My husband has found out his room while he is away for three months of training is a fairly basic hotel room. It doesn't have the stove and kitchen supplies we were expecting. It does have a microwave and a very small dorm refrigerator.
The good news he does get 'free' breakfast everyday. I hope it is somewhat decent as some of those breakfasts can get old after awhile. There may be a manager's reception/weekly social at least one night a week.
He will be back home for Memorial Day weekend, so we might have to figure out some options for food he can buy and eat from the commissary without eating out for every meal.
He is getting per diem to cover meals. Originally we were told it was $69 a day, but it is 75% of that because of the length of the training. That works out to $51.75 for each day. For thirty days, that is $1,552. I think the man can eat decently for that, even with some eating out.
The truth is I would love to keep as much of that money as possible. Even half or 2/3rds of that amount seems possible. I guess we will know more as it all plays out.
Bummer, No Kitchenette
May 21st, 2017 at 10:44 pm
May 21st, 2017 at 11:23 pm 1495405392
what do you think?
May 21st, 2017 at 11:26 pm 1495405591
f he is willing to buy bagged salad and favorite bottled dressings, he can likely create decent dinners with aid of a microwave safe 'picnic' set, paper plates . With breakfast taken care of...What ever your DH chooses from his list for dinner forms the basis of his take-a-way lunch the following day!
what do you think?
May 21st, 2017 at 11:26 pm 1495405615
May 21st, 2017 at 11:57 pm 1495407451
You don't have to live so frugally though. We were making very little money in a HCOLA. And money was very tight. Our meals over all was really cheap too. Not the healthiest.
May 21st, 2017 at 11:59 pm 1495407598
There are microwaveable rice packets that aren't too expensive for packaged food. I don't know if crockpot or induction cookware is a possibility, but he could cook some meat over the weekend in one to have for at least the beginning of the week.
We would make our own pizzas using garlic naan from Kroger and heat it up in the microwave.
We spent a couple of months without a kitchen while renovating recently (and truthfully, even though we now have an oven we don't have full use of the kitchen) and that's how we tried to get around eating out for every meal.
Does the commissary have frozen read made meals? From Sam's we also bought mac and cheese, mashed potatoes, pulled pork, tortellini, etc that just needed to be heated in the microwave.
May 22nd, 2017 at 01:23 am 1495412618
At some point we'll be renovating our kitchen, and even though we'll be able to "borrow" our downstairs neighbors' from time to time, we won't want to do that too often. So I think we'll be brainstorming meals that can be made without an oven too.
May 22nd, 2017 at 02:47 am 1495417648
We moved and lived in a hotel room for a month. We used a crockpot and quesadilla maker to survive.
May 22nd, 2017 at 09:18 am 1495441131
May 22nd, 2017 at 11:13 am 1495448038
May 23rd, 2017 at 01:45 am 1495500333
How about if you got him some gift cards for favorite low cost places to eat and get coffee, soda, snacks to give him some options so he is not eating frozen meals or something all the time?
Also, I don't know how far away he will be from home, but if it is close enough, what if he or you were to make up some serving size meals ahead of time and him take them with him back there? I am thinking of something like chili, soup, casserole, macaroni salad, etc. Ones that would go bad quickly would have to go into the freezer until ready to heat up and eat.
May 23rd, 2017 at 09:33 pm 1495571616
May 28th, 2017 at 04:09 pm 1495984179
May 28th, 2017 at 09:37 pm 1496003825