Meal Budget

[Micelf33]

We are planning on going to disney for 10 days and i am trying to figure out what i need to set aside for meals and snacks.
Does 100.00 U.S a day for a family of 4 seem sufficient.
Are there any food deals out there??

Debbie

 

[hockey mom]

Does that include any character meals?

Is breakfast in the room?

A great site for this is to check out the menus on wdwig.com and price them. I usually pick our favorites and set aside money for those.

One round of Mickey ice-cream bars will be $10.

There aren't any real deals out there for food.

 

[pampam]

That's what I budget. However, we are very, very frugal. We share, bring some food from home, and rarely buy on impulse. Your needs may be different. The rule I go with is 1 meal a day in the restaurants. Yes, children, we will eat in a restaurant every day, but only once. We have breakfast in the room, and have an apple, nuts, or healthy cookies for lunch. Toward the end of the vacation, I assess how we are doing, and I may open up the purse strings a little. You may do well if you let your children have a set amount each day for souveniers and snacks. Then, they will see when it is gone, it is gone, and will not be begging for more, since they are responsible for their own purchases. Again I say, your needs may be different.

 

[usetheforceluke]

I don't see how you could possibly feed four people three meals a day on that amount *unless* you did stuff like using your own snacks, sharing portions, and maybe eating breakfast in the room. A table service meal for four would use up a large (if not all) portion of your daily budget, depending on where you ate.

To qualify that, if you have two toddlers, then you probably could do it. If you have two teenagers, then you don't have a hope.

When we go, we visit the nearest supermarket and get a case of water (everyone has bottle straps), instant oatmeal, sealable baggies, veggies and fruit and other special snack foods. Put it all in a styrofoam beer container with ice from the ice machines. Take one backpack to carry all the snackies. (Yes, we take food in to the park.) Take a small kettle, tea/coffee/sugar/hot chocolate for the room. Take spoons, small bowls and travel mugs (unless you opt for the all-you-can-drink mug in the resort).

We generally split a counter service meal for lunch, when we're not packing sandwiches or a salad (one of us is diabetic), and alternate between a counter service/table service for supper.

We also have the DDE card so that helps.

 

[Micelf33]

even with eating in your room and only eating out once plus snacks you spend 100.00 a day.
hmmm i may have to change my budget.
We always eat 2 meals out and we usually eat our snacks in the room.

 

[usetheforceluke]

out once plus snacks you spend 100.00 a day.

Yup, pretty well. But a lot of it depends on where you want to eat, and what you want to eat. Based on four people/three meals a day, I'd have to say that amount pretty well excludes a large number of the table service meals, a lot of the 'better' restaurants, and most of the character meals.

Just to stir up the water a bit: I don't think you'd be too far off the mark by planning $7-$10 for breakfast, $10-$15 for counter service lunch, and 'probably' $20-$25 for a supper (but you'd have to be selective for supper) per person. This doesn't include snacks, drinks and souvenirs. Again, this depends on the size of the people... toddlers would be a lot less, teenagers would be close to adult eating, and whether you can share a meal or not. Special Meals such as character meals would be extra on these numbers.

You can go inexpensive but we've found out the hard way that you have to plan where you're going to eat and stick to the plan.

 

[mbb]

even with eating in your room and only eating out once plus snacks you spend 100.00 a day.
hmmm i may have to change my budget.
We always eat 2 meals out and we usually eat our snacks in the room.

2 meals out...meaning counter service, or table service?

$100 is going to be tight, regardless.

That's usually our *budget*, and like pampam said, you have to be VERY frugal to really stick to it.
Hockeymom has some great suggestions, and breakfast in the room is one of ours too (Pre DVC!! ) PB&J sandwiches, cereal and milk, juice/lemonade from the refillable mugs..snack time at 11am at the parks was cereal bars, a piece of fruit, and a drink...late lunch at 1:30 - table service if the budget was "good" that day...counter service if it wasn't

Supper was usually at the Food Court back at the hotel...or sometimes Pizza, and even a repeat of breakfast if we'd really gone overboard at lunch!LOL!

Two adults, two pre-schoolers (back in the value days)...now we do DVC, and cook

 

[sandraB]

We managed to stick to 100$/day average for a week.

