Lunch money

You could have a great trip for $3600 each year

LOL just loved it. That could be said of a lot of stuff: cigarettes, nails, shoes. wine (not planning on giving that one up). Life is choices. J

My university lecturer years ago gave up smoking (40 a day man) as he reckoned the money saved would pay for a family holiday.

We like to stay in B&Bs that have free breakfasts, usually we eat around 9am and skip lunch and only have to pay for one meal a day.

Some of the same people who say they don’t have money to travel seem to have plenty of money to buy two or three fancy coffees a work day at Starbucks. We too enjoy the breakfasts one gets when staying at a B&B and many hotels that allow us to skip lunch.

Food is such a focus when I'm travelling that I would almost always forego a hotel breakfast (or have something quite small) in order to focus on having something decent for lunch. For me, particularly when in Spain, Lunch is my main meal of the day. I can't eat as late as the Spanish do (even if it is something light) and my usual time for dinner is too early for most restaurants.

I found the text from my friend particularly amusing because I have so many friends who think that it takes a ton of money to travel, and therefore, they don't even try. Either that, or they use it as an excuse. The point of the story to me, as seconded by the examples from joanne1108, Jennifer and jaimeelsabio, is that when it comes to travel, where there's a will, there's a way!

One of my best high-school friend's father used to say, "You always have money for your priority." I think it's true.

I worked for Treasury in DC and always packed my lunch. Once a week I roasted a half dozen chicken thighs over green beans then divided them into single servings for my daily meals. Cost per meal was right at one dollar. Low carb and I knew what went into my food. A reasonable budget for lunches in DC would be an average of twenty dollars a day (some days cheaper and some days much more expensive).

People asked if I got bored with my meals. Not really, I'd rather save the money and use it for what I really want to do. Travel.

@Travelboss - I do the same thing! Well, we work from home now, so eating at home is easy. But I have the same philosophy for eating out/coffee, too. I'd much rather eat dinner out, or have coffee out, on vacation. I know lots of people who eat out, or have cocktails out, or have food delivered, several times a week. That's their choice, of course. But I'd 100x rather eat at home and spend my money on travel. It probably looks like we have a lot of money, because I and or my husband travel about every other month. But we are pretty frugal in the rest of our life. Besides, after eating 99% of our meals at home for the last two years, I can honestly say that I much prefer my own cooking, and the coffee I make at home (especially cold brew) is better than any I could pay for, anyway.

OMG this is so true!!!

I remember years ago when we came back from Italy and my FIL commented (I am cringing as I write this) "it must be nice to have dough to travel". Before I could even use my filter, I blurted out that if they didn't eat dinner out 5-6 nights a week they could do it too. He never commented on our travels again.

"Before I could even use my filter, I blurted out that if they didn't eat dinner out 5-6 nights a week they could do it too. He never commented on our travels again."

Oh my...I am sure you wished you could have bitten your tongue off BUT it turned out well anyway, didn't it?

I rarely eat out (well, twice a month I have lunch with a forum friend), don't go to movies, don't have big toys (boats, utes, snowmobiles, etc). I do prioritize for travel!

Pam--yes at the time I felt a tad bit bad about blurting that out, but in hindsight I am so glad I did. Long history of judgement there, so at least that is one topic that is not mentioned anymore;)

Different people, different values and different enjoyment ................ its all good.