Panic Has Set In

[lilhopper]

PLEASE HELP ME. My husband is freaking out saying we do not have enough money. We are staying from May 12-19th how much money would you bring we plan on eating off the property so we can save $$$ but he is still worried. What are your thoughts.

 

[poody1]

it all depends if you just need money for food and how much you have already saved

 

[Desnik]

Are you staying in a regular room or villa? Will you have a fridge? I bring breakfast items with me and have the kids eat in the room before we head out. I have things like cereal bars, pop tarts, small boxes of cereal, hostess mini muffins, and I bring drink boxes. Also I pack snacks like pretzels, cookies. I take some for the parks for a quick snack while waiting in line or just when the kids want alittle something. Also don't forget when you are away you won't need to go grocery shopping so you'll have that extra money too. You can split meals too. Eat a big lunch later in the afternoon(lunch is always cheaper than dinner)
I can't help you with how much to bring b/c you don't say who you are traveling with. Is it just you and DH, or do you have kids too? Will you have a rental car? Are you staying onsite? If you are staying on site, skip the rental car and you will have more money. You could eat at mostly counter service and not spend too much. Check debs site for menus and prices:
http://www.allearsnet.com/menu/menus.htm

 

[jenr812]

I have no advice but my DH is doing the same "not enough money" stress. It's driving me bonkers. We're on the dining plan and it's paid for already and he's still freaking out *sigh*

Anyway, just wanted to offer some support {{{hug}}} Have a great trip - it's bound to work out :

 

[simonfam76]

{{{{{{{hugs}}}}}}}}} i am in the same boat. i "would like" atleast a grand to go with and hubby says i am crazy. we will be there for 8 days and its four of us (2 adults and 2 kids) i budgeted about 600 for eating and we are in a squabble about that. is that ridiculous? everything is paid for, so that money is for food and gas and souvie's. i am not all for eating fancy the entire time but i want to be realistic about it. please post comments to help on this topic i hope you have a wonderful trip and that it works out.

 

[canwegosoon]

Some of my budget ideas are
#1 Read with your husband very carefully all this great info:http://www.mousesavers.com/meals.html#home
Be sure to take advantage of all the info, but make a plan. Personally I would not eat off site. But since it seems like you want to do that, can you pick up sandwich fixings and bring your lunches to the park? You could always get 1 adult and 1 child take out from Fort Wilderness and make a picnic lunch for under $15 for everyone. Besure to bring water bottles and fill them everywhere. Bring the crystal light packets if you want to mix it up a little.

#2 Again pick up from supermarket Waffles and other items that can be toasted at the food court. (I grab a loaf of bread, and my self and 2 kids split 1side of eggs and 2 sides of bacon...I make 3 breakfast sandwiches for $6.73) Even though we are sharing, it is not so bad because we are enjoying the WDW atmosphere. See Deb's great site for wonderful information: http://www.allearsnet.com/din/dining.htm This should also help.

#3rd post over on the Area hotel boards too...there might be more people who eat off site.

#4 Some great Cheap Eats at WDW are Earl of Sandwich(5-6pp), and Caseys(5-6pp) again check Deb's site for prices and selections. Dont buy the soda!!! Another great tip is order Double burgers for 2 people with 2 extra rolls, and FF for $15-16 for all four

Finally you can order pizza as a meal...there are a few places that deliver.
My DH does not like watching the money while we are on vacation, so I understand. Don't forget you can take part of your grocery money and gas money since you will not be at home.
Doing all counter service, including some snacks , but no sodas(icewater instead) you should be able to eat 3 meals on site for less than $80 per day (could be as low as 50...even less bring your own sandwiches and having ceral and muffins in the room, bring any snack you can from home. You could get down to $35 a day if you are willing to do that)


*** And for those on the meal plan...I would use a combo of #2 and #4 to have all my meals covered. Split the counter service so you can get some breakfasts paid for... other than that make you PS to take advantage of the sitdown meals...also do a sitdown Brunch like Chef Mickey or FW and a counter service dinner to again maximize the meal plan.
Good luck!!!

 

[mrzrich]

We have four children...it is hard for our family of six to buy every meal at the parks. I pack a small soft sided cooler (the size that holds baby bottles) with some cheese and some lunch meat. In my tote bag I carry a sleeve or two of crackers and a a few small (desert sized paper plates. We make our own "lunchables". We have never had trouble finding a shady spot or a counter service table (I know also frowned upon, but sometimes its hot) to have a quick snack. We often have this for lunch and share a few turkey legs (great value!) for dinner.

By the way I have never had anyone give me any greif at the gate when checking bags, and I've carried in everything from pb&j to cold fried chicken!

