How much to budget for food?

[mccallister84]

We are going 10/9-10/16 and I’m looking for just a ballpark for food costs - will be me, H, an almost 3 year old and an 16 month old. I know the girls eat for free at buffets/off of our plates. I figure we will do a few character meals but probably no sit downs that aren’t character meals. We are staying at the GF if that makes a difference.

I know this will vary widely but I’ve been buying Disney gift cards here and there to help cover the cost of food. I’m up to $500 - I know we will need more but I’m not sure what my goal should be and I honestly don’t have it in me to meticulously price things out right now. Any ballpark ideas would be great!

I am also okay going out of pocket for food while we are there but I am trying to spread the cost of things out so H doesn’t have a heart attack while we are there.

[TamiTaylor]

For us, I budget $100 per person per day. That way if one day we have an expensive meal it averages out. I don’t know if that is in line with others but it works for us. We like to overbudget everything so we always have enough money to cover expenses and whatever is left in our vacation fund we roll it into our next trip.

[bowies]

For our family of 4 (two adults, 4 yo, 2 yo) I’m roughly anticipating $800 but wouldn’t be surprised at more. Our dining plan for a week last year was about $1K and it was too much food. We won’t be doing much TS this time and sharing QS meals since portions are huge. We’ll also bring breakfast into the park with us. Honestly, a lot of what Disney considers snacks we consider meals so we may end up sticking to those in the parks.

[mainelyfoolish]

Character meals are around $40/adult (+ tip) for breakfast and around $55/adult (+ tip) for lunch/dinner. Add a bit more for the princess meals (Cinderella’s Royal Table, Akershus). For quick service meals for my family of 2 adults and 2 kids, I estimate $40/meal for two adult entrees and two kids’s meals (no soda or alcohol).

[mccallister84]

Mar 11, 2019 6:30:52 GMT -5 mainelyfoolish said:

Character meals are around $40/adult (+ tip) for breakfast and around $55/adult (+ tip) for lunch/dinner. Add a bit more for the princess meals (Cinderella’s Royal Table, Akershus). For quick service meals for my family of 2 adults and 2 kids, I estimate $40/meal for two adult entrees and two kids’s meals (no soda or alcohol).

Thanks! This is perfect!