How much do you budget per day for food if paying OOP?

[arihillfarm]

For two adults and one older child (at the time) and staying at our timeshare, we budget $100 a day for food and that includes a buffet for a late lunch and sharing a counter service for dinner and maybe 1-2 purchased snacks per day. We always cook and eat a big breakfast at the condo and bring drinks and snacks along which are not included in the $100 per day. I would budget a little higher if you'll be eating all meals on-site. On the DDP, we were able to get by with little out of pocket other than tips by bringing cereal and oatmeal along to eat in the room and using snack credits for muffins and danishes to supplement breakfast. In your case, I think the DDP would be a better value.

-Astrid

 

[Phlip]

I get a little obsessive when I plan our Disney food budget. I actually check out the menus on allears and then "order" what I think we will want and add up the costs. I get a very accurate food budget that way and my dh appreciates knowing how much it's going to be.

The last couple times we've gone, I've written our CS orders on note cards and kept them with the daily plans. When we get to the CS restaurant I just read our order off the card. So much easier to order for a family of 6 like this and the CMs appreciate it too.

Brilliant!

 

[branv]

I get a little obsessive when I plan our Disney food budget. I actually check out the menus on allears and then "order" what I think we will want and add up the costs. I get a very accurate food budget that way and my dh appreciates knowing how much it's going to be.

This is what I've done as well, and it works. In fact, it works even though we often deviate from the planned restaurant to another, as the prices among same type restaurants are similar. I originally did this to see if the dining plan would work for us, and it's always shown that with the way we like to eat, we're better off on our own.

I assume one TS a day (not buffet, but share an app, share dessert -- including at least one signature a trip), two counter service, and I budget LOTS for snacks. I would never bring a snack into WDW to save money just b/c the special snacks there are part of the fun for me (really, I'd rather cut down a meal than cut down on the snack! )

We usually come out about $50/pp a day ($60 if we have a few drinks). Though this is not a set "only spend this amount a day". This is an average over the entire trip as we also include cost of food while getting to and from WDW. So we may spend $50 total the first and last day of vacation, but $150 the first full day of vacation. KWIM?

 

[Anthony1971]

As above do the TS lunchs they are a lot cheaper and with a 2 YO you never know if he/she will be sleeping -- for that fact lunch either.
We did the DP when my son was 2 and he slept at most of the dinners and we ate around 5-7
when paying OP we do mostly TS lunch now which as other said will run around 50-70 with tip on the lower side for you as you will not be paying for your child. I do not make a budget but I can tell you we end spending at most 100 a day for 2 adults and one child-- more likely at the end of a 7 night trip we will avergae about 75 a day. We just can not eat that much for that long The DP does not work for us on longer trips but we do use it for 3 day or less trips....
My suggestion is to make ADRS the same day or the day before witha young child, you never know whne it is nap time or crank time or not hungry time etc -- trust me people cancel and you get some great places that people stress over... If you have to eat at a certian place and it wil ruin your trip otherwise then by all means make ADRS early...

 

[Ava]

My suggestion is to make ADRS the same day or the day before witha young child, you never know whne it is nap time or crank time or not hungry time etc -- trust me people cancel and you get some great places that people stress over... If you have to eat at a certian place and it wil ruin your trip otherwise then by all means make ADRS early...

Yeah, I really want to be able to be flexible on this trip. It's our first with a young child, and we have no way of knowing @ 6 months out what DD's napping & eating habits will be like by the time of the trip. I want to make a few ADRs, but I won't be heartbroken if we don't end up making them, or we change them at the last minute.

I don't want to do the DDP because we are traveling w/ my parents & MIL and I just can't do that much planning for that many people. If it was just the 3 of us I might try it out, but all of the parents are too wishy-washy - I don't even know if they are going to stay the whole week or not. (Don't even get me started on why in the world I invited all of them to come along! Haha.)

 

[Mickey4Paul]

I use the Disney Dining Plan pricing as a guide for budget purposes. So if I were going to have 3 TS meals per day, I'd look at the Deluxe plan pricing of $72 for adults and $21 for kids 3-9. Your trip is about 6 days for 2 adults and 2 kids so I would budget:

$72x2x6= $864
$21x2x6= $252
Total $1,116

Will you SPEND this much? I don't know. TS meals can be quite expensive.

The reason I use the DDP pricing is that it represents a figure Disney thinks it can at least breakeven and it is easy to run an estimate. When I do this for myself, I usually don't spend as much as I planned because I end up eating fewer meals than planned or snacking in through out the day.

I hope this helps.

 

[tooh8ful]

We, so far, have always used the DDP (Yay September! )
But, I also always have groceries for breakfast delivered by Garden grocer. I don't even do it to save money since I always go WAAY overboard with our WDW vacations. I do it to save TIME! We can all eat breakfast while we're getting ready in the morning then hit the parks running!

Not exactly an answer to your question, but something I hope you find helpful.

 

[a1tinkfans]

Our Via Napoli bill was over 100 for 2 spaghettis, one pasta dish, 1 beer and a soda with 2 desserts....

Our LeCellier for dinner was over 200 for three...so I really think you should take a look at the menus and see where your family "fits in"
For us, the dining plan is a no brainer, I buy it when I have too or get it for free when I can, but would not do disney without it.

Have a great trip!