No DDP need ideas to cut food costs down

[brymolmom]

I don't think I've seen anyone mention - bringing meals to the parks with you. Bring a soft-sided cooler and have groceries delivered to your room - bring sandwiches, apples, grapes, chips, and lots of drinks to the parks with you. Depending how much you want to save - you could bring two meals' worth with you or just do one and do an inexpensive CS meal for your other meal in the park. ANd definitely eat breakfast in your room before you head out.

Oh yeah - and if the cooler is too heavy to carry - just grab a locker at the front of each park.

 

[mhingher]

We usually eat breakfast in the room. You can bring the non-perishables (cereal, granola bars, english muffins, bread, peanut butter, etc) and then pick up some milk, juice, butter, cream cheese when you're there. I also usually bring pre-packaged snacks with me when we're in the park. We also usually share at sit down restaurants. The portions are usualy big enough, and that leaves room for the yummy desserts! (this is also a good strategy if you're trying to diet/maintain your weight).

 

[oc_tony]

Not that this is anything new but, we always made any ADRs for TS meals for the earliest lunch time we could, usually around 11 or 11:30. Lunch is cheaper. We could eat big then and then eat less later for dinner. We ate oatmeat, pop tarts, cereal in the room for breakfast. We loved eating the big meal at lunch because it was cheaper, we were hungry from small in-room breakfasts, and we could eat less at more expensive dinner. My 2 cents.

 

[BibbidyBobbidyBoo]

this thread is really great!
We've gone eating what we want, we've done dining plan (but without DH who would have ate his money worth- we didn't quite make it really worth it with just me and 3 kids) and I've gone trying to save as much as possible. Wasn't as easy in resort rooms but can be done. We're staying at FW this time and it will be much easier... we can eat steaks on the grill every night if we want and save a TON of money.

They've caught on to this little trick. The charge now for the bun is over $2...about $2.25. Still a little savings. It is a better deal to order 2 kids burger combos. You get a drink included. At a CS an adult can order a kids meal. They don't know, or care who it's for. I do it all the time. Anyway, it's a better portion size for me and I would rather have the carrots and grapes than the fries(I can pretend that the burger is healthy that way).

Good to know- but I'll show them.... I'll have just one piece of meat from one of them (give the burger to one of the kids or something) because I don't need the carbs in the bread anyway! hehe

 

[redrosesix]

On our last visit, we tried to cut down on waste as much as possible eg. if I didn't think my DD was going to finish a whole container of milk, I didn't open it, or bought juice instead. Ditto on the fries -- you can't take them with you but you can take grapes or carrot sticks. The funny thing is, even though I ordered all of our adult entrees without sides, they gave us fries half the time -- so many people on the DDP, apparently, that they aren't used to having somebody not take the sides.

We also concentrated on more healthy foods -- I would rather pay $2 for a glass of milk than $1 for a glass of pepsi.

 

[dyna]

We always drive, always stay onsite at a budget resort. Take our own coolerer to save money on fridge. Take our own drinks for room an usually each leaves with a drink in hand as we leave for the parks.

Always eat breakfast in room. Usually either dinner or supper is in room, the other meal is CS in parks or at the resort. that DH an I usually share if DD with us she almost always gets kids meal sometimes we end up helping DD with that as well. DH an I usually share a drink as well along with each gettin a free glass of water that I drink before meal never drink it if I don't drink it before I start eating.

Boiled eggs will last a few days in cooler if you keep it iced down properly they easy to store unpeeled doesn't matter if they get wet.

Sliced ham an turkey from deli

Canned tuna, chicken, turkey an ham all makes great salad

Small jar of relish, few olives, mustard, chopped onion for salads along with my mayo.

Usually make the salad day before during our afternoon break. Set in cooler for flavors to blend together.

You can also buy ready to eat entrees at the grocery stores that are ready to eat need no fridge that are heat an eat. It's easy to add a canned veggie with that if you feel the need for veggies I do I know it's not the same as fresh or frozen but still better than doing without.

We do usually get a snack or 2 sometime during the day, usually ice cream.

 

[CLR4321]

We are also cutting costs by shopping for food to have in the room. We are actually using this shopping service: http://www.wegoshop.com/wgs-orderhints.htm We are buying stuff to have for breakfast, snacks, and stuff to make sandwiches. This way all we really need to buy is lunch and dinner, and even those can be skipped some days. You will have a microwave, so you have more options that we do. We will only have a fridge! We will pack in drinks and snacks to take to the park...we can even eat while we are in lines for rides and save time this way!

