Travel Tuesday: $40 for a Four Day

Posted in A Day in the Life of a Flight Attendant | 10 comments

We all know Rachel Ray can spend $40 a day while vacationing in a new city. But, can she strech $40 for four days?

I’m heading to work tomorrow and beginning a four day trip. I’ll be flying to Washington DC, Seattle and Boston. In Washington I only have a 10 hour layover, which is barely enough time to shower and relax, never mind eat then sleep and on day two.. I work from DC to Los Angeles, then up to Seattle.. but I wait around for a plane in Los Angeles for two and a half hours and I really can’t afford to eat at the airport anymore. So what’s a flight attendant on a budget to do when you need to eat but don’t have the time or money to go out and buy food on the road? Pack it!

$40 for four days is my budget. Mind you, we are offered crew meals on board while working, and though it is a nice gesture, it gets old. There’s only so many times you can eat the same thing over the course of four days so a lot of us pack food as well. Also, most of our hotels either have a refrigerator in our room or we can request one from the front desk. This makes packing cold food an option as on board the aircraft we can place dry ice in our coolers to keep our stash cool until we land.

So where does someone on a budget shop for good food? Fresh&Easy! For those of you that don’t have a Fresh&Easy, I’m sorry. They’re amazing. Great prices, great food, name brand products.. just all around amazing. Not to mention they regularly have coupons in store and by mail that makes their store even more of a value. So, I perused the aisles looking for items that I can make using the airplane’s oven, and the other products on board (water, milk, etc).

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Some items that I selected include: EatWell Turkey Chili, bananas, GoFigure Crunch cereal, Fresh&Easy Garlic and Parmesan pita chips, Hormel Delights Chicken Alfredo, Fresh&Easy Cranberry trail mix (it’s seriously amazing), and Apple Cinnamon cereal bars.

I also bought dinner for tonight a nice pepperoni pizza and salad along with some necessities such as bread and toothpaste.

All of which came in under $40! I didn’t even get to use my coupon!

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That’s right.. it all cost less than $30! I’ll show you the receipt later. So now that I have everything.. it’s time to pack it.

A flight attendant’s best friend is their eBag crew cooler. Which, ironically, eBags has discontinued for the time being. They claim that they sold out of them and need to make more, there are also some rumors that they were redesigning it (why, I don’t know.. it’s seriously amazing!). Regardless, if you’re lucky enough to have one you can attest to how amazing it is for packing food and keeping it fresh.

So, here’s the blank canvas ready to be filled with all of my food for four days. Though you think it all won’t fit.. you’re wrong! Sure there’s some repackaging that needs to take place but it will all fit.

First I removed some of the cereal bars from the box and I’m only taking three of them with me.

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I also put some pita chips in a ziplock bag and am only taking 3 of 5 bananas with me. Still, a lot of food will be getting into this bag. Now because I’m traveling with some cold food I also put some drinkable brita water into a water bottle that I placed into the freezer. I’ll place the water bottle on the bottom of the bag to help me transport the food from my house to San Francisco in the morning. Once I get to San Francisco I have a  refrigerator I can put my lunch bag in until it’s time for me to board the aircraft and head for Washington. So.. here’s how I packed my bag. Now.. remember that the front pouch is filled with coffee and tea that I already owned.

Coffee and Tea.

Hormel delight, repackaged cereal and 3 cereal bars.

Added the cold food: turkey chili, and lean cuisines..along with frozen water bottle.

Finished it off with hummus, trail mix and bananas (under the mix).

$27.19!

Like I said, that $27.19 even includes things I needed besides the food for work. My dinner tonight, came at SUCH an amazing price. $2.00! It was marked down from $4.. amazing.

Pizza!

In the end.. yes.. you can pack for a four day with $40. Sure, I don’t have 3 meals a day and I have a lot of snacking options. But, like I said, I’m lucky enough that my airline gives us crew meals so that also cuts down on the amount of food I have to back. But, these snacks and meals can easily hold me over on a layover until I get back on the plane the next day and save me from spending $15 for a BLT or worrying about where I’m going to eat on a very short layover.