eating on a budget during a trip

[vmc-hound]

What cheap foods(or anythings for that matter)do you eat during a 3 or 4 day trip?

 

[Speedtree]

I pack a cooler. Sandwiches, yogurt, carrots, fruit, granola bars. Leftovers which I heat in the microwave. It's a bit of work lugging it around and keeping it iced down but I can do a four day trip for less than $20 including tipping the van guys/gals.

 

[relief tube]

I got ya.

Here's how you do a trip cheap. You don't even need to pack a cooler, it all fits right in your flight case/rollerboard.

Unless you're lucky and the hotel has a free breakfast, flavored oatmeal packs work great. I know, laugh, but that stuffs quick and cheap as it gets. Just add hot water from the coffee maker and that's breakfast.

Raisin packs
Chewy Granola Bars
Peanut Butter cracker sandwhiches
Bulk candy

Snack on those while flying. Throw a 1 day supply (normally one of each for me) in your flight case, and the rest for the other days in your rollerboard. THen each day keep reloading your flight case.

As for dinner, you gotta have a real meal at least once a day. Either get fast food or I at least get a $10 healthy dinner that fills me up. Add that 10 to about the 2 bucks a day the groceries above cost, and you're eating for less than 12 bucks a day. As for drinks, drink lots of water while flying at the end of the day, grab 2 cans from the galley for the night, and you're set.

Good luck. Us F/0's gotta stick together.

 

[Billy Madison]

Slim-Fast. Get the generic stuff at Wal-Mart. It comes down to about $.43 a meal...If you're following the diet that is.

Billy

 

[cargoflyr69]

Sometimes, when I'm motivated enough I will cook up large batches of chow. Things like lasagna, baked chicken, soup, etc. I put them in those glad-ware plastic containers and freeze 'em solid. Before I set out on a trip I'll throw a few of my industrial stregnth tv dinners in my lunch bag. Almost every place we go has a microwave. I just toss the container as they only cost me about .25 and beats doing the dishes. Fruit and granola bars pack well and can usually be swiped off the hotel breakfast bar in the morning too.

 

[Mel Sharples]

I agree with the above.

You can get lots of good bulk stuff at Costco or Sam's Club. Stuff like beef jerky, trail mix, granola bars, peanut butter crackers, etc. are small enough to fit in your flight case or overnight bag. In bulk they are cheap and are relatively filling.

If all else fails, I resort to the McDonalds value menu. Mmmm good, but so mmmm bad for your heart. Oh, well.

Happy eating!

 

[Looking4Traffic]

I have a fruit dehydrator. I cut up about 10-12 apples and/or pears and dry them into little fruit slices. 10-12 apples equals less than one large zip lock bag. They fit great into a flight bag and are a great substitute to the afternoon Snickers Bar.

 

[Dave Benjamin]

TastyBite

These are really good. I buy them at Trader Joe's but they also sell online if noone in your area sells them.

 

[sleddriver77]

Dinty-Moore makes little tubs-o-food that work out ok. The nice thing about them, they're dry- don't need to be fridged or frozen. (Although that makes one ponder the sheer magnatude of preservatives therein....) It takes two of 'em to feed a chubby bastard like me, but they're only a dollar and change. They're not super deluxe cuisine, but they usually stay down. They have 'em in beef stew, salisbury steak, pot roast, roast beef and spuds, chicken and noodles, and a few others. You just poke 'em with a fork, nuke 'em for 90 seconds, and go to town.

 

[flap operator]

Ditto to most posts above. What I do is look at my pattern and see what hotels offer breakfast and to see if I'm flying any meal flights (yes, we're lucky with first class and NW who serves food). That determines how much food I bring. Ten I pack real food usually the first day and keep it cold with dry ice and then eat cup a soups from the health food aisles or health food stores (less fat, less salt - especially for dehydration onboard the plane). I also bring dried fruit or low sugar content fruit cups. I've about bored myself to death with baby carrots, so those I haven't been eating for a long time. Oatmeal packs are awesome for breakfast or even snacks. I do once in awhile break down and buy food. I need a hot balanced meal at least one time on a trip. $5/day on eating out is usually my budget. But I digress once in awhile.

