So, along with traveling, we love to eat. At this stage in our lives,
we eat a lot of great food, but we also do it on a budget. It is not about depriving yourself, but about learning to plan on eating well.
This page is going to be dedicated to food that we eat while traveling. You will hear me mention often that eating out should not be something you do daily on a trip. If you are trying to budget and not run up credit card debt, planning ahead will really make your daily meals a treat, and allow you for a more sizable budget for when the meal is the treat.
This is one way you can really save a lot of money on a trip. Think of your meals as pit stops but not the adventure. Plan on meals and snacks so they don’t sneak up on you. Also, if you have kids, involve them in the planning to help them learn to love vacation food. My guys went through three years that I fondly call our “one gallon of milk a day years.” They ate so much and were so active that keeping them full and happy on a vacation would have cost us as much as our travel budget. Here is how we prepped for meals on all of our trips.
Breakfast – plan for hotels that serve free breakfast
Snacks – bring food in a cooler to make much-loved snacks and have a few favorites on hand
Dinner – Plan on an even dinner, something fancy and fun for all, but for most meals eat in a local park so you can have a fun, activity-filled dinner without the cost of a vacation meal.
The best thing about this is that we found we didn’t gain weight on vacations!
One of our favorite vacation snacks in “Ants on a log” Such a simple concept but healthy and filling. The kids loved it when they were younger because it was fun. John and I still eat it on trips because it is healthy and pretty easy to make in a hotel room as long as you have a cooler or a mini fridge.
Go here to find my ants on a log recipe.
Two Budget Travelers 