The first law of eating on the cheap is to take maximum advantage of the meals supplied by the conference. Our current plan is to provide five continental breakfasts (monday-friday), two lunches (monday and wednesday) and two afternoon receptions (tuesday and thursday). And there will be numerous coffee breaks with light snacks.
Next, on the grounds of the resort is the Honolua Store (walk uphill and to the right from the hotel entrance) where you can get relatively inexpensive (compared with the hotel) sandwiches, chinese food and groceries. Although it's strictly serve yourself, the choices are limited and the prices are only half-way reasonable, it is walking distance and it's decent.
Another possibility is to order food to be delivered from the nearby town of Napili. Napili Pizza will deliver to the hotel: 669-4170. China Boat 669-5089 used to deliver, but may have stopped. Check the phone book for other restaurants in Napili and ask about delivery options.
To avoid high priced resort dinners, you need to drive.
Once you get out of the resort itself, there are a plethora of good and relatively inexpensive restaurants. Take a right turn on the main road out of the resort and head towards Lahaina. You will see a range of restaurants from fast-food on up, as well as supermarkets and take-out.
The closest town is Napili, which has many reasonably priced restaurants. Napili Plaza has a Napili Pizza, a Subway, Maui Taco, Koho's and a grocery store. Maui Taco offers healthy Mexican food at great prices, and has good options for vegetarians. Koho's does burgers, sandwiches, pasta, and is very kid-friendly. The otherwise pricey Sea House restaurant at the Napili Kai resort has good earlybird specials from 6-7pm for around $15; call 669-1500 to check on the special and make reservations.
Kahana, the next town down the road, is bigger and has lots of restaurants. My favorite place for a reasonably priced splurge is Roy's. Roy's Kahana & Roy's Nicolina are next door to each other, and pretty much identical. At about $25/person including a drink, you can sample some of that New Hawaiian cooking that the hotel restaurants charge four times as much for. Also good in Kahana is Erik's Seafood Grotto which has another well priced early-bird special.
Discount coupons, early bird (and late night) specials and other good deals can be found in the following free magazines and newspapers: This Week Maui, Maui Gold, Guide to Maui, Today Magazine, Discover Maui, or Maui Drive Guide. Most of the ads will be for restaurants in Kaanapali or Lahina, which are a 30-45+ minute drive from the hotel, but keep an eye out for Kahana and Napili, too.
Another classic eating on the cheap trick is to cruise the happy hours for free or cheap appetizers (which are generally called "pupus" in Hawaii). Check the newspaper ads or ask at the desk to see if any of the resort's facilities have happy hour pupu specials. The Makai Bar in the Maui Marriott hotel (in Kaanapali) is consistantly voted the local's favorite pupu bar with nachos, mini roast beef sandwiches, ahi sashimi, sushi, tako poke, cerviche, egg rolls, shrimp fettucine, and more. Those pupus aren't free, but the prices are good at $5 each or less.