The Administration, which manages the functioning of federal agencies, sets per diem rates for federal employees traveling on official business in the continental rates cover three types of expenses: lodging, meals, and incidental expenses.

If you’re accustomed to dining well, like enough to earn your full allowance of daily calories. If you’re a frugal eater, a small amount seems like an embarrassing amount to spend on three meals. But either way, it’s in your financial interest to reduce the cost of food on the road — if only to have more left over for non-consumable travel expenses.

Tips to Eat Cheap & Save Money on Food While Traveling

Whatever your appetite, you can find ways to shave a few dollars off your vacation food budget at every meal. Implement these cost-effective strategies for saving money on food on your next trip.

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1. Look for Accommodations with Kitchen Access

A hotel minifridge doesn’t count as a “kitchen.”

Whether you’re traveling solo, with a spouse or partner, or with a larger group of friends, make a point of checking reputable short-term rental sites. If you can find an affordable, well-reviewed, conveniently located rental, it’s often best to take it over a traditional hotel room.

Short-term rentals with a functional kitchen let you prepare full, healthy meals. It’s often worth it to pay a premium for those kinds of accommodations. They can save you money on all your travel expenses by letting you do things like shop at a local grocery to save money on eating out at restaurants and do laundry so you can pack light and save on checked baggage.

Kitchen access is especially advantageous for larger groups, where communal meals can really trim per-person meal costs. During my two most recent destination bachelor parties, we made full use of our rentals’ generously appointed kitchens. Based on the meals we ended up eating out, we probably saved at least each weekend — not bad for less than three full days.

2. Find Hotels with Free Breakfast

Free breakfast is a common hotel perk, one that’s by no means relegated to the sorts of upscale 4- and 5-star gems most travellers visit infrequently. You can pay nothing out of pocket for filling continental breakfasts at otherwise forgettable roadside motels.

Go just a tick or two up the quality ladder to brands like Hampton Inn, and that continental breakfast becomes a sumptuous hot-and-cold buffet complete with waffle makers and omelette stations.

3. Avoid Airport Meals

No matter what kind of meal you’re in the mood for — upscale sit-down, grab-and-go, or anything in between — you can expect to pay significantly more for it at the airport.

One of the easiest ways to save money at airports is not eating there. That’s easier said than done when you’re facing down a long layover.

Instead, fill up right before heading to the airport and stash enough snacks in your carry-on to tide you over until you land. Just don’t pack any snacks that can qualify as liquids, or you may be forced to part with them at security.

4. Hit the Grocery Store When You Arrive or Just Before You Leave

If you’re flying, reserve time to visit the nearest grocery store when you arrive in your destination city. If you’re road-tripping, shop the morning you leave.

As with any shopping trip, planning makes all the difference. Review your itinerary and determine:

• How many meals do you expect to cook on your own?
• How many days and nights you’ll have access to a full kitchen
• Your anticipated level of snack-age
• Your beverage requirements

If it’s logistically feasible to maintain a continuous cold chain using ice packs and in-room refrigerators, you’ll have more leeway to procure fresh ingredients and prepared foods. That’s more feasible for trips that don’t involve lots of time in transit. Otherwise, modify meals to accommodate shelf-stable ingredients.

5. Use a Refillable Water Bottle

Don’t buy bottled water on the road unless tap water isn’t safe or readily available. It’s bad for your wallet and the environment.

Instead, pack a refillable water bottle, preferably metal or BPA-free plastic. Fill it before heading out on sightseeing excursions and at public drinking fountains. It costs nothing for the refreshment, and you can avoid adding to local landfills.

This strategy has limitations. In parts of the world without reliable or readily available public water supplies, you’ll probably need to purchase bottled water at some point. Just be sure to save and reuse the bottle as you’re able.

6. Bring Plenty of Shelf-Stable Snacks

It’s not just the airport where you might get inopportunely hungry. Pack enough healthy, shelf-stable snacks to last you the entire trip. Think dried fruit, mixed nuts, peanut butter with no added sugar, energy bars with no or low added sugar, granola bars, and whole-grain crackers.

On extended vacations, this strategy may be limited by your cargo space. If you’re flying to your destination and aren’t planning to check a bag or have minimal space in your checked luggage for your own food, wait until after your flight to make your snack run. On a road trip, you’ll have an easier time finding room in your ride for snack boxes and tubes.

7. Avoid Touristy Restaurants & Neighbourhoods

You probably won’t cook every single meal in your kitchen away from home. Nor can you sustain a longer trip on snacks alone.

When the time comes to tuck in away from your room or rental, avoid overly touristy restaurants. In fact, steer clear of tourist traps period — or at least venture off main commercial streets. In pure value terms, the best meals in unfamiliar cities often involve local cuisine in hole-in-the-wall restaurants in quiet neighbourhoods that have yet to be discovered by out-of-towners.

8. Learn to Love Street Food

If your stomach turns at the thought of eating a 7 burrito from a random food truck, to say nothing of a $2 noodle plate from a rickety cart that appears ready to burst into flame, you might need some convincing.

When in doubt, follow the local popularity rule: If locals frequent the place in decent numbers, it’s probably fine. That rule served me well in Thailand, where YOU ate more street noodle meals than YOU could count on both hands.

Safety aside, it’s indisputable that street food is cheaper than restaurant food.

9. Use Local Coupons

Before you arrive at your destination, look for daily deals and social coupons at tasty-looking restaurants there. The right Groupon deal can reduce your tab by 40% or 50%, depending on the vendor’s generosity.

You can also try industry-specific coupon sites, though you’ve had mixed experiences with that one. It’s no fun arguing with a server who swears up and down that his employer doesn’t honour Restaurant coupons. When in doubt, call ahead.

