Cheap eats and coupons - all your tips for food on a budget

Aldi has a nice selection of Gluten Free items as well, for those that it matters. Unfortunately, they aren’t as friendly with peanut/tree nut allergies, so we have to skip some of their snack options.

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also: New DFB Video: Top Meals Under $20 in Walt Disney World | the disney food blog

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Your strategy pretty much lines up with ours: simple in-room breakfast, packed lunches, and dinner in the park. We usually make sure that the dinner has a “purpose”, such as the Fantasmic Dining package to bypass the line. Also, in-park lunches can often be a better deal than dinners, so we sometimes swap things around and have the pack lunch for dinner.

Going to off-site restaurants will give you much greater quality and value for money. For example, Souplantation & Sweet Tomatoes has soups, salads, and more, all freshly made, and is an easy drive from WDW resorts. Sign up for their Club Veg for discount coupons. http://www.souplantation.com/

Finally, many of the supermarket chains have moved away from coupons and have “discount cards” that give you special prices on sale items for the week. You can usually sign up for the card at the checkout, and many times the cashier will just swipe their card to give you the discounts anyway.

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Blaze. It’s really good value.

Blaze it 4:20? I find that that usually increases the food bill…

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Sign up for emails from Blaze for coupons! They come literally daily. We have one near us and I like it!

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Wow. You’ve read my mind.

I’ve been shopping ALDI since 2001. I used to drive two towns up to go there. That was when i had just one kid. Fast forward 18 years and there are two super close.

I make a monthly meal calendar and then generate three grocery list. A giant one for ALDI, a smaller one for Walmart, and a really small one for Wegmans (our main grocer in WNY). (Wegmans can out price ALDI with bulk pack meat.)

My cart at ALDI is usually toppling full, or I get a second cart at times, and it runs ~ $210-240.

DH stops for milk, eggs, and produce during the week as needed.

We have a few items we can’t get there because of nuts, too. Recently their cranberries are no longer safe. :frowning:

I’ve found it hard to find ALDI in Kissimmee. I hope this means there are more since so many are recommending.

@SimonUK - prepped foods are big near the Walmart check outs. This summer on our road trip from New York to California, we would eat her breakfast in the hotel, and then stop at Walmart for lunch. We would buy large packs of deep-fried chicken, or possibly a rotisserie chicken, and then in the deli grab a container of potato salad, or coleslaw, etc., and then select a bag of cookies, and have a whole meal out of it. Sometimes we would find a park to eat it, other times we went to eat as we drove.

We can’t be friends anymore. Little Caesars is hot cardboard. I ate it way too much in college and I hope I never have to again.

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Dfb also has a fun video on eating 3 meals in the parks for $35 a day. Not really what you’re planning at all, but it will give you an idea of some of the better value options in the parks.

I’m from Canada, and my favourite place to eat when we’re in the US is Panera - it’s a fast-casual soup / salad / sandwiches / bakery place that’s reasonably priced for eating out, and we don’t have anything like it here. There’s one in Kissimmee right by our timeshare, and I’m super excited about it. :slight_smile:

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love Panera

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We still call is Little Sleezers or Little Greasers …sorry

Panera is very good, but the pricing is not much cheaper than Disney parks so check the menus before running by. We spent the same amount at panera and flame tree.

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Where I am in New York Panera is ridiculously expensive for what it is. I would go so far as to say the portions were smaller than Disney.

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This! Went to Panera a few days ago for lunch with my 2 teens. $45 for 3 meals and 3 drinks seemed excessive.

This is all great stuff, thank you everyone.
Okay, talk to me about buffets! Our kids love buffets, more the concept of them rather than the actual experience but that’s fine.
Are any of the off-site buffet chain places worth a go? Any to avoid?

We also ate breakfasts in our Airbnb and packed lunches and snacks, including drinks. I second the idea of a protein focused breakfast, or at least hearty like oatmeal. For lunches we did things like cut up veggies and hummus, those pouches of tuna salad, cheese, crackers, cheese sticks, pb&j sandwiches, little bags of chips, fruit, etc. I got things that would make lunch more exciting, too, like olives and pickles for DH and me, and those gross tubes of yogurt for the kids. Also cookies for all of us. I honestly wouldn’t feel too well after eating in the parks even a couple of full days. You’re going to be there so long!! The cheapest way is really to do some prep on your own. So, cutting up veg instead of buying it precut, for example. Of course, all of this within reason. It’s cheaper to buy a big bag of chips and put them in baggies, but that was where I (randomly) drew the line.

We also bought microwave popcorn and so started the day with a full bucket of popcorn.

If eating at a restaurant off property, we found that the prices were higher the closer you were to DW. So, maybe try to get outside of the zone if you’re eating somewhere else.

Aldi is cheapest, but will be less reliable. You can get anything you would ever want at Walmart. We’d rather Aldi, but did Walmart because we didn’t want to spend the time going to two stores.

Can’t help with buffets, unfortunately. Food that’s been sitting out and only God knows who touched it? No thanks! :joy:

Oh! Also, someone mentioned in another post somewhere that they did order pickup at Walmart and I’ve been kicking myself for days for not thinking of it while we were there. I hate shopping, and a busy Walmart is the 7th level of Hell as far as I’m concerned. I’m cheap enough to brave it, but if you don’t have to, don’t! Especially as you’ll be there so long, maybe go once and figure out what kinds of things they have, and subsequently order online.

Golden Corral is my favorite. I also like Sizzler

Some Kentucky fried chickens have buffet restaurants inside, as well. I find that a very good value because it tends to include beverages. We love Pizza Hut lunch buffet, if you were looking for a buffet at lunchtime. This typically does not include beverages, so we just buy a 2 L in the restaurant cooler, or drink water.

I love buffets myself. I know that is considered gross and unpopular and all kinds of other things, but I am not afraid to admit that I love buffets.

My husband loves them, too! Just not my thing :slightly_smiling_face:

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