My troops dining plans and no plan??

[FreeTime]

So I have calculated the meal expenses for a forth coming GS troop. If we got the QSDP we would use every meal, however based on where I think we will eat we will end of paying a lot less if we were to pay out of pocket.

So, I then looked into the group meal vouchers, $15 for lunch/dinner and $9.75 for breakfast. The same thing, if we pay out of pocket it would be cheaper. For example, Electric Umbrella, burger/frie $8, drink $2.40 cookie $1.99. Without the voucher we would likely not go for the dessert and instead get ice cream later.

Now I am leaning toward breakfast in the room (we will have a kitchen), pizza delivery one night, and a pool break one day with sandwiches for lunch. Then I would alott $25 per day, per person to dine. This should give them 2 QS meals with drink, no dessert, and a snack. Some days, I think we will spend less, for example when we eat at Casey's. Thoughts??? Would the few breakfasts in the room and the budgeting be too crazy? Should we get the DP for the convenience? We will also pay out of pocket for the refillable mug as this will be their one souveneir.
Thanks

 

[sharonabe]

I was with you up to the refillable mug. Those are getting close to $15 each. So if you put that into your total calculations, are you still coming out better OOP?

Also drink prices have gone up...small sodas in the parks are 2.49 and the large is 2.89 plus tax.

It looks like you're going in 2011, so they would still have the 2 snacks per day on the QSDP. If you just do the plan and don't do the pizza night or sandwiches by the pool (they can use their credits to get something at the resort), you might should do a little better with the plan. BUT that does mean they will be having dessert with every meal plus two snacks a day. You could use some of those desserts and snacks for breakfast and save some money there.

 

[FreeTime]

Sorry, the refillable mug is to use by the pool. Not planning on going to any resort places to eat. Also, we are having a no extra money policy. With the mug, that we budgeted for, they get something to take home to use a a pencil cup later, beverage cup, etc. We are going in 2012. When I originally thought we would get 2 snacks, I saw more value in it.

 

[sharonabe]

I meant eat at your resort...all of them have food courts and most of them have a place to get sandwiches even by the pools.

Since you've already budgeted for the mugs, then OOP is probably going to be better. Taking that one extra snack away from the QSDP does make it more difficult to see a savings.

 

[MichelleB]

I took my troop 3 years ago and we did OOP also. Ended up coming in under budget. Tell your girls in the parks to get ice water from the counter service places. If they don't want that, they can bring drink mixes. Saved us a LOT. We also ate breakfast in the room several days. It's much cheaper to buy breakfast items in the resort store and spread it amongst everyone than to pay for counter service. We stayed at All Star Movies and the prices were fairly reasonable. I also had a TIW card, though, since I was an AP holder and that saved us a LOT. You can use that even for the mugs which we also bought for each girl as a souvenir. They loved them and still bring them to various scout occassions with drinks in them!

 

[stacieps]

I took my troop 2 years ago - the girls were all 12 years old. We did OOP. We stayed at SSR so had a kitchen - we ordered breakfast, snack items, and bottled water from WeGoShop and had it delivered. Troop gave each girl $10 per meal (lunch and dinner) - some girls were satisfied with kids meals and had a few extra dollars, others got adult entrees with a cup of water. The girls who bought kids meals had a few dollars left over for snacks.

My troop went again a couple of weeks ago. We stayed at ASMovies and had the QS dining plan for free. I saw lots of waste - the desserts at every meal were too much (actually had cookies/cake being thrown out not ever opened) and we had snack credits left at the end that we used up buying bags of candy to bring home.

If not going during free dining I'd stick to OOP, I'm sure you end up saving in the long run.

 

[Cafeen]

Sounds like you got the math right. QSDP in 2012 is barely breaking even under most circumstances, so the moment you start sharing, ordering kids' meals, skipping dessert, etc, any savings gets quickly eaten up. (Erm.. not eaten up? whatever ).

The only thing it'd be good for is to have a set in stone price for the meals (they even advertise only a 5% savings with the 2012 QSDP), but if you can successfully budget (which it sounds like you have) around that, you can usually come in under.

So, yep, looks like you'll be fine and the plans sound good.