Your Cheapest Food Budget for staying offsite

[LaDonna]

My sister is wanting to go with us on our next trip to the World and she's never been! She has a budget for herself of $600. But we've always stayed onsite(well except our first trip and I really don't remember what we spent on food, we got lucky and got free breakfast buffets the whole week lol) and done the free dining thing.......I've run so many numbers if she went w/ us (deducting her $600 from the total) for free dining but we'd end up paying more if she went with us I'm thinking though although I really don't want to stay offsite, if we could go for 10 days(versus the 7 we were going to do) and find a fairly cheap condo then it would be worth it, but I'm trying to figure out what my food budget might be. If we did the condo for 9 nights then we'd definately eat all our breakfast there and possibly half/most of our dinners since we'll be there for so many days.......and for lunches I'm guessing we'll pack our lunches for half/most of the time.

So I guess what I'm really wondering the most is what the cheapest food budget you ever spent was staying offsite?

 

[mrsklamc]

Cooking, or eating out?

 

[Disneychix]

Won't you need 2 rooms anyway if you stay at ASM for your whole family to get free dining? (this is assuming it's the 5 of you in your sig) Perhaps you can look into a family suite or the FW cabins? I know those are expensive but you'd at least have some room.

I'd imagine if you got a condo and you were making bf and lunches and 1/2 of your dinners your expense would be quite similar to what you spend at home.

 

[LaDonna]

yeah as I'm sitting there writing my op I was thinking duh really we could do it quite cheap.....I for some odd earthly reason didn't think about packing lunches until I was writing We may end up doing it like that I think maybe......I need to budget what sit downs we'd really like to do, I could skip the counter service, I don't think they are worth the prices.

 

[LaDonna]

I'm dunno I'm still sitting here thinking....we just love being in the parks from open to close, but like I said if we got to stay there extra days I think we'd have no problems then leaving the parks earlier and having dinner at the condo.......I can't decide

 

[tigger51276]

I am also wondering how you are getting 5 of you in one room at ASM? I thought you could only do 4 plus one under 3 or do you already have 2 rooms? I would look into getting a suite instead of the 2 rooms. With your sisters contribution that would certainly help lower the price and then you can still be on property.
I know that once i'm in the parks it's almost impossible to rip me or my DD's away. We usually have a full kitchen as we stay DVC but other than having breakfast in our room and some snacks we don't tend to eat lunch or dinner there. Compared to other theme parks and heck even the zoo I don't find Disney QS food to be expensive. I actually spent $27 on 2 kids meals and a small chicken finger w/ff for myself on our visit to the zoo last month, I was shocked.
You have to decide if you stay offsite, are you really going to go back to the condo to eat and do you really want to carry lunches around with you every day. Don't forget to add in the price of a rental car since you'd be off site, plus gas for the car, parking at the parks and you won't be able to take advantage of EMH which is Sept, at least to me, is huge since all the parks close early as it's off season. I know that I love in Sept having those extra 3-4 hours at night in a park when there aren't many people there.
Definitely not an easy decision! Best of luck.

 

[laurafergie]

Last Christmas we stayed offsite. I fed 9 people (2 kids)breakfast and supper every night, except one (My Dad paid for supper out) and at least half would pack lunches at any given time. We had pop, prime rib one night, lots of snacks and I spent about $350 for 10 days. Another $100 or so for the snack in every country in Epcot and a random order of fries or whatever. This is, of course, way more than I would spend at home for groceries, but way less if we had eaten out every day.

 

[scrapquitler]

I'm thinking though although I really don't want to stay offsite, if we could go for 10 days(versus the 7 we were going to do) and find a fairly cheap condo then it would be worth it, but I'm trying to figure out what my food budget might be. If we did the condo for 9 nights then we'd definately eat all our breakfast there and possibly half/most of our dinners since we'll be there for so many days.......and for lunches I'm guessing we'll pack our lunches for half/most of the time.

So I guess what I'm really wondering the most is what the cheapest food budget you ever spent was staying offsite?

