Leaving this Friday! Questions about daily budget...

[lynlam]

Yep, we are leaving Friday for our VERY FIRST trip to DW ever! I think I am more excited than my kids! LOL Anyway, we are staying at POP, already have our tix and everything paid for. I am wondering how much we should budget per day for food and other incidentals? There are two adults and two kids, ages 3 and 5. The kids don't eat much, I'll carry some snacks for them. we opted not to do the dining plan b/c we just don't need to eat that much food! ha! we are more "counter service" kind of people anyway. eat and run! So, do you all think that $100/day for food, drinks and other misc items will cover everything? Are there any "hidden" expenses I need to know about? TIA!!

 

[chrisn]

If your only doing counter service, you've got little ones, and you don't plan on eating your way around the world I'd say your dead on. $100 per day should do it. We usually do breakfast on the way or in the condo and that helps. I have two kids but mine are a little older. We do $200 if we plan on eating sitdown and $100 if we only plan on counter service. Whatever change is left over that day is rolled to the next and we always have enough for souvenirs. We eat well, play hard, do some shopping and always come home with several hundred dollars. I think you've planned well.

 

[newholidayx2]

see ya Friday at Pop

 

[lynlam]

Thanks for the repsonse! I'll go with that budget, then. The kids each have a little $$ from the Grandparents for souveniers, so the $100 should be pleanty, huh? Thank you!

 

[bettyann29]

See ya at the Pop too!! We are leaving Tuesday and will be there till the following Monday and staying at the Pop.. It is me, DD8, DS12 and DD14-- we opted the dining plan because we have quite a few character meals and it works out better for us.. Have fun!

 

[Zoemakes5]

I'd say that sounds a bit low. For my family when the boys were 3 and 5, I'd say that $100 would be what we spent for food and drinks for lunch and dinner with about 10-15 left over in a day, on the days we didn't go to any sit down. That wouldn't include breakfast at all, nor snacks/goodies and souvies. For us, at WDW we did two sit downs when we were there for 4 days. One character breakfast, and one lunch at the german beer garden buffet to watch the show. On those days, we definitely spent more than $100 on food alone. On our last trip to DL, we spent $43 at counter service with DH and I splitting a meal and the two younger children having a "happy meal" and older son having a burger meal. (So, that works out similar to what you'd prob. be doing, two kids meals, two adult meals, counter service.)
For us, I prefer to plan/budget more than I think we'll need and have extra at the end or feel the freedom to buy "a little something" if we want it. Though, if you're question is "can we do it with $100 per day", yes you can, but it may be tight and smaller on souvies.

 

[lynlam]

Thanks, Zoemakes5. Yes, DH and I plan on splitting meals (not every time, but a lot) and the kids will prolly split one everytime. I have one DD that will only eat the chicken, and the other only wants the fries - LOL works out well.
We are eating in the hotel room most days - cereal, granola bars, pop tarts and fruit. I know that will get old and we will need a "real" breakfast once or twice...but we'll head off property for that I think. Then I hope we will be able to just have some snacks and then a late lunch/early dinner around 3ish, and then a late-ish dinner when we stay in the parks late. I really hope we are too busy to worry about our stomachs too much!

 

[poohraedopey]

I think you will be okay. After all you will have to stick to it if it's all you bring in with you! Hubby and I just took whatever we had total for our trip split it by days and took that. Whatever didnt get spent that day got added to the next day etc...... It worked well for us. This trip we are doing the dining plan so we'll see how that goes. I liked the idea of paying the majority of food off before our trip....

I'm so jealous of everyone going this week! HAVE FUN!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[pixiedust4five]

It may help you to check out the menus You can check out the menu section on the Dis, however, it is still being added to www.allearsnet has what I believed to be all the menus with prices listed. It is great to see what is offered at all restaurants as well as snacks! Have a great trip

 

[sl_underwood]

We will also be at Pop we arrive Tuesday AM! My girls are 9 and 13! Who knows we might see you there!
Lora

 

[Mom to 2]

When we went the first time we budegeted $100.00/day for the 4 of us (kids were 4 and 8) and it was more then enough. We are like you's--counter food, eat fast and carry on!! We did a lot more drinking (water, pop, juice) then eating. We never really got hungry, we were having so much fun. We usaully spent about $40.00 for lunch, had small breakfast (fruit, toast, etc) before we got to the parks. Had snacks in our room for night (crackers, cheese, chips, etc.) We still had $600 left in our food budget on our last day, we were there 14 days. Unfortuantley spent a good portion of that on souveniers our last day!!
The second time we budgeted the same, and this Nov/Dec it will be the same again also---You'll be fine, just put $100.00 in a seperate envelope everyday and you can keep track of what you're spending. I kept my souvenier money in a completely different envelope.

Have fun,

Lory

 

[lynlam]

Thanks everyone for you feedback! Less than 72 hours until we leave! YAHOO!!