Non dining plan people. What is your food budget?

[Smbmoyers]

I'm right at $1388 for 2 adults one 3 year old doing 7 days. Where are you budget wise?

 

[hockeybabe]

I am budgeting $75.00 per adult per day. One TS, and 1 - 2 QS per day, with mostly water to drink (we don't drink much soda anymore). So for 4 days, and 3 adults, it's around $900.

 

[Nancyg56]

For two adults, food budget would be $200 per day and I would allow about $15 for the little one. I doubt we would use all the child allowance, but I know the adult budget would go.

 

[loves to dive]

Easy, 0. I don't budget for food, we eat what we want when we want and don't even look at menu prices. I figure we have to eat so why not enjoy it and not stress over it. There are days we don't eat any formal meals but maybe grab a muffin in a park for breakfast, grab a snack like something in a park and do the same for supper. There are days we'll do a QS breakfast at the resort a QS lunch and a TS supper. There are days we'll do TS for 3 meals. We just go with the flow. If it's during F&G or F&W the majority of our meals come from booths.

 

[LadyRayado]

I use this tool, and then add about $50 per person for extra snacks, drinks. I'm not sure how accurate or up to date it is, it has Jungle Skipper Canteen, but not Tiffins. So I use it as a starting point and add extra.

http://www.distripplanner.com/

 

[china mom]

When it is just the kids and I (ages 14 & 11) we go super frugal and budget about $45 per day for our family. We are extreme, though. We bring a suitcase with about 50 pounds of food and a cooler of lunch meat as carry on.

We buy half gallons of milk and eat breakfast in the room. We pack a small cooler for the parks and eat sandwiches, pringles and free water with Mio flavoring.

Snacks are brought in

Dinner is either a $18 pizza at the resort or a splurge counter service meal.

When DH joins us, I don't bother with a budget at all but would guess that we spend somewhere between $150-200 per day.

Ya' see, when we travel without DH, food comes out of my spending money account. When we go as a whole family, food comes out of the household account and DH is not as excited about my frugal dining style.

 

[mamaode]

well.....we may be outside the norm. I've got $2700 budgeted for our Nov trip Onsite-Cruise-Onsite

We typically do the Deluxe dining plan and have three table service meals a day.

With our split stay coming up with a cruise in the middle - we are catching the tail end of food and wine and catching two Christmas parties. There are two adults and two teens. We didn't book the deluxe dining plan for this trip because my kiddos want to try some QS places and F&W.

I have $2200 budgeted for a combined 5 full days on property and roughly $500 for our 4 night cruise.

While we are onsite we have a Character breakfast at 1900 park fare, planning a full day at World Showcase (drinking and eating around the world) which I budgeted a whopping $850. Which in reality is only $210 per person and can add up fast with alcoholic drinks for the adults. Then we have one table service meal each other day (BOG reservation, Tony's, and Yak&Yeti). With QS breakfast and Snacks to make up the rest of my budget. We will also buy mugs for the resort.

I tried to pay really close attention during our stay last summer (while on the ddp) so I knew what I'd be in for out of pocket for this trip. Its a lot but with what we have planned I don't think I will be far off.

 

[Disneypapa]

If you eat breakfast in your room, I would allow about $50-60 a day per adult for a quick service lunch and table service for dinner. More if you have alcohol with your dinner.

 

[Stefani P.]

I budgeted $1000 for 6 days with my daughters (age 21 and 17) and I.
Hopefully that was a good amount!!
First time in 11 years in Disney, so basically new at this!

 

[crabbygal902]

We are fans of the plan, but we do trips without it also. Our upcoming trip will focus on the F&W booths and activities, so the DDP doesn't work for this one.

Whether we are on the plan or not, I use the current regular DDP prices for each member of the family as our guide and put that money on a Mickey gift card. I collect a gift card when I grocery shop each week and use the disney gift card website to combine them all before our trip. Any left over I spend on shopping and alcohol.

 

[ml sumner]

We are fans of the plan, but we do trips without it also. Our upcoming trip will focus on the F&W booths and activities, so the DDP doesn't work for this one.

