6 Ways To Cut Food Costs on Your Next Road Trip
We are busy planning a couple of upcoming road trips. So, I have travel planning on the mind! Here are a few ideas to help you cut costs on food on your next road trip:
1. Plan Ahead: This seems easy, but often adequate planning ahead gets pushed to the wayside in deference to other trip planning tasks. We like to consider proximity to grocery stores when settling on a base for our trips. We also do food planning for along route. Additionally, we consider visiting farmers' markets depending on season. Lastly, we determine what we can bring with us.
2. Compare Menus Before The Trip: Take some time to compare menus of restaurants at your destination before the trip. This will give you tools to meal plan and better budget your money. If you wait until you are on your trip, you may be more likely to make quick decisions without considering your options adequately and get the best bang for your buck.
3. Bring Along a Cooler or Insulated Bag: Having cooler or insulated bag will help you with storing leftovers or items picked up at the grocery store for additional meals. You should be able to get ice on the road, but be sure to bring containers to put it in.
4. Split Meals: When we eat out, we often find that we overeat or waste food. Instead of everyone ordering a full meal, try mixing it up with some in your party ordering full meals and others ordering smaller dishes.
5. Don't Forget Utensils, Plates, Etc: It is handy to have a few eating implements with you to help stretch out leftovers or prepare meals from grocery items, etc. If you don't have items on hand, you may be less likely to head to the grocery store as opposed to a restaurant.
6. Take Advantage of Discount Plans: There are a variety of discount services that may be useful including Groupon, Restaurants.com, AAA and more. Don't forget to look for coupons in travel brochures! I have definitely found coupons AFTER eating at a restaurant, so be prepared!
Great article. I always forget the cooler bag and my travel partner is a big eater so splitting a meal won't work but we can certainly pre-plan much better than we do now! Love the ideas.
ReplyDeleteI used to forget it until I became sufficiently frustrated with how many leftovers we threw out. It worked really well on our last trip because we had sandwich leftovers from our dinner in the evening ready for a picnic before hiking the next day. We were out in the middle of nowhere, so helpful to have the food! Thanks for commenting! :)
DeleteNice article. I am diabetic so overeating and bad eating are not good options. I have come to the conclusion that letting things go to waste is okay because I have had to. Splitting has become a way of life for me in this world of oversized meals. It is a great way to get a great meal with just smaller portions!
ReplyDelete