Well if you are staying offsite, having kitchen facilities and eating most breakfasts and dinners in the condo, you can probably use your weekly grocery budget as a good starting point. If you shop at SuperWalmart or antother grocery store you can buy basic food items for breakfast (cereal, donuts, oatmeal, granola bars, milk, juice, coffee, etc) and dinner (bring your crock pot and throw dinner in there in the morning, it will be ready when you get back to the room), make simple meals like spaghetti and meatballs, sub sandwiches, etc. Then figure counter service lunches or cold cut sandwiches for in the parks (I'd go with counter service rather than lugging sandwiches in a cooler).

For my family of 4, we can eat lunch at counter service for about $25, another $15 per day for snacks. Our weekly budget shopping and cooking breakfast and dinner in the room would probably be $150. Add a little extra leeway for a couple dinners out off-site or pizza delivery, another $100 maybe.

Hopefully that might help a little...

 

[Marionnette]

My sister is wanting to go with us on our next trip to the World and she's never been! She has a budget for herself of $600. But we've always stayed onsite(well except our first trip and I really don't remember what we spent on food, we got lucky and got free breakfast buffets the whole week lol) and done the free dining thing.......I've run so many numbers if she went w/ us (deducting her $600 from the total) for free dining but we'd end up paying more if she went with us I'm thinking though although I really don't want to stay offsite, if we could go for 10 days(versus the 7 we were going to do) and find a fairly cheap condo then it would be worth it, but I'm trying to figure out what my food budget might be. If we did the condo for 9 nights then we'd definately eat all our breakfast there and possibly half/most of our dinners since we'll be there for so many days.......and for lunches I'm guessing we'll pack our lunches for half/most of the time.

So I guess what I'm really wondering the most is what the cheapest food budget you ever spent was staying offsite?

Is every family member in your signature going on the Sept. trip? You would need two rooms anyway with 5 people so why would it cost you much more than you're already paying? A second adult in either room would not cost any additional money. Personally, I would do that with the free dining and just ask her to cover her ticket and tips. Maybe ask her to give you and your husband a night out without the kids as a form of repaying you for her share of the room.

 

[Darcy03231]

We went as a group of 9 for 16 days and spent about $400 in groceries. We at breakfast in every day, and most of our dinners were in too. What we found worked best for us was to get up early and go to the parks. We left around 1 pm and went back the house of a rest/swim, had a late lunch/early dinner and then went back to the parks at night. We mostly just snacked in the parks. The exception to that was the two days we spent at Busch Gardens. We ate breakfast in and had lunch in the parks and then ate off-site for dinner. One night we did pizza and the other chinese buffet. Most on-site counter service meals run about $10/pp for adults and $7 for children. For meals in the house we kept it simple - casseroles in throw away pans, crockpot meals (pulled pork, spaghetti & meatballs, mexican chicken, etc.). Our rental house had a grill that we used a lot too. We found we could have dinner on the table faster than it took to get us all into a restaurant, seated, and food ordered.

 

[MinnieForMe]

We just returned from 12 days offsite. For a family of 5, we budgeted about $100 a day. We did eat breakfast in the condo. Some days we went over the $100 and others we were well below (when we had spaghetti in the condo). I didn't add up a final figure but for us about $1200 was safe.

 

[LaDonna]

Our last trip our 5th was under 3yrs.....for our upcoming trip we would be at POR at around 2400 for 7 days, and we were wanting to try November, probably the week before Thanksgiving week. So we'd be getting the regular dining plan(if it is offered free), if we went w/ 2 rooms at Value and did the upcharge for the regular dining plan we'd end up spending more than just staying at POR. We could technically do it cheaper my sister w/ 2 rooms at the values but that is without regular dining and I'd rather spend the extra $100something extra for RD. My kids actually missed the regular dining on our last trip and really want to do it next trip, but I really would like for my sis to come to If I could save enough money offiste it would be worth it for me to miss rd plan. I need to tell her to get a second job and chip in some more moolah

 

[MinnieForMe]

Oops.. I just reread your post and you are asking for the cheapest not what you would budget.

If you eat in every meal, I would just add your current grocery list per week. There is a SuperWalmart next to Downtown Disney and I didn't find the prices any higher than home. Publix was much more expensive than home.

