Food on the Cheap
For those of you who follow the blog, you know Jason makes our money work for us, and I try to find as many ways to save as possible. To save money on this trip, we tried to spend as little as possible on food. First, I called the hotel and found out the “full-service” hotels supposedly do not offer refrigerators or microwaves in the room. Nor do they offer free continental breakfasts. (They also don’t offer free wireless access in the rooms, but that’s beside the point). However, they would provide a microwave and refrigerator upon request, if there were enough available. We requested.
Because we weren’t certain that there would be appliances for us, we tried to pack food that would work for us regardless of what was available in the room. We packed grapes, bananas, sandwiches, pretzels, granola bars, and nuts. Those foods worked well for the drive down (no stopping for lunch) and would work with our cooler if no refrigerator arrived.
When we got there, we requested the refrigerator and microwave three times. After the fridge came with no microwave, we figured that was good enough. We headed to Kroger to buy:
1 Loaf of Fresh Italian Bread - $1.00
4 Packs of Deli Meats - $1.96
1 Pack Provolone Cheese $3.99
1 Container Hummus $2.00
1 Box Cereal $3.99
1 Container Mini-Donuts $1.00
1 Quart Non-Fat Milk $1.39
Tax - $1.22 (apparently groceries are taxed in TN)
Total - $16.95
These groceries were enough for us to have 5 breakfasts, 2 lunches, and a dinner for each of us. This comes out to about $1.06 per person per meal. That's even with fancier items like hummus and provolone cheese. If we tried, we could have gotten this even cheaper, but we figured we were on vacation and deserved a few fun items.
If we had spent just $4 dollars in each of those meals, we would have spent an extra $47 on the trip. While that doesn't seem like a lot, if you saved $47 on one trip each year, invested into an account earning just 4% interest, in 30 years, you would have $2,883.16!
What other money-saving travel suggestions do you have? Tell us about them in the comment section below.
When we got there, we requested the refrigerator and microwave three times. After the fridge came with no microwave, we figured that was good enough. We headed to Kroger to buy:
1 Loaf of Fresh Italian Bread - $1.00
4 Packs of Deli Meats - $1.96
1 Pack Provolone Cheese $3.99
1 Container Hummus $2.00
1 Box Cereal $3.99
1 Container Mini-Donuts $1.00
1 Quart Non-Fat Milk $1.39
Tax - $1.22 (apparently groceries are taxed in TN)
Total - $16.95
These groceries were enough for us to have 5 breakfasts, 2 lunches, and a dinner for each of us. This comes out to about $1.06 per person per meal. That's even with fancier items like hummus and provolone cheese. If we tried, we could have gotten this even cheaper, but we figured we were on vacation and deserved a few fun items.
If we had spent just $4 dollars in each of those meals, we would have spent an extra $47 on the trip. While that doesn't seem like a lot, if you saved $47 on one trip each year, invested into an account earning just 4% interest, in 30 years, you would have $2,883.16!
What other money-saving travel suggestions do you have? Tell us about them in the comment section below.
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