Does anyone give daily food allowance?

[KMP12]

We have always gone during free dining but this year may have to go during another time. How do you handle paying for meals? As kids my grandparents always gave us our daily allowance for food and we usually had money leftover but we got to spend/eat how we wanted. They even had it divided up in little envelopes . That seems a little much to me but I wonder if doing something similar would help us stick to a budget. We would only eat lunch/dinner out we pack breakfast items to eat on the go.

 

[5kidsmommy]

I know my family pretty well and their eating styles at Disney. I go through the menus and guess what our food costs will be, then I add on a little more. I then buy discounted gift cards and we use those at Disney. Any leftover amount can be used for souveniers or saved for another trip.

 

[kymom99]

With mobile ordering you may just want to make an overall budget. Maybe do gift cards for snacks and treats

 

[gottalovepluto]

Splitting out food per kid for charging sounds like a nightmare.

 

[marcyleecorgan]

No! Its vacation! If kid wants a $14 milkshake, and doesn't drink it all, I will finish it.

 

[QueenIsabella]

My parents did this when I was growing up, when we ate out. They had 4 kids. It was generally enough that you could get a typical entree and a drink, plus a bit. So, you could get soup and then have dessert, or add on onion rings and drink water, or whatever. It made a lot of sense to me. I don't do this with my own kids, but that's mostly because we eat out so rarely.

I don't know that you have to actually break out the money in different envelopes--maybe just allot each person a certain amount per day and keep track of it on paper or an app. I think it's a good way to get kids thinking about budgeting, while giving them some freedom. If the kids were young, I would also put on a few restrictions, like "fruit or vegetable required"--no buying a huge sundae for lunch!

 

[rockawaybeachgirl]

You can check out the menus on line to determine where you want to spend your money (table service, signature, counter service, breakfast in room etc). Beyond that I would never allocate my kids (or adults) a 'food allowance' on vacation. Yikes.

 

[MrsPete]

Dividing up money /handing envelopes to each person makes sense IF you're going to be splitting up /going your own ways in the parks, and you might not be eating together.

Our next trip will be a celebration of our retirement, and we're "treating" our adult children (no actual children are going on this trip). We intend to give them each a gift card, which is kinda the modern version of the envelope system.

The card will be enough to pay for two meals a day for each of our planned park days. They can decide how to use it; they can eat snacks all day, or they can eat one big, expensive dinner. We don't have to be together for every meal, and I don't intend to monitor whether they're using their gift cards for real meals or just Dole Whips. With everyone having a gift card, they won't need to feel that they "owe us" a nice dinner or even a snack.

No! Its vacation! If kid wants a $14 milkshake, and doesn't drink it all, I will finish it.
I don't have small children anymore, but -- when I did -- I did balk at $14 milkshakes.

I go through the menus and guess what our food costs will be, then I add on a little more.
Yes, you can hardly go wrong by going over the online menus and projecting your costs -- looking at a menu, I can predict what my family members are likely to order. Do add on a little for tax and tips.

Beyond that I would never allocate my kids (or adults) a 'food allowance' on vacation. Yikes.
Maybe that's what I'm doing by giving my adult children each a gift card, but I'm not feeling "yikes" about it. If they spend all of my money, they'll have to reach into their own pockets, but each of them is capable of doing that.

 

[mom to minnie&mickey]

We always use the "envelope system" when on vacation for food costs. No real envelopes but a daily budget geared towards food only. Some days will be less and some more but overall it balances in the end with money left over, usually. We have never run out of money this way because it is much easier to control the daily spending. Of course, you have to set a realistic budget based on where you are vacationing and dining habits. For us at Disney that is usually $50 pp per day. We only do quick service (2 meals per day) and bring breakfast foods/snacks for the room.

 

[kymom99]

Dividing up money /handing envelopes to each person makes sense IF you're going to be splitting up /going your own ways in the parks, and you might not be eating together.

Our next trip will be a celebration of our retirement, and we're "treating" our adult children (no actual children are going on this trip). We intend to give them each a gift card, which is kinda the modern version of the envelope system.

The card will be enough to pay for two meals a day for each of our planned park days. They can decide how to use it; they can eat snacks all day, or they can eat one big, expensive dinner. We don't have to be together for every meal, and I don't intend to monitor whether they're using their gift cards for real meals or just Dole Whips. With everyone having a gift card, they won't need to feel that they "owe us" a nice dinner or even a snack.

No! Its vacation! If kid wants a $14 milkshake, and doesn't drink it all, I will finish it.
I don't have small children anymore, but -- when I did -- I did balk at $14 milkshakes.

I go through the menus and guess what our food costs will be, then I add on a little more.
Yes, you can hardly go wrong by going over the online menus and projecting your costs -- looking at a menu, I can predict what my family members are likely to order. Do add on a little for tax and tips.

Beyond that I would never allocate my kids (or adults) a 'food allowance' on vacation. Yikes.
Maybe that's what I'm doing by giving my adult children each a gift card, but I'm not feeling "yikes" about it. If they spend all of my money, they'll have to reach into their own pockets, but each of them is capable of doing that.

Adult children would be different from young children to me.

I will add that if you are all eating together, each person ordering and paying separately will eat up a lot of time.

