How to save money on food????

[RN01]

Does anyone out there have any good ideas on how to save money on food at DW?? I have budgeted $100/ day for 2 adults and 2kids. I'm hoping when we eat out we can just get two adult meals and share with the kids. Also I'm planning on taking our portable fridge and having breakfast in the room- cereal, fruit etc. Any other good ideas out there???

 

[crisi]

Don't eat.

Kidding...

Your ideas are good ones, and I don't think you'll have any problems, your budget is good.

Eat one big meal a day - and then snack as healthy as you can. If you want to do sit down meals, lunch is cheaper than dinner.

Breakfast in the room, followed by an 11:00 snack, a 3:00 sit down lunch, a "leave the park" snack and popcorn in the room, would be my ideal budget day. Although you could do counter service and probably save a few bucks.

Pack some snacks to bring into the park with you. Granola bars. Cliff bars. Dried fruits. String Cheese. We always haul in fruit snacks for the kids. Some people haul in entire meals - sandwiches, pop, chips.

Watch the snacks you buy at Disney. Popcorn, pop, Mickey Bars, Beavertails and Dolewhips can put a dent in your budget - especially if everyone needs their own. There can be the tempation of each snack item looking better than the last one, and to try a little of each (especially wandering through World Showcase)

If you aren't "big eaters" you can split a lot of Disney portions.

Drink lots of water - bring it in with you and save a couple bucks a bottle.

Don't order alcohol with your meals - its expensive.

Know where the good deals are. If you have time, going over to Trails End is supposed to be a great value. The rotisserie chicken meal at Cosmic Rays is another meal a lot of families find is a good bargain.

Consider vouchers. We aren't a voucher family, but a lot of Dis-ers swear by them.

If you have a car, consider eating offsite. We aren't an offsite family (I haven't been in Florida other than Disney property and the airport and the trip in between in fifteen years - except to visit friends in Tallahassee), but once again, a lot of DISers swear by restaurants off site.

 

[tink2dw]

At Peco Bills and a few other counter service places they have condiment bars for the burgers. Skip the fries to will make the Double Cheese $1.00 less. Split the burger in 1/2 and you have an open face sandwich. At the condiment bar make a salad with the items you would have put on your burger!!! this feeds 4. and the kids can have all the pickles they want!!

Eating breakfast in your room will save you money!!

For supper in the parks or resorts,book the last lunch seating about 4:00pm. Lunch is less expensive than supper. And you can snack in your room later in the evening!!

A Must Do Water Plan
The water in Florida smells and tastes like sulfer!! WDW sells bottled water for $2.50 each for a small bottle!!That can be a real budget buster!! SO a Water Plan in necessary. Here are some of the solutions That have been posted

1. Buy water filtering Britta Sports bottles.

2. If you Drive bring cases of your Favorite bottled water from home

3. Flying, Buy bottled water at Walmart near All Stars.

4. Send cases of your Favorite bottled water to your WDW Resort

 

[teachingmykids]

Stock up on bottles at Wal-mart. WDW sells bottle-holder straps. I think they were about $3, but well worth the money. You have less of a tendancy to throw away the bottle, or as MOM, you won't end up holding several while the kids are riding something. We have used ours for years.

~~georgia

 

[dandave]

I think that the best way to save is to just skip the sit-down restaurants. The counter service places have really huge portions. You could easily order 3 adult meals for the 4 of you to share and probably still not be able to eat everything.

Some of the best deals in my opinion are the ribs or smoked chicken at Flame Tree BBQ in AK. You can get Half a chicken with sides for $7.99!! The ribs were good and filling as well, for $8.49.

At Pecos Bill's in MK the Chicken Wrap with fries is only $7.39. Definitely enough to feed two people. We do get the cheese sauce from the condiments bar here to put on the fries, making cheese fries.

The chicken finger meal at Cosmic Ray's in MK is huge, and will overfeed two children (mine anyways) for $6.49.

Instead of a soda, the kids can order bottled water, milk, or juice, so that they're getting a little more nutrition.

I think that you can eat well and get a good variety at the counter service places when you're on a budget. Sometimes it's just easier to be able to enjoy a very casual dinner so that you can hop back on the rides, too!

Enjoy your stay! I think you'll do fine with $100 a day for food.

 

[bobcat]

You can check out menus here www.allearsnet.com

Childrens meals are pretty resonable, around $4. Even sit down at lunch can be budget friendly. My favorite is the meal deal at AK where you buy a lunch ticket at any of the counter service restaurants and you get a meal + drink and then two coupons for either an ice cream or popcorn and another for a soda. We never buy bottle sodas in the park and usually don't have ice cream every day so this is a nice splurge.

The best $ saver I found was taking a couple of microwavable meals, like the pasta anytime, and fixing these in the food court on one of our down days. It was quick and easy and added a little variety.

 

[jennymouse]

Remember to add the grocery money that you would normally be spending if you were home to your WDW food budget. People usually forget to do that, at least I do.

 

[disneysteve]

All good ideas.

We almost always share meals. Be aware that you can order items not on the menu, or different than on the menu. For example, the menu may only say burger and fries. You can get just the burger and save money. If one person gets the combo you can all share the fries.

Drink water. We almost always drink tap water. I can't imagine paying for something you can get anywhere for free. When we do want a soda, we'll get one large Coke and split it between the 3 of us.

Bring in snack food either brought from home or bought at the local supermarket. We'll carry granola bars, pop-tarts, single serve fruit cups, containers of cereal, etc.

Eat breakfast in the room.

