Saving Money on the Road

I had a good weekend out of town.  The only bad thing was the food situation.  Being on a bus trip with a large group of people I had a hard time eating anything decent.  I couldn’t pack much and what space I had was mostly devoted to food for Emma.  Here are some of the ways I kept my costs down though.

• At Subway on the way down I asked for a cup of ice water, rather than the bottled water everyone was getting with their meals.
• Ate a large free breakfast at the hotel in anticipation of eating at the fair grounds the rest of the day.
• I bought a bottle of water from the hotel for $1.25 to take with me to the meet.
• I had packed a small container of cherry tomatoes and a bag of triscuits, so that became my lunch.  It was the absolute worst selection of concession food I have ever seen.
• Rather than paying $3 for a bottle of water from the concession, I paid $2 for a bottle of water from the vending machine.  (We were there for 10 hours!)
• I got lucky for dinner and the gym owners bought the momorones dinner and drinks.
• Ate a big breakfast again, including free coke at the hotel (I really needed the caffeine and I don’t drink coffee really.)
• Got 1 slice of pizza and a fountain drink for $6 at the children’s museum for lunch instead of a “meal deal” that cost more.
• For dinner I ordered a kids grilled cheese with fries and a junior shake from Steak  & Shake.  It was the perfect amount of food and saved at least a couple of dollars.

I have felt so disgusting all day after eating fast food and processed food all weekend, but I was really stuck.  I did the best I could and will try to make up for it this week and hopefully lose the 2 pounds I put on in the2.5 days I was gone.   All in all – I started with $90 and came  home with $60!