Whether we are on the plan or not, I use the current regular DDP prices for each member of the family as our guide and put that money on a Mickey gift card. I collect a gift card each when I grocery shop each week and use the disney gift card website to combine them all before our trip. Any left over I spend on shopping and alcohol.

Love this idea. We are going at the end of May for the first time without free dining, so definitely looking for ways to help get our food money together and put it all on one disney gift card.

 

[Elleshoodat]

We don't budget, but we spend about $150 a day on meals (mostly counter-service), snacks and drinks for two adults, a 5-year-old and a 2-year-old.

 

[Maistre Gracey]

We are fans of the plan, but we do trips without it also. Our upcoming trip will focus on the F&W booths and activities, so the DDP doesn't work for this one.

Whether we are on the plan or not, I use the current regular DDP prices for each member of the family as our guide and put that money on a Mickey gift card. I collect a gift card when I grocery shop each week and use the disney gift card website to combine them all before our trip. Any left over I spend on shopping and alcohol.

Funny.... my wife shops and I buy alcohol. Anything left over we use for food.

MG

 

[wench]

I don't budget for food really. I book where I want to eat, which is almost exclusively table service & it costs what it costs. Of course, if there is a discount available where I happen to want to eat, then I'm absolutely going to take advantage of it. Most days we'll eat 2 table service meals & get snacks if/when needed. Occasionally we'll have 3 full meals a day, but normally that ends up being too much food for us.

I did recently do some estimating for my upcoming December trip, for the sake of comparing the TIW discount to the new AP discounts. We're definitely better off just using the AP & not buying TIW this time. I think we'll end up right around $2000 after discounts, taxes & tips. That is for myself & my 12 year old son for 13 1/2 days. It's only for actual meals though & doesn't include snacks & treats. So, maybe it'll end up closer to $2500. That doesn't include our 2 dessert parties either as they're already paid for.

I also, pay for everything on vacation with my Disney Visa, so we'll get 2% back on all of that.

 

[nursejackie]

We don't drink alcohol and we only eat out once or sometimes twice a day as we stay at DVC accommodation, so we probably spend less than most people per day but we are there for longer. We are going for 16 days so we need to eat some 'normal' food otherwise I would need two seats on the plane home!

When we eat out it's usually 2 or 3 character breakfasts, 2, or sometimes 3, signature dining, then a mixture of QS and TS, plus lots of delicious snacks which certainly add up! We don't think about what we are spending on food, we just spend all our allotted spending money on a mix of food and souvenirs until it's gone.

 

[nursejackie]

We are fans of the plan, but we do trips without it also. Our upcoming trip will focus on the F&W booths and activities, so the DDP doesn't work for this one.

Whether we are on the plan or not, I use the current regular DDP prices for each member of the family as our guide and put that money on a Mickey gift card. I collect a gift card when I grocery shop each week and use the disney gift card website to combine them all before our trip. Any left over I spend on shopping and alcohol.

Oh I wish they sold them over here in UK (in dollars) and I would add to it every payday. Once it's on there I can't take it back so it's a great way to save for holidays.

 

[Schilltastic4]

We are going 12\2 through 12/17 and we are going armed with 2400 in Disney gift cards. Our family is me, dh, and the schilldren [15 &12]. We tend to share entrees and like to snack. We are doing a couple table service but mostly counter with a couple off site meals.

 

[Average Joes]

We were around $200/day (2 adults, 4+7 year old). We did 1-2 QS a day and a table service 2/3 of the days. Brought in 3 bottles of water/pop and some snacks to the parks. It was CRT and some buffets that killed any real budget hopes.

Next trip I think we can manage around $120/day if we eat less TS, no buffets and eat breakfast from groceries.

 

[luvmarypoppins]

We will be there Monday and I am hoping it will be $1000 or less. Its dh, myself and adult ds.

We dont drink alcohol and we are buying a case of water.

Dh does tend to eat alot at food and wine so that will add up really fast unfortunately and I am also planning on getting a tiw card besides the 20% discount on certain places as well.

Also we are bringing home snacks for family members and that will probably be about $100 but I dont consider that in the food budget.

 

[Dean Marino]

Original question answer....

We budget ABOUT $280 per day, two adults. We also eat breakfast, skip lunch, and go to a SIG every night.