 

[fan1080]

Our biggest money saver for food at Disney is sharing meals. If you are not big eaters, sharing meals will save quite a bit.

To help save on drinks, we have some insulated water bottles with shoulder straps. Fill with ice and top up with water at the food court every morning. Stays cold for quite a long time.

 

[buffettgirl]

we also bring small zippy bags with us into the park. This way we can bag up the carrots or apples etc for later on in the day.

At CS we also order from the kids menu for me. It's generally plenty.

 

[debelfish]

get an extra cup at CS. The drinks are plenty cold and two people can share one drink. My twin ten year olds never finished a soda and I was tired of throwing them away. No we don't take them with us, I can't stand everyone wanting me to hold thier drinks!! At TS we order H20, it would be $8 or more in drinks.
Elizabeth

 

[meatball77]

Don't buy drinks at all. Bring your own bottled water, it's healthier than soda anyway.

You can save a lot of money by making your own breakfasts and bringing small snacks. Split entrees when at sit down restaraunts. If you're eating at the resort or off property and have a fridge order an appatizer for the group (or two) and an entree for everyone, save half of the entree for the following nights dinner.

 

[d1gitman]

We even did tuna 2 nights in our room......4 cans of tuna (2 per night) .......

so that's where the smell was coming from at our resort

actually, i like tuna a lot (just not in small hotel room where it can stink it up)

 

[dacypo]

Before I hit the parks, I go shopping at my local Kroger and buy a bunch of the $1 protein bars bars. There are a number of different brands but I like the Pure Protein ones. They taste great and have a big variety of flavors. I hop over to the snack aisle and pick up some of the prepackaged peanut butter and cheese crackers or cream cheese and Captains Wafers crackers. I eat all of this while I am in the park and if I am Thirsty and want something sweet I'll pop a powdered mix into the free ice and water I asked for. I also pack a bunch of Breakfast items, Pre-ground coffee, filters and my small coffee maker. I have been known to slip a bottle of scotch in for drinks at the pool . I pack all of this into a footlocker and when the week is done, I put any souvenirs I have managed to pick up and perhaps some dirty clothing for the trip home.

Side note, I always wear cargo shorts to the park so I can put my stuff in the pockets. I hate having to have my pack inspected.

 

[dacypo]

One final piece of advice; Carry cash into the park and plan on using that instead of a Credit Card. You'll find it much harder to spend real money vs a Credit Card.

 

[jkh36619]

Eat breakfast in room. Freeze bottles of water and use them to keep your packed lunches cold. We buy turkey from the grocery store deli and make wraps as they hold up better than sandwiches in a backpack. Cheap counter service for dinner.

 

[Jonzy2]

Help i need soem ideas i am trying to cut the food cost down (right) I am trying I have a microwave and fridge in the room ... HELP!!!!!!

We always drive, and when we don't have
free dining, I bring my crock pot. I plan meals ahead,and make preparations. For stew, I brown then freeze the meat; then bring vegetables and a paring knife. I usually fix stew one day,spaghetti the next, and chicken with Alfredo sauce
We bring water, breakfast food, snacks, and sandwich fixings. We always do this at the value resorts. We're pretty good at doing Disney on a dime.

 

[5kidsmommy]

We drive and have our trailer with us so that helps a ton. In the past when we've had all our kids with us we've definitely had to budget. We always have breakfast in the room. We take bottled water and bottle soda into the parks. In the past we have made sandwich wraps and put them in plastic containers, we have a couple that are large enough for a little ice pack in the container. We also have brought in snacks like pretzels and granola bars. When the kids all come we just can't afford table service meals so we will do one QS meal for dinner or lunch. On those trip we only drink water, it really helps cut down on the cost.

 

[toonaspie]

The turkey legs they sell in the parks make a good quick lunch or dinner depending. They're big enough to be a meal by themselves, if you don't mind eating just meat and you can have them on the go.

 

[MrsJamesPSullivan]

Another vote for breakfast in the room. Oatmeal, breakfast cereal bars, cereal. Even if you're flying. Pack paper bowls and plastic spoons. If you bring cereal you can get milk at your resort.

Bring snack with to take into the park. Fruit chews and rolls, granola bars, peanut butter or cheese and cracker packages. Make popcorn in the microwave and put in a Ziploc bag to take to the park.

A lot of times with oatmeal for breakfast and a granola bar midmorning we aren't hungry at lunchtime so we eat at 3 or 4 then maybe have another snack later. We never eat 3 full meals there and many days it ends up being more like one meal and 3 snacks.

 

[siskaren]

I guess no one noticed this is a zombie thread from 7 1/2 years ago.