Here are a few of my money saving meal tips:
We fly, so we purchase a styrofoam cooler when we arrive, usually $5-7 dollars, and buy pop, juice, fruit, beer, various snacks and breakfast stuff.
We eat breakfast in our room. We like to have one nice (i.e. more expensive) meal each day, so we do a late lunch, like 2:00 at the nicer restaurants. The lunch menu's are much less expensive than dinner, and we are less likely to order wine or a drink which brings the cost up quite a bit. We will have a later snack in the parks maybe, but then pick up a sandwich, maybe even order a Pizza at the hotel for a later dinner.
Biggest cost saving tip for us? Some months before our trip, we start a trip fund for our 7 year old son (started this when he was 5) - where he can earn money, for spending money. We've done this now for 2 disney and 2 other vacations. He always seems to "earn" $40 for the trip. Instead of begging us to buy him everything, he considers his purchases much more carefully, and always wants to bring some of his money home to spend at Target when we get back. We used to spend so much energy talking him out of wanting a lot of junk, now we almost have to talk him into buying a few trinkets. He loves the pins, so I will buy him one out of "my" money, not his, but the rest of what he wants, he buys....
