[Christie]

Going on a weeks vacation and staying at an Airbnb. I don’t want to have to cook much because I cook every day at home but I also am dreading the cost if we eat out daily.

Family of three and we try to eat mainly whole foods with very little processed foods.

Looking for suggestions on how to balance this.

[Shelby]

I always order pizza one night of vacation from a hole in the wall place that we don’t have at home.

[Sherry]

We eat breakfast in the room and eat early dinner 4ish and snack if we get hungry before bed

[Ling]

Engage the spouse to share cooking and not sure how old your child is but a family cooking affair in a vacation home is fun. Pack things for breakfast and snacks.

Pasta night is easy with ground turkey, tuna salad is easy to make oven baked chicken dinner with veggies

[Alison]

These are situations where I like to splurge on premade food from grocery stores… bagged salads and rotisserie chicken, take and bake pizzas from the deli section, lovely bread and cheese from local bakeries or farmers markets, etc.

Basically finding a happy medium where you still get the type of food you like, without quite so much effort, but at a lower cost.
Enjoy your vacation!

[Mary]

Eat breakfast at the Airbnb. Then do your fun stuff and take filling snacks. You can eat a late lunch out as lunch is usually cheaper than dinner. Then sandwiches if someone is hungry later on.

We did this last year and only ate dinner out a few times at restaurants we wanted to try out.

[Christina]

Pick someplace exciting to eat for a few of your meals. Then fix the rest at the house. We’ve been doing this for a number of years.

While I’m not totally thrilled with cooking while on vacation, we plan easy meals with limited clean up.

Then our meals out can be exciting things we wouldn’t experience at home.

It’s been a nice balance for us…

[Pascal]

Ordering take out from interesting and different restaurants can save money because you’re not paying the inflated prices for drinks, and subsequent bigger tip, at the restaurant.

We did that in Santa Fe to save money. Same amazing food.

[Leona]

We are about to go on vacation. What we’ve done the other past few years is pack half a carryon with our favorite granola bars, crackers, beef jerky, trail mix, dried fruits, cookies and such.

Pick up cheese, baguettes, and salami and so on at the grocery store, we eat out once a day, big late mid day or early evening meal.

This is a beach vacation so can grab a hot dog or sandwich on the go. Pack light so there we s room in the suitcase.

Food is very expensive at the grocery store because it’s an island so we only buy perishables and bring our own stuff.

[Caroline]

Sandwiches. Have everyone make their own for lunch each day.
Make ahead a bunch of egg burritos. Freeze them. – snacks or dinner with a salad.

Crock pot dinner.

[Patricia]

Restaurants generally have lunch specials at a discounted price on Monday through Friday.

Take advantage of that to relax and still save money.

[Justine]

When u say going on vacation in an air bnb are you going to another country. When we do this we buy bread, salads, fruits, pasta, sushi.

All great and no need to cook.

[Margie]

Cereals and/or toast for breakfast. A hearty salad meal for lunch (tuna, egg salad, ham, chicken) or hot dogs or toasted sandwiches.

Pizza one night, a rotisserie chicken with fresh rolls, then you can have a couple of meals out.

[Lori]

Something I’ve done is cook ahead and bring the prepared foods in a cooler.

Then all I need to do is warm up foods and not worry about cooking.

[Brigitte]

When our kids were little and we went on a week vacation to the beach- I meal prepped our dinners and froze them flat. We packed the dinners in our cooler with all the other things we needed for our 12 hr. drive.

That way when we got back from the beach- everyone could take showers and dinner just needed to be reheated.

I made chili, beef stew, soup, etc. It worked out well for us.

[Chanell]

You can make some things ahead and bring with you; muffins, boiled eggs… things you can eat without heating. Also take fruit, nuts, granola bars, peanut butter, etc.

Think about what you can do without a lot of prep or cleaning.

Remember, the Airbnb won’t be stocked with what you’re used to in your own kitchen.

[Traci]

The grocery store deli you can buy rotisserie chicken, potato salad, coleslaw, cut fruit, yogurt parfaits, etc.

[Lucinda]

Are you driving there? If so, bring some frozen items from home. Like containers of meat sauce, lasagna, casseroles, etc. Buy the fresh/frozen items you need at the local supermarket.

When we stayed in a rental with a kitchen, I made up: ravioli with jarred sauce and a salad, meatballs with mushroom soup and noodles, and breakfast items like eggs, waffles, pancakes, and French toast.

I wanted to find a supermarket that had “heat and eat” food like we have locally. But unfortunately couldn’t find a place.

We were able to pick up subs (that we brought for a picnic lunch).

[Tifani]

We always pick one meal, typically dinner, to eat out because you can cook and clean lunch and dinner easily.

[Brandy]

Have the family help you make breakfast! Then sandwiches and chips for lunch – eat dinner out

[Melanie]

Firstly its easy to pack a box of cereal, some 2 in 1 coffee sachets/tea bags. First day of arrival buy some milk, bread, spread and sandwich fillings.

Dinner time, find out where the locals eat.

It’ll always be cheaper.

[Victoria]

Are you driving or flying? If your driving make ahead prepackage meals ahead and just cook them there.

Example
Marinate a flank steak put it in ziplock and freeze when you want to cook it thaw cook it throw a couple baked potatoes in oven by premade salad add frozen veggies meal done.

Make bolognase for spaghetti freeze then cook pasta make salad done, chicken by a rotisserie at the local market frozen veggies, make couscous done, bring cereal, bagels cream cheese, peanut jelly, for breakfast easy don’t over think it Enjoy your vacation

[Emily]

My family always does breakfast burritos during the vacation and a freezer lasagna. It’s a routine and it’s quick and easy.
One big pan for breakfast (two now because I’m allergic to eggs so they have to get cooked separately)

And for dinner it’s all disposable pans.

We spend $40 dollars on Costco frozen lasagna and normally those pre packed Cesar salad bags.

For 20 people at Christmas we did 4 lasgnas, two loaves of garlic bread and 4 bags of Caesar salad mix.

[Author]

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