Vacation Savings Part 2 - Food

Food can be a large expense when on vacation. It is tempting to go try all the wonderful restaurants that one can't find at home, or to stop for extra treats while traveling, or to just go eat when not sure what else to do. For this vacation I packed a lot of snacks, both homemade items such as trail mix and Chex mix, and store bought snacks that we enjoy, but that I have stopped keeping around the house, such as fudge rounds and Mike N Ikes. I also packed some microwaveable cups of macaroni and cheese and ravioli as well as bread, lunchmeat, etc for sandwiches. Our goal is to eat out no more than one meal per day. So far we are meeting that goal. We left for Tennessee on Monday with Lunchables to eat in the car. I realize this was not the most frugal lunch choice I could have made, but it was cheaper than stopping for lunch, and was a special treat the boys enjoyed. We made sure to choose a hotel that featured in-room microwaves and refrigerators and so were able to heat up some of the food I. Had packed. This was especially nice since after being in the car for 5 hours none of us really wanted to get back in the car to go to a restaurant. This morning we had breakfast at the hotel (included in the cost of the room). The boys were excited to find that the waffle maker turned out teddy bear shaped waffles. We ate a late lunch at CiCi's pizza buffet and then snacked in the room for supper. This past weekend in the USA Weekend magazine that comes in our local paper and in the Parade magazine that is part of the Sunday paper there were coupons for KFC $5 grilled chicken combo meals. The coupons are BOGO so the four of us will be able to eat for $10. That will be one of our meals either tomorrow or on the way home Thursday. Since we plan to go up in the mountains tomorrow I will be packing us a picnic lunch with the sandwich fixings, chips, etc that I brought with us. I will probably also fix picnic lunches for the car to eat as we travel home. Many of the items I purchased for our trip were bought with coupons and/or on sale, adding another layer of food savings to this trip. By saving money on food we have been able to spend today at the NASCAR Speedpark, which is an expensive attraction, but one that has been the highlight of the trip for the boys. This also means there is room in the vacation budget for a special meal tomorrow if we decide we'd like to eat somewhere such as The Old Mill or Applewood or maybe just for a special stop at Ben and Jerry's. Or we may skip the special meals altogether in favor of other activities since for the boys the food is not exactly the most important part of their vacation.