Oh I'm sure I'll get flamed for this, but my family can't afford to pay so much for food. By the way I find the food in disney much more affordable than Sea world where a slice of pizza combo is $8.

 

[Cheshire Figment]

Eating off property to save money does not actually work unless you are staying off property and will eat breakfast before going to the parks and having dinner late at night after leaving.

It requires a bit of math to understand why. For this exercise I have to assume you will have a car (either your own or a rental).

First of all estimate your total cost for the trip. This would include air fare, rental car, hotel, passes, food, souveniers, etc. Then estimate your total hours aavailable while at WDW. This will be from the time you leave your hotel room in the morning until the time you get back (make adjustments for first and last day arrival and departure). This will give you your estimated cost per useable hour of vacation. This will probably come to more than $20 per hour.

For each time that you will be going off-site to eat, figure the time getting from wherever you were to get back to your car, out of the parking lot, finding a place to eat, getting back to WDW, getting parked and back into a park from where you left off. Don't figure the time in the restaurant; only figure the travel time.

Living here I can tell you that youu would be using up about 1.5 hours each time you left to go off-site to eat and then return. Multiply this by your hourly rate (computed above) and are you actually saving anything?

 

[eeyore45]

Another trip that worked for us... (and we definately split meals! Lots of food and when its hot, you dont eat that much! - love and used the double burger, extra bun, then use the fixin bar - again its a lot of food!)

To add to that, if you get the dble burger combo, get the LARGE soda, no ice, then, you can get a cup of ice, to help split that soda... Soda comes pre chilled in those machines, and we always order ours with no ice...

If you do the grocery stop, you can make a meal or two of sandwiches and eat by the pool at your resort. I always bring a soft side cooler on wheels so when we go to Typhoon Lagoon, we dont buy food there, we have our pretzels and food - be sure to pack the sandwich bags!!

Truly you can decide what it is you want and how you want to spend or budget... debs allearsnet site with the menus and prices was a great place for me to budget, we truly spent less than $40 a day on food, I have to admit I took advantage of the vouchers that are no longer being offered, but I learned to split meals, and eat some food by the pool...

This time, I started saving a year in advance, our resort, paid for (+ extra if we get a code!!) our tickets are paid for, our air fare , paid for... so now all we have left is food and souvies, dd alone has saved $60!! We have a goal, and its amazing how much we spend a week on "extras" now when we are confronted with those 'choices' dd and I take the money and put it in our piggy bank... (example, we're out shopping, she gets hungry, we'd stop and a Target food cart, maybe spend $5 for a 'snack' well we'd take that $5 and put it away for WDW!! and it worked wonders for the "Mom can I haves!" I would let her spend her money on a 'toy' or art project, but now she thinks harder... instead of going to the movies once a month, we save!!

 

[tink2dw]

Truely,by just having breakfast in your room most mornings saves you a ton of money!! And Time!! While dressing take turns eating.

And now there are so many choices you don't have to do just cereal and milk.

There are all kinds of Cereal Bars from Special K to your childs favorite cereal flavor!!

Pop Tarts - recently I found out that the chocolate flavered ones have soft edges!!

I found Hormel bacon[$1.75] the other day that needed no refigeration. It could be microwaved or fried. I took it to the beach with friends. She said her kids would never eat it. I got up early the next morning and made pancakes, scrambled eggs, and the bacon[i cooked both packages] Everyone ate all the bacon!! Even the picky eats!!

Cottage Cheese and tomatoes or whatever you like

Instant Hot cereal packets

Mirowave Mac and cheese-my daughter would eat mac and cheese anytime

Costco Muffins and milk

peanut butter and jelly

fruit- Bananas and grapes

These are just a few of the many,many ideas for breakfast in your room. A time saving, money saving, Choice so you can afford the 1 character meal so you can get photo's of the kids with the characters, and not fight the crowds around the characters in the parks!!

 

[ladysoleil]

Another thought- if you make a grocery stop- make sure you bring your coupons with you!

I forgot to on the last trip and was kicking myself...the prices at the market we went to were quite good compared to the NYC area and with coupons, we would have made a killing! Definitely make sure you bring coups for cereals, snack bars, juice and juiceboxes, diapers, and any other convenience items you might want or need.

DH and I did well on food the last trip, though. We made a grocery run on the first day and agreed in advance that we would not go crazy on junk food and snacks in the park. We stocked our room with fruit juice, bottled water, sodas, muffins and granola bars, and fresh fruit. Each day we ate muffins and/or fruit for breakfast (Total cost for 3 days breakfast= $8.) We each brought in a bottle of water and juice or soda in our backpack, and refilled from the larger bottles back at the hotel, which saved us money on fountain sodas.

