For us, DL is a major expense and I find myself on that line of wanting to just say, "screw it! I'm on vacation!" vs. needing to really watch the budget and prioritize where we spend our money....plus, eating at the parks is part of the fun, IMO. I just can't imagine packing in ALL our food to save money but on the other hand, we can't afford those yummy, expensive options like Blue Bayou.
I wonder if anyone else does the same thing we do? Any other tips to save money on food, without having to pack in your own??
We have tried some of those "yummy, expensive options" and not always been impressed by what we have gotten for our money, so I think we tend to run a little more toward the cheaper side of the spectrum than the splurgy side. That being said though, we do like to eat out somewhere once per day, whether it's in the parks, in DTD or at Mimi's. We will typically spend $30-$50 doing this (me, DH, DS8, DS10), but sometimes we've gotten by on less and occasionally splurged a little more. If we spend less on meals, I admit we are more likely to buy some sort of other treat(s) to share during the day. We tend to save up most of our eating out and entertainment dollars for our Disney trips, and I agree with that attitude that it's my vacation, darn it, I don't want to be constantly cooking and cleaning. Nevertheless, I can't stomach (literally or figuratively) eating out for every meal for a whole vacation, whether it's 3 days or 7.
Sometimes I bake a dozen muffins the day before we go giving us each 1 per day for 3 days. We bring bananas for mornings (they get too squished in backpacks), a box of cereal, milk, a couple of pop-tarts or breakfast cereal bars for a treat (I just look for a sale in the grocery store during the month or two leading up to the trip since we don't usually eat them at home), some applesauce, and sometimes some hot cocoa packets.
For lugging around in the backpack all day, we bring water, peanuts packets, baggies of almonds, raisins, pretzels, lunchbox-size apples, cheap tube of potato chips, granola bars, stuff like that. Sometimes we'll also carry a tuna and crackers pack for DS8 in case we're contemplating grabbing counter service food that he may be too picky to eat.
Back in the fridge in the room, we leave some sliced cheese, cheap pack of lunch meat (if it's one of our longer trips), mini carrots, pea pods, some other fruit (whatever was on sale at the grocery store just before we left), a couple sodas or juice boxes. If our room has a microwave, we'll also bring down a bowl or two of EasyMac.
So how do we use all this? We eat breakfast in the room. If we're at HOJOs, DH will tolerate drinking the coffee there. If elsewhere, he will bring his own coffee and make in room. We pack a bunch of snacks in the backpack. We are very flexible about when to eat. If we are planning an afternoon break, we often get by in the park on the snacks, eat more stuff back in the room during break, and then eat out somewhere in the evening, usually later than we would at home. Other times we might decide to have a "shorter" day, use a meal out as a rest break any not-too-busy time between 11 AM and 4 PM, go back to our room earlier than "usual" and cobble together a dinner that night from food we brought with us, occasionally supplemented by a bowl of soup or salad from Mimi's or the leftovers of some snack purchased in the park.
Other ways to stretch the food and dollars:
Eat small portions of things 4 or 5 times a day, whether it's your own food or Disney food, rather than trying to have regular meals.
Each member of our family doesn't always need a whole corndog but would enjoy tasting them. We can order 2 or 3 a la carte and share, then supplement with our tube of potato chips and other snacks we're carrying.
We buy the large kettlecorn in Downtown Disney and can all share that for 2-3 days whenever we need something for the munchies.
A loaf of bread from the Pacific Wharf with the two handfuls of butter pats they gave me and the apples from our backpack filled my families tummies for long enough one evening to finish what we wanted to do and just go back to the room and finish filling up with the rest of our brought food.
When we want treats at the candy shop or the bakery, I almost always declare that we'll get something and share it. That way we all get that sweet taste and don't overindulge. It's not like we couldn't buy another one later if we're not all satisfied.
We always get water at restaurants.
I always look the menus over before letting the boys order and decide whether the better deal is to get two kid meals or one adult meal for them to share.
Read these boards or people-watch at restaurants to get an idea of portion sizes. Depending on your family's appetites, you might find that some of the meals are easily shareable. If I get a hankering for Plaza Inn, we just go in and get two meals and waters and share among the four of us.
Anyway, I've rambled enough. This is just some of what we do. I know others are chiming in with their ideas.
The chimi's are $5.50 and very filling, a little greasy but the price can't be beat!
