How Much Do You Spend On Food?

[kelscross]

I budget 75.00 per day (1 adult, 2 children under 3). That includes any ps's etc. For myself if I have a big dinner planned I don't usually eat much lunch or if I have a big breakfast then I'm usually not that hungry the rest of the day.

I have an advantage though, my children are free at the buffets and family style all you can eat meals, so I do plan those for all of our PS. They usually share a kids meal at the resort (they are small eaters) or I might have to get a kids meal and an extra order of fries or something.

We actually came back with money last year so we didn't do too bad.

One thing my mom and I discovered last year was when we weren't that hungry we would get a kids meal, it was much cheaper and had plenty of food.

 

[wdwfan]

We are a family of 4 (DS 9, DD 7) and I'm planning on about $150 a day. We're staying concierge, so breakfast is taken care of. (Not big breakfast eaters either) Lunch will be either sit down or counter service and dinner will be sit down service. We usually get snacks in the park too. I know somedays we may go over the $150, but other days we'll stay under it.

I can't wait to get there!

 

[CMKN]

We are a family of four (Me, DH, DD 9 DD 13) - to us breakfast is our biggest meal while on vacation. It is good for us because we fill up and almost always can get away with just a small snack for lunch and then counter service or sit down dinner. Everything included (breakfast, snacks, dinner) we average $125 - $160 per day and are always satisfied! I splurge on vacation because first off, we don't go every year (yet) I don't have to cook or clean, and I like to live it up.

 

[queenmichelle]

The food budget for my upcoming trip is $950.00 for 10 days for me and my DD(11). I used the menus on allears and think that if we eat as much as I think it should be pretty on target. We have alot of food court breakfasts planned. 2 character breakfasts. The main meal of the day is lunch. We have ps's made for almost every day. Dinners will be a pretty even split between counter service and some moderate sit downs at the resorts. i don't think $950.00 is unreasonable for 3 meals out a day for 10 days.


Look at that counter!!

 

[JessetheCowgirl]

Originally posted by stemikger
I can't for the life of me remember how much spending money I brought on my last two trips. I don't remember feeling like I spent a lot of money though.

However, this trip is a special one because it's for my 40th birthday I want to really have enough money.

I am bring $2,500 for two adults and one child. This total also includes souviners (which we don't go crazy on).

I have no idea if you were planning on bringing cash or not, but I just wanted to suggest traveler's checks to you if you are bringing that much $$$$

You can never be too safe!

As for budget, we (family of 4 on last trip) spent approximately $150-$200 per day on food, drinks, and souvies.

We did one sit down meal per day (mostly character meals), and counter service for the other two. We bought most drinks/snacks in the parks. And, no high price souvenirs--just light up parade gizmos, a few pins, etc for the kids.

Enjoy your trip!!!

 

[mareed]

For our family of 4 - me, DH, DS 7, & DS 4, we averaged $100/day. This was with eating most breakfasts at our condo, and usually one sit-down table-service meal a day. We had our table service meal at either a character breakfast or at lunch. Dinner was almost always counter service. My DH & I will sometimes share a meal if we know the portions are large (i.e. fried chicken at Prime Time Diner), but then we often order dessert to make up for it.

 

[Blueberry]

Ok..here goes...we allot $150 but rarely ever hit that amount. This for two adult empty nesters and for everything, food, souvenirs, etc..

We are not in the room eating type folks so we generally go to Dennys each morning and spend less than $10 for two meals.

Used to have parking fees of $8, but buying our first APs so that is eliminated.

Have counter service lunches in the parks, generally sandwiches or burger type things.

Dinner we do a sit down, sometimes but often when the parks close very early we have a late dinner offsite, sometimes a sit down like Outback (the chain restaurnt) , Pizza Hut or McDonalds at DD.

We do not go over board on souvenirs either and always bring home plenty of money. I prefer to have too much than too little, if you ever get caught in a park with too little money it is no fun..

 

[averysmom]

We average $75 - $80 a day, 2 adults, one child under 3. We usually eat breakfast in the room, with one or two character breakfasts, one sit down meal a day (either lunch or dinner), and then usually just counter service and snacks. We always visit O'Hanas, Boma and Biergarten at least once. Keep in mind though that we very, very rarely will order alcohol.

 

[maureen4200040]

When we stay at the Rosen Centre last November, we decided to only have a sit down meal in the evenings. Which worked out really good as I got a bogof offer from the internet, so we only paid $23.65 for two buffet meals per night instead of the regular price of $41.51.

We went to Walwarts on the 2nd day there and stocked up on bread, ham, salad and cooked chicken,water and cold drinks that we used for our lunchtime meals. Breakfast was cereal and banana's. Every other day we brought apples, watermelons and grapes etc.

