Would you cook to save $400 on vacation?

[clutter]

Seems like the biggest determining factor between whether you cook or eat out is whether you are back in your room (villa, condo) at dinnertime or not.

 

[roliepolieoliefan]

I do not and would not cook on vacation.

People can do whatever works for them and not cooking on vacation works for me. I don't do laundry BTW either.

We don't do beachhouse vacations and we never stay in condos by our family's choice.

I work part-time and cook some meals at home but even when we aren't on vacation there are atleast 3-4 times a week we eat out.

My husband jokes and tells people he could have saved alot of money and just eliminated the kitchen when we built our new home.

 

[Eastern]

No.

 

[minandmick]

After just spending 3 nights in a hotel and eating out for every meal, I would ABSOLUTELY cook on vacation.

I was so sick of restaurants by the time the trip was over that we were fantasizing about what we would cook if we have a villa with a kitchen on our next vacation. (we were really, really sick of eating out.)

 

[Claire&TheBoys]

Of course, a lot of this also depends on how long you vacation and what type of accommodations you stay in. We stay in on-site, usually at a Moderate, sometimes at a Deluxe or Value, but we have never stayed in a villa with a kitchen. Obviously we're not going to be cooking any full meals in our room. We typically stay 5-7 nights. If we were going to be on a 2-week vacation, yeah, I can imagine that we'd want more space to spread out in a villa and might cook a meal or two. But that's not how we vacation.

 

[Meshell2002]

I totally do this whenever we go. I cook a lot at home, and right now where the kids fall in line it just works for me. We do breakfast....go at rope drop, come back in the mid afternoon....eat late lunch in room then nap or rest, and go back out full, if we get hungry in the evening we eat a light dinner (CS) in the park. My kids are still nappers (and do nap on vacation). For now it works because I don't see a point in waiting in restaurants to spend more money....and wasting park time eating I'm sure as my kids get older that will change.....and that'll be fine with me but it works for now

 

[punkin]

We just got back from a two week vacation (not Disney) where it was pretty much impossible to cook at all. We ate out for every single meal and by the end of the vacation (wonderful though it was) we just all wanted to get some home cooking. I don't mind cooking on vacation at all as long as I don't have to do it for every single meal.

 

[smb6]

I never have, but I would not mind doing it as long as it was simple and occasionally, not 3 meals per day....

We only eat out once per week; and my kids really enjoy eating out on vacation since it is limited in our daily life.... What I do do every year just before we take a vacation (disney or otherwise) is we refrain from eating out the entire month leading up to vacation... It allows us to save a little (or a lot considering there are 6 of us) last minute spending money and I figure we eat out so much on vacation, we take a break from it before hand..... It works for us.

 

[wvdisneyfamily]

Personally, no. I'm a working mom that pulls a 40 hour week, cooks 99.5% of the time, cleans every day, and does untold of amounts of laundry. $400 is a lot to save, but it does not outweigh the simple fact I'm on vacation and want to relax/not worry about domestic duties. This is my time to just enjoy my family and have no chores waiting on me.

 

[SPBendersky]

The first thing we do where ever we go is get breakfast foods. If we have a kitchen Eggs, Pancakes, Bacon, cereal is very easy, save a ton of money and time is the critical factor. I have three girls plus a wife so we eat as they get ready, saves me from wigging out that we have to wait for them to get ready and then go eat, would never get anything done. a good breakfast goes along way, we usually skip lunch or its lite. Spend money on dinner, and Potato, Egg, And sausage heros go over great with everyone and is fast and easy.

Go for it.

