheaper.

 

[cheermom1]

We bring muffins, granola bars, fruit, juice, cereal, etc. and eat breakfast in our room each morning. We buy a 1/2 gallon of milk at the resort store and keep it in the cooler, which we refill twice a day.

We bring plenty of water, soft drinks and snacks for the road and the room.

We don't do anything goofy like cooking in the coffee pot.

We follow a firm rule that we only buy gas at gas stations.

We eat one quick service and one sitdown meal per day. Often, the sitdown is for lunch because it's cheaper.

Thank you I will be taking notes and making a list of the things that will work for our family. thanks for everything ladies.

 

[tar heel]

Of course, I should have said that I buy more milk for the room when we run out.

All my boys are big milk drinkers, so they order milk at sitdown restaurants where they get free refills and stick with what comes with the meal at quick service.

 

[Good Morning Dewdrop]

Here's how we save $$ on food at Disney

We purchased a small fridge from Wal-Mart - it was around $60 so paid for itself in less than one trip (we typically stay 9 nights).

We go to Wal-Mart once we arrive and sock up on breakfast foods, cereal, poptarts, milk, OJ and snacks. Also we buy cans of soda that we bring into the parks for meals

Eat breakfast in the room and when we park hop (via car) and back in the hotel room we eat the snacks.

We share CS meals - there are 3 of us (dd is 12) - we split 2 CS per meal (no dessert, no drinks) for lunch and dinner. Budget for park food is $50 / day usually we spend less. The $50 is for food (drinks - we drink the soda we already own or CS free water). We also get a snack or 2 and a dessert per day.

Hope that helps.

 

[bear_mom]

I made water bottle holders for my dds and they each carry their own water bottle and water flavoring packs.

We share meals when we are able: we will buy one or two meals and then supplement with a few a la carte items.

We eat breakfast in the room each morning. We have done a few different things. One time we had a styrofoam cooler and kept it filled with for milk, etc. Other times we haven't and just had bagels, pb, granola bars.

We also bring snacks in to the parks each day to help keep the kids happier, but we do allow I treat a day.

Emily

 

[DisneyEater]

I don't know when you are going or what rate you got, but you may want to look into renting DVC points from someone for your stay. You can stay deluxe and get a full kitchen to do all the cooking you want for as little as $2,170 for a week at Old Key West. All 8 in one room and way more space than 2 value rooms.

 

[cheermom1]

I don't know when you are going or what rate you got, but you may want to look into renting DVC points from someone for your stay. You can stay deluxe and get a full kitchen to do all the cooking you want for as little as $2,170 for a week at Old Key West. All 8 in one room and way more space than 2 value rooms.

That is more then what my budget allows. Thanks though. We will be staying for 4 nights in july. Thanks everyone for so much help.

 

[luv2mickey]

Consider buying a plug in cooler, the plug can switch between car plug or wall plug if your planning to rent a fridge at $10 a night this may be cheaper and you'll own. Its nice not worrying about ice.

 

[bgirl29]

If you stay in one of the family suites and get a regular room the suite will have a fridge and microwave that you can use for some easy meals. Or at least to warm up some leftovers.

 

[carebee21]

Will you have a car? If so, you may want to look at eating dinner off site. If you search through the budget board, there's lots of tips on eating off site for a relatively good price. IE, sweet tomatoes with a coupon, Giordanos pizza with restaraunt.com certificate, etc.

I also agree with eating breakfast in the room. If you have a fridge you can do bagels and cream cheese, milk and cereal, fruit, yogurt. If you don't have a fridge, you can do muffins, pastries, donuts, cereal bars, oatmeal (heat up water in a coffee pot) and fruit that doesn't need to be refridgerated like bananas and apples.

And be sure to bring lots of drinks and snacks. That's where we spend a good chunk of money and it's so easy just to bring your own water into the park, trail mix, fruit snacks, etc.

Also, while the value rooms don't have a microwave in the room, the food court does, as well as a toaster. I'm not really sure what the etiquette is as far as bringing in outside food and using those (whether they're meant to be amenities of the hotel or whether they're meant to be amenities of people specifically buying food in the food court), but I've seen plenty of people bring in outside food and use them...

 

[cheermom1]

Will you have a car? If so, you may want to look at eating dinner off site. If you search through the budget board, there's lots of tips on eating off site for a relatively good price. IE, sweet tomatoes with a coupon, Giordanos pizza with restaraunt.com certificate, etc.

I also agree with eating breakfast in the room. If you have a fridge you can do bagels and cream cheese, milk and cereal, fruit, yogurt. If you don't have a fridge, you can do muffins, pastries, donuts, cereal bars, oatmeal (heat up water in a coffee pot) and fruit that doesn't need to be refridgerated like bananas and apples.

And be sure to bring lots of drinks and snacks. That's where we spend a good chunk of money and it's so easy just to bring your own water into the park, trail mix, fruit snacks, etc.

Also, while the value rooms don't have a microwave in the room, the food court does, as well as a toaster. I'm not really sure what the etiquette is as far as bringing in outside food and using those (whether they're meant to be amenities of the hotel or whether they're meant to be amenities of people specifically buying food in the food court), but I've seen plenty of people bring in outside food and use them...

Yes we will have a car we will be driving as I am going to a family reunion too.

I have started a list of what kinds of foods I will be bringing and thanks for the tip on going off site.

 

[bear_mom]

Yes we will have a car we will be driving as I am going to a family reunion too.

I have started a list of what kinds of foods I will be bringing and thanks for the tip on going off site.

I think I read on another tread that you are only going to be there for 4 days? If so, then I would be wary of going off-site for dinner unless you are planning on not going back to the parks after. That would seem to take a lot of time.

Emily