How much per person do you budget for food?

[EmmersIsTheMommy]

Board hog this morning *oink* Sorry about that

I'm starting to crunch numbers for everything and started to get a little terrified. I may have to shorten the vacation Anyway, I'd love to hear how much everyone budgets per person for food (I say that, because obviously different size families will need more moolah). I'm interested in EVERYONE'S answers here. Those who eat cheap and those who don't.

 

[sonnyjane]

Are you talking quick, counter-service food, or are you planning on eating at any sit-down, table-service restaurants? If you haven't already, check out the menus here: http://allears.net/dlr/din/menu/menus.htm They list the prices for all the restaurants in the parks, so it's a great planning tool. I'd say $50 a day per person is reasonable if you're just doing counter-service restaurants with drinks and a snack or two. I usually bring a water bottle and refill it throughout the day so I don't pay $3-$4 each meal. That number will increase if you're going to a table-service place. Kids will be less. If your hotel has a free breakfast, you can subtract about $10 from that figure per person if you grab food there.

 

[EmmersIsTheMommy]

We will probably avoid any table service in the parks...stick to counter service and cheap. Thanks for the link!

 

[Minnie Loves Mickey]

We have done Disneyland both ways. When my kids were young, it took every penny we had just to get a Hotel and Tickets. Then we packed our own food and brought it with us. Muffins for Breakfast, and Sandwiches the rest of the day. They never once complained, they were so happy to be at Disneyland. When my parents would go with us it was really special, because they would let the kids eat in the park. I don't think they liked it any better, we just didn't have to pack our own food every morning.
Now when its just DH and me, we have been known to spend $50 each in a day... our finances are a lot different now that the kids are grown.

 

[blackjackdelta]

We do not really budget for food. This year we added another person so we took last years and did the math. We have a mixture BB, CO, SH55 and and Club 33 and the rest is snacks and what we bring into the parks. I am not much help here. Since it is our only time off during the year we splurge.

Jack

 

[EmmersIsTheMommy]

We have done Disneyland both ways. When my kids were young, it took every penny we had just to get a Hotel and Tickets. Then we packed our own food and brought it with us. Muffins for Breakfast, and Sandwiches the rest of the day. They never once complained, they were so happy to be at Disneyland. When my parents would go with us it was really special, because they would let the kids eat in the park. I don't think they liked it any better, we just didn't have to pack our own food every morning.
Now when its just DH and me, we have been known to spend $50 each in a day... our finances are a lot different now that the kids are grown.

Yeah we're spending it all on getting there, staying there and getting IN haha. I'm thinking we'll end up packing some stuff in. The hotel has a continental which we can survive on just fine. So I guess I'm looking at maybe just one meal in the park a day. Which would cut back on money quite a bit.

We do not really budget for food. This year we added another person so we took last years and did the math. We have a mixture BB, CO, SH55 and and Club 33 and the rest is snacks and what we bring into the parks. I am not much help here. Since it is our only time off during the year we splurge.

Jack

Yeah we haven't done a vacation for a LONG time..so I'm gonna try hard to save enough to splurge a bit too. I'd love to BB but I don't see it happening. The kids won't care tho. They'll be glad to be there..I could probably feed them dirt.

 

[LucasandMickey]

Ok, here is my budget. We are poor and being really cheap! LOL

DD: $0 (she'll be 3mo and is still EBF'd) LOL
DS: $10/day (He'll be almost 2 when we are there)
DH: $20/day
Me: $20/day

We'll be in the park 4-5 days (have a 5 day park hopper but not sure if we'll actually do 4-5 since we're at hojo and I know how much DS will want to play in the water). Like I said, we are being super cheap here. We'll eat breakfast at the hotel, and bring snacks and sandwiches into the park for snack and lunch. I figure the only meal we'll actually eat is dinner so I'm figuring high there since again, we'll be cheap and won't be at any table service restaurants. But I know one day we want to take DS to Rainforest Cafe for lunch since I know he'll love it. But he's still happy to share with mom when we do go to restaurants. So, all in all, my food budget for the five days is about $250-300

 

[Thundergod]

I'll just throw this out there. 3 days in disneyland, 4 days in vegas and 2 days driving, two adults, two teens, and one 9 year old and i spent 1,400 in food. Very seldom did breakfast. Ate a good lunch most times and a mix of cheap and good for dinner. In disneyland if you don't pack your own water and snacks you could easily spend 20.00 per meal per person.

