Eating While on the Road - Week One (Budgeting)

Dear Readers,

Thanks for follow me on this journey of microwave meals, nutritional eating, and budgeting while on the road. This brief post is intended as an overview of my spending, in which I include an itemized shopping list, my thoughts and outline of the meals that I made.

Find below meal suggestions - for cold and hot meals - based on those that I made while staying at a hotel with only small refrigerator and a microwave. I do not follow a specific diet, and my meals may contain meat, fish, dairy, and gluten.

Here was my shopping list for week one:

These groceries cost $86.55, plus one dollar for the microwave safe bowl I bought. Additionally, I ordered Chinese-American take-out food the night that I flew in which gave me 2 plastic bowls, chop sticks, and plastic utensils that I continue to use and wash. Luckily, the kitchen was able to give me a napkin with utensils as well.

This might seem like a lot to spend all at once, but when I divide the total price (dividend) by the number of days that I ate these food items instead of eating out (divisor) my quotient is my price per day. Then, of course, there is the somewhat volatile "meals & entertainment expenses" per diem that one can claim on his/her/their taxes, which - while it plays a role in your taxable income - is another post entirely. 

($86.55 / 7days = $12.36 per day)

($12.36 / 3 meals per day = $4.12 per meal)

$12.36 per day for three meals, or three meals a day at $4.12 per meal, not including snacking, is certainly cheaper than any single meal I could buy at a restaurant or food cart. I did go out one day the first week to have a few beers and some chicken wigs (add $18.00 plus tip to that weekly total expenditure).

My hot meals this week included:

• Scrambled eggs (Butter, Salt, Pepper, Eggs)
• Egg "Over easy" (Butter, Salt, Pepper, Egg)

• Bone Broth (Soup)
• Piadina (Quesadilla)
• Nachos
• Sweet potato 
• Sweet potato & Tuna Tacos

My cold meals included:

• Salad with canned fish 
• Cucumbers and Celery
• Celery with peanut butter 

Snacks:

• Blue berries
• Cheese
• Tortilla chips and salsa
• Nachos
• Peanuts

(Coffee and tea are included in my stay)

In my next post I will focus on the break down of these meals, but I wanted to offer some more details and specifics about this journey, following my previous post.

Thanks for reading,

Joe