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.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

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

[triciagoss]

on 1/29/2009 Terrific advice!

[NatalieEngland]

on 7/25/2008 Great article! Or you can get an all inclusive resort if you can. The food is usually buffet style and almost the same thing night after night. :(

on 11/22/2005 If you arrange a home exchange in a country or area you want to visit, you will usually have use of a fully equipped kitchen in your exchange partner's home. Buying food in local stores or markets in another country can be a lot of fun and save much money on your food bills. You can choose how often you want to eat in restaurants and when you want to eat at home.

on 11/22/2005 Eating protein at breakfast and lunch helps stave off hunger, helping you avoid buying non-nutritious and costly snacks between meals like candy, pretzels, or donuts. For example, a ham/cheese omelet and glass of OJ is usually not too expensive at a truck stop or every man's café, and will keep hunger away for hours. A hard boiled egg and an orange or apple is a good packable lunch as well.

on 11/22/2005 If you travel a lot, timesharing can save you a small fortune, but you have to know what you are doing or you could get burned.