I packed water and snacks each day and as I said we rarely did breakfast and it averaged a little more than 30.00 per day per person.

 

[PinkBudgie]

This past trip a few weeks ago we spent under $100 per day for 4 people- 2 adults, and 2 teen age boys. I thought we did pretty good considering how much teenage boys eat!

Breakfast- free at the hotel
Midmorning snack- our own granola and peanut bars and fruit snacks from home
Lunch- About $40-$50 for CS (each meal is about $10-$12 each and we get water to drink)
Dinner- About $20-$25 total. (a snack or some item in the $5-6 range or a split meal)

We had one big meal a day. If we had big lunch, then dinner would be smaller and also the other way around sometimes. Overall- it was usually under $100 per day. We had one TS (lunch at Cafe Orleans) and one nice meal out of the parks (dinner at Bubba Gumps).

 

[Scaramedic]

I am real psycho about planning and budgeting.

We looked at all the menus like Jack says, guessed at what we'll order, and came up with a price for each place. We do this for each place we WOULD like to eat.

Example...

Hungry Bear Restaurant:
Classic Cheeseburger $9.49
Crispy Chicken Sandwich $8.69
Large Soda $3.29 X2 = $6.58
Lemon "Bumblebee" Cupcake $4.99

Comes to... $29.75
Plus 8.75% Tax $2.61

So $32.35 and I then budget $35 for Dinner on Sunday night.

I do that for the entire (Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner) trip and then look at what we actually want to spend and make cuts from there.

I found that after doing this I found that if we just cut a table service here and there we safe a lot of money. The Hungry Bear dinner saves a $100 Steakhouse 55 dinner. Thereby freeing up another $65.

I also set a "Snack" amount everyday for such things as Corn Dogs and Dole whips.

All said and done we are at roughly $75 a each a day. That price is driven up by an Ariel's WOC dinner, Bubba Gump and a Medieval Times Dinner. Cut those out and we would be at $55 each per day.

We're 'splurging this trip' but I still made cuts to bring down the costs.

 

[23bw]

I've learned from past vacations that a trip any where is far more enjoyable if I don’t have strict budgets on expenses such as food.

We don't set a budget for food but we are well aware of how much money we are spending each day in the parks. There are days we don’t spend much at all on food but there the occasional splurge like a character meal or the WOC dining package for the family. Breakfast is usually skipped or we just munch on something quick in our hotel room before heading to DLR.

On the average we spend about $20/day for kids and $40/day for adults.

 

[EmmersIsTheMommy]

Totally taking notes here! Sounds like a majority of people do 20-40 for adults..20ish for kids...

I don't want to be super strict about it, it's more of an idea on how much to save, kwim?

 

[tzeitel]

I was planning on $50 per person per day - being generous since DD would not eat nearly that much. I just wanted to hve a number in mind when I started saving for the trip
I came up with the $50 by looking at the menus and also asking the same question you did

Now I actually think it will be less since I got a couple restaurant .com certificates (HoB and Fire & Ice), signed up for some loyalty programs for restaurants nearby that give out coupons (Red Robin, Mimi's - well that one I am waiting until closer to our dates), bought a discounted gift card (Jamba Juice) and got some coupons online (La Brea, Wetzel's Pretzels). Almost forgot my latest one! Groupon has Quizno's certificates up right now (2 sandwiches for $6).

I just keep accumulating coupons etc and once at DLR we can figure out where we want to go.

 

[rmom]

We eat a lot less when we are at disney than we do at home - I am not sure why but we do. We have done trips where we don't eat at the park at all except for a special snack each day or one special meal (Goofy's for a birthday or BB for grandma). We timed it so we ate every meal at the hotel and took a few snack type things to the park to tie everyone over. It also gave us a reason to take a break so the kids had some down time. We also don't carry bottled water. I have too much to carry and can get a cup of ice water at the eateries for free.

Good luck planning.

