What do you budget for meals?

[kristie73]

This may be a little off topic for this message board, but I think you all will have the knowledge.

My trip to Southern California is about 10 days (2 of which are half days because of flying). We are staying with family and friends in mulitple places. However, 2 nights and 3 days we are staying at the DLH.

I'm trying to figure out how much for tickets, remaining hotel, etc expenses and now I need to figure meals and stuff (souvenirs, possible other events). How do I figure this out? I think we might eat in with some family and friends occassionally but I don't want to count on that. Obviously we can grocery shop for some things to eat, but vacation is sometimes too about eating out.

I have 2 kids, ages 3 and 7. And then my dh and I. I'm counting maybe two big meals in DL - Rainforest Cafe and Goofy's Kitchen? The other meals will be in the hotel, DL, or Downtown Disney on the cheaper side. We'll bring snacks.

Then the rest of our trip is in San Diego. I'm sure we'll do a few favorite restaurants. I just want to know - what's the standard per kid - per adult whne allowing for meals?

 

[FlameGirl]

I think it depends on so many things. Inside the park, for my husband, daughter and myself, most counter service meals were in the $50 range. At a sit-down restaurant, we never came in under $100.

Of course there are ways to cut costs but in order to avoid the sticker-shock, your best bet is to plan for each and every meal to be pretty pricey.

WWS was our cheapest meal...I think we got in breakfast for the three of us for the $30 - $35 range.

Disneyland is many things, but it's not cheap.

 

[Gisele]

First off, have an awesome time at the land with your family! Sounds lilke a real fun itinerary.
When it comes to foodie budget, I only figure for myself, because it is just I. I know others though have it down to a fine art, regarding your question. So I am sure that they will be posting soon. Anyway.... for myself, I like to dine at the Blue Bayou for lunch or an early dinner. I love to snack at Bengal b q. And have an occasional churro, and or pop corn. Disney's popcorn is quite tasty, as are their churros. If the weather is hot, especially if it is hot and humid I seem to have little appetite, which is odd really. Because quite frankly I do not have to be hungry inorder to tast whatever it may be.

 

[mommyof2boys1girl]

We just got back, and on average, for the 5 of us, it was around $40-$50 per meal. We ate mostly counter service, and the two youngest usually split a kids meal, the oldest ate his own kids meal (bigger appetite) and dh and I would split an adult meal and a salad or something. We never ate dessert, didn't order drinks (water bottles we refilled at fountains). We probably also spent about $15 - 20 per day on snacks - dole whips, churros, popcorn, cotton candy, etc.... We also ate the complimentary breakfast at our hotel, so there was no expense there, and we had snacks from Vons delivered, so there were munchies for when the kids didn't have to have a churro or popcorn.
Sit down meals are a different story - Rainforest was around $150 for all of us, and Ariel's Grotto came in just under $200! Good thing we don't go very often!
As for souveniers, we splurged a lot - each child got at least 4 shirts, a small toy or pin each day as well as starting them on pin collections, which isn't cheap, I found out! Our total spending on souveniers we declared at Customs was about $700 for the 10 days we were gone.
Hope that helps! There are certainly ways to do it cheaper - we only get to DL once every couple of years, so we go into the trip with the idea that we can spend a little more than we usually would.

 

[DisneyMomma81]

You can check out menus ~here~ to give you an idea on restaraunt costs.

 

[kkmcan]

We are quite frugal and do not purchase sodas as we bring in our own water bottles with crystal light packets. Also my kids still eat kids meals so our meal usually runs around $35 for counter service. Plus I allow for $20 in snacks per day- at $4 approx per snack item ( icecream, churro, popcorn) that gives 5 snacks that we share spread out thoughout the day. Kids insist on having their own icecream bar but dh and I usually share. We also eat breakfast either in room or complimentary continental if our hotel offers it.

Grand total for the day would be $90 now for some extra wiggle room I figure thats close to $100 so thats what I allow for on in park days. If you have ressies for a sit down then you can look at menus on allears.net and figure out your budget from there.

 

[Dobie]

The Dobies (all of whom are adult) never budget, cause we're on vacation.

But we spend about $50.00 per person per day. We typically eat one counter service lunch, one table service dinner, and a couple of snacks each.

 

[Mugglemama]

For best results, do as another poster suggested and plan each meal. I literally sit down with pen and paper and have all of these kinds of details figured out before we even leave.

Your needed budget will depend on how many meals you are actually paying for (are you eating some home-prepared meals at the homes of friends/relatives?), and where you intend to eat them. Make a list with 3 columns (one for meals paid for in the parks/restaurants, one for meals you are preparing in your hotel if that's the case, and one for meals you don't have to pay for). It's kind of a hassle (but it can be kind of fun, too). If you want to have a really accurate idea of what your costs are going to be, it's better to be over-prepared than not prepared enough. Use the menu link above to estimate costs for your family for each in-park meal.

 

[lilsprstr]

We budgeted $100 a day for food. Our family has 2 adults, a 7 year old, a 5 year old and an almost 2 year old. We ate breakfast in our hotel room so the food budget only included lunch and dinner each day. We came in just under budget.

