How to save money eating while traveling

My husband was particularly busy traveling for work more than he had ever done before.  Initially, I think he secretly enjoyed the trips a little bit because it gave him a break from our busy home life and he could have time to just focus on getting work done.  But after a while, it really started to wear on him, especially when he found himself out of town more than he was home for some months.  One thing that magnified the burden of traveling was the food situation for him.  At first, he was perfectly happy going to Taco Bell, Burger King, and McDonald's.  But that gets old FAST, especially when it is 3 meals a day for a week at a time.

Over time, we found ways to make life a little easier for his business trips so that he wouldn't have to keep choking down fast food for every meal. Here are some solutions we came up with to save money eating while traveling.  It has been a life (and wallet) saver not only for business trips but for traveling as a family too:

1. If you have access to a refrigerator,  keep some fruit and yogurt handy, along with other fast and easy snacks to keep you going and avoid the temptation to run to fast food or a vending machine.
2. If you are driving and have space for it, bring a toaster for bread and bagels.  I also recommend bringing a little frying pan to cook eggs for breakfast.  When you consider that one egg sandwich at a fast food restaurant will run roughly $4-6, being able to make your own breakfast sandwich for a few mornings will not only save you from having to run out for fast food, but the money savings will add up fast.
3. If a stove top isn't available, pack along an electric skillet to cook with.  You can plug it into any outlet anywhere even when there isn't an actual kitchen available.  I have plugged it in hotel rooms to cook up a meal.  Not only did it save me from having to eat out, but it was easier and more convenient than going out to eat.
4. While we're on the subject of hotels...those little coffee pots they provide are super handy!  I'm not a coffee drinker, so the intended use isn't that appealing to me.  But when you have boiling hot water available, it opens up so many possibilities!  Instant oatmeal for breakfast, or instant soup mixes are awesome.  I make my own soup and oatmeal mixes using my freeze dried ingredients, so that I know what's going into it and I can have control over the flavor and amount of soup.  
5. Powdered drink mixes are also a great meal on the road.  There is no limit to the drink mixes that are out there, full of all sorts of protein, vitamins, and good stuff to keep you going.  Sometimes I'll make my own powdered drink mix by throwing some freeze dried fruit & kale into the blender and turning it into a powder.  Then I dump the powder into a baggie, and wah-lah!  Instant drink mix!
6. If you're on the road and looking for a non-fast food option for a hot meal...little thermoses are awesome!  I have gotten one at Target for less than $20 that is a single serving size, and my kids even like taking it to school.  Then I will put together some of my meal in jar recipes, but divide the measurements down to 1/4th of the original recipe, to fit into a little 1 cup mason jar.  It's just the right size for the personal thermos, so I dump the mini meal in a jar ingredients into the thermos, then pour boiling water to the top of the thermos.  It's just the right size, and it stays hot for hours!  One thing I have learned from putting meals in jars in the thermoses - the meals with noodles don't work as well.  The noodles continue to expand until it's taking up the whole thermos, and they get overly big and soggy.  Stick with soups without noodles and you'll love it!
7. I really, really, really love my meal in a jar recipes to take on the road!  They make for instant meals that don't require preparation, they're lightweight, and there is no need to store them in a cooler or worry about them spoiling.  Then when we are on the road and want to have a quick and easy dinner without the expense and time of going out to eat, I can plug in my electric skillet and whip up a meal in about 10-15 minutes!  Generally you want to always store the meals inside of jars because it helps with the shelf life.  But when we are going on a road trip, I'll dump the contents of the jar into a big ziploc bag so I don't have to worry about the jar breaking.  It really shouldn't be stored in a ziploc bag for longer than a week, because the bags are not airtight, and the air will eventually make the freeze dried ingredients go soft.  But it works ok for short term travels.  That said, I also will usually bring at least one meal inside a jar, because the jar works as a measuring unit for getting the right amount of water in the meal.  I'll dump the freeze dried ingredients into the pan, then fill the jar up to the top to measure 4 cups of water into the pan.  If there are leftovers, I can store anything in the jar as well.  

Since we discovered all of these travel food tricks, it has made a big difference in traveling!  Not only for traveling on business trips, but family vacations have improved with these ideas. We used to travel as a family and hit up all of the cheap burger spots during the week, and now I just can't handle more than one burger stop on a trip without my stomach staging a revolt.  Not only that, but it gets SO expensive and it adds up fast!  Back when we had 1-2 little tiny kids, we could order on the dollar menu at Wendy's and feed the whole family for $10.  Now that I have 5 kids, and they are big kids that are hungry from running all the time and growing...the dollar menu doesn't satisfy them anymore.  It usually ends up costing $40-50 to feed the crew, and we don't even buy drinks with meals since we just drink water.  Ouch.  Now I can bring my electric skillet on a trip and whip up some fried eggs or a couple of meals in a jar, or use the coffee maker to make boiling water for oatmeal, and we are eating better and saving money.  And everyone feels so much better!  Win-win!