We are principally weekend campers since I have every other Friday off and I try and get to some place closer than say 4 hours away on one of those long weekends per month.For us, the (extra) cost of food is ZERO since we bring all the food from home. We even bring leftovers, and on one trip we only ate leftovers for lunch and supper! That got kind of boring so we still bring leftovers just in case we are too busy / lazy, but we bring all the eggs, bacon, bread, meats, veg., rice/potatoes etc. and we eat that for breakfast and supper. No eating out, because we are ... camping!I see some folks saying that their camping trip food costs can run into the hundreds of dollars and I am wondering if they are eating out while going camping.What do you do for food and how much do you typically spend on food?

We go shopping for our camping weekend, and the food bill is usually 60 for the 2 of us. We buy thing that we don't buy on a regular basisIf I wanted left overs i'd stay at home :)

I'm like you, we eat camping what we eat at home. Usually brings hot dogs, burgers, bacon, eggs, will make pizza and sometimes steak. Just depends on how long we are camping as to what we bring. One campground is near a Steak and Shake so we treat the kids to that on Saturday for lunch.

Maybe it's not the food but the drinks, just sayin....Before we became full timers, when we went camping we cooked food ahead of time and had home cooked meals to warm up. Cook spaghetti and put in zip lock bag. Bottled sauce. Tuna salad for lunch. When we grilled, we made hamburgers, hot dogs and chicken not steak. Our food costs are about the same camping as they are at home because we don't change our eating habits.

I've found for short trips, I can stock the RV with food from home, and it doesn't cost extra, since I was buying that food anyway.On longer trips, when I'm away from my home grocery, the mom'n pop grocery just outside the campground usually costs double on groceries.Sure I could go on a drive (sometimes a long drive) for a larger discount grocery, but the time cost outweighs what I'd save on food.

Cost of food while camping ... does it have to be high?No - we don't even count regular grocery expenses in our vacation expense reports. We do however count dining out and we have to do that at least once per trip as we are in a new place and have to experience the local cuisine. I actually got sick of lobster on our trip to Maine. :R

Cost of food while camping ... does it have to be high?

mlts22
Explorer
Mar 18, 2014
I have two modes of camping. When going to another place and hitting FHU, I tend to eat out, perhaps some basic groceries.

When dry camping at a festival (where I drop my rig there for four months and use it on weekends) I bring a cooler full of frozen foods, milk, fruit, cereal, and some cubed cheese. I also bring plenty of bottled water and Gatorade. All that goes in the proper fridge/freezer compartments (including gel freezer packs). When heading home on Sunday night, remaining stuff goes into the cooler. As an added bonus, the gel packs do a good job at pre-chilling the refrigerator unit, so it hits operating temperature in a few hours rather than overnight.
NewportNewsTT
Explorer
Mar 18, 2014
We have had three trips on the order of two months or more. When we left home, our 6 cubic foot fridge was packed with 6 cubic feet of food and the cupboards were packed with food from the shelves in our kitchen. We were still working on frozen veggies from our garden at least a month later. We shop at supermarkets, eat about the way we do at home, but go out for dinner about once a week to test the local cuisine wherever we are. Since we are eating pretty much the way we would at home, we don't consider the food to be a "travel cost."
JordanH
Explorer II
Mar 18, 2014
My food list for camping usually consists of: Beer/Liquor, Pop, Bacon, Eggs, Bread, Steak, Potatoes, and snacks! A weekend for two usually end up costing $80-$100
Kittykath
Explorer II
Mar 17, 2014
Our camping menu is always better than the home menu. I like to cook and experiment, trying new recipes. We have more time for that on the weekends. I bring along whatever kitchen gadget I need for the task. We're empty nesters this year, and we have no picky eaters and no diet restrictions, so it's a fun free-for-all.
BurbMan
Explorer II
Mar 17, 2014
downtheroad wrote:
When camping we never bring any food. We always eat out in restaurants like this....

I've been there, that's the family restaurant attached to the rec hall at the Yakima KOA. Food is good but service is a little snobbish. Also would have done better without upholstered chairs if they are gonna let kids in with wet bathing suits.
Gene_Ginny
Explorer
Mar 17, 2014
When we go to Maine I spend WAY too much money on lobster rolls. :B

Sometimes we indulge a bit when traveling but most of the time we eat the same as we do at home. We may spend a little more on the road than at home but not much more.
phenrichs
Explorer
Mar 17, 2014
Well for us camping costs a bit more because we out, outside. We love to cook over fire so we do a lot more steak, chicken, and large cuts of meat like pork shoulders and things like that over the open fire. Those things tend to cost more. We do eat that stuff at home occasionally but the gas grill or cooking inside just doesn't do some of my recipes justice.
fingers252
Explorer
Mar 16, 2014
im not a full timer but we do camp a lot from feb. till nov. the way we do ours is we stock our camper before 1st trip and keep it stocked just as we would if at home which means gro. bill is about he same
Caveman_Charlie
Explorer II
Mar 16, 2014
Wasn't Ptomaine the woman on Star Wars that fell in love with the guy who turned into Darth Vader and had Luke and Leah for kids? Or, something like that.
wmoses
Explorer
Mar 16, 2014
dave54 wrote:
We have been directed to some hole-in-the-wall cafes that look like ptomaine taverns from the outside, but have wonderful local cuisine inside.

Ptomaine caverns ... I like that terminology. :) Haven't heard that word (ptomaine) in donkey's years.

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Cost of food while camping ... does it have to be high?

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