How Much $$$

[ZiPaD3doDAH]

How much money do you usually spend on food a week or month? This applies to people doing the program.

Just wondering how much of your paycheck goes into food.

 

[jewjubean]

I spent around 40-60 every two weeks on food. Now keep in mind I dont eat very much and I cooked. I also brought my lunch every day to work.. If your not much of a cook/you dont like to cook plan for more.

 

[Tessaluvstigger]

I remember generally spending around $60 a week but there were definitely weeks where my roommates and I ate all over property for the heck of it and we would all easily spend $100-$150 a week when we did that, sometimes more Keep in mind when we did spend this much it was because we had went to Planet Hollywood together or a character meal or ate in the parks...those kind of meals racked up QUICK even with the CM discounts! And this was Fall '04...prices on park meals is even higher now! I HIGHLY recommend living it up while you're there though...the memories you'll make are just incredible! Best experience ever and the first question I get asked in job interviews is always "Tell me about working for Disney!"

 

[ZiPaD3doDAH]

I dont know how to cook and dont like the idea of heating up food from another day so I was just wondering how much.

I do plan on learning how to cook because from what I understand you make harley anything & approx $80 a week goes to rent so I will be broke if I eat out all the time.

Thanks for replying!

 

[mollay]

Just so you know cooking doesn't always have to mean making great big hot meals! My freshman year of college, when I had run out of mealplan money, I lived off peanutbutter + banana sandwiches.

So even something as simple as a sandwich and a piece of fruit will at least give you something to eat for lunch every day of the week -- which will save a TON.

As for dinners, you might get lucky and have roommates who love to cook... I know work schedules interfere but I think a nice thing to do would be take turns making meals for everyone in your apartment.

 

[SportsChick]

I don't cook much (my fiance does all the cooking here at home) but when he's traveling for work, I live off frozen stuff, pasta, tacos etc. I can easily eat for a week for $30, less if I'm really paying attention to sales and using coupons.

 

[MarieMaria]

If you think about it, deli meat, bread, cheese or whatever you like in your sandwich can be cost-effective for giving you meals for a week or more. You probably wouldn't want that everyday, so just think of things you can vary without the use of microwaving. For breakfast, bagels, muffins, cereal, waffles. For lunch/dinner, burritos, sandwich wraps, salads, fruits, snacks, etc.

At most grocery stores, many foods that you would cook like meats can be bought already prepared. So you could get away with actually cooking if it helps. Another tip is to make your food only 70% of the time and eat out or at the cafeteria for the rest.

 

[+Rosetta+]

Depends on where you end up, but I used to buy food at MK a lot, while I was at work, which didn't seem like too much. There was a Subway in the tunnels so I used to get a $5 foot long and split it between lunch and dinner a lot. The prices are pretty reasonable backstage compared to Guest food O.O The grill used to have some great sliders I used to splurge on every once in a while.
A lot of CMs got Grilled Cheese from the Grill too, which was super quick and cheap.

I probably spent around $50+/- a week on food depending on how sales at the market were that week. There are plenty on easy things to cook for you to start with that will keep you healthy ^_^

 

[ZeroToHero]

I know you said you don't like the idea of heating up food from another night - why not? I could easily see buying a pound of chicken on sale, freezing it until you need it, and then cooking it for dinner, breading and frying it to make homemade chicken fingers, then chopping those up to put in a wrap (buffalo chicken, anyone?) and a chicken salad.

That chicken you bought on sale just made 4 really great meals - and if you freeze it first, then save the leftovers in the fridge every time, you can eat those over the course of about 4 days (so you don't overload on chicken too much, and that's a safe amount of time to store leftovers.)

If you don't want to heat up leftovers, you're definitely going to be spending more than you need to.

 

[jewjubean]

Keep in mind though guys, you wont have room to bring in a ton of food that needs to be frozed/refrigerated. It all depends on what size apartment you have.
1/2/3 bedrooms have one refrigerator and 2/4/6 roommates
4 bedrooms have two and 8 roommates. SO you wont always have enough room to fit your stuff in the freezer.


Also different roles have different pay and hours. So while my roommates worked QSFB, she got paid at almost .40 cents more than me and 40+ hours a week. So people budgeting their food cost will also change because as attractions I only worked 32-40 unless it was a busy time.

 

[ZeroToHero]

Keep in mind though guys, you wont have room to bring in a ton of food that needs to be frozed/refrigerated. It all depends on what size apartment you have.
1/2/3 bedrooms have one refrigerator and 2/4/6 roommates
4 bedrooms have two and 8 roommates. SO you wont always have enough room to fit your stuff in the freezer..

That can go both ways though - if you don't like cooking, you're most likely going to have a lot of frozen TV dinners - that takes up a lot of room, perhaps even more room than unprepared food, because they have those cardboard boxes.

It's a regular sized fridge though, right? My family of 5 gets by with one fridge, so unless everyone has really different food tastes, and they all stock up on massive amounts of food, there should be enough room for everyone...

 

[jewjubean]

That can go both ways though - if you don't like cooking, you're most likely going to have a lot of frozen TV dinners - that takes up a lot of room, perhaps even more room than unprepared food, because they have those cardboard boxes.

It's a regular sized fridge though, right? My family of 5 gets by with one fridge, so unless everyone has really different food tastes, and they all stock up on massive amounts of food, there should be enough room for everyone...

