Pack your drink bottles so you don’t need to buy drinks. Eat breakfast in your room and buy some snacks from the supermarket. Food is expensive on trips but looking for budget places to eat or doing some meal prep yourself can save loads. Fish and chips or a BBQ chicken from the supermarket can help.

The gold coast is a very hard spot to be budget conscious. Theme parks are so pricey, but thankfully you can bring a packed lunch. I always make sure to bring plenty of water, that’s always a steep cost. When eating out, if you can do it family style rather than everyone picking their own plate that can be a great saver. Hope you had a great getaway!

I try to stay somewhere that has at least a fridge and microwave so I can avoid us having to go out for all meals and I find the nearest cheaper supermarket and buy in cereal and breakfast items. Also if we are going to theme parks I take our lunch, saving a lot of money.

Pack lunches to take with you each day and water bottles.
Shop at Coles etc for the duration of your stay.
Choose many free activities.
Find deals online for activities.

Definitely cook and eat where you are staying. Going out is expensive. Find some free activities. The local tourist information might be able to help.

We always eat breakfast in the room. Even if it’s just cheese and bacon rolls with juice (if no facilities). Breakfast is expensive to buy. We also hit supermarkets in the area to stock up on snacks, and my purse always has frozen water bottles and snacks in it for the kids to grab when they feel like a snack in between meals.

Good luck….its so hard to save money

Search online for deals on activities and go to one of the visitor centres to ask their help in the best deals also go to the supermarket to buy snacks to tide the family over between meals

We always stay at a place with a fridge microwave, toaster etc. Just the basics. We then have a simple cereal or spread for toast that we all like and make for breakfast rather than going out. If we are there for a few days we pack lunches too or at least snacks, so take containers with you.

Plan ahead = prepurchasing things like passes to theme parks is often cheaper if you do it in advance. Look for multi deals (eg if you’re going to visit more than one park, a multi-park pass).

Book an airbnb instead of a hotel or resort

If you are with RACQ they often offer discount vouchers and packages on things like theme parks

We always try and book accommodation that has kitchen facilities in the room. This way we can go to the supermarket and buy meals, snacks and drinks.
We also buy rolls or bread to make sandwiches, and we take our own food to the theme parks, including snacks.

Even if staying somewhere like a hotel which doesn’t have a kitchen available, we try and get basics like, bread, cereal, make sandwiches and some snacks for when we are out. Dinner is certainly harder, but we sometimes then to picnics or even sausages and find an outside BBQ we can use. Always buy food at supermarkets!

I agree with the comment below about RSL venues. Clubs can also offer meal deals at good prices for families.

We buy filling snacks cheese and bacon rolls, Croissants, Cheese-mite scrolls etc as well as pack water bottle and stop regularly to help lighten the backpack but to also keep hunger at bay so we can buy a little treat every now and then

Buy food to have breakfast and/or lunch in your hotel; take snacks to the theme parks; look for discounted theme park passes (ie. buy them as multiples). It can be done. You’re not going to a third world country so there are supermarkets for cheaper food options and bases for meal prep; the beach and many free activities. My son is there now!

Maybe stay at a place that offers free brekkie or bring your own food when going out so that you don’t have to pay two/ three times the price for food.

We found the local RSLs always reasonably priced, even the one in Surfer’s Paradise. The food is always good quality too. They usually have a kids menu.

I’m not sure if you’ve booked any accommodation yet, but if you haven’t I would consider looking into staying at the Seaworld Resort. It’s a bit expensive and tired for what your accommodation is going to cost, but we stayed there and as a part of our package we got a 5 day family pass to Seaworld, Movie World and Wet n Wild. I couldn’t justify spending $400 a day for the family to go to one theme park, so we felt like we saved money there.
I make the rule when we go away that we will make our own breakfast and lunch, having something basic like cereal for breakfast and sandwiches for lunch, then we’d treat ourselves to dinner each night. Obviously works out cheaper than going out for every meal.
I’m a big believer in packing lots of snacks, packets of chips or biscuits for the car trips and I bought a 12 pack of bottled water, we’d take a few bottles into our hotel room in the fridge to keep it cool and we didn’t have to worry about buying drinks while we were out.
I hope this helps you a little bit.