Realistic Food Budget?

someone posted a link to all ears I highly suggest you look up the places you
plan to go to ( be sure you are looking at Disneyland Menus)and check out the cost based on the meals your family may enjoy. If you do eat at all of those places you are not having a budget trip. Character meals will get you up in cost quickly!. Either way enjoy!

Sorry, when I said "budget" I didn't mean it in the money saving sense, I meant it in the "how much should I allot each day for food" sense. It's true, once actually inside the parks, we're not too concerned about budget (although we aren't going to be reckless ;)). We chose to save money other ways, like by staying off site at a questionable hotel! :laughing:
 
You must take snacks and drinks...We have APs and are there every couple of weeks, so buying $3 waters every 5 minutes adds up quickly. I always take several waters, crackers, chips, some candy...I t really helps. And then you dont feel so bad spending $$ on souvenirs.
 
we are 2 adults, and 4 kids ages 4-17. when we've had to do a serious "budget" trip in the past (it was either that, or not go at all - so we chose to do it, but do it cheaply!), we got by on about $60 a day. to do that, we ate fruit and cereal bars that we brought for breakfast (while standing in line early at the gates), sandwiches we made in the hotel room that we packed into the parks for lunch along with some more fruit, and then for dinner we left the park to pick up a huge grilled chicken meal from El Pollo Loco to take back to the hotel (under $30 for their largest meal - at least it was the last time we did it). some days we just did El Pollo Loco for lunch, and skipped dinner because we weren't hungry (just ate granola bars and/or fruit that we had brought in).

personally, we find that we all end up not feeling very well if we eat too much in-park food. it seems to stop up our tummies, no matter HOW much water we are guzzling down during the day (we bring in our own waters, too - you can buy a case of arrowhead at wal-mart for less than $4). so the most in-park food we EVER eat in a day at DLR is just one meal. for the rest we bring in a ton of fruit and healthy-ish snacks. if anybody needs a 3rd meal, we head out to El Pollo Loco for the grilled chicken (sooo yummy!)

are you driving to DLR? if so, it's nice to pick up a ton of what you need before you leave on your trip. cereal bars, granola bars, pb&j, fruit that can last a couple days without refrigeration, canned fruit, applesauce cups...stuff like that. if we need bread, produce, and delit meat for sandwiches, we pick that up fresh once we're in town, but for all the other stuff, it's nice to have it already so that you can cut your grocery shopping time down to a minimum once in anaheim (who wants to waste their disney time shopping for food?!!).

when we're not doing a budget trip, we just budget $100 a day, and that's always more than enough. but we don't do a ton of snacks inside the parks, either. (on our trip 2 years ago, i actually brought microwave popcorn to pop in the hotel room and then pack into snack baggies so that at night when the popcorn comes out in the parks and smells WONDERFUL, i had bags to hand to the kids - saved a ton that way! i also did the same with cotton candy because the kids always see other kids with it and want some, but then don't really end up eating much of it. so i bought if for $1 a tub at wal-mart and saved a ton that way, too!)

i've made tigger tails at home before that came out great, but we find them to be WAY too big. so, this time i'm going to make mini tigger tails, and bring them along with us into the parks (which i've never done before)! i can make about 2 dozen mini tigger tails for about $10 (as opposed to nearly $4 each inside the parks). i think i'll also make homemade chocolate chip cookies to bring. we just keep everything inside an insulated backpack meant for food storage (picnic at ascot).

good luck!

love your suggestions, just curious how do you make tigger tails. DD saw them and wants to bring them home for everybody. thought it would be more fun for her to help me make them.
 
love your suggestions, just curious how do you make tigger tails. DD saw them and wants to bring them home for everybody. thought it would be more fun for her to help me make them.

i wrote an article with directions and pics about a year ago...i don't think i'm allowed to post the link, though (last time i did it was removed :snooty:)

if you type "how to make tigger tails at home" and the name "brandy madison", into your search bar (google or whatever) you'll find the article.

they're fun and easy to make! the only difference with mine is that i didn't use orange flavoring (those chocolate orange things make me sick, plus i'd never bought a tigger tail at DL, so i didn't know they were orange flavored). so if you want it to taste exactly like the ones at DL, you'd need to add some orange extract.

the ones we made were so yummy! chocolate, caramel, and marshmallows.....mmmmmmm!!!
 



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