Scavenger Road Trip Meals – Ideas?

[Julie B]

My husband and I spend far more $ eating out than we are willing to admit. We recently agreed to curtail it to no more than once a week. But now we are planning a week and a half road trip through the Florida Keys. We’re going to try our best to not eat out much during the trip. We are taking a cooler. Our hotel room for 6 of the nights has a mini fridge. The hotel is free thanks to hotel points but I don’t think we get free breakfast or free evening snacks (big bummer). We’ll take peanut butter, bread, drinks, chips, maybe hardboiled eggs (they’ll last a week in the fridge). Neither of us are big fruit eaters. Any other ideas? I know we’re going to get bored with brown bag meals pretty quickly.

[Sharyn]

I’ve been liking the snack packs with a combination of cheese, nuts, dried fruit, and/or meat cubes. These will have to be refrigerated along with the hard boiled eggs. Cereal or power bars are a good bet as well. I like the Zone Perfect nutrition bars.

I hear that the Keys are very expensive, so good luck to you. I think some research through Trip Advisor and/or Yelp will help you get by.

[Julie B]

Those cheese/meat/dried fruit combos are awesome. Good idea! I’ll buy the items in bulk and make them up into our own little individual sized combo packs. I kinda want one now.

[Jay]

Not sure your diet, but we like meat, cheese, and nuts on roadtrips. Not being able to cook is the really bummer. We often will eat our snacks and then splurge on dinner…which often results in leftovers for the next day.

[T-Satt]

Jay: That is the Keto way! Love eating just meat, cheese, and nuts. We end up doing that most days anyway. Great for backpacking too…

[KatieScott]

There are plenty of supermarkets in the Keys – maybe just do pit stops there instead of restaurants and get their pre-made stuff.

[Ryanne]

hurray for free hotel nights! but this is why we do airbnbs so we can cook that helps keep it super cheap.

[Julie B]

We’ve never tried AirBnB but I’ve been checking it out for those few nights where we just need a 1 night stay here and there along the way. There is a surprising number of boats available on AirBnB. Interesting but not sure I’m ready for my first AirBnB experience to be on a boat. I also found a couple who has a pool house with several vintage airstream trailers in the the backyard available. If we end up in that area I might have to talk my husband into staying in a vintage airstream for a night.

[Jay]

We shy aware from ‘funky airbnb”. Like Airstream trailers. I just feel that unless done right, we’d just be sleeping in an old trailer.

We can usually rent out a separate living area behind someone’s house for $100 or less. Or it’ll be a full basement with a separate entrance. We always look for a kitchen to cook. It’s worth the money to be able to have privacy, spread out as if we’re at home, and cook meals.

[Julie B]

After I posted my airstream comment I remembered air conditioning. No way I could sleep in a trailer in the Florida Keys this time of year without it.

[sonia]

I vote for avocados. Just cut in half and eat with a spoon. Or put in a sandwich.

baby-cut carrots and hummus.

[Jay]

I agree with the avocados.

[Anonymous]

It took me years to start doing this, but I try to take all the water and coffee I expect to drink with me in reusable containers instead of buying expensive, wasteful bottles at gas stations. I take a 1/2 gallon insulated plastic thermos for water, which gets me through an all-day drive. And yeah, I pack my own food, too. I 2nd the motion for Hummus–great, cheap, versitile and doesn’t require refrigeration!

[ChristineR]

I suggest also trying a happy hour locater app to get some deals and break from the brown bag meals. Also if you break down, lunch is almost always cheaper than dinner and you can check out trip advisor to find local favorites out of the tourist area and filter by price range. Starbucks has a decent instant coffee in little packages if you have access to hot water. Trader Joe’s will have a variety of smaller package foods and their prices are fairly good. Have fun! I love the Keys.

[antarestar]

How about some fancy salads? I’ll bet the heartier ones will keep just fine in a container for a few days.

https://www.budgetbytes.com/category/recipes/salads/

[Julie B]

Thanks everyone for your input! We are back from our 11 night trip through Florida. I ended up taking about 4 times more food than we needed and a lot of the non-perishable stuff ended up going to waste because even though we used a cooler, we were nervous about eating pepperoni and cheese that had been in a cooler of mostly melted ice after a while. Lessons learned: definitely take all the drinks you think you’ll need (saved us a lot of $$), take only food items that don’t have to be kept in a cooler, make up a few individual bento boxes before hitting the road for easy-to-grab meals rather than waiting to do it on the road, check the fitness rooms at any hotels you’re staying at for free bottled water and fruit (we only took 1 water and fruit item each but that’s enough for a light breakfast or snack), check the happy hour deals online and finally, be realistic about how much you could possible eat each day and don’t pack more than that.

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