How To Budget For Disney Food, Snacks, And Souvenirs In 7 Easy Steps

I’ll be honest … I’m not a budget person when I go on vacation, so we didn’t budget for food, snacks, or souvenirs! I’m one of those crazy people who just don’t wanna know what we’re spending at all.

Sometimes when I buy things and the cashier starts telling me my total, I tell them “don’t tell me” and we have a big ol’ laugh. But I really don’t keep track of how much we’re spending on vacation, and that includes when we go to Disney!

I know that sounds crazy and you’re probably thinking “you must be rich to not have to keep track”. But nope! We’re not.

I just grew up with parents who ALWAYS kept track of how much everything cost. And then they made a big deal out of it, especially if the price seemed too high. Hell, my mom still complains to this day. And I hate it.

I hate feeling like I can’t afford it. I hate checking price tags, and worrying about if something is affordable. So I just don’t look! If I look, I’ll stress check my accounts. Then it turns into a big ol’ thang, and I ain’t got this kind of joy sucking time on vacation y’all.

It’s insane, and we probably spend a ton this way. But it DOES keep my anxiety down and this helps us have a great time! So even though I don’t make a budget myself for trips (I literally just save up some and hope we have enough), I am great at PLANNING.

I’m a big planner! I plan ALL the things. I used to wanna be an event / wedding planner. Years ago, I interned for a wedding planner, so I’m serious when I say “I like planning things”.

So despite not making them for myself, budgets and spreadsheets come easy to me. And I’ve noticed in our Black Disney Moms facebook group that moms are always trying to figure out how much they should budget for Disney snacks, and souvenirs.

‘Cause figuring out hotels, and transportation, and flights is easy! It’s the unknown expenses like snacks that are a little harder to plan for. So I figured why not just make things easy for everyone!

So Here’s How You Can Make A Budget For Disney Snacks And Souvenirs In 7 Easy Steps

Download the right Disney App for the park you’re visiting. We have the DisneyLand app, and the Walt Disney World app.
Using the app, plan out where your family may want to eat. This includes sit down meals, and quick service spots.
Then make a list of snacks and drinks you’d like to try. We’re big on snacks, so we only ate one sit down meal a day, and then bought snacks and drinks throughout the rest of our day.
After that, use the app to check the menus for food prices and add them to your budget sheet. I’ll include a template below if you don’t have one.
Next, create a list of souvenirs you’d like to have. Most of ours were food related like a glow ice cube that came in my drink, or Riah’s popcorn bucket. But Riah also bought ears and a magic band.
Search the app, or shopDisney for souvenir prices and add to your budget sheet.
Using the totals on your budget sheet, ball park an estimate of how much money you’ll need for snacks and souvenirs. Make sure you round UP, to cover taxes, any extra fees that may occur, and to just make sure you have more than enough.

That’s it! Once you do those 7 steps, you’ll have an estimated number that’s right for YOUR family! Plus, you can always remove, or add, more snacks, souvenirs, and food items to your budget, once you’ve got your estimate.

Take a look at the budget for food, snacks, and souvenirs we bought on Day 1 at Magic Kingdom that I made below as an example.

This is everything we bought that day, so you have a realistic budget for 2 people. You can always just double the numbers if you’re a family of 4.

As you can see we spent about $160 on food, snacks, and souvenirs on our first day! But of course this doesn’t include tax, so I rounded up to $200. I can’t remember how much those ice cream bars cost, so they’re just blank for now. But you get the point!

With this you can see, we only ate dinner, 3 snacks throughout the day, and Riah got a few souvenirs for herself.

Throughout our trip, some of the snacks we shared so we would have room for MORE snacks. Some we bought for ourselves, since she refused to share her Snow White Cone with me.

Anywho …

Here’s an empty template for you to create a realistic budget that works for you.

Just click on the photo to download a printable copy. You can download and print, or download and fill it out as a regular PDF. Which ever floats your boat.