FOOD (Grocery Shopping VS Eating Out)

So here's a whole lot of things I wish I knew going in about food. A lot of this depends on whether or not you have a car, I will mostly focus on those who rely on the bus system. Because I did. :)

The bus will take you to either Walmart or Publix, and I shopped at both of them. I usually preferred fresh produce from Publix, and frozen anything from Walmart. Publix has a lot of good deals (buy one get one free - ALWAYS), but if you take in those coupons to Walmart, they will give you that discount there.

My grocery bills usually consisted of apples, a bag or two of lettuce, a whole or part Rotisserie chicken, cereal, milk (I used gallon jugs, but I use a lot of milk), butter, Kraft mac n cheese, noodles, canned fruit/canned soup, frozen veggies and frozen mango, yogurt, bananas, junk food if I was being weak that day, juice, and the occasional eggs/flour/salt, stuff like that. I shopped every other week and probably spent like $50-$80 per grocery bill.

Now my problem is that anytime I was in the parks (so like at least 3-4 times a week as a guest), I always bought food. I almost never brought stuff from home because I knew I couldn't resist a good hot meal! I would definitely go either/or. EITHER buy good groceries, and keep eating out to a minimum OR only buy a few groceries like breakfast food and sandwiches, and save your money (and calories!) for eating out. I know some people that never bought groceries and just ate out all the time. They actually ended up saving money and losing weight (I know, sounds totally backwards), but that is probably not the healthiest way to do it.

If you have a car, you have more freedom for grocery shopping, but also for eating out. My friends with cars definitely spent more on food, just because it's so much more accessible. So plan accordingly if you're bringing a car!!

Also, if you do decide to eat out in the parks a lot, order kids meals. They are much cheaper than adult meals, and come with a bigger variety of food. This way you have a more balanced meal, a better portion size, and you're saving money. I ended up maintaining my weight/maybe gaining a pound or two, but I ate out A LOT and also ate in A LOT. The only reason I didn't gain 234234 pounds is because you walk and sweat a ton. My roommate Lindsey ended up losing almost 25 lbs (or something like that) because the amount of exercise she was getting here was more than she did back home. We both had similar diets, but different exercise habits pre-DCP. So whether or not you gain or lose weight really depends on self control, and your habits before you come to Disney.

I hope you found this somewhat helpful!! Food is where at least like 80% of my money went, so come with a budget, or expectations. I ended up making more money than I spent, but only by maybe $300 or so. That's all the advice I have :) Make a decision on where you want your money and calories to go, and stick to it! I was in the grey area for my whole program and ended up spending a lot of money on food I didn't need, or didn't eat. I had to sell my groceries to a coworker at the end of my program, and it was SO much food. Like at least a few weeks worth of dry groceries. So make good choices!! Hopefully I will next time around ;)