In Need of Budget Food and Drink Ideas for Car Trip

[Justsyd2]

I don't usually take car trips; I fly, but we have a funeral to go to this weekend, and DH wants to drive. There will be 3 Adults and a male teenager. Can you please help me put together a car trip? I really don't know anything about them - I'm looking for food, drinks, and necessary items. We're looking at about 14 hours of driving. We do have an ice chest! Thanks so very much! (Sorry to sound so ignorant!)

 

[disneylove69]

Fruit, trail mix, a good sandwich, chips w/dip, veggies w/dip. Stay away from the sticky stuff. If it's cold you could do soup in a mug.

 

[smidgy]

drinks: either juice packs, or bottled drinks with screw tops that you don't have to drink the whole thing once you open it. (saves on bathroom stops)
slim jims are great to holdoff the munchies.
buy prewrapped subs to eat at a rest stop.

 

[disneymayz]

First I would recommend driving overnight if possible. That cuts down on the amount of food you need. It takes us 14-15 hrs to drive to Disney and we drive overnight. We stop once early morning at McDonalds for breakfast.
OK that said - I would get pack a drink that doesn't taste that bad when it gets a tad warm. I drink Gatorade casue I don't mind the taste when the chill has left. I say this cause if you are driving in a car your not going to want a cooler in the back seat taking up room. If driving during the day I would say pre=made sandwiches that way you can eat while driving.

 

[NeedaVacation03]

I second the bottles with screw on lids. I hate having open cans in my car. We take fruit- grapes, strawberries etc that are easy to eat. Many times we will go to subway and pack subs for everyone. We dont eat out often and see this as a reason to pick up something that is healthier than a burger and fries. We are not a family that drives allnight. I have no problem getting on the road by 3am, but I can not drive allnight. I admire people who can do it.
We have one item that goes on every road trip we take-Combos. I started bringing them in college and it has stuck with me ever since. Now when we travel the combos travel too. It is the only time I buy them and now everyone eats them. Just a funny family thing.
My other suggestion would be to not over buy. We used to buy too much and have cut back and find that we actually eat it all and we buy items better for us.

 

[momof2gr8kids]

I always make muffins. If we didn't have banana chocolate chip muffins on one of our road trips, the kids would worry something was wrong!

You can cut up some cheese, meat and bring some crackers along.

We will pre-make some sandwiches, but then I cut up stuff like tomatoes and pickles and put them in a separate container to add them later, so the sandwiches don't get soggy. Sometimes I will get some nice buns, pre cut all the fixins', then we will make them up quickly at one of our stop overs. That way no one is whining about something they don't like in the sandwich.

 

[MandM-Mom]

My kids love Cold Pizza in the car, we just do cheese and or pep. so the toppings don't fall all over, stick it in gallon ziplocs. We also like to get the fried chicken from our grocery deli and eat that cold, with both of these we have lunch and don't have to worry about hitting a drive thru and dropping a ton of money for 5 five people. We also really like the cracker barrel precut cheddar and some keilbasa and crackers for a good snack.

 

[RooRach0906]

Dried Fruit, Chex-mix (this is a must have for me), Goldfish, SlimJims, Sandwiches or lunchables, as for drinks sodas, water, or juice boxes.

 

[scrapbookmommy]

I just tried the Special K Fruit crisp bars yesterday and they are really good. I plan to pick these up for our upcoming Disney trip. I hope to find some at my Target tonight to get in on the gift card deal and swimsuit coupon this week.

 

[michelle06]

When I was 18, I was invited to tag along with my grandparents, aunt and her 4 kids as a graduation present. We went in a big van. Grandma packed 2 coolers and we did not eat out on the way down. She made homemade fried chicken and put it in the cooler. We ate cold chicken, stopped at a rest stop for lunch. She also packed chips, raw veggies, cans of pop, and other stuff. Can't remember. However, my family is going to do this this summer. We are driving 16 hours and plan to take a cooler. Our plan is to not eat out on the way down (more money for Disney, right?). We are taking granola bars, yogurt, bananas, grapes, sandwiches, chips, water bottles, soda cans, string cheese, crackers, probably pop tarts for breakfast. Haven't got it all planned out yet, but the plan is to leave EARLY and eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner out of our cooler so we are going to just try to take a large variety. I'm even thinking of baking some banana bread to take with us!

Looking forward to reading what others have to say!

 

[CherylA]

I always make rice Krispy treats for car rides. I guess they are kind of like my combos

Bottled water and drink mix sticks, bag of baby carrots, chips. Usually I bring things that will limit what we need to buy at a fast food stop. For expmple if we stop at McDonalds we just buy burgers and chicken nuggests, then we eat chips, baby carrots and the drinks we brought (we eat all this in the car, we don't bring it into McDonalds!)

 

[Justsyd2]

Thanks so much for all of the wonderful ideas! The two people that my DH offered to take with us have no money, but very expensive tastes, so I was worried about having to stop to eat with us paying for their meals. These are great ideas, and it will be much less expensive for me to pack everyone something!