Dining budget oop family of 5

taraaplin

Mouseketeer
Joined
Jan 26, 2013
I’m not a newbie, but I’m stressing! We are a family of 5. I have 1350 in Disney gift cards purchased for food. I am wondering if I need more? We are Four Disney adults and on child. I’ve meticulously looked at menus and calculators. We are doing mostly counter service and will eat most suppers at the resort (POR) quick service. The only two table service we are doing are Sci Fi and The Plaza. My DH will not get soft drinks etc only cups of ice water (me too with the occasionally soft drink). Kids will get pop. Each person will get one snack a day. And each will get a refillable mug. Do you think our budget is enough. Also we will only be doing two meals. Breakfast will always be in room with stuff we bring (cereal, pop tart, bagel etc). Ugh. I’m stressing.

Last times we only spent 8-900 but that was 3 years ago and my middle was a Disney kid and my youngest ate off my plate so we rarely had to buy a meal for him lol.
 
Have you put a spreadsheet together? Best way to crunch the numbers is in a spreadsheet

Day by day, meal by meal. Right now you have about $40 a person per day I would add about $10 per day per person unless your spreadsheet breaks out differently
 


With $192/day, I’d be adding a Via Napoli TS or 2 ;)
Even my hungry group of 5 is quite happy getting a half-meter Margarita Metro Mezzo and a Large Picante (sausage) ($72 total + drinks, tax and tip) ... our Via Napoli bill was a few $ less than sharing 4 burgers at the Plaza.

Also on the value side... get the refillable popcorn bucket (as long as you don’t mind carrying it in the park) ;)

I could almost see the budget being close to working, but personally I’d feel overly compelled to choose creatively cheap things until I was sure the budget had enough room.
 
Last edited:
Have you put a spreadsheet together? Best way to crunch the numbers is in a spreadsheet

Day by day, meal by meal. Right now you have about $40 a person per day I would add about $10 per day per person unless your spreadsheet breaks out differently

I broke down menus from touring plans but I can’t figure out if those menus include tax... we also take 800$$ For adult beverages, souvenirs, etc... so the 1350 wouldn’t have that alloted in it.. so to play it safe maybe I should get 200-300 worth of gc?
 


I broke down menus from touring plans but I can’t figure out if those menus include tax... we also take 800$$ For adult beverages, souvenirs, etc... so the 1350 wouldn’t have that alloted in it.. so to play it safe maybe I should get 200-300 worth of gc?

I would. No matter how much you plan, you may want something different or the snacks may increase to occasionally two. I know you have the cushion in your spending, but if you allocate a little ore for y=food, you will nto be inclined to worry. I htink $40 PP Per day is conservative.
 
5 refillable mugs will cost you about $100. That leaves you with $1250/7 days, or approx $178/day. If you're eating 2 TS meals and all breakfasts in the room, that leaves 12 meals as QS.

Kids meals (QS) tend to average about $7/ each. 7x12=$84.
Adult QS meals are around $15x4 people x 12 meals=$720.
1snack/day at approx $5 each x 5 people x 7 days =$175.
Total $979/$1250, with roughly $271 left for your 2 TS meals, or around $135 each. If you dont order or only order one app or dessert to split, I think $135 is doable including tax and tip at both restaurants.

Overall, I think how much you have is very close to what you might spend. It will all depend on what everyone orders for each meal/snack. Personally, I'd add a little extra as a buffer, but I think the amount you have would most likely be fine.
 
I go to WDW 3-4x/year and eat mostly counter service. I budget $45/day for 3 CS, with 1 additional drink or Mickey bar and usually come in slightly under budget.
 
Just got back from our trip. We didn’t end up adding any more to our food budget and ended up with a gift card with 80.00 still on it to blow before our flight home. My husband and I didn’t always get a snack a day as planned and we opted for the free cups of water at most places in place of soda! Just wanted to post an update.
 
Just got back from our trip. We didn’t end up adding any more to our food budget and ended up with a gift card with 80.00 still on it to blow before our flight home. My husband and I didn’t always get a snack a day as planned and we opted for the free cups of water at most places in place of soda! Just wanted to post an update.

Great planning!
 

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