We did buy cereal, milk, juice and snacks at a grocery store when we landed. I also brought granola bars, and other snacks with me.

We ate breakfast every day but the last in our room. This saved time and money.

We did do a character meal/ sit down meal everyday. SOmetimes that was enough to just eat snacks and pb sandwiches for the other meal. If we had counter service, then you could do two counter service that day.

We also ate off property one night...at Chick fil a..my fave fast food! That was such a deal 23$ for the whole family!

Anyway, we did manage to stick to that no problem...and feel like we ate out at fun places!

 

[jtdl]

With a family of 4 (both kids are small eaters), we only went over the $100 mark maybe once or twice (character meal day and Trail's End buffet day). The other days we ate only at counter service restaurants and I would have to say we did not spend $100 per day on those days. We usually had cereal or muffins in the room for breakfast and ate at counter service restaurants for lunch and the Pop food court for supper.

Our next trip in 2007, we will be booking a package and adding on the dining option so that we can eat at sit down restaurants most evenings.

 

[Pokemom]

There are a lot of ways to save money on your meals. There's lots of suggestions on the Budget Board. We had breakfast in our room (cereal, cinnamon buns, fruit, etc.). Kids meals are a bit cheaper and are usually big enough for adults (maybe not Dad). You can order a Double Hamburger and ask for an extra bun - sometimes they charge you $1 for the bun, sometimes not. Don't worry about looking cheap - lots of people do it. We also found that we all didn't need fries or other sides with our meals. We would order 2 meals with fries and 2 without. This saves a couple of dollars on each meal. Many of the meals are quite large and 2 people can share. If you don't mind eating hot dogs for lunch, at the American Pavilion in Epcot you can get a kids (regular) hot dog without fries for about $2. We usually spent about $20-$25 for a meal for 4 of us (on the cheapskate plan). With snacks and drinks we spent about $75/day. We were then able to "splurge" on a Character Breakfast, lunch at Prime Time Cafe and breakfast at the Wilderness Lodge, which were all very fun. So, if you have to cut back on some days, try to take in some of the fun places to eat or a nice sit-down restaurant.

 

[PrincessTrisha]

Also, if you are interested in doing table service (sit down) restaurants make sure to pick the more economical ones...

For instance:

50's Primetime diner in MGM-Disney Studios. It is a good value with huge portions - Meatloaf, pot roast and fried chicken dinners are all around the $13 mark. They are big and very filling! Also, (if your family habits allow) share dessert - Dad's Sundae or the Smores are definately big enough to share.

Plaza Restaurant in Magic Kingdom. Sandwiches, Salads and burgers plus great ice cream - it lets you be served at a reasonable price.

Le Cellier (for lunch) - Open Face Sirloin Steak Sandwich $11.99; Calgary Maple Barbecue Chicken Sandwich $11.99 or Steakburger $10.99 or enjoy a nice soup and salad lunch (soup $4.99 Mixed Field Greens Salad $6.99). Get 1 dessert sampler to share - in Feb. us three adults got it to share and it provided a nice taste of everything.

Chefs de France - Lunch - the french menu $14.99 and it includes soup, sandwich with salad and dessert.

Also, there are some really great counter service offerings out there (especially in the Animal kingdom). My advice is take your budget, look at the menus at allearsnet and make it work.

Will it be tough? YES Is it doable? YES - just plan, plan, plan (and then throw an extra $25 in your budget just in case)

 

[marylou]

I have three very large teenagers so we are doing the dining plan. My kids also know that seafood and steak are the way to go. Last time we went for a special occasion to the keg it was almost $400. (i also have a seven year old whose idea of a meal is appetizers) We are doing the dining plan because we can not eat for $35/day/adult so it works for us. We figured we would spend that on dinner alone. Never mind counter service and snacks

 

[Third times a charm]

I've done a budget of $44.00 per person per day, $72.00 for the day we have a character meal.

I hope I have overshot big time, but looking at the menus even at counter service, I think $12.00 is realistic per meal.

Granted we are not a family going, so I can't expect girl A to share her fries and drink with girl B, so budgeting enough for snacks, drinks and meals has been a struggle.

OP, thanks for bringing up this thread.