If you have ever saved money for or during a vacation to Walt Disney World, you might be a Cheapskate Princesss!
Food. It’s a vacation must have but man, it’s going to cost a lot of money. Disney World has a reputation for quality menu items, but food will take up a large portion of your overall trip budget. When you pay for children’s’ food, prices range from $8 for counter service to almost $40 for character meals. This adds up fast.
We’ve grouped together our best tips for Disney dining for the younger crowd, so get out that pen and take some notes! [Read more…]
Updated for 2018!
Sprinkles opened in Disney Springs back in 2016. I love the name. Sprinkles sounds so happy! And while I am possibly the biggest cupcake fan who ever set foot on Disney property, my advice for the Sprinkles is to go for the view but skip the cupcake.
Nobody had their sugar-craving high hopes dashed like mine. So what happened?
Updated for 2017!
One of the things people remember most about a Disney vacation are the snacks! And why not? They cost 1/10 what a character meal costs, even if you don’t have your photo snapped with Chef Goofy. Sometimes, we don’t get back to Disney World as fast as we had planned. Faced with a rainy day or just a free afternoon? Why not try to make some of these cool Disney-inspired treats I located on Pinterest. If I could find the original source, I have provided the link for instructions to make your baking easier.
Everybody loves an Oreo. It’s been the best-selling cookie in the United States since its introduction in 1912, and the round shape just lends itself to a Mickey Mouse-themed snack. Oreos are cheap, and so is icing. You can find the instructions and ingredients here on keepmovingforwardwithme.com.
Toostinkincute.com made these double threat cupcakes, both “tasty and easy to make.” Cupcake batter is cheap, so is icing as we just mentioned, and they’re using Oreos here as well.
There are no instructions for this next sweet, but it’s pretty straight forward and sure to be a hit with the younger sugar cookie-loving crowd. For some cute Disney birthday party ideas, where this photo originated, head over to itsybitsyfoodies.com.
What kid, age six or 60, doesn’t enjoy a good stack of pancakes? Sometimes at our house, as a throwback from my college days, we have pancakes for dinner and call it “moonlight dinner.” The original idea for these Mr. Potato Head pancakes and the photo came from kitchenfunwithmy3sons.com. Round pancakes would work for both Mickey and Minnie, Toy Story aliens, and lots more ideas characters kids will love.
Quesadillas are a quick and easy snack to pull together, even for a sub-par cook like me. itsy bitsy Foodies used a cookie cutter to create these to “Mouse-ka-dillas.” You crafty moms could decorate these right up with all sorts of veggies. For some cute Disney birthday party ideas, head over to itsybitsyfoodies.com.
There seems to be no instructions or photo origin for this next Mickey inspired snack, but it looks pretty easy. Doughnuts, doughnut holes, chocolate, and you could add your own sprinkles, powdered sugar, etc.
While I don’t think Snow White’s poison apples would be acceptable party food for the younger princess crowd, teens and adults at Halloween parties will eat this up. Add a little blue or green food coloring to the candy apple red slurry, which will give the apples a “dark, sinister, glossy” look. The original picture was from catchmyparty.com.
There were no instructions for this pizza nor origin for the photo, but if you can roll out some dough and add a splash of sauce and cheese, you will be well on your way to lunch or party food. Throw on some veggies for the complete face. Dough, cheese and sauce might not qualify as cheap, but they are inexpensive enough to make this for under $10. Your costs will obviously rise if you use any sort of meat.
No instructions here, but the purplepatchparties.com baked up these Mickey themed Rice Krispie treats. This would not only work with the popsicle stick, they would also be great as just the treat itself, or bake a square pan and decorate each section with Mickeys in icing. Only your imagination, Ok and cooking abilities, will limit you here. Rice Krispie treats are cheap to make.
DisneyStore.com sold this set of three for just $9.95 before shipping.
Using the cookie cutters, you could make these adorable cookies, but that might take more artistic skill than I have. This photo was on weheartit.com. Little kids all the way up to teens would have a great time decorating cookies, and these would be a big hit at a Disney-themd baby shower or engagement party.
Most all of these snack ideas could easily be created for under $10, maybe just a bit more depending on how many colors of icing you purchased, or how many pizzas you wanted to produce for picky eaters. While you sit down for some quality family crafting time, go to YouTube, search for “Disney World Area Music” and hit the play button. Listening to YouTube Disney music, as opposed to purchasing music on iTunes, is free. Have yourself a Disney afternoon, eat some snacks, and then burn off some of those calories on a walk. Walking at my house is also called “training for Disney.”
Your family and/or friends will thank you. As cheap as most of these snacks look, your wallet will thank you. And your feet will thank you for getting in shape for Disney on a walk. See, who says that snacks can’t be a win-win for everybody!
Thanks for stopping by, and we’ll see you in the kitchen with your Mickey Mouse cookie cutters, cookin’ up somethin’ yummy…
To see more of our Cheapskating Guides, use this link.
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Mike Ellis
Use this link for a free no obligation vacation quote from Mike Ellis, our Disney Vacation Planner with Pixie Vacations.
Updated for 2018!
If you ever cooked dinner at home for months and brought your lunch to work for weeks, in order to pay for some fun on vacation, you just might be a Cheapskate Princess. When you take those savings and spend more for ordinary items on vacation than you do in real life, then we call that a Cheapskate Princess Splurge.
This WDW food tip won’t save you any money. In fact, we’re going to encourage you to make a pit stop here just to spend more money. But it won’t be a tremendous amount, when you compare under $10 to character buffets and park tickets.
Welcome to Beaches and Cream Soda Shop, where you will certainly pay more for ice cream than simply buying your own gallon container at Walgreens, but what you are splurging on is the ice cream experience. [Read more…]