 

[NVDisMom]

I was planning on $50 per person per day - being generous since DD would not eat nearly that much. I just wanted to hve a number in mind when I started saving for the trip
I came up with the $50 by looking at the menus and also asking the same question you did

Now I actually think it will be less since I got a couple restaurant .com certificates (HoB and Fire & Ice), signed up for some loyalty programs for restaurants nearby that give out coupons (Red Robin, Mimi's - well that one I am waiting until closer to our dates), bought a discounted gift card (Jamba Juice) and got some coupons online (La Brea, Wetzel's Pretzels). Almost forgot my latest one! Groupon has Quizno's certificates up right now (2 sandwiches for $6).

I just keep accumulating coupons etc and once at DLR we can figure out where we want to go.

I don't want to burst your bubble, but many of the Disneyland area restaurants refuse to accept coupons. I know when we were there last, in April, Quizno's had a sign saying they did not accept coupons or discounts. A few years ago we had issues with the Coldstone Creamery accepting a coupon from the Park Vue Inn website. YMMV. I am all about coupons, but be prepared to not get to use them.

 

[BELLEDOZER]

We, a family of 4 range (incl DS7 & DS8). We average between $100 to $120 for the 4 of us per day. We grab snacks at the hotel we stay at for breakfast on the run, have CS at the parks, and either CS or TS in the evening, depending on what mood we are in. Bear in mind that I've got a Premium AP, that gives me a 15% disc on food, so it may be slightly higher than what I've mentioned.

 

[tzeitel]

I don't want to burst your bubble, but many of the Disneyland area restaurants refuse to accept coupons. I know when we were there last, in April, Quizno's had a sign saying they did not accept coupons or discounts. A few years ago we had issues with the Coldstone Creamery accepting a coupon from the Park Vue Inn website. YMMV. I am all about coupons, but be prepared to not get to use them.

No bubble burst. The only one that is iffy is the Groupon for Quizno's - that one clearly states that it is valid at Quizno's that accept Groupons. If we can't use it then we have one here that does accept them. The others are loyalty clubs so it is not a coupon from a 3rd party site. Last I checked Cold Stone Creamery was planning on starting their own loyalty card so maybe that is why they do not take other coupons.

 

[EmmersIsTheMommy]

No bubble burst. The only one that is iffy is the Groupon for Quizno's - that one clearly states that it is valid at Quizno's that accept Groupons. If we can't use it then we have one here that does accept them. The others are loyalty clubs so it is not a coupon from a 3rd party site. Last I checked Cold Stone Creamery was planning on starting their own loyalty card so maybe that is why they do not take other coupons.

I'd love an update when you get back

 

[LisainCalifornia]

Just wanted to add that there is no reason to buy water in the parks. We just got back, and walked up to any place that served food (you don't have to buy anything first) and ask for tap water. I would ask for 2 (one for me, one for my daughter). They always came with ice (so nice and cold) plus a cover and straw. I was never given any kind of attitude about asking for something free--they just gave it to me politely. Typically it was not even a restaurant or walk up food counter that we were eating at--it was just closest to where we were standing when we needed a drink. When we did buy food, I always ordered tap water with our order. We bought no drinks our entire time there, and I think it saves a great deal of money. Plus, it is much healthier than drinking soda. All I feel like drinking in the heat at Disneyland is water anyway!

The next thing I did to save money was that we went back to our motel in the afternoon to rest, and right across the street from us was a Subway. I would order a foot long turkey sub, my daughter and I would split it back in the room. We each could eat half a foot long and one bag of chips for about 8.00 total (so 4.00 dinners for 2 nights we did this). This way when we went back into the park that night, we happily bought our Gibson Girl ice cream from Main Street--and it didn't seem like too much food.

 

[sonnyjane]

Just wanted to add that there is no reason to buy water in the parks. We just got back, and walked up to any place that served food (you don't have to buy anything first) and ask for tap water. I would ask for 2 (one for me, one for my daughter). They always came with ice (so nice and cold) plus a cover and straw. I was never given any kind of attitude about asking for something free--they just gave it to me politely.

I went to the parks last week with my mom and I had a bottle of water in my bag all day. We went to Taste Pilots for lunch and I ordered two meals (one for each of us) and one tea for my mom. I didn't order a drink since I had the bottle of water,albeit warm, in my bag, but when I picked up my order, they had given us the soft drink and a cup of ice water with cover and straw also. I never even asked for it, I guess they just assumed that since there were two meals on the ticket but only one drink, they'd put a water on there too. I thought that was really cool They would have given it to me free had I asked, I know, but I just thought it was cool to "read my mind" like that.