Today we are talking about my favorite thing…FOOD! To me, food is culture! Not too many
things excite me more than sampling local flavors! However, eating out can get
expensive! Especially if you are in Europe…our poor dollar loses so much value
to the Pound and Euro! And eating out adds up fast…a breakfast here, a lunch
there, throw a snacky snack in, and dinner there…and soon just your food tab
alone exceeds $100 for the day! Yikes! Kevin and I realized this pretty quickly
and devised a few trips to help cut down the costs!
**As a note, most of these tips work best in Europe or other more expensive countries (like Australia, NZ, Japan). Traveling in SE Asia, Africa and S. America is a lot easier with food, as meal costs are very cheap! But these tips work well wherever you are:) Enjoy!
1) Stay at a place that offers breakfast: You
can find very affordable places that include breakfast with the lodging! This
is a great way to factor in a meal so that you don’t have to go out for your
morning munchies! We found this to be especially lovely in Ireland, where Bed
and Breakfasts were the lodging of choice, and you received a very hearty
breakfast, and sometimes items to take with you for lunch! Often, because the
breakfasts were so big, we didn’t need a huge lunch, only some snacks! And…if
you are anything like my sisters, you can even sneak a few pieces of bread into
your purse to take with you the rest of the day:)
2) Pick one meal to eat out: When in extremely high priced
countries (such as France) Kevin and I decide to pick one meal to eat out. This
allows you to savor the ambiance of local eateries and sample specific delicacies,
but also doesn’t break your budget! Typically we choose to eat out for dinner,
but depending on where we are it will swap. In Belgium, we knew we had to
sample a Belgium waffle for breakfast! Eat the rest of your meals from grocery
stores….
{my sweet parents below…eating out in Delft, Holland}
3) Frequent grocery stores & Open Air Markets: I cannot
stress this enough! Grocery store snacks will go a LONG way both in your budget
and in your stomach. Our go-to snacks when traveling, which we find the perfect
combination of both tasty and filling, is a loaf of bread, cheese and salami. (If
you are gluten free like me, Europe is seriously legit at having g-free bread
at grocery stores!)This trio is easy to store and take out when your hunger
gets the better of you. Add in a few pieces of fruit, some dark chocolate for
the sweet tooth, and some carrots, and you are ready to go! Open air markets are abundant all around the world, and picking up some lovely produce and fresh fruit is a perfect way to enjoy the ambiance of the markets, as well as save a few pennies! (fresh nectarines, peaches, apricots, and cherries are the most delicious summer fruits to pick up at markets!) In Paris, Kevin and
I spent a romantic evening picnicking in front of the Eiffel tower with our
delicious store & market bought food, and wine {when in France, right?}. This to me was just as special as dropping $100 on a nice
meal:) except
you save AND the Eiffel tower is your view, hello!!!!
{our lil' french picnic above…and another shot of our janky "picnic basket" aka trash bag, below! ha}
4) Prepare your own food: Every once in a
while you might happen to stay in a place that has its own kitchen. USE IT!
This past year my family rented a quaint multi-level home in Delft, Holland
from AirBnB (which I will talk about more later!). It had a giant kitchen, and
so my mom bought groceries for the week and we cooked different meals every
day! Our family also stayed in a dormitory at an old Monastery in Belgium. We
picked up groceries before we arrived, and that night my mom made a delicious
dinner, and lovely breakfast each monring. This works especially well if you
are cooking for a larger group of people! Eating out with 6+ people WILL be
expensive, so consider making meals.
5) Bring your own small packaged condiments
from home: That’s right, I’m literally telling you to steal those crushed
red pepper packets at the pizza parlor, and
your salt and pepper packets off your airplane tray! Am I a red-neck yet? Haha! But, if you know you will be cooking
while on vacation, pack a zip lock bag full of tiny packets of condiments you
would get at restaurants Our go-to condiments include crushed red peppers, parmesan,
and salt and pepper (but others could include ketchup, mustard, mayo, relish,
etc). This money saving trip keeps you from having to buy a whole big bottle of
any of these items, only to use them a few times! {and really, do you want to
put a huge salt dispenser in your purse to take home?}
6) Pack Snacks! I almost always pack
snacks in my suitcase when I travel. Buying a bulk box of granola bars from
Costco before your trip can do wonders! Snack items I can’t live without
include: trailmix, gluten free/vegan granola or energy bars, dried fruit, rice
cakes and inner peas (my favorite snack from Trader Joes). Often I’ll use
ziplock bags to divide the trail mix, dried fruit and rice cakes into daily
allotments, so that I only have to grab one zip lock bag instead of the whole
big bag of granola, fruit or rice cakes! Prepping these items makes snacking a
no-hassle job once on your adventure! Snacks also come in extra handy when the
food in a particular country is doing a number on your stomach. I can think of
times in both Kenya and in Nepal where I literally was not keeping anything in
my system (if you know what I mean!), so eating some comfortable food for the
body helped keep me going!
If you are all about food when you travel, never fear, I
will have a future post on all the most delicious items to eat in each country! However, I hope that this post just
sheds some light on how to save money when it comes to food!
Bon Apetit!
Love Katie