Total spent on food and snacks for 2 wks was $420.00. Our food budget before we left England was $500.00 so we had money left at the end of our trip to use for souveniors.

 

[disneymom2one]

2 adults and a just-turned nine. We budget $100 a day. That includes about 4 "big" (character) meals for the trip as well as a Publix run. We generally eat breakfast in the room, a nice lunch and then snacks or counter service for dinner. I keep track on a piece of paper and we generally come out fine. We don't buy souvenirs or drinks/snacks in the park.

 

[disneysteve]

Just to let anyone worried about food costs know that eating at Disney doesn't have to be expensive ...

Last trip in November, we were 3 adults and DD8. We averaged under $17/person/day for all our meals and snacks. We ate breakfast in our condo. Lunch usually counter service in the parks. Dinner was a combination of casual sit-down, counter service and offsite restaurants. We did 1 character meal at Crystal Palace.

 

[aimee11621]

Originally posted by disneymom2one
2 adults and a just-turned nine. We budget $100 a day. That includes about 4 "big" (character) meals for the trip as well as a Publix run. We generally eat breakfast in the room, a nice lunch and then snacks or counter service for dinner. I keep track on a piece of paper and we generally come out fine. We don't buy souvenirs or drinks/snacks in the park.

Hey disneymom2one:


what do you get for breakfasts?

 

[LisaZoe]

After seeing what others feel is a reasonable food budget, I feel like mine if quite good. This is a first WDW trip for my DD, almost 3, and me. As such, I've allowed for about $50 a day (including tax and tip) for 8 days. I checked the menus on allearnet.com to get an idea of costs and think I've figured on the expensive side but we probably won't spend it all.

This includes 5 character meals (we may not do them all but I haven't been able to cut any out yet ) and the Aloha Spirit or HDDR dinner show. Luckily, all these special meals are buffet or family style so DD eats free. These will be our big meals of the day and we'll just eat a light breakfast/dinner on those days and some snacks at whichever park we're in for lunch.

 

[chrisn]

We are going for 10 days this coming February and what I do is budget $1000 for food and $1000 for Shopping. This is for a family of four, DD-16 & DS-6. This is what we always do and what works for us. We have 5 Dinners, 4 Lunches and 1 Breakfast scheduled. We do one sitdown per day more then likely eating breakfast on the run, then either sitdown lunch and counter dinner or sitdown dinner and counter lunch and snacks through the parks usually spending between 100-150 per day usually closer to 100. We don't do near as much shopping as we use to so we always have extra at the end which makes DH happy.

 

[diznee25]

We spend $100 per day on food. It's just me and my husband, and this budget allows us to eat within WDW everyday, (we do stay on WDW property). Usually 1 to 2 sit down restaurants per day. The other meal is counter service.

Diznee25

 

[3ofakind]

Well- we are doing some grocery shopping and eating BF in our condo.

Lunch at Magic Kingdom will be counter service (at either of two places) and dinner at Cosmic Ray's- 2 chicken melas worth mashed potatoes and we have our own drinks- Crystal Light...

MGM- BF at condo and we are leaving between 12-4 and will eat lunch and dinner at condo- same for the next day at Universal.

Kids have 20 each for a souvenier and any snacks they want...(most will be packed in their tummypack- cheese crackers, cashews, honey roasted peanuts, sunflower seeds and hard pretzels).

I think for the 6 of us we will spend up to $120 at grocery store...and $40 in the parks...and 20 for pizza (with Ent. coupon) for the first night (we will have 8 people)= $180 for 3 adults and 3 kiddos for 4 nights and three days there.

 

[jenny_E]

One tip to keep in mind at the parks is that when I was there last the sit down restaurants let you order a child's portion if you ask. We went to Rose and Crown and I got the child's potion fish and chips that was 1/2 the cost of the adult's and then I didn't waste and had room for dessert later if I wanted (which I always do - let's be honest...) Dinner for the 2 of us was like $25.

For my husband and myself I budget about $10 for both for breakfast most days cause we're cheap...then $15-$20 for both for lunch if its counter service (agian I will send my husband up to get me the kid's meal if that's what I want) and $25-30 for dinner for the "medium" priced restaurants. then always a snack at night.

When we stay off site I try to get the "deluxe" continental breakfast included hotel, like Country inns and suites calypso cay so we eat up and save even more for snacks later...

For me, its more about the experience than the fancy food so I have no shame in ordering an appetizer or a child's portion that fits my appetite size better and leaves room and $$ for the important things (like pastries at France in Epcot!)