 

[blackjackdelta]

We stopped the per meal budgeting and budget per day based on what our plans are. We set our ressie's look up the prices and go from there. We travel with either 4 or 6 people, ages 17 and over, as of yet have never blown the budget, we always have left over $$.
Since we drive we always bring stuff with us to fix in the room. With the amount of exercise everyone gets, the food consumption does increase but it is not bad.

Jack

 

[longtimedisneylurker]

Everybody has already chimed in with lots of meal cost estimates and budgeting suggestions, so I thought I'd throw in a few words about Disney souvenirs.

Individual pins start at $7 and go up from there. A lanyard with no pins, $8. A starter lanyard/pin set is $25; more elaborate sets obviously cost more.
Disney Star Wars action figure: $10
Box of potato head parts: $18 or $19 last I saw
Puzzles and games: $10 - $60
Stuffed animals: cheapest seem to be around $10, a more mid-size $15-$25, the bigger they are the more expensive.
Child's t-shirt: $18 and up
Child's ballcap or Mickey ears: $15 and up
T-shirts for grown-ups: $20 and up
Magnets, key chains, antenna balls, deck of playing cards: $5

I could go on, but this gives you a sense of it.

Another place where the costs sneak up on you is treats. Not a meal, but just that yummy snack. I think everyone who suggested budgeting at least $20 per day for those kinds of things is right on. A single piece of candy or cookie or cupcake at the candy shop or a snack in the bakery will often cost $3-$5. Kettle corn in DTD is $6. Churros, ice cream sandwiches, pretzels, cotton candy, all that stuff adds up by the end of the day.

 

[Funball]

i don't budget really for each thing, i just tell my self i am only going to spend x amount of dollars and don't go over it! that includes using credit cards.. but i do cut costs sometimes by bringing a lunch! plus i cn store it in a locker for the full day witch really helps, and then i only have to pay for snacks or a new pin to add to my collection or a champagne here now and then from DCA...

 

[BELLEDOZER]

On our trip to DL in Feb/09, our average per day was around $80.00 per day for the family. Since we are somewhat frugal, and were staying at HOJO's, we dropped into their gift shop for cereal, milk, and danishes for breakfast, then had lunch in the parks, followed by dinner on the way back to the hotel. As for souvies, DL can be expenive for souvies, and we averaged for the kids around $140.00 each.

 

[rentayenta]

I don't really set a food budget persay. I look at the menus, choose where we will eat, and go from there but having a general amount in my head. Putting a solid dollar amount is too unlrealistic for me. I am not going to say no if the kids want popcorn and a soda regardless of what we've spent unless they wasted their main meal but that has to do with waste not budgeting. If they'll eat it, I'll buy it. Luckily for me they stop when they are satisfied even with sweets.

 

[mommyof2boys1girl]

One of the above posts reminded me of something. My dh, bless him, is clueless when it comes to what the kids like or don't like, so we would plan out which CS place to go, and I would whip out the "order card" I had made up beforehand....a recipie card written like this:

Pizza Port:
Logan and Allie - share Lunar Cheese pizza slice
Adam - kids portion PLAIN spaghetti (no sauce), apple juice box or milk
Me - Countdown Chicken Fusili and garden salad.

With this, dh could go and get the food and pick out something for himself, while I would sheperd the kids for a bathroom break and wash-up. Not only did we know what our meal would cost, there wasn't any worrying about who was going to eat what. It really worked well.

 

[Funball]

One of the above posts reminded me of something. My dh, bless him, is clueless when it comes to what the kids like or don't like, so we would plan out which CS place to go, and I would whip out the "order card" I had made up beforehand....a recipie card written like this:

Pizza Port:
Logan and Allie - share Lunar Cheese pizza slice
Adam - kids portion PLAIN spaghetti (no sauce), apple juice box or milk
Me - Countdown Chicken Fusili and garden salad.

With this, dh could go and get the food and pick out something for himself, while I would sheperd the kids for a bathroom break and wash-up. Not only did we know what our meal would cost, there wasn't any worrying about who was going to eat what. It really worked well.

that is a fabulous idea!! i never though of that, but then again i don't have kids.. even so, if you tend to order the same things when you go from the same place and know what it will cost after tax then it makes it easy to do a dollar amount in your disney budget for food! and of course you can't help the extra's, like having a soda betwen meals or getting some popcorn as a snack or veggie sticks!

 

[Tikestoublie]

As another poster mentioned, I am a huge fan of bringing in the small drink sachets to add to my bottle of water. Can be huge money saver. I like the propel and Lipton tea ones. With so many varieties now you can carry an assortment. Because they are so small it is easy to carry a few.

I am not overly fond of the taste of the water from the fountains, but the mixes help. I think I also found better tasting water at the mexican restaurant in Adventureland. They had a fountain outside if I remember right where I could easily fill up.

The other way I save money is to bring small snacks. Chips, snack bars, and such. Prefer things that are light and easy to carry in a small bag.

Hope that helps. No matter what you will have a great time.

 

[CrazyDuck]

$50 per person per day suits us just fine.