Also, if you want to eat in the park and if you do counter service meals remember you can order a kid's meal if you are a normal sized eater. At Peco Bill's last week, a kid's hamburger meal with fries and grapes plus a small drink was $4.99. It was more than I needed to fill me. However, I wouldn't want to eat hamburgers all week so maybe carry in sandwiches. I was floored that same day at Peco Bills. The grandmother next to us took one of the tables opened up her cooler and had deli meat, rolls, full size mayo and mustard and proceeded to make all 5 grandkids sandwiches right there in the restaurant. Personally, I think it's rude to take a table inside that is meant for a paying customer but I feel it would be okay to do this with an outside table. Just my opinion and another option.

 

[jsmla]

Are y'all driving? Back in the day we were ALWAYS on a budget and camped at Ft. Wilderness. Before the trip I'd make and freeze things like lasagna, jambalaya and taco meat. Beginning a month or two before vacation I'd just make a double batch of whatever I was fixing for dinner and freeze the extras. It was easy just to heat them up and saved us a TON of $$$ some of which we used for a couple of special meals like a character breakfast or one of the Epcot restaurants.

I brought most of our food from home. Bringing things from home meant that I could bring just the amount needed (ie-a cup of rice rather than a whole bag) and that I could buy them when they were on sale.

I used a lot of convenience things like paper plates on vacation so it didn't seem like such a chore

 

[DawnM]

We are quite cheap.....I don't count my regular $125 food budget per week as I would have to spend that anyway. We eat mostly our own food.

B-fast- cereal, bagels, sometimes eggs/pancakes
Lunch- sandwiches, cheese sticks, snack foods, flavor for waters

Dinner- in the condo at least half the time. Spaghetti, bagel pizzas, steak and potatoes, salad, tacos

Then I add about $150 for eating out. This trip,in addition to the groceries, we have spent $45 on IHOP (ick by the way), $27 for McDonald's, and we used rewards dollars to eat at T-Rex and in the parks once.

So, I might get away with less this trip, although the week isn't up yet.

Dawn

 

[Kat&Dom]

For 6 of us (3 adults, 1 teen, 1 pre-teen and 1 toddler) staying 8 nights, we spent $180 on food for the condo that we stayed off-site in, ate out 5 times at a cost of $60-$70 per meal. So total cost of about $530.

 

[Marionnette]

Our last trip our 5th was under 3yrs.....for our upcoming trip we would be at POR at around 2400 for 7 days, and we were wanting to try November, probably the week before Thanksgiving week. So we'd be getting the regular dining plan(if it is offered free), if we went w/ 2 rooms at Value and did the upcharge for the regular dining plan we'd end up spending more than just staying at POR. We could technically do it cheaper my sister w/ 2 rooms at the values but that is without regular dining and I'd rather spend the extra $100something extra for RD. My kids actually missed the regular dining on our last trip and really want to do it next trip, but I really would like for my sis to come to If I could save enough money offiste it would be worth it for me to miss rd plan. I need to tell her to get a second job and chip in some more moolah

I'm sorry. I totally read the date in your signature wrong. Must have needed more coffee yesterday!

I would do whatever I could to stay onsite and do the DDP. This is your vacation and you should not have to sacrifice the things that make it special for you just so that someone else can tag along.

Thanksgiving week isn't cheap but I guess that you have your reasons for going at that time. So instead of telling you to choose another date, maybe you can look for other ways to make it more affordable.

1. Introduce your sister to online rewards programs like Sunshine, Ebates or Mypoints. Heck, she could do all 3 and more. She should be able to amass a couple of gift cards and/or a lump of cash to put towards her part of the trip. If you are doing any programs, have her use you as a referral so that you get whatever bonus is offered.
2. Show her how you coupon. I remember your hints from another thread and you had a lot of inexpensive menus and a stockpile of groceries to keep your budget in check. Maybe she could benefit from your knowledge (or shop your stockpile)?
3. Help her set up a savings account for her vacation. If your bank has a referral program, use it and offer to split the reward with her. Then show her how she can have over $300 in that account by November if she starts putting just $5 away each week.
4. Disney Visa. If she doesn't have one, maybe she should apply for one. This assumes that she is credit worthy, of course. If she's a college student or teen, this isn't something that is going to work for her.
5. Give her Disney gift cards as gifts if you exchange gifts for holidays or birthdays.
6. Do a joint garage sale. If she has saleable stuff, she could add a couple hundred to her budget just by getting rid of her old stuff.

