Food can be one of your top expenses when traveling, and it is one of the main areas you can actually cut costs. I love traveling a lot, but being an average woman who does not have a healthy bank account, and a family to manage and lots of bills to pay, I am somewhat forced to travel on a shoe string budget…. 

Here are five ways to save on food expenses during your trip which I personally practice when I am traveling….

1. Have a reusable water bottle or reuse a mineral water bottle to keep yourself hydrated during your travels. This is a must do in big and expensive cities like USA, UK, Europe, Japan or Korea, as spending money on water can add up. I would fill up my bottle at the hotel or guesthouse (if possible) and that would at least save me a bottle of water or two a day….

2. Take advantage of your hotel. If your hotel or bread and breakfast place/ guesthouse/ hostel offers free breakfast, eat smart. Go for a filling combination of protein, fruits, and vegetables to avoid becoming hungry an hour later. Or even if it just some bread and eggs or milk like what I had in my guesthouse when I was in Korea… fill up!!!

3. Check out the local markets. These places is bound to have a lot of delicious local food and they rarely charge you an inflated price. 

4. If you’re traveling in USA, UK, Europe, Japan or Korea, a supermarket is a haven. It’s definitely expensive to eat out in these countries so head over to the local supermarket and stock up for breakfast/lunch the next day. You can pick up bread rolls, meat, cheese, milk for a fraction of the price of a local restaurant 

5.Unless you are going to Australia or some country that do not allow you to bring food, pack some canned or packaged food… I brought a few buns, packaged biscuits, instant noodle cups, a couple of tins of sardine/tuna and that saved me a few meals while I was traveling, especially when in Korea when an average meal cost about RM20-40 per person per meal…… And I also recommend some sambal ikan bilis and packaged chilli sauce like what you get from McDonald and KFC’s take away…

Of course, since I was in a foreign country, I made it a point to indulge in a good local meal once a day as not to miss out…and treated myself to some of the street food I could find there…

So there you are… these are my own tips as to how to save on food when you are traveling…Hope they are of some help to you as they are to me and my pocket….