On our last trip in November, we averaged $17/person/day for food, so at that rate you'd spend $68/day so your budget of $100/day is plenty.

Steve

 

[westjones]

Your plan sounds like what we just did last week. Brought our mini fridge with us and had breakfast in the room. Used counter service and split meals with the kids, and order ice water to drink.

It really helped our budget a lot! Up until this trip (and up until reading that suggestion on this board) I never thought about splitting meals with the kids. So we wasted a lot of uneaten food (or DH tried to eat it, making him feel over stuffed after every meal). By splitting our meal this time we didn't waste any food and we spent a LOT less! The water suggestion also came from this board and I hadn't thought about that either. One of my DDs wasted most of her pop that we ordered each time, and this way we didn't have to worry about throwing her drink away. If she didn't finish her water that was fine.

Those are the best suggestions I have gotten from this board! Have a great trip!
DJ

 

[crisi]

We always waste a ton of pop too.

We have sports bottles for the kids and get apple juice with our meals instead of pop. The juice comes in a resealable bottle. Because we don't let our kids drink straight juice often, we water it down with water we brought in and put in the sport bottles. The bottles of juice we buy for counter service lunch usually get the kids through a whole day.

My husband and I will then split one of Disney's $2 sodas, which I think are quite large.

 

[HaleyB]

I grew up in Disney Land and many of the tricks I learned there also worked in the World. One of the stranger things we do is bring baked potatos in cool weather (or you can buy them sometimes in Liberty Square). Small, compact, filling, the perfect food. Another favorite is peanuts (or other nuts) which really keep us going. I also carry Tang powder or Lemonade powder to make the water drinkable. We average about $20 per person a day on food, more some days less others. Most of this goes to feeding our younger two kids who get very grumpy if they don't eat. The Adults tend to eat one counter meal and a snack for the day.

 

[MELSMICE]

Are you driving? I'm assuming you are because you mentioned bringing your mini-fridge. If this the case, bring as many groceries from home as you can.

Also, bring a toaster over/broiler. Not only can you toast bagels for a breakfast that will curb your hunger longer than cereal, you can make toasted cheese sandwiches and individual pizzas. You can get individual pizzas at Super Wal-Mart for $1 each - they are great too!!

I don't know how long you'll be there, but you may get tired of counter service, so if you do sit down, eat your big meal as a late lunch to cut down on cost.

If your kids are light eaters then 2 adult meals should be enough to share or even a kids meal for them to share & a kids meal for one of the adults if they aren't a heavy eater. My DH eats his own meal, but I can share with a child or just order a kids meal. Actually, my DD's eat more than I do now!!!

Although you'll still spend the majority of money on food, there are ways to save a few $'s here and there!

 

[Deb & Bill]

Instead of bringing a toaster/broiler and cooking in your room, use the microwave and toaster in the food court.

 

[PatMcDuck]

I have to agree with much that is posted already. We bring in some small snacks (cheese and crackers, small bags of cookies). Breakfast in the room, even if you have to use a cooler to keep milk, juice, and fruit cold.

At some counter service places you can order kids meals for the adults, and older kids too. I remember one in Fantasyland was a grilled cheese sandwich, drink, chips, and cookes....... (and a mickey straw!) We would get 6........ it was plenty of food. (Can't do that in sit down restuarants of course)

 

[westjones]

Pat, do you remember where in Fantasyland they had this kids meal. We all LOVE Grilled Cheese and my kids get tired of the Mac & Cheese kids meals.

Thanks!
DJ

 

[singitalto]

One tip I haven't seen mentioned, is to order one large soda with no ice and then 1 cup of ice. You then have 2 soda's for the price of one. I know what you thinking, but I have done this many times and no one blinks a eye at it. I spend so much money at WDW, this saves a couple of dollars per meal.

We either eat breakfast in the room or stay at a place that includes breakfast(like HIFS). I also give my kids fanny packs and they carry snacks to eat in case they get hungry before we want to stop for lunch.

 

[Mishetta]

We usually ate breakfast at the food court but ordered oatmeal (which sticks to your ribs). Kids ate whatever appealed to them.

I had fanny packs for everyone & each night I packed them with a variety of snacks (breakfast or granola bars, individually bagged cheese its, fruit snacks & pringles.) We all had our own water bottle on a strap to wear & we got the water at WalMart in Orlando. With all those snacks throughout the day, we usually made it to a very late lunch or early dinner, so it was only one big meal out. It worked for us.

I never had to buy a snack for any of us at the parks!

 

[frannn]

We eat early dinner at food courts at All Stars after an afternoon break, before going back to the parks. This costs as much as counter service, but you can sit inside and relax while eating, as well as have many choices. We also sometimes go over to the Crossrpads area (by DTD) and eat at one of the close-by offsite restaraunts. We have eaten at Steak N Shake, Taco Bell, Olive Garden, Golden Corral for much less than it costs to eat on property. Although, we are not too picky!

 

[Sher]

One thing I haven't seen mentioned is to schedule a character breakfast late in the morning so it is more like lunch!

I bring snacks from home for the fanny packs, but usually end up hauling some of it back to Illinois with us. haha There are only so many granola bars a person can eat in a week. We usually eat breakfast in our room (or on the bus) and then eat an early lunch. The portions are pretty big and we sometimes just get a snack later in the afternoon.

I have always budgeted $100 a day for my family of 4 and we usually come in under budget even with a character meal and our daily mickey bars.


Sher

 

[angel's momma]

Just wanted to say

Hi Sher!

We're from Altona