WDW Food Budget questions...

[jay-nee]

Thanks again for the comments/suggestions!

indigoxtreme - The Dining Plan would be WAY too expensive for us (no kids under 10 yrs in our clan), so it would be $105 a day for 3, yikes! I'm trying to plan for under $50 a day. But, this would probably work really well for some families wanting to do the TB meals alot.

3DisneyKids - yeah, fellow Maine-ahs here! We eat primarily vegetarian too, ironically. We are not true vegetarians, but we eat very, very little meat. And, yes, I do find this helps. I order the salads sans meat and the price is about $1-$2 cheaper, usually. Plus, it's just a nice change from the junked up meals (burgers/hotdogs/fries/pizza). Although, DD loves to go to Casey's for a hot dog each trip (personally, not sure why...). It's interesting that you were able to keep it to $100 a day for the 5 of you, I say - GREAT JOB!

Keep those suggestions/comments coming!

P.S. I did find where you can pick up those Brita Fill & Go bottles - on eBay - in case anyone else was wondering. I guess they have been discontinued by Brita. Too bad, they sound great. Plus, they could save a bundle for a water drinking family!

 

[becca011906]

Here are some tips that i got a while back for somefriends that are going with us in 2 weeks and on a VERY small budget! Their plan is to eat a nice big breakfast in the room, filling stuff like eggs, sausage, baccon, french toast, oatmeal, ect. Pack a lunch and LOTS of healthy snacks. for lunch they are going to pack sandwiches, fruit, ect. Healthy snacks like thoes listed above, granola bars, fruit and power bars, dried fruit, ect. If they get hungry towards the late afternoon/early evening they will get some meals and share, they are a family of 4 so though 2 adult meals or 1 adulat meal and 1 kids meal would do them, this wouldn't fill them all up but tide them over till we all got back to the room about 9:00 then have another sandwich, cook a pizza, ect.

On thing to remeber is how much do you spend at home on food perweek? B/c weather you are disney or home you still have to eat! HTH!

 

[DreadpiratK]

I know this is unpopular here, but we love eating off-site, much more bang for your buck. I guess it depends on what time of year you go, we are blessed with the ability to go in September, when it's not very crowded, and we don't feel like we have to be in the park every second to see and do every thing. Plus staying off site (also unpopular, but with 4 kids, what else could we do?) We are leaving the grounds every day anyway.

We cook a good breakfast at the condo, then pack water/juice and snacks like crakers and fruit type stuff. Each of us carries a fanny pack with thier own supplies in it. We kind of approach it like our backpacking trips, light-weight high energy foods that we snack on all day. Kids can eat whenever they want.

Our favorite thing is to leave the parks about 3:30, and hit one of the buffet's, like Golden Corral (the one on I-drive is quite good) Anyway, if you go in about 3:45 you pay lunch rates, but they put out the dinner food at 4. OK, so that's a little cheap, but it works, then we are back in the park by 5, and can concentrate on the rides while everyone else is standing on line at restaurants!

Works for us, and allows us to go when we otherwise couldn't afford it. Plus, we want to make it about the rides and stuff, not about eating out. WE do that at home plenty enough.