by Lisa Putnam

Created on: July 08, 2010

Eating is often one of the highest costs in the budget when planning a road trip beating gas prices, entertainment, and souvenirs by a mile.  The following tips will help you to cut your food budget on your next trip so you can spend more on fun attractions and relaxing activities.

Pack For Meals

Make some space in your vehicle for at least one cooler for a meal or two.  Line the cooler with ice and add items like packaged lunch meat, sliced cheese, individual packages of sauces, sliced vegetables, and fresh fruit.  When you stop at a rest area, park, or hotel put the sandwiches together so that everything tastes fresh rather than soggy.  Sides like baby carrots, cherry tomatoes, sliced celery, apples, bananas, and grapes are all healthy foods that won’t make a mess in your car. 

Travelers aren’t limited to sandwiches as there are plenty of travel friendly foods like hot dogs, hamburgers, salads, soups, meal replacement bars, and protein shakes.  Simply make sure that meats like hotdogs and burgers are kept at a constant and cold temperature in a cooler, salads are pre-made and stored in a cooler, and soups are prepared ahead of time and kept in a thermos.  Most rest stops have grills that are available to anyone for free, but you could also purchase a travel sized one at a major retailer in their camping section for a low price.

Just Say No To Drive-Thru

We all know that drive-thru-restaurants are cheap and easy, especially for those traveling on the road, but it may not be as cheap as you may think.  For a family of two adults and two kids the price for lunch alone may run about $20.  A family would spend around $60 a day at the minimum if they ate fast food for breakfast, lunch, and dinner and who would actually like to eat that kind of food everyday and for every meal of their vacation?

Pack Snacks

Instead of going to ice cream parlors, bakeries, and gas stations to buy snacks bring your own.  Most snacks don’t need to be kept cool which is great news for people with a shortage of space.  Granola bars, crackers, pretzels, chips, dried fruit, cookies, sliced veggies, jerky, and canned and fresh fruit are perfect for those on the go and can be found for pennies per serving at the grocery store.

Don’t Forget The Drinks

Most people would not pay $4 for a bottle of water in a grocery store but do at an amusement park with only a grumble as they hand out their money to the cashier.  Instead of paying for overpriced drinks at convenience stores, hotel lobbies, and attractions bring your own in a cooler packed in ice.  When you begin to run out, find a grocery store to stock up and save money.

A Room with a Microwave and Refrigerator

Not everyone will be lucky enough to find a hotel room with a kitchen so that they can cook delicious home-cooked meals while traveling.  Road trippers can look for the next best thing: a room with a refrigerator and a microwave.  Microwavable meals are cheap, convenient, and can be easily cooked in your room for any meal.  Although some people turn up their nose to TV dinners, frozen food has improved over the years and now stores offer large sizes, kid fare, diet foods, vegan items, and even organic meals.

The key to budgeting for food expenses while traveling is to plan as much as you can ahead of time and be realistic about how much you are going to spend.  What works for most is a combination of packing meals and snacks, eating microwavable meals in hotels, and going out occasionally for great food at great restaurants; after all it is a vacation so it is okay to splurge just a little!

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