How to Save Money on Food While Traveling on a Budget

Many travelers find meals to be their biggest daily expense. With experience and know-how, meals can also be one of the easiest places to reduce costs.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Things You’ll Need:

• Canvas Shopping Bags
• Condiments
• Spices
• Multivitamins
• Nutrition Drinks
• Plastic Bags

1. Familiarize yourself with your destination. Only in more expensive regions is it worth bringing food from home.
2. Bring multivitamin pills and powdered nutrition drinks to supplement a meager diet.
3. Bring your favorite spices to liven up store-bought food.
4. Ask the working-class locals where they eat.
5. Watch what farmers eat. It will be cheap, plentiful and wholesome.
6. Shop where locals shop. An outdoor market or bazaar can be an exciting cultural experience.
7. Carry a sheet of paper with currency conversion rates if you're not good with numbers.
8. Check prices on a menu before choosing a restaurant. Avoid letting an owner or host bully you into staying if it's too pricey.
9. Stay at hotels that include breakfast. Bring a small bag in case there is leftover food that can be discreetly saved.
10. Carry at least one meal's worth of food on any long excursion. This way you'll have an alternative to overpriced travelers' fare.

Tips & Warnings

• Carry food, not packaging. Cans and glass are too heavy. Rich, dehydrated foods such as peanut butter and powdered hummus are best. Buy bread and fruit along the way and you'll have a decent meal. A large mug and cutlery will suffice in most situations.
• Put any spices you bring into tiny plastic bags you can find at a jeweler's. Find prepackaged condiments at fast-food restaurants: salt, pepper, ketchup, mustard, taco sauce, sugar and jam. Tea bags, powdered milk, instant coffee and handy wipes are also worth carrying.
• Ask a bus driver or tradesperson where to eat, not your hotel manager. People who work in tourism will advise you to eat at touristy restaurants, which are usually overpriced and not authentic.