how much per day for food budget?

[jm106]

I know there are all kind and costs of restaurants, but I just wondered a ball park, how much do you allow per day? We will be 3 adults and 3 yo, plus 11 month old who will pick on ours. I am thinking breakfast in suite(full kitchen) and lunch counter service mainly, and dinners most sit down (nice but not pricey)
We wil be there sat-sat, with flight after breakfast going home.
I plan one Epcot dinner with out kids, they will be with DN and may get pizza.
I read ppl doing an envelope system which I liked- plan X per day and any unused get put in for next day and so forth.

 

[glo]

Ok, here is how we did it. Sat down and figured out where we wanted to eat. Had one ADR per day...... Pooh Breakfast at Crystal Palace, LTT dinner, Teppan Eno dinner, Hoop De doo dinner 9pm show tier 2, Kona cafe breakfast, San ANgel Inn lunch. We figure breakfast in the room and we are bring our own water and snacks into the park. Counter service which I ball park priced out at each park for the meal there. It came out to $657 for the ADR's and $400 or so for counter service for 5 people for 5.5 days there. We also are going to get the TIW card. We have that money put aside...I know we might go over and or under, but when I did the counter service I priced the higher priced meals, so we have some leeway. I know kind of anul but it works for us.

 

[dvcdisney]

Our next trip will be the first trip we will be doing without DDP.

So we sat down and did some calculations. We looked at the menus and approximated how much each dinner would cost etc.

We do the same thing- Breakfast at the resort room (dvc villas have kitchens), Lunch as cs and Dinner as ts. With 2 adults and 2 children, we budgeted about $100-$125/day. This gives us also room for a snack or two. We usually share our snacks. We are also not big lunch eaters so we usually share CS meals. However, each dinner usually cost about $80-$100 each night. (We do not drink alcohol or any specialty drinks.)

Well at least that's what we'll be budgeting for this vacation coming up.

 

[Misty89]

we are offsite in a condo ( Timeshare)
all breakfast in room.

so my budget looks like this - we are a family of 4.
$100 per day
broken down to $25 lunch & $75 Dinners.
** we have an extra fund for WDW meals, lunch and dinner @ MK - $100
( counter service and lots of treats
and our Anniversary Dinner at Fultons allowing $200.

so i have set aside $1000 for food for us total, we might not use it all, but it is high so if we see a place that we like, we can go and not think about if it will kill our dining budget.
I treat each day like a "envelope system" except i keep a running total on paper of surplus instead of using envelopes.

~Exampe, if on day #1,
let say we ate at Subway for lunch, 4 ft longs + 3 sodas ( DH &DD9 share) it would be about $19$ or so,
for dinner we ate at Golden coral , 4 buffets + 4 drinks $ 48 or so.
so that day we would have $33.00 in slurplus to add to another day. so, the next day, we could if we wanted, eat a $125 dinner that night.

hope this makes sense to you- LOL it works for me

 

[Misty89]

Bump for the OP

I also am intrested in seeing other peoples plans for dinning that are not on DDP.


Tina

 

[pooh2001]

What I would suggest -

For each adult for one CS & one TS per day, calculate $60 a person per day.

For the child for one CS & one TS per day, calculate $40 (maybe a bit high - but would include a snack per day).

So- per day it would be $220

For 6 full days = $1320

 

[monami7]

I am trying to figure what to do on our Nov '09 trip and this makes me think we would be nuts to not just pay $41 per adult on DDP. Why if you are doing 1 cs and 1 ts a day would you rather pay $60 per day per adult?
I am just curious.
Heidi

 

[Kimi313]

Hey we also calculate $60 a day per person. I figure $10 - breakfast, $25 - lunch, and $25 dinner. We just grab a breakfast and use our refillable mugs so 10 seems high but we use the extra for drinks and snacks during the day. I put each day's food money in an envelope and any extra at the end of the day goes to the next day so when we eat a TS we have enough. I also allow that much on the travel day to and fro which we don't hardly spend. On the way there we pack breakfast and lunch which allows us to use it all for Chef Mickeys and then on the way home everyone is tired and so full from the trip we just grab fast food.

 

[Gina35]

I am trying to figure what to do on our Nov '09 trip and this makes me think we would be nuts to not just pay $41 per adult on DDP. Why if you are doing 1 cs and 1 ts a day would you rather pay $60 per day per adult?
I am just curious.
Heidi

This is exactly why we take the DDP. We always wanted to be sure we had enough money, so we would over-budget. Now we always get the DP. IMO, it's much nicer b/c you don't have to worry about it at all. Even if you plan a frugal $5 breakfast and $8 lunch, that's only $28 left for dinner (thinking of the price for the DP). Many of the nicer restaurants would cost at least that much....especially with dessert. However, some people share many meals and feel that helps them to cut down. Additionally, some feel that they don't need all of the food the DP offers. As long as the DP is offered, we will go no other way.

 

[jm106]

I am staying off site, thats why I did not take the DDP.
Thank you everyone, grerat to have a base. I will check out some CS places but we are not planning lunches, so I was just looking for a ball park. Same with diners, Ill plan a few but not all.

 

[Donnainnj]

I think I would estimate the cost of the dining plan, plus maybe the tip for table service. Adult $40 + $6-7 tip so $46.50 for each adult, and $11 + $2 tip, if not going to a character meals or buffets, add an extra $6 to $9 a day on days you are going to buffet/family style or character meal. You will probably spend less if you are careful, or if you eat your table service meal at lunch time, share meals, etc, but to be generous to yourselves, and not have to worry about it these are the numbers I would use to budget.
Donna

 

[hoosiergirl7]

What I would suggest -

For each adult for one CS & one TS per day, calculate $60 a person per day.