We spent a buck or so on a gallon of spring water and I think about $.99 for the apple juice- so we're looking at about $10 breakfast for the whole trip. We would have spent about $15 per day at the IHOP next to our hotel, so, that's a huge savings right there. I brought a package of granola bars and a package of cheese crackers from home, since they were laying in our pantry anyway- we made good use of them in the parks.

We like late lunches, so generally we had a nice lunch around 3-4 PM each day, so we weren't starving for dinner and ate pretty lightly in the evenings, with the exception of our anniversary dinner at the California Grille, where we deliberately skipped lunch so we'd be hungry enough to get through a multicourse meal. Otherwise, we ducked into the Publix to get sandwiches or hot dishes like rotisserie chicken for dinner- the hero we split one night cost us $6 and I think we spent $11 or so on the chicken with a vegetable side and some biscuits.

This isn't to say we didn't eat well while we were there- we did splurge and spend about $250 on a dinner at the California Grille, and had a great lunch at the Liberty Tree Tavern, which is a favorite. I'm not even going to get into how much I must have spent to "Drink Around The World" in Epcot.

We came in way under budget. We did plan for the CG meal, since it was our anniversary, but I'd budgeted about $50 each per day each for food/snacks in the park. I hadn't planned to make a grocery stop since we didn't have a car, but since we ended up in walking distance of such a good supermarket we took full advantage of it.

Next trip will probably be more pricey since we're staying in DTD, though.

 

[jenr812]

Truely,by just having breakfast in your room most mornings saves you a ton of money!! And Time!! While dressing take turns eating.

And now there are so many choices you don't have to do just cereal and milk.

There are all kinds of Cereal Bars from Special K to your childs favorite cereal flavor!!

Pop Tarts - recently I found out that the chocolate flavered ones have soft edges!!

I found Hormel bacon[$1.75] the other day that needed no refigeration. It could be microwaved or fried. I took it to the beach with friends. She said her kids would never eat it. I got up early the next morning and made pancakes, scrambled eggs, and the bacon[i cooked both packages] Everyone ate all the bacon!! Even the picky eats!!

Cottage Cheese and tomatoes or whatever you like

Instant Hot cereal packets

Mirowave Mac and cheese-my daughter would eat mac and cheese anytime

Costco Muffins and milk

peanut butter and jelly

fruit- Bananas and grapes

These are just a few of the many,many ideas for breakfast in your room. A time saving, money saving, Choice so you can afford the 1 character meal so you can get photo's of the kids with the characters, and not fight the crowds around the characters in the parks!!

Great breakfast ideas

 

[mickeyluv'r]

First of all, my man does the "we can't pay for it' thing too. Then we get there and HE's the one who orders bar drinks and the expensive dinners, saying, "I'm on vacation, I'm not going to worry about it!" Drives me crazy! Bu to be fair, I always start the planning off saying, "We'll be really budget minded this trip!" and as the trip gets closer, I slowly upgrade...

Eating off property can be a real hassle, and may not save all that much money. Maybe your first/last couple of meals. The Waffle House is pretty inexpensive to eat at. If you saw Racel Ray's thing on Orlando for under $40, take her ideas with a grain of salt. We ate at one of the places she suggested, and it wasn't very inexpensive.

But there are lots of ways to save on food:


SHARE!!! SHARE!!! SHARE!!!! - I can't emphasize this concept enough! So often we are able to split meals, or get one meal and an extra side of veggies, or an appetizer, and still have leftovers!

Order a al carte. At any quick service Disney restaurant, you can order the sandwiches without the fries, for example. For breakfast, I ordered a la carte eggs. The regular breakfast was $7.75. The a la carte eggs were $2.10. They gave me a bigger pile of eggs a la carte than they did when I bought the complete breakfast. It was plenty of food (I even shared them). I was also able to get some salsa to put on them for free. If you must have the toast, one person could get the complete breakfast, and you could share the toast/bacon.
At our offsite hotel, I ordered just eggs. You went up to the counter to order, and some of the food items were cooked to order, and some were precooked. It must have been near the end of the breakfast time, because the chef started offering me all the extra items for free - sausage, homefries, veggies (i.e. omlette), and cheese. Maybe he just thought I was poor, but I have gotten a similar reaction at a number of places when I just order plain eggs. You almost never get just two eggs. (I order this way because I don't eat pork, and I try to avoid excess carbs)

Also, if you have kids, they often can share kids' meals...or...you can steal some of the food off of their plate. Again, the kids' meals are complete - so you could order a kids' meal and an adult sandwich, and share the fries/dessert. At the Kona Cafe (and maybe others), they will sub broccoli for fries on a kids' meal. It was a LOT of broccoli!