Finally, check with the local tourism bureau or visitor’s association for timely promotions. When you visited Oregon, Travel Portland hooked me up with a nice swag bag that included a coffee shop discount coupon. Local guides published by such groups often have a whole coupon section in the back. Check their websites for mobile coupons as well.

10. Turn to Yelp or Google Restaurants for Price-Sensitive Searches

My go-to restaurant-finding aid is Yelp. Google Maps works in a pinch too, and its integrated mapping feature is beneficial when you’re already out and about in an unfamiliar city.

Both Yelp and Google Maps have user-friendly price-filtering tools that exclude overpriced restaurants. Add at-a-glance star ratings and (usually) accurate menu details, and you have pretty much all the information you need to make an informed, cost-conscious decision about lunch or dinner.

Lastly, don’t be afraid to do the old-fashioned thing and pick up a local newspaper or alternative weekly. Weekend editions in particular often have extensive coupon sections. Most of what’s in there won’t be particularly relevant, but it doesn’t hurt to look through.

11. Eat Out at Lunch or Brunch, Not Dinner

Pound for pound, lunch and brunch are almost always cheaper than dinner.

If you’re looking forward to trying new restaurants on your trip, limit your sit-down meals to one per day, and make them midday meals. You’ll pay less for the same appetizers and entrees, perhaps in slightly smaller portions. Plus, restaurants are more likely to run prix-fixe meals (several courses for a fixed price) or cut-rate daily specials at lunchtime, especially during the week.

If you don’t have a place to cook dinner, you don’t have to fast. Instead, hit the prepared foods section at your local supermarket, patronize a food truck, or look for a fast-casual option that won’t break the bank.

12. Look for Value-Added Dining Opportunities

Value-added dining experiences kill two (or more) birds with one stone: They fill your tummy while entertaining or informing.

Two of many possible examples: dinner theatre and cooking classes.

You can look for free or cheap outdoor performance series that permit picnic dining, sell food on-site, or welcome food trucks and street vendors.

Weather is a factor — in less temperate climates, outdoor performances are generally relegated to the summer months. New York City’s Shakespeare in the Park is representative: It’s free, low-key, and family-friendly.

Cooking classes generally aren’t free, but they’re not always more expensive than a nice restaurant meal.

The more significant issue is time. In Bangkok, you can devote about three hours and $60 to a memorable, well-run group cooking class that led a dozen or so attendees on a kaleidoscopic culinary tour of Thailand. It was delicious, and you can pick up a handful of easy recipes we’ve since prepared successfully in our home kitchen.

13. Look for Free or Low-Cost Food

You don’t have to embrace freegans, a bridge too far for buttoned-up travellers and definitely not a good look to show your boss. Nor is it necessary to learn as much as you can about urban foraging before you visit a new city.

All you have to do to sniff out free or low-cost food is be in the right place at the right time. For example, make sure you get to these eateries during the right time of day:

• Bakeries near closing time for a fire sale on the day’s last goods
• Bakeries near opening time, when day-old bread and pastries sell for way below regular price
• Pizzerias and other establishments that sell “display” foods that don’t keep overnight

Years ago, during an extended (and very frugal) journey across Europe with a few friends, we got a free extra-large pizza from a kindly Parisian proprietor who we suspected was legitimately worried we’d starve if he didn’t feed us.

14. Seek Out Events with Free Food

Clever event organizers use free apps and refreshments to lure on-the-fence attendees. Affirm their decision-making by patronizing said events, such as museum exhibit openings, university lectures, teach-ins, and rallies.

That alternative weekly you picked up earlier should highlight the highest profile of these events. Do some Internet sleuthing or check individual institution websites to fill the gaps?

15. Eat Less (or No) Meat

Going vegetarian or vegan is a healthy, frugal lifestyle choice. But it’s tough to execute when you’re used to eating meat regularly.

Travel is an opportunity to break out of your animal protein routine and try plant-based alternatives. It’s easier in big cities, where vegetarian and vegan-friendly restaurants abound, and in countries where meat is less central to the local diet. (Think India and Southeast Asia.)

Who knows? When you get back, maybe you’ll be ready to make the switch for good.

16. Join Restaurant Loyalty Programs

For hungry, thrifty travellers, restaurant loyalty programs are gold. Where you’re more likely to encounter participating chains in your travels.

Make a habit of joining every restaurant loyalty program you can, even if you’re not a regular. You’ll get occasional freebies via email, push notification, or snail mail as a result. But if you’re lucky, you might qualify for a standing discount.

17. Use a Rewards Credit Card

Use a cash-back credit card or travel rewards credit card to reduce the final cost of your food purchases and earn exclusive cardholder or loyalty club member discounts.

Premium cash-back and travel rewards cards can return 5% or better in select purchase categories, including restaurants and grocery stores.

Some high-end travel cards confer even more valuable perks, such as free breakfasts at participating hotels or in-flight discounts with participating airlines. For example, the Delta SkyMiles Gold credit card slashes in-flight Delta purchases by 20%. Read your card’s terms and conditions, and plan accordingly.

Final Word

While far away from home at least once per month, usually for trips considerably less elaborate than journeys to Portugal and Thailand. But in a typical month, you can eat at least a dozen meals outside my home county.

You’ve developed two parallel systems for staying fed away from home: one for flying vacations and another for driving vacations. The former involves street food galore, while the latter features lots of (healthy) snacks and (less healthy) fast food.

Similarly, you can mix and match these strategies based on your needs, whether that’s the type of travel or even a life circumstance. For example, if you have specific dietary restrictions or food allergies, you can lean heavily on some tactics and avoid others. As long as you can stay well-fed without breaking the bank, you’ll come out ahead.