How to eat at WDW for $12 a day for 3...

[megan&joeysmommy]

This may sound crazy, but we ate for an average of $12 or so a day. DH, DS and I all ate pretty good. Here's a sample menu:

Breakfast: Cereal bars brought from home, pop in our refill mug

Lunch: Cheese and cervalat sandwich, chips, pudding cup, water in Brita bottle

Supper: Counter service: double cheeseburger & fries-split between DH & I, chicken nuggets & fries-shared by DH & DS3 ~ These 2 meals are about $12 total. We also drank from our Brita bottle for supper. We did not eat the same meal every night either.

For 7 days, we spent about $90 for WDW food. We supplemented our food with a daily Mickey bar which added about $30 to the total.

This is not for those of you who love to try new foods. This plan is strictly a way to save big time on good basic fast food. I wanted more money to buy things to bring home rather than waste it on food. Hope this helps someone on a tight budget like we were. Good luck & happy eating.

 

[hercamore]

Good for you and who says Disney can't be done on a a budget!

My brother told me once he's never going to Disney because someone told him Disney food was too expensive.

herc.

 

[tink2dw]

Good for you!!!
But I want to see you try that when Ds is a teen and hoovers anything that even looks like food!! And Dh has high blood pressure and stressed and you are a type II diabetic and you must eat 6 meals aday!!!!!

 

[mad4themouse]

Congratulations on making a WDW vacation affordable for your family! You certainly proved it can be done. I'd probably have a mutiny on my hands if I tried it. Glad it worked out for you. Kuddos!

 

[Cindy B]

Good for you! THats a great attitude and approach to his. We also have had low cost times like that.. and my kids/and the adults in our families don't feel like they are missing out at all.

All my kids know are counter service meals.. which is fine for us adn them.

 

[CajunDixie]

Ds is a teen and hoovers anything that even looks like food!!

Same here!!!!!!! And he loses weight not gains it right now. Bet that stops when football season ends at the end of the month.

 

[megan&joeysmommy]

I also forgot to mention that this is also a great way to kickstart a diet. Between walking a lot and eating less, I lost 5 pounds in a week. I did gain back 2 pounds when we got home and ate all the things we were missing for the week, but I was happy with the 3 I did keep off. It was just enough to make some old pre-kid clothes fit again and that is enough motivation to keep me going.

I do realize that when DS is a teen that this will not work, but that isn't for a long, long time. I know...it'll be here before I know it.

 

[minijeanie]

especially when you have 2 teenagers. Did you not buy any ice cream or snack during the day.

My kids would never be satifisfied with drinking water all day. If I didn't supply one or two sodas,juice (of their own) it would seem like a prison.

write back again,when your kids are 13, & 14 & see how well you fair. Will be quite different.


happy for you. but believe me,,,,it is short lived

 

[Forever a Princess]

Way to go!

On my first trip to DW our food budget was about $10 per day per person (tops, that was a real expensive day!!!).

We bought one of those styrofoam coolers at Publix. For breakfast we had cereal with milk. We made peanut butter (and jelly if preferred) sandwhiches, packed chips and a piece of fruit and brought this with us to the park. The PB and J sandwhiches kept better in the heat then meat and cheese.

Our splurge for the day was for a popcorn or mickey ice cream treat and then dinner at a quick service counter. We drank water and sometimes a couple of us would split a soda.

We all loved it because we could eat it line and did not have to stop for a lunch break. Now being a decade older I need a midday lunch break. LOL.

Renee

 

[travelitis]

What is cervelat?

 

[sarivers]

Your headline is a bit misleading. You didn't spend $12 per day. You spent the cost of your groceries plus $12 per day. What did you really spend TOTAL on all the food your family consumed? Divide that by the number of days you were there and that's what your daily food cost was.

I'd be interested to know.

 

[Rpsemont]

Good for you! On $12 I'd have my martini and my Marguerita and be out of money! LOL! Tough luck on my family!

 

[Lisa P.]

Our 3 hungry (ages 12-14) kids' enormous appetites have caused our weekly grocery budget to nearly double in the last two years. Probably still not done increasing! On vacation (in a timeshare condo), we mostly eat in, with occasional fast food or buffet meals (usually offsite), rarely a sitdown.

Our kids only have soft drinks once or twice a week, when they buy one. Most of that stuff is just empty calories, chemical-laden, addictive or all of the above. Having them pay for it seems to limit it to a more reasonable amount, IMHO.

They've always only been offered water, milk or juice at meals. So drinking water at restaurants is no big deal. Teach them this when they are young and there are fewer expectations to fight later. Our culture goes against this but you set the rules for your home.

Also, if you want to eat out on a budget, present restaurant meals as a privilege from an early age. Ours don't expect the full range of menu options unless invited to enjoy it at the time, by the host or parent who is paying. It's so easy for them to come to expect certain things. We've found that taking a breather from family restaurant meals for a few months "cures" their growing expectations.