Buy water bottles at a grocery store. Drink water with your meals. Avoid alcohol!

It sucks, IMHO, to have to eat food from 'home' when you are inside the parks, but there is nothing wrong with breakfast in the room and late night snacks in the room. Most Disney rooms have fridges now.

Even in the Disney convenience store (not the lowest prices) a full carton of juice was only about $3. Next door in the restaurant, it was $2.50 for just a small glass of juice. A gallon of milk was pretty reasonable too.

At the Disney hotels, it is cheaper to pick up a pizza from the hotel restaurant than it is to have it brought to your room. You can also take food 'to go.' to avoid paying a tip.

Some parents think it is better to minimize souveniers by getting one item at the end of the trip. For some kids this is certainly true, but sometimes it is better to do the opposite. Buy one item at the start of the trip/day, and have the child carry that item. My neice bought a light-up wand last year that she played with the whole trip. Since she had it in her hand already, she didn't need to look at the stuff in the stores. You can buy glowsticks before you leave home for the parades. Big Lots had them for $1. Take them out of your purse just as the parade is getting ready to start.

 

[Cindyzgoingtodizny]

Well, I have to join in on this one.

We pre-paid our hotel (Villas at WL) and park hopper passes for family of 4 last year. We are driving (from KC) and will have a full kitchen once there.

I had $2,000 saved back, but we now have had an emergency home repair which severly dented the savings.

DH is freaky deaky over enough to go and keeps threatening to cancel. Now, what you don't know is that we have been married for 13 years, with 2 dtrs. 8 and 6 - and we have NEVER, that's right, NEVER been on vacation since we have known each other - so I refuse to let him get his way and 'quit' on our vacation.

Once we are there, if we have to, we can charge any essentials and pay when we get home .

Sounds like most of us women deal with many of the same disney vacation issues - we should start a 'Sisterhood of the Cheapskate" club!

When it all is said and done, it will be worth the stress!

 

[grlpwrd]

We're leaving for Hawaii in a month and my dh, too, is freaking out.

Thanks for all the great ideas as I can use them, too.

 

[CheapMom]

Remind DH that you have to eat whether you are home or at WDW- So subtract your normal food budget from what you will be spending at WDW to get the real number of what you will be spending. This is a thing I do to justfy my vacation $pending When it comes to spending money at DW I am a master rationalizer!

 

[Taja]

I'm a great fan of breakfast in my room. With the time difference, I have difficulty getting my act in gear in the morning at WDW, so I have a bread roll (not sweet) and a piece of fruit. I pack a small soft-sided cooler and buy milk and a case of .5 litre water bottles that I keep chilled.

Most meals I do eat in the parks or resorts, but I'm a light eater, so I go the a la carte route with three or four snacks daily, then have one "meal" every day or two. I have some snack things in the room (mostly healthy, some not), and take some zip top snack bags with me to create my own snacks for the parks. I usually take a bottle of chilled water and one bag each morning, and munch around 10:30 or 11:00 a.m., then depend on the parks the remainder of the day unless I go back to my room.

It's really a matter of personal priorities. I enjoy dining out occasionally, but prefer lighter fare on a regular basis. My biggest expense at the parks tends to be bottled water, but I drink more water than average.

Realistically, young children tend to be less concerned about food than the adults. While they may want everything they see, they probably won't eat even half of what is ordered. There is just too much to see and do in the parks and at the resorts. Just cover the basics for fuel and nutrition, with the occasional snack, and your budget should be fine!

 

[shakespeare]

I'm so glad to hear that I'm not the only wife who has to keep calming down her husband. My husband so freaking out about not having enough money to do anything. We have paid for tickets, hotel, and dining, so we only need money for soveniers. I hope he stops soon because it puts a damper on things.

 

[Taja]

Just read the travel dates of the OP. You're already there! Hope everything is magical!

 

[Angie_Ohio]

We were at Disney in November for 10 days. Each of my kids (DS18 DS10 DS7 and DS6 ) had a fanny pack with a juice box and granola bar or crackers to eat whenever they wanted. Sometimes they had some little candy or gum. With this freedom they were rarely asking for anything to eat. We also brought our own unopened water bottles. We refilled at fountains as needed. We did get snacks once at the MK with fruit, chips and pop. It was well over $25. We also pack a suitcase with snacks, poptarts and any ther wrapped treat to eat in the hotel or put in the fanny packs. Some days we spent a lot of money and others not much so $200 a day seems plenty to me.
Angie_OH