 

[shebjo]

Interesting, long thread. I have been to Disney several times and have never cooked ...of course, we haven't had the facilities to cook either. Last August (and again this August) we will be in the Sarasota/Siesta Key area of Florida and will have a condo (with very nice kitchen facilties) for most of the the trip. Will we cook? Well I won't call it cooking but we will stop at a store and get some items ....hot dogs, beverages (water, juice, soda), yogurt, ice cream, fruits and other snacks. I don't hate cooking but don't like it either. If cooking would save me $400 - I 'd probably try to compromise and say try to save $200 instead. We are a family of 4 (including my twin girls who just turned 9) - and we like to eat and we like to eat out ....eating out is a fun part of our vacation (and we also do it at home). But there is usually a day or two that we stay in and will eat hot dogs, sandwich, etc. Everyone has to do what works for their family. For us, I see that we spend alot on beverages (I think because it's so hot and humid in Florida when we go) so I now try to save some dollars on beverages by stocking up on them at a store so we don't have tos pend as much when we do go out.

 

[mom2threecuties]

We 'reheat' on vacation. We plan our menu and make our meals before we go, then freeze them in Foodsaver bags. Each night, we just let the Foodsaver bags simmer in a pot of water, and dinner's ready! We also pre-make breakfast sandwiches and freeze them in Foodsavers.

 

[Goofyzgurl]

I'll cook here and there on vacation...like breakfast items mostly. I don't slave away in the kitchen 7 days a week or even 5 days, when I'm at home, so when I'm on vacation, cooking is not a chore for me on vacation like it is for others. When we leave this time, I'll be cooking more than breakfast a couple of nights because we're not spending any time at the parks, more time shopping and site seeing.

 

[daddey]

We cook a lot during our stay. We go to Publix and Sams Club and load up on items for dinners and breakfast. We eat lunch in the parks every so often and may have 1 or 2 dinners but mostly snacks in the parks. To save $400 I would say yes, I would cook.

 

[OhdahLolly]

I can't believe I just thought of this, but here it is.

For those of you who are with me on the anti-vacation cooking, another good option might be a place that makes pre-made meals. We have one out here that is called Simply Homemade. For 12 meals/12 dinners, the price is roughly around 220-250 for pre-assembly. If you want to go to the center to assemble them yourself and package, it's around 20-35 dollars less.

All in all, for the "you want me to do what on vacation?" crowd that still want to save some money and time, might not be a bad idea.

 

[beansmom]

apparently my answer is 'yes, i would cook'. We are right now on vacation in a small condo and i have sliders on the stove for lunch. I get tired of eating out and like to cook my own food.

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

Even pre-DVC, we have been known to bring items with us to cut down on breakfast and sometimes lunch costs.

I do like going out to eat though at Disney. Our last trip was the first time we didn't, but we had guests we were hosting who really couldn't eat out.

So it can be done. But I like to mix it up and eat out sometimes and eat in others. We did lasagna and then a "cook out-in" where we had hamburgers and hot dogs in the room.

Whether or not I would do it to save $400 would depend on the overall budget and my goals for the trip. I would choose not to cook in for every meal if I was doing the parks. Mostly out of convenience. I would not be against bring my pb&j sandwiches in a soft cooler or something.

My issues are usually proportion control. We had some leftovers and due to us being the ones staying longer than my guests, food was left behind and even then, we had too many leftovers. Due to our own space limitations in our van and our one small cooler--I had to toss out food. I HATED doing that. So wasteful.

So I would certainly watch portion management and not overbuy food. Then you would have wasted money.

 

[ilovemk76]

At WDW, DL or another trip where there are many activities - No

At the ocean, mountains or another trip where nature or relaxing is the many draw - Yes

 

[MinnieForMe]

Would I cook to save $400? No.
Would I cook because we got tired of going out to eat and waiting in line? Yes.

We were in Orlando for 2 weeks in April and luckily we brought my parents. My mom was more than happy to cook a few meals while we were there. It was great because we could come back from the parks to a home cooked meal. It was definitely a blessing for me who doesn't enjoy cooking and our very tired children!

 

[SDSorority]

OP, I would TOTALLY cook to save $400. But what's more than that, I would cook for our health. I feel so....blech.... when I eat out all the time I'm all about saving money, and all about saving my health (and waistline....) !