Even with hungry teens, we are still able to keep our food budget pretty low on vacation. We only spend about $300-$350 more for a week of vacation eating (groceries, treats & restaurants) than for a week of at-home-only eating. With 5 of us, this is under $10/day/person. Adding our usual $175-$200 grocery budget, it's about $15/day/person. I'm happy with that.

As a nurse, I can also say that it's possible to keep the food budget down, even when one has medical concerns. A soft-sided lunch cooler and freezer packs or a ziploc bag of ice will help in keeping convenient, healthy foods handy. It all depends on how much it's worth it to the person. To some people, this is not worth the effort and that's fine.

Kudos to the OP for showing one example of what may be possible for some folks who want to enjoy all the fun of a Disney trip with a limited food budget!

 

[renessa]

Congrats on your budget, but I was thinking what sarivers said, about not figuring in your groceries in your budget. That does make it realistic. Even if you brought everything from home, the cooler, food, and drinks did cost you some $$$. That total would seem more realistic. It wouldn't work for my hubbie, to many new food experiences to try. Although I did buy him a Mickey Mouse waffle iron to curb the cravings at home. Renessa

 

[jann1033]

of course I also figure ..I actually do consume food when I am not vacationing so that can cancel out the stuff brought from home...I'd be spending that regardless! ( I have a monthly budget for food) I also agree none of us ever passed out from not getting a MIckey Bar and why not establish healty eating habits early so it's less work than trying to undo later!
glad to see you enjoyed yourselves with out having to regret your spending later!

 

[megan&joeysmommy]

To answer a few questions:

travelitis: Cervelat is like summer sausage. It's lunch meat that comes in a tube that you cut your own slices off of. It's much better than bologne, although a week of it does get boring.

sarivers and others: I had to do a little thinking on the groceries, but here's what I came up with. I buy my groceries at Sam's Club, so I buy in large quantities. For 2 loaves of bread, 2 sticks of cervelat, cheese slices, margarine, 2 boxes of cereal bars, chips, pudding cups, and crackers, I figured I spent about $30. The receipts from our meals came to $86. This total is $116 or $17/ day for 7 days. I didn't count the refill mug because that was part of my husband's souvenirs. I also didn't count the $30 in Mickey bars because they weren't a part of our meals, they were a treat. If others include them as part of their food budget, then that would up it to $21/ day.

I hadn't counted my groceries because they weren't anything I didn't already have on hand. They were already a part of my regular grocery spending so I didn't feel it was necessary to add them to my vacation budget. To me they were like freebies since I already had them. I wasn't trying to be misleading. We really did only spend about $12 for each meal BOUGHT at WDW. I do realize that those with teenagers are not going be able to do it, but couples and families with young kids like ours can. I wanted to post so that people who were on a tight budget and thinking they couldn't go because the food would cost them so much would know that it can be done for really cheap if you try. When I was planning our trip there were lots of people saying that you needed to allow $100/ day. There were tips about sharing and other ways to make it cheaper, but no $$$ to say how much you could get by on. This would probably be the absolute cheapest you could do unless you ate cheese sandwiches for every meal for the week. I didn't buy any groceries there. I brought everything from home in a carry-on bag--even the bread. It can be done. Sorry this is long, but I felt I needed to explain further since there were some doubts about my totals. If anyone else has questions, please feel free to ask. ~Stacy

 

[summerrluvv]

There is no way I or my four year old could drink soda for breakfast!! Kudos for you for doing it though! I think my son would be bouncing off the walls from the sugar!! I did buy some Parmalat milk boxes for him though, and the pints of milk are only $1.00 at the ASMo, so it works for us.

 

[Tina26]

You did a great job Stacy! Not everyone has a ton of money to spend on vacation, so I'm sure your post has helped a lot of people. It made me do some rethinking about bringing food into the parks instead of paying for every meal. Two questions, did you have any trouble bringing a bag into the parks, and did you store your bag in a locker during the day?

Thanks!

 

[jann1033]

sorry (a little ot) but if you did use a locker do you remember how large they are.. about 1 1/2ft x 3ft????only used them once and do not remember
thanks ( thinking of taking a tripod if it will fit)

 

[megan&joeysmommy]

summerrluvv: Just wanted to say that my son does not get pop on any occasion especially for breakfast. He had apple juice or water. I guess I forgot that when I was adding everything up.

those who wondered about lunch in parks: We had no problem with our little soft sided cooler bag. They looked in it every day and said it looked like we had lots of goodies and off we went. We had two strollers for DS-3 and DD-10mo so we just pushed everything around. Don't know about lockers, but I think that would be a real pain to go back to them for what you need.