Saving money.....
 

My question is...being a regional guy now with limited income...what do some of your do to safe money on not only food but other things as well? Obviously not eating/drinking out all the time is key. So I just got one of these cooler packs that loops through the hand on my travel bag. Now that I've got it...I'm just trying to get my head around how I'd pack for a 4-5 day trip (commuting) and trying to eat some what healthy.

What do you guys do to avoid the spare tire/expensive airport food? And what other methods do you use to save money?

I try and bring enough food with me for 3 days worth of lunch/dinner. Breakfast/coffee is what I will spend money on or eat for free at the hotel.

You get creative sometimes. Gorge on free breakfast. If there is no free breakfast, bring some packets of oatmeal. I bring granola bars and fruit packs. Crackers and cheese. Leftover meals in a Tupperware that freeze well. Sometimes you figure out which airports have good deals on airport food. I went to eat with a friend of mine who is also a first year FO and he was really focused on price, and got a decent priced hamburger. I got some teriyaki chicken and rice plate for about a dollar more and twice as much food. My friend realized that he was focused solely on price and not dollar per pound, but you start to figure it out over time.

Panda Express or chipotle is usually a good bang for your buck on the road.

Yup. And a good food poisoning will help save money on a trip.

Hahaha!!! loool.

I'm trying to lose weight anyway.

More likely to poison yourself schlepping that thawed tupperware around than having some panda on the road.

--br br--

As to saving money, you could do the college standard and sell plasma on your days off. Things might get a bit hypoxic and anemic in the cockpit, but hey I'm sure your CA is used to one-man ops....:rolleyes:

First year FO pay really isn't that bad anymore. I made $33,000 my first year. I think that we can afford to actually eat food while at work while making $33,000. Sure, I did work another part time job on the side which payed me another $8k-$9k my first year, but that is just because I have a wife and kids.

If I bring a cooler on a trip, I will never carry more than one day's food in it. Get up in the morning, go to Subway and pick up a footlong sub. Have them cut it in half and wrap the half separately. Eat one for lunch, and one for dinner. That, combined with a free hotel breakfast, and you can eat for $6 a day without even trying hard to do so.
Grab some snacks out of the airplane, as well as a couple beverages, and you are not even close to spending your per diem on food on the road.

I also carry oatmeal in my roll aboard for when breakfast doesn't start until after I leave the hotel for early morning shows. I'll pick up an extra apple or orange from the hotel, or maybe wrap a couple of muffins up in a napkin and put them in my flight bag or cooler if I think that I will want them later.

The best thing, however, is the first class meals when first class isn't full. Those things are pretty darn good, to be honest.

I'd rather bring my own food than eat cheap crap on the road. My wife has specific dietary needs and she's a good cook so everything she makes for me to take tastes better and is healthier than 95% of the crap available at the airport or near the hotel. Some guys don't like the hassle of packing their own food though and you do have to get creative if your hotel room doesn't have a refrigerator so to each their own. I've had food poisoning once already in the past year and before coming to the airlines I hadn't had real deal food poisoning on almost a decade. It isn't a matter of if but when.