How to Save Money on Food During a Vacation

We recently took a week-long trip to San Diego with a family of seven. We spent enough money on plane tickets and amusement park admissions, that we needed to save money elsewhere! Here are a few things we did to save money on food, 'cuz hungry travelers are not happy travelers! :)

1. Bring a picnic lunch or dinner for the plane trip. We took off at 4 pm, landed at 7, and didn't have anywhere to buy food since we weren't changing planes. We brought sack dinners and put each child's food in their own backpacks. We also brought empty water bottles to fill up after we passed through security.

2. Stay somewhere with cooking facilities. We had a condo with a full kitchen, so we cooked most of our meals there. I made a menu plan before we left home, and made a shopping list, too. Usually when we drive, I bring most of our food premade, but that wasn't possible for this trip. I did bring a few spices and other dry goods to save money. Here was our dinner menu, and what I brought:

*Spaghetti, french bread, frozen veggies (I brought some dehydrated veggies to add to bottled pasta sauce, and bought the rest)
*Burritos (I brought a mexican spice blend for the beans)
*Quinoa, Roasted Yams, Broccoli (I brought the quinoa)

The other four nights were sack dinner on the plane, Sunday dinner at relatives, a dinner out, and leftovers the last night.

3. If you only have a microwave and fridge in your hotel room, there are still possibilities! Once we drove from Utah to Arizona for a week-long trip. I brought along a crockpot and made some of our favorite meals in that. Before we switched to a vegan diet, I bought tubs of shredded BBQ meat and buns for sandwiches, you can buy frozen steamable veggies, or even cans of soup!

4. We packed lunches for our daily activities. If you have a full fridge, mini-fridge, or cooler with ice that you have to refill every day (yup, done that!) then it's easy to keep lunch fixings around. Sandwiches, chips & salsa, crackers & stuff, fruit, veggies... and it saves a lot. Our last day in Legoland we were all sick of peanut butter sandwiches, so I thought we'd splurge and eat lunch at the park. Well, the prices were ridiculous! It was $10 a meal, $7-8 for a kids meal, and it wasn't anything special. It would have cost $50-60 just for a meager lunch, so we made do with our snacks.

5. If you plan ahead for restaurant dinners, you can save money eating out, too. We bought a restaurant.com gift certificate for a Chinese restaurant about halfway between Sea World and the condo where we were staying, planning to go out after a long day at the park since I knew we would be too tired to cook. We paid $2 for the $25 gift certificate, and ended up paying about $25 total for a huge, delicious, fairly healthy dinner. We've done this before and love getting REAL food for less than a fast food restaurant would cost. But you have to plan ahead a bit. You can also buy an Entertainment book for the area you're traveling to, which often includes restaurant & attraction coupons.

6. Don't buy drinks. Bring water bottles and refill them.

7. Make a plan that works for your family and your situation, and be flexible. We didn't feel deprived because we did go out to eat a couple times, and we bought Granny's Apple Fries at Legoland as a treat. I cooked simple meals and bought convenience foods--frozen veggies instead of fresh, bottled pasta sauce instead of making it from scratch, canned beans instead of dried. It wasn't hard to come "home" and cook because I had everything I needed, and I knew the kids would eat it and be happy. And so would my wallet. :)

P.S. I have to give credit to my mom for her example of this when I was growing up--we always brought food or had a menu planned out. She taught me well. :)