Holidays on the road won’t break our dining budget

It’s another holiday season, and with no kids (yet) to keep our Christmas local, we’re hitting the road to visit our families this week.  Jules and I are on an alternating holiday family gathering schedule, which means that this year we are headed to visit my family in the great state of New York, and then we’ll head down to Ohio for some additional time with Julie’s extended family there.

All told, we’re going to put about 1,300 miles on Julie’s beautiful Pontiac Vibe in the next week or so.  That means that we’ve got about 18 hours-ish worth of car time and many opportunities to spend some serious cash while on the road.  It’s inevitable—getting on the road means major hankerings for McDonald’s fries, caramel macchiatos from Starbucks, and ice cream from our favorite place in Findlay, Ohio.  While we’ll definitely have some treats during our yuletide travel, we simply can’t (and shouldn’t) financially (or nutritionally) indulge our every dining whim.

So here’s our typical on-the-road game plan for making sure we don’t blow our budget to pieces:

• Pack at least one meal, usually for the first leg of our trip
• Bring along a bag of snacks, hopefully somewhat healthy (we like pretzels, Wheat Thins, fruit, etc.)
• Pack bottled water (purchased in bulk) or water bottles
• Budget for any meals out in advance (beginning of the month) so they are accounted for in our “dining” category
• Leftovers available from family gatherings?  They’ll taste good in the Vibe as well

Just a few ideas for this holiday travel season—oh, and don’t worry, they work in the summertime, too.  Merry Christmas Eve!
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Photo Credit: gingerblokey // Creative Commons