For the child for one CS & one TS per day, calculate $40 (maybe a bit high - but would include a snack per day).

So- per day it would be $220

For 6 full days = $1320

Exactly why we are doing the DDP. I know that doesn't work for people who are staying off property. But realistically if you save money staying off-property you'll be paying a lot for meals if you are spending the whole day at the parks. We stayed off-property in 2006 for a quick trip and I will never do that again even if it is for a quick trip. Too much of a hassle for us to drive back and forth. It was a nice option to be able to go to a restaurant off-property but if I'm paying for the DDP then it doesn't matter what it costs for me to eat every day since it's already paid for ahead of time. No budgeting for meals.

 

[jm106]

my 2bdrm suite at the hilton is free(friends ts at no charge to us) so the ddp still isnt more savings if I had to pay to stay onsite.

 

[LimeGreenEd]

Rachel Ray has it right, about $40 per day. That was for a light breakfast- $5-7 , CS lunch $8-10 and TS dinner $25. Did not eat TS every night so daily totals varied but this was an average. If you add in snacks or have a bigger appetite then you may be closer to $60 a day. For us the DDP was not really going to be much of a bargain.

 

[cmsanto]

I've been trying to figure this out myself. We're staying on property but we have a 3 and a 5 year old who will not eat enough to justify the meal plan. I'm hoping also to use the 200 card for meals, but still budgeting what we would have paid for the ddp (about 100 per day)

 

[jm106]

I think from what I read, for CS, we could easily keep lunch down to 10 per adult but Ill plan a few dollars more and bank it for the next day or more pricey meals. When Dh and I went would might share something since we got a snack after lunch anyway- especially if I eat a real breakfast in the hotel(I am a coffee only normally).
Dinner I think Ill plan $40 is going to be dinner each(w/tip), plus a cocktail for dh and I. I dont normally get appetizers and/or dessert, especially if I have n icecream or Churros in afternoon. I will also have kids snacks in bag. DS would most likely eat an appetizer or share mine not a kids meal, he likes real food more then kids meal. I think this will leave us room for change.
I used this for comparison- http://www.wdwinfo.com/wdwinfo/dining/diningmain.cfm

I did a search for $10-20 for dinner, at MK for an example and in the $21-35 was only CRT so more in the under $20 range. Nothing in the higher price range.

 

[melissac]

What I would suggest -

For each adult for one CS & one TS per day, calculate $60 a person per day.

For the child for one CS & one TS per day, calculate $40 (maybe a bit high - but would include a snack per day).

So- per day it would be $220

For 6 full days = $1320

If this is the calculation why wouldn't people us the DDP if they are staying on site for adults it is 39.99/day and 10.99/child. That seems a lot lower then above price even witht he tip. Just a thought

 

[disneycruiser2007]

We kind of back-ended in first the activities we wanted. We knew we wanted at least 2 of the special dinners on-site. So we called, made the dining reservations, and then knew what it would cost upfront (they are expensive but it's worth the splurge). We stayed at a condo, so our breakfasts were grocery and cooked. That's where got a lot of nutritious food. Probably for us, grocery at the local store was about 1/3 more expensive than where we lived - We don't know how much Disney groceries run. For snacks, we brought some in and then ate counter service meals on some of the days whenever we got hungry. Those are going going to be more expensive, such as a hot dog alone is like, I'd say about $4.19 or something like that, and hot dog and fries are something like $6.50 or so. We brought water bottles. You're still going to eat snacks there, so they will run you at least 2-3 dollars or more per small snack (e.g., ice cream). You can probably bring in baby food/toddler finger foods if you have a toddler and they are really particular, especially if you are bringing a stroller. Some of the time we went back "home" for dinners and came back for the evening show. Other times the kids were pooped so we just stayed home and chilled out. Your being on-site at the DVC means that you probably can go back and forth fairly quickly, and probably it will be a nice enough place where you could spend some time and have a bit of privacy if you chose to stay there and use the kitchen as you've said.

 

[Rylee]

I think from what I read, for CS, we could easily keep lunch down to 10 per adult but Ill plan a few dollars more and bank it for the next day or more pricey meals. When Dh and I went would might share something since we got a snack after lunch anyway- especially if I eat a real breakfast in the hotel(I am a coffee only normally).
Dinner I think Ill plan $40 is going to be dinner each(w/tip), plus a cocktail for dh and I. I dont normally get appetizers and/or dessert, especially if I have n icecream or Churros in afternoon. I will also have kids snacks in bag. DS would most likely eat an appetizer or share mine not a kids meal, he likes real food more then kids meal. I think this will leave us room for change.
I used this for comparison- http://www.wdwinfo.com/wdwinfo/dining/diningmain.cfm

I did a search for $10-20 for dinner, at MK for an example and in the $21-35 was only CRT so more in the under $20 range. Nothing in the higher price range.

For the past few years, we have use the Dining Plan, but for my family, (usually 6 of us) I budget about $250 a day. (Breakfast in room, CS for lunch, TS for dinner.)

Although, we have had dinner at some Epcot restaurants that total well over that amount.

You can actually read menus here and at the all ears site, to get more accurate pricing.

 

[Carlyzmom]

What I would suggest -

For each adult for one CS & one TS per day, calculate $60 a person per day.

For the child for one CS & one TS per day, calculate $40 (maybe a bit high - but would include a snack per day).

So- per day it would be $220

For 6 full days = $1320

This sounds pretty close to what I was figuring. I was budgeting $200 per day - for two adults and a 5 and 8 year old. The 5 year old doesn't eat much. We will see how that works.