But if it ends up that she just can't come up with more than $600 and you really want her along on the trip, then an offsite resort or condo isn't the worst thing in the world. You will still be in Disney! Get an Orlando Magic card for discounts, grab the coupon books at the welcome center and restaurant lobbies.

Sign up online for the store loyalty card for whatever Orlando-area grocery store you will be shopping at and plan your menu around their sales. You're still going to spend more than you would at home because you won't have your stockpile. And you probably will not cook from scratch like you do at home. But it will still be less expensive than eating out.

It's been a while since we stayed offsite. Back then, Disney had meal vouchers that you could buy thru discount programs. We got a ton of food with those vouchers and we ate very cheaply in the parks by splitting those meals and paying out of pocket for extra beverages. Splitting counterservice meals is still a good deal but nothing like it used to be. I still prefer doing a counterservice meal to brown bagging it. A PB&J sandwich just doesn't do it for me when I smell the Flametree BBQ aromas!

Mousesavers has a brief section on "Making Your Own Meals on Vacation - with Minimal Drudgery". You might get some good hints there for inexpensive take-along food and easy-to-make meals for back at the condo.

Good luck. I hope your sister gets to join you so that you can share the Disney experience with her.

 

[amberdburke]

We are staying off-site when we go in October. I have a strict grocery budget of $75 a week for our family (I am a couponer). I have been setting things aside for our trip each week out of our regular grocery budget. So far I have pancake mix (that I got for free), Chex Mix for snacks, boxes of cereal, Pop-Tarts, etc. All of these have expiration dates after October, so they won't spoil. I plan on only having to buy meat, milk, fruit, etc. for our trip - I'm guessing about $100. We are eating all of our breakfasts (except one), and most dinners at home. I have planned one meal per day at the parks (a sit down meal - some character dining). I have priced out everything on the websites, and our total for food at the park is $275 (before tips).

 

[LaDonna]

Thanksgiving week isn't cheap but I guess that you have your reasons for going at that time. So instead of telling you to choose another date, maybe you can look for other ways to make it more affordable.

I'm actually looking at the week before Thanksgiving week, not the week of

I like the idea of giving her disney cards......I'll have to see what she thinks of that one

 

[HayGan]

While we stay on-site, the villas make it a different experience for us when it comes to food. We eat breakfast in the villa every morning. Lunch is a mix of meals in the parks and back in the villa. We will have a few dinners out but most will be in the room. Our budget for our party (4 adults, 1 teenager and 2 kids - 2 of the adults will be responsible for their own snacks/extras/outside meals most of the time)

$350 - groceries (bringing a few things from home like favorite waffle mix & Mickey waffle maker ) We have eggs, waffles and sausage/bacon most mornings

$720 - eating out ($200 for Boma for which we have the TIW card); $60 for Giordanos (have a restaurant.com certificate for $50 off $100); $60 for House of Blues (also have $50 off $100 voucher from restaurant.com); $400 for misc lunches, snacks, etc. There are great finds for off-site dining. We have used a number of the restaurant.com certificates in Orlando the past few years and have had nothing but positive experiences with them.

We also have a misc. category in our budget in case of overages but I find that I always seem to over budget rather than underbudget (at least when it comes to food!)

I always shop at Publix. I look at the weekly circular and plan our shopping/meals accordingly. Gasp - I also match up any coupons I may have

I figure if we didn't eat out as much then we would double our grocery budget.

There are plenty of ways to keep your food budget to a minimum if you have a kitchen at your disposal (and are inclined to use it!) We have done the Disney restaurants enough that we don't find them to be a necessity anymore. I would recommend making sure that there is some budget for at least one special Disney meal (like a breakfast at Crystal Palce)