My "budget" meal plan for Nov. fam of 4 for 7 days

[LisaRay]

Ok, Maybe nobody out there cares and that is ok with me but the time is dragging on and I am bored! SO I will share what I came up with over the weekend for our meal plan.

There will DH, ME, DS 5, DD 12.
We will be coming from a week in Tampa where DH is attending a class. We are staying at POP for out 2nd time.
All prices are estimates. We will have been eating out in Tampa for one week so we have to keep prices down and we were there in Jan. and did several other meals (LeCellier, O'Hana's, Sci-Fi ) so in order to eat of for 2 whole weeks there aren't too many fancy places! ( ok none! ) We are heading back to a couple places we tried in Jan and we all really liked. ( crystal palace for lunch and trails end) and we are doing Chef Mickey's since we haven't done it in about 2 years!
So go ahead tell me what you think! It's kindof bland compared to some others i have read!


Nov. 6th Sat. non park day
B- free @ embassy suites in Tampa
L- After a full breakfast and checking out around noon lunch will be just fast food for the kids (MCD's?) $10
D- Chef Mickey's!! And the company pays for DH's since he is on a "business day" ( taking tests all morning!) $ 80
TOTAL $90


Nov. 7th Sun. MK in morning AK afternoon
B- room
L- fast food@ MK either columbia harbour house or Pecos bills $20
D- Thinking of ordering vouchers for rainforest cafe. don't know how many yet though. I think 2 adult ones and then just letting DS order off the kids menu. $70
TOTAL $ 90


Nov. 8th Monday MGM morning /Epcot evening
b- room
L fast food burgers or chicken strips some of us may split something $ 15
D- some food and wine samples and the fast food @ epcot from china & mexico $40
TOTAL $55


Nov. 9th Tues. MK day
B- room
L- trails end buffet $40
D- POP century may try a different mom's special + kids meals $30
TOTAL $ 70


Nov. 10 wed. another MK day ( out fav! and hop to MGM)
B- room
L- crystal palace everyone loved this last year and wants to go back. $ 70
D- POP pizza at food court $20
TOTAL $90


Nov. 11th thurs. water park day! sleep in a little.
B- room
L- sandwiches from cooler also chips, snacks etc.
D- trials end buffet $60. thinking about doing the movie here for the evening since it is only a waterpark day.? this may change. May do beaches & cream with mini golf instead.
TOTAL $60

Nov. 12th fri. another water park day!
B- room
L- same as yesterday sandwiches from cooler.
D- pepper market with vouchers $40 ( if i decide not to order them then this will change)
TOTAL $ 40

Nov. 13th sat. check out day nothing exciting here! Leaving DH with DS to pack and check out while DD and I go drool over the soap stars at MGM! Late flight out of Tampa at 6ish pm.
Planned $50

Also the reason I have those 2 water park days together is that I was trying to avoid park crowds on the Vetern's day weekend. Just doing main parks Sun. - Wed.


Grand TOTAL $545.00 averages out to about $70 a day.
We will also have $100 for souviners/snacks. We go so often that we dont' buy souviners so we just have that mad money we use for that sort of thing. ( kids have money from grandma for a few things)

 

[newholiday]

4 of you eating a few of those meals at $20?
Im planning $30 for 3 of us at those quick meals

 

[tweetylori]

Lisa are you factoring in drink prices? Also, I think most of those "fast" meals in the parks are up to about $9 just for a burger.

 

[LisaRay]

YEP!
Both of the ones that are fast food at the parks are done like this:
First of all they eaten on days when we will be having a big dinner and it won't be a late one either (5pm or so). 2nd with pecos bills we order one kids meal, and 2 double cheeseburger meals and my DD and I split it. We may try the extra bun thing this time? So it is $6.89x2+3.49 = $18+$2 for one drink, sometimes none. we just share a drink and then drink our water. We like water anyway so this isn't a big deal. Plus we will drink plenty of soda at the hotel.

The day other day we will be having chicken strips & we just order 2 adult orders. May or may not add a childs meal? but last year we didn't. Just will depend on how hungry we are.

As for the night of $20 for pizza at POP. This is something we also did in Jan. and we liked it for a night of cheap eats! Especially if we'd had a big lunch. So I planned it on that day. We will be eating dinner later on this evening because we will wait till we are back at the hotel. But our large lunch will hold us over! pizza and maybe a dip in the pool. We got a large one topping pizza for $15ish and an order of kids nuggets for $4. Drinks are included since we will be able to use our mugs.
We used this meal last Jan. toward the end of the week if we thought our food budget needed a break.

newholiday: If you are planning $30 for 3 and one is a child you will have plenty of $ for it. Maybe you don't like to share a drink or a meal and that is fine we just do that on occasion at the fast food places so that we can have some other meals that are more expensive. I just can't handle spending $70 for one meal so if we do then we always balance it with a cheaper meal too. Also if something goes over by $5 or something that is not gonna kill us. This is just a plan to give me an idea how much i will need and since we have gone every year for 10 years and sometimes twice a year I just know our habits. We really overate and spent in Jan. so we are making up for it now. We do some trips cheap and some not so cheap.

 

[DiznEeyore]

I think your budget sounds fine. We budget just $25 for the 3 of us at counter service places. Dh and I usually split a meal (he's a big guy, but those portions are large!) and an extra order of fries, ds gets a kids' meal, and dh and I get pop, too (I usually get the smallest size available). Doing this, we are always under $25.

 

[Kae]

instead of vouchers for Rainforest why not try the lunch vouchers at AK you get 2 drinks, meal & snack. I can not remember the price

Kae

 

[LisaRay]

Kae: Very good idea. We might give this a try. I was thinking though that since AK is only open till 5pm that we would just eat after they close since this is our only day planned for that park. Plus it's not even a whole day. We're doing Extra magic hour at MK and then when it gets busy hopping to AK. But I have always wanted to try those. They sound like such a good deal. Maybe for lunch instead of eating lunch in the MK. thanks