Honey..have you done the program before?? It's not like a familiy. A family you share food. Mostly while your there you have your own food. People usually do stock up on food because it takes almost a hour by bus to get to the nearest Wal-Mart. I'm not arguing with you,just pointing out that you can't really plan for this untill you find out your roommate situtation.I've had a total of 17 roommates and they all bought different quanity's of food.

 

[countrypixie1989]

Honey..have you done the program before?? It's not like a familiy. A family you share food. Mostly while your there you have your own food. People usually do stock up on food because it takes almost a hour by bus to get to the nearest Wal-Mart. I'm not arguing with you,just pointing out that you can't really plan for this untill you find out your roommate situtation.I've had a total of 17 roommates and they all bought different quanity's of food.

I was wondering about the food "sharing." Does anyone have any tips that have worked for the CP or any other roommate situation that would be similar as to whose food is whose. I mean i don't have a problem sharing food if everyone is contributing equally to the food bank but I don't really like the idea of supplying food for everyone. Does anyone have any ideas. I myself have never lived in this type of environment and would love anyone's input.

 

[jewjubean]

We used to have a shelf and what ever was on that shelf was ours. We also wrote our name on each of our things.( For the most part we were all really good friends,but it was easier to keep track of our stuff if we did it this way) We also had a condiment shelf that was pretty much game if it was there. We would write notes if we wanted to share. Gosh we must have gone through a package and a half of post its. HTH.

 

[ZeroToHero]

Honey..have you done the program before?? It's not like a familiy. A family you share food. Mostly while your there you have your own food. People usually do stock up on food because it takes almost a hour by bus to get to the nearest Wal-Mart. I'm not arguing with you,just pointing out that you can't really plan for this untill you find out your roommate situtation.I've had a total of 17 roommates and they all bought different quanity's of food.

#1- I found it rather disrespectful that you called me "Honey," I'm not sure what you were trying to imply with it, but I ask that you don't do it again, because no matter what your intention, it can be misconstrued very easily over the internet.

#2 - No, I have not done the program before now, but I have had to share living space with others before, not just my family.

#3 - The only points I made were that no matter what you buy, it's going to take up room, and that prepacked and unprepared have their cons and pros.

Also, I can see 6 roommates having trouble with a single fridge, but 4 people sharing a pantry and a fridge, I believe it would work. I never said people would share food, more that I believed, from my previous experiences, that there would be enough room. Even currently buying in bulk from Costco and Sam's Club, there's still room in the fridge - and you're still feeding the same amount of people, so you need the same amount of food, no matter if they're related or not. It's just that different people buy and eat it.

As an addendum, I just had my wisdom teeth out, so I'm sure that I may not be in the best state to be posting on the boards, and I may regret something that I say now later, once the Vicodin wears off. So if I offend you in any way, sorry in advance for how I'll feel later.

 

[jewjubean]

#1- I found it rather disrespectful that you called me "Honey," I'm not sure what you were trying to imply with it, but I ask that you don't do it again, because no matter what your intention, it can be misconstrued very easily over the internet.

#2 - No, I have not done the program before now, but I have had to share living space with others before, not just my family.

#3 - The only points I made were that no matter what you buy, it's going to take up room, and that prepacked and unprepared have their cons and pros.

Also, I can see 6 roommates having trouble with a single fridge, but 4 people sharing a pantry and a fridge, I believe it would work. I never said people would share food, more that I believed, from my previous experiences, that there would be enough room. Even currently buying in bulk from Costco and Sam's Club, there's still room in the fridge - and you're still feeding the same amount of people, so you need the same amount of food, no matter if they're related or not. It's just that different people buy and eat it.

As an addendum, I just had my wisdom teeth out, so I'm sure that I may not be in the best state to be posting on the boards, and I may regret something that I say now later, once the Vicodin wears off. So if I offend you in any way, sorry in advance for how I'll feel later.

Sorry I offended you when I called you "Honey" I'm from the south and we tend to use that word when refering to people. Excuse me. If you found it insulting, get ready. Your moving to a place where there's all types from all over the world who would soon spit on you, than worry what you think.

As far as 4 people sharing an apartment, its more likely that you are going to be with 6+ people. Most of the apartments are three bedrooms and over. I am commenting on the apartments that I was in, all three bed room with 6 people and we even had a extra Fridge (not allowed but under special circumstances for medical reason).

 

[Yongo10]

I'm interested in this "two fridges" deal.

In what complexes or room types would there be two of them? A post earlier mentioned there would be two fridges in places of about 6+ ppl, but the post above mentions that's only under special circumstances.

I'm considering living with about 5/6+ people (8/11 woop woooop!) just because I think it'd be fun that way ^_^ But I've lived on campus for three years so I'm VERY familiar with how food space gets taken up in the fridge what with different types of milk and the like. So, basically, - the two fridges, is that a done deal? Or do you luck into it?

Thanks!

 

[SportsChick]

I've only heard of there being 2 fridges in the 4 BR apartments

 

[jewjubean]

In the 4 Bedrooms they have two refrigerators.
Our own personal apartment at VW (3Bedroom) my roommate brought a MINI fridge to store her Medical supplies. It was approved before we even started the program. They usually dont let you bring mini fridges.

 

[mollay]

Is there any reason they don't want us bringing mini fridges? Just out of curiosity. Energy-related reasons or something?