 

[cookiecar]

When our kids each graduated from high school, we took each one to Florida with 3 of their friends. They were off on their own in the park and had charging privileges to the room at Disney. They had a rough budget per meal to stick to as an average that I had calculated based on the average cost of a meal and drink at the typical quick service restaurant. They could splurge once in a while and cut back for other meals or order water to make up the difference. We also had drinks and snacks back at the room that they could carry in. Universal was a little different so I gave them each cash for their meals. It worked out perfectly for us.

 

[scrappinginontario]

We have always gone during free dining but this year may have to go during another time. How do you handle paying for meals? As kids my grandparents always gave us our daily allowance for food and we usually had money leftover but we got to spend/eat how we wanted. They even had it divided up in little envelopes . That seems a little much to me but I wonder if doing something similar would help us stick to a budget. We would only eat lunch/dinner out we pack breakfast items to eat on the go.

I would compare what you feel it will cost for meals vs purchasing a dining plan?

How old are your children? Do you plan on all staying together or splitting up? Do you ever share meals?

Even though it might cost me slightly more, the peace of mind a dining plan offers is worth it to me to not always be looking at prices every time we want something to eat or drink. We live our lives on a budget, Disney is my vacation from food budgeting so I budget the dining plan into the cost of our trip.

 

[ajwolfe]

I agree with ^^. We always do the dining plan so our kids can treat themselves to whatever they would like to eat and there is remorse when they only half finish that milkshake or $35 steak for dinner. We've done the math and for us it's always about equal to what we would have potentially spent anyways so this way just causes us less stress and allows for more freedom on vacation.

That being said I know it's not for everyone but there is no way I would go to the extreme of money in envelopes for meals. If anything I would give everyone a gift card (if we were splitting up) and let them know what they had per day to spend.

 

[Lilsia]

No, we are not big eaters so we just get what we are hungry for. We do not get the dining plan because whatever we end up paying out of pocket is still cheaper then what we would have paid for the dining plan. We do eat at a couple of sit down places per stay, because we have our favorites. When I go with my 2 girls(18 &19 now) we will usually order 2 meals and split it between the 3 of us. And if they want a certain snack, I don't say "no". We have always let them eat when they are hungry. I can't imagine them having a budget and running out of money and not be able to get something to eat or drink when they need it. For souvenirs they would get a certain amount to spend. But never a limit for food. My kids are a normal body weight and are healthy and don't have a tendency to over eat, so it has not been an issue for us.

 

[MrsPete]

Adult children would be different from young children to me.

Yeah, I'd assume that anyone with small children would help them order and pay the bill. I don't think anyone would give cash or a gift card to anyone younger than teens /expect them to pay for their own meals.

I will add that if you are all eating together, each person ordering and paying separately will eat up a lot of time.

Everything's a trade-off. Would you rather have the flexibility of splitting up hassle-free or a more cumbersome payment? Consider that -- for quick-service meals -- you can avoid the individual payment issue by ordering ahead online.

No, we are not big eaters so we just get what we are hungry for.

Us too. We only go to Disney in hot weather (okay, that's not too hard in Florida), and I think that's why we never want big, heavy meals.

 

[cheryllarsen]

Great way to teach kids to budget!

 

[cheryllarsen]

But with kids the ages of mine, I'll find another way to teach them than in Disney lines. lol

 

[hsc3boys]

Yes I decide before we go what I am happy to pay, budgeting is crucial, I plan table service and QS restaurants around this. I let my teenage boys know how many courses they can have. Generally we do not have any dessert, full of sugar, unhealthy and hugely overpriced wherever we are. Most of the time we drink water as we would at home and my boys would not order the most expensive dish on the menu as they would rather be able to have more meals out. We always have breakfast, snacks in the room and the boys do have a few treats, ice cream but they don’t expect them all the time, they are a treat.
We have had free dining for part of our stay before, we always have snack credits left over and have to spend the last day spending them. Both my boys find it’s too much food on the dining plan and eat very light meals the following few days, they were 15 and 16 last visit. I would never pay for the dining plan as we can eat what we want for far less than what the plan would cost. We tend to eat either plant based or sea food hence the cost of the dining plan doesn’t work for us.
As DVC members we enjoy having a kitchen in the one bed villas, we then stock up from whole foods and are able to prepare lunch or dinner in the room.
As a family we do not waste food and will not do so even on the free dining plan.
I think it’s very important for children to understand the value of money and budgeting. We are very conscious about what we put in our mouth and how that impacts our health. Much of the food at Disney does not serve the body well so avoiding and restricting is not an issue in our family. Children do not need to be stuffed full of sugar to have a great time at Disney. Nothing worse than returning from holiday having over spent!!!

 

[ForceofWill]

I just actually thought about this and am cancelling our DDP we have for our trip this year. I am gonna get $1700 in gift cards which is closest rounded up to our DDP(9 night). Everyone has the same amount of money per day that I would have paid for the dining plan and anything left over will be able to be spent on souvenirs etc. While I'm not technically saving money, I know me or the wife won't eat $78 worth of food every day. Her plus my son gives her $108 to eat with a 7yr old each day, I have a feeling there will be $40+ leftover each day for souvenirs which makes her happy and the kids happy and we won't feel forced to drink a lot of alcohol or stuff ourselves this year lol.

 

[MrsPete]

But with kids the ages of mine, I'll find another way to teach them than in Disney lines. lol

I agree. I'd rather teach budgeting at home.

I just actually thought about this and am cancelling our DDP we have for our trip this year. I am gonna get $1700 in gift cards which is closest rounded up to our DDP(9 night).

That sounds like a great plan.