Carolyn,
The Dining plans are designed around the concept of pre-paying for certain combination of meals and snacks in order to get some savings.
What I would recommend you do is look at the
Quick Service Dining Plan. It is the least expensive plan of all, and can help save money.
Now that takes care of 2 quick service meals per day. To save money further, our family ships in our luggage, or ahead in a box to the resort address, some breakfast bars and cereal. That, combined with a bottle of milk from the convenience mart in the resort, makes for even more food budget savings as it covers all our breakfasts for our stay.
Now as to exact savings of the dining plan, you can actually see quick service restaurant menus and pricing on the
allears.net website under the dining section. That way you can even plan out what you would eat, by meal, and know if it was cheaper than whatever you were being charged for the dining plan.
Oh, and if you need some suggestions on great quick service restaurants in all the parks, write me another question!
I hope that this helps!
Have a magical (and delicious) vacation!