Next time you have to travel somewhere, think ahead and bring the stuff you otherwise up shelling out for. When you do need to spend, spend wisely.
- Bring your own decent headphones for the plane and for use with an MP3 player anywhere else you want some of your own music to give you aural privacy.
- Acknowledge in advance that most of the time now airlines will not provide anything worth eating and that the airport food choices will be fair to middling at high to higher prices. Pack a lunch or at least bring some good snacks from home.
- Tuck one or two of those magazines you've been meaning to get around to reading in your bag or print out a long article from the web. Something off the stack at home and no "it'll do" choice at the newstand in the airport.
- Staying in a hotel for business? Don't drink the stupid tiny $5 water bottle in the room, take a walk over to the nearest grocery or drug store and buy a big bottle for half that price. Your legs could use the stretch and you'll see a little of the outside world.
Got some more tips for penny-pinching travelers? Comment away!
Travel days aren't the only days you can circumvent the usual dining options. On the trip, while you're at that local grocery buying your water, grab some grub for a picnic (even if you just "picnic" in your room). Good bread is a nice base; you can add hummus, cheese, tomato, sliced deli meat, or peanut butter, and fruit provides a nice accompaniment. Of course there's also the fancy ready-to-eat stuff in the deli case. You can prepare for all this by packing silverware from home (I recommend unbreakable plastic silverware from a travel store). On our last trip we saved a lot of time and money by breakfasting in our room on bread, peanut butter and bananas, and our picnic at Coit Tower made that site all the more memorable.
Posted by: Phil Shirley | July 24, 2006 at 10:53 AM
Leave one dose of painkillers or other frequently used drugs in your bag. It saves you money buying yet another big packet and most importantly, the hassle of trying to find a chemist when you're in pain in a place you don't know.
Posted by: Cass | July 24, 2006 at 09:08 PM
Funny you should mention this. I just decided to pick up and move via my car across the country.
One of the things I did was buy six or seven 1.5 gallon bottles of gatorade at the grocery store. I knew it would be something I'd drink and instead of purchasing it in single 24 oz increments at various gas stations it was really cost effective to use those and some plastic cups I had also bought from the grocery store.
Posted by: Cliff | July 25, 2006 at 12:14 AM