How can you tell a "regional" airline flight crew? We're the ones with lunch bags/coolers strapped to our gear.



FO

 

[Saabslime]

MRE's from the local army-navy surplus store. Very cheap and they'll keep forever.

 

[GoFaster]

Aren't you getting a 1.80 per hour in per diem? Aren't you making enough money via your hourly rate to spend $21 per day on decent food? I understand carrying some nice home cooked comfort food for the first day of a trip, but this thread worries me. If you answered no to any of these questions you need to take a long hard look at your contract, your union, your management, and mostly yourself. This profession is going to hell very quickly. I recently did a CHQ interview in IND, and they told the interview class that you have to share a hotel during training, I couldn't believe it. Now what we all need to do is; have a roommate on the layovers, and then we can carry one big cooler and share our carrots and oatmeal packs...LOL. Come on guys! Buck up, lets make this a profession worth having, if not for yourselves....for your sons and daughters.

GoFAST

 

[V-1]

Carrying food with you is usually a healthier option than eating whatever you can find during a one-hour turn, it's more convienient as well. Instead of shutting the airplane down on a 45 minute break, so I can scramble inside to stand in line at the nearest fast-food joint, then experience the employees' surly attitudes, just so I can give them $5 to satisfy my hunger and increase my cholesterol, I can enjoy a healthy meal while I leisurely prepare for the next flight.

I'd rather take that untaxed per-diem money and invest it. I earn the taxable equivalent income of around $600/mo. Using the techniques mentioned in previous posts, I can save about $450 of that amount monthly.

Invested at even a meager 8% return, I can increase my net worth an additional $5400 annually...not including compound interest effects.

This way, I'll be prepared for the future strike, bankruptcy, medical leave, or furlough that so many of us experience during our careers. If I'm fortunate enough to make it to age 60 in this profession without experiencing any of those, I should have an additional $376708 to retire with, in todays dollars. This assumes an average annual return of 8%, and an average annual inflation rate of 3%.

Let's see...$376708/30 years = $12,557 someone is paying me every year to invest a portion of my per-diem, rather than spending it at McDonalds. That's the easiest $12,000 raise I've ever negotiated!

 

[GoFaster]

hey V1,

what about your crew meals...you could eat those and not even have to pay for the food at the grocery store...that is probably another raise for your bottomline....would you like dry chicken or salisbury steak captain?...LOL. You guys are a trip. Live life, enjoy it, you go on these great layovers, go out to eat and make this a career...not a lunch pail, time card job.

Good Luck with your investments and please note the smile on my face if you attend my funeral.

GoFaster!

 

[Beer&Brauts]

Easy Mac and Tuna.
Mmmmmmmmmmmm

 

[PacoPollo]

....Ramen noodles!!!! all the way!!!!!

 

[80drvr]

I eat the first class meals they serve me in the cockpit ;o)

 

[Flyingtoohigh]

MRE's from the local army-navy surplus store. Very cheap and they'll keep forever.

Define cheap... I haven't found any cheaper than $6.50 to $8 per package at my local military surplus stores in Denver. Would you mind revealing your source for MREs?

 

[pilotyip]

soup in cans

If you put a can of soup bewteen the two most upper cylinders on the top of the engine, they are warmed to the right temperature when you land. Oh! I forgot we don't have round engines anymore.

 

[climbhappy]

last year, i actually lived off sugar packs for a few days.

ramen is real good. if you're at a hotel with breakfast. go down eat early, scarf several oatmeals packet, grits and take a freezer to keep a few bagels for later. then go back again and do it again. load up on free fruit.

if there's a chilis at your hub airport, try the unlimited chips and salsa for 3.50 if you reaslly want to splurge.

this is the like isn't it?