Ways to Save Money on Vacation: Part II

The second installment of 'Ways to Save Money on Vacation' is about cutting costs where food/dining is concerned.  Here are a few of my top tips:

• Shop Before You Leave
• In the weeks before you leave, stock up on travel-friendly items such as trail mix ingredients, string cheese, Greek yogurt (its high protein count is a great filling breakfast or snack), juice boxes and bottled water, etc.  Even if you don't always get the best deals, you can still save by planning ahead.  No matter what, you are spending less than if you buy everything at the last minute or worse, spending say, $3.00 for a bottle of water at the musueum.  Just be prepared to make room in your vehicle for a cooler with ice to keep the perishables cool until you can put them into the fridge that you have made sure is in your room (see the first installment if you don't know what I am talking about)!
• Prep Before You Leave
• The night before we left for vacation, my husband made an entire loaf of bread's worth of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for our lunches for the trip.  I also made an entire bag of totillas filled with turkey, mustard, spinach and cheese roll-ups for the traveling dinner.  This is not super exciting, but I will pair it with a fun snack item (for example:  Pringles) that we don't usually have at home to make everyone excited about finishing the sandwiches.  Also, we eat these lunches at the venue we are attending and everyone is usually just so excited to get back to Legoland, the museum, etc. that they don't care what we are eating!
• I also cut up carrot sticks, wash grapes and baby tomatoes and put them into large plastic ziploc baggies to go with the sandwiches.  Bananas also make great traveling fruit.  I just suggest eating those first, because they will start to stink up your entire food supply after a while. 
• Another nifty idea for a quick and easy dinner is frozen pizza.  Simply make it before you leave and let it cool.  Then, cut it up and put into zippered bags or aluminum foil.  This is an option if you family likes cold pizza. 
• Eat Out Frugally
• It's vacation, so you probably want to eat out at least once.  I know we do.  There are ways to do this inexpensively as well. 
• Groupon and Living Social:  Sign up for the Groupon emails (to your junk email) for the city you are planning to vaction in.  I did this as soon as we decided where we were going.  For about six months, I watched for good deals for restaurants, museums and other activities. You never know what kinds of deals you might find.  Just watch expiration dates, terms, etc. 
• Restaurant.com certificates.  This company sells drastically reduced gift certificates for eateries across the country.  There are also terms and conditions with these, so read the fine print. 
• If you know there is a restaurant that you want to try, search the web for printable coupons.  If you have a smartphone, try downloading The Coupons App for your phone.  

In my opinion, vacation is about relaxing.  I just try to make things special and different without completely breaking the bank to do it.  It really just takes a little planning and forward thinking!