Before we left on our trip, we had two
ideas about food. We knew that we would
eat out a lot, since experiencing local and regional foods was important to us,
and we also thought we would cook many of our own meals. As things turned out, we did eat out a lot,
but we almost never cooked meals from scratch. What happened?
Even though our kitchen in the RV is
tiny, we were fully equipped to cook almost any kind of meal imaginable. We had purchased a nesting set of cookware
that took up very little room and had discovered ingenious silicone cookers that
would enable us to cook an entire meal in our microwave/convection oven. We even had every utensil that we might
need. We were definitely prepared. We just found that we lacked the motivation
to cook.
It all started in Maine when we couldn’t
seem to get our fill of local seafood, especially lobster and crab. After living in landlocked Colorado, we were
starved for fresh seafood, and we really looked forward to eating out. Lobster and crab were a little too messy to
try and prepare in the RV, so we left the cooking to someone else.
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| Maine Lobster Was Hard to Resist |
We decided early on that lunch would
typically be our main meal of the day. First
of all, lunch is usually less expensive than at dinner. Second, we looked forward to lunchtime as a nice
break from driving or touring. However, our
primary reason was the fact that it was just too inconvenient to go out for
dinner. Once we arrived at a campground
and got set up, we simply did not want to turn around and drive back out for
dinner. It just wasn’t worth the hassle,
especially once it started getting dark so early.
Eating our biggest meal at lunch meant
that we often had leftovers for dinner. We
quickly got into the habit of not cooking, and when we didn’t have leftovers,
we learned that we could purchase very good prepared foods at supermarkets or
delis. We were often tired at the end of
the day and did not want to add cooking to our list of other evening activities,
which included writing blog posts and researching where we should go the next
day.
People often wonder if we got tired of
eating out every day. I can honestly say
that we did not. We almost never ate in
chain or fast food restaurants and instead sought out local spots that featured
“home cooking.” In nine months I can
remember only a handful of restaurants where the food was pretty bad. Maybe I’m too easy to please. I will say, however, that while we did not
miss our own “home cooking,” we absolutely loved it when friends and family prepared
meals for us. That was a special treat.
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| Restaurants Featuring Home Cooking Were Not Hard to Find |
We loved sampling all sorts of regional
foods, from local seafood along both coasts to down home Southern classics, and
we were always on the lookout for barbeque.
Then there was pie. We felt that
it was our mission to discover the best pie in the country. Try as we might to come up with a winner, we
just couldn’t choose. Almost every slice
of pie we tried was wonderful.
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| South Carolina Barbeque |
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| Pie Is Nice |
Although we often ate at places that
would fit right in on “Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives,” we also treated ourselves
to a really elegant dinner from time to time. We had some very memorable fine dining
experiences, especially in Savannah and Yosemite National Park.
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| An Elegant Christmas Dinner in Savannah |
So, I’m sure you’re wondering what all
of this food cost. Our total budget for
food was a generous $50 per day, or a total of $14,488 ($9,500 for dining out and
$4,988 for groceries). We hoped that we
wouldn’t spend that much, and we didn’t!
Food ended up costing us approximately $13,155, or $45 per day, which
also included treating friends and family to meals from time to time. The final breakdown was $9,200 for dining out
and $3,955 for groceries. We came in
under budget one more time!
Could we have saved money on food? Without a doubt! However, we don’t regret our choices. We enjoyed eating out. Besides, by not cooking at night, we
eliminated what could have become a stressful situation at the end of a long
day. We did eat breakfast in the RV virtually
every morning. We made coffee and had
cereal with blueberries, a banana and orange juice, just like we always did at
home. It was always a treat when we did
go out for breakfast. We also rarely stopped
for coffee and saved our latte money for a favorite dessert, which we always
shared. When we were in an area where
there were no restaurants to be found, we even fixed our own lunch. Picnics in beautiful surroundings were always
nice.
We did have to learn a new way of
shopping. I had been accustomed to
planning my grocery list around what was on sale, and I often used coupons. I also loved trips to Costco to stock up on “vats”
of things we used in large quantities. All
of that went out the window in shopping for the RV. First, we couldn’t wait for something to be on
sale. Second, we simply didn’t have room
for “vats” of anything. Instead, we had to buy the most expensive, small size package. Finding room for
an extra box of cereal was a challenge. Given the small size of our refrigerator, we
often had to shop twice or even three times a week. Murphy’s Law guaranteed that we never ran out
of milk, orange juice and half-and-half on the same day, and since there was no
room to store an extra container upright in the refrigerator, that meant another
trip to the store.
We ended up not minding our frequent
stops for groceries, however. It was
interesting to shop in new stores and discover how selections varied in
different parts of the country. We always
hoped to find tasty prepared foods that we would enjoy for dinner. The occasional trip to stores like Whole
Foods, Trader Joe’s or local co-ops was always a special delight. Unfortunately, we did not travel during the
season for farmers markets. That’s one
of the things I would have enjoyed.
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| We Found Wonderful Prepared Foods for Dinner |
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| We Included Local Treats in our Grocery Budget |
Now that we’re home, I’m trying to
learn to cook again. It’s amazing how
quickly we forget certain skills. But I’m
getting better. Yesterday I made oven
fried chicken and banana bread. Who
knows what I’ll try next. I even made a
run to Costco. I guess life is getting
back to normal.
