Convention Thrifty Food Shopping
Ladies and Gentlemen, Convention are a fantastic time for all! It doesn’t matter if you’re going to an Anime Con, a Gaming Con, or a Steampunk Con you probably are going to a con to hang loose and have a good time! For many of us, particularly those that frequent MANY conventions, they can also be a money pit. Whether you are skating by from working that minimum wage job or just want to use the money for extra Pocky, who doesn’t want to be able to save money? Other than having understanding roommates or just having a heart of darkness and taking advantage of them, you probably can’t save a ton of money on a hotel room, and unless you’re a panelist or working the convention (Which is a fantastic money saving option so long as you ACTUALLY do the work you commit to doing) the price of the ticket is the price of the ticket, but one of the hidden costs that cosplayers rarely think about is food!
Food… you’d be surprised how many con goers forget to eat it, but if you’re like me you like food. You like it a lot. Because of this, I have devised a few staple foods and quick and easy ways to prepare them so you won’t have to decide between bouncing a check and eating. First and foremost, think about how many meals you’ll be eating. Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner, and random snacking should all be accounted for. So let’s start with the most important meal of the day, Breakfast!
I like to start the day with a banana; you can get a bunch for around 99 cents at any grocery store and it also allows for random snacking later. The same can be said with an apple or oranges, though they are usually around 2-3 dollars for a pack. If you don’t like those fruits, strawberries and blueberries can be a bit more expensive but will work as well. None of these foods REQUIRE refrigeration but you should probably pick them up the day before the con just to be on the safe side. If fruit is not your thing, knock off brand pop tarts can be found 6 for a dollar or so. If you ABSOLUTELY need to get bottled water go for it. You can always bring some with you but individual bottles of water can rack you up around 4-5 dollars. I always just stick with tap water in a glass the hotel provides. If you are not staying at a hotel, bring a reusable bottle and refill at publics drinking fountains as needed.
For lunch, we can mix things up with your favorite spreadable foods. A small tub of peanut butter (because you WON’T need anything beyond the smallest tub of it) will run you around 2-3 dollars and utensils (Knives to SPREAD the PB) will run you around 1-2 dollars if you know where to look. A common misconception about peanut butter is that it needs to be refrigerated. Does it taste better cold? Sure, but it can stay unrefrigerated as can jellies and jams (but they can start to get expensive). If you have a peanut allergy but can eat other nuts, Nutella is a fantastic alternative, but if you are allergic to all nuts there is a number of alternatives that can be found here or by simply googling “Peanut Butter Substitutes.” They will probably run a little higher but in the long run are cheaper. Bread doesn’t have to be designer bread, individually wrapped, one can usually find a loaf for a buck-buck fifty at a supermarket. Off brand potato chips can be as cheap as 2 dollars for a large bag whereas name brand is usually 4. Buy soda ahead of time if you know you are going to want soda but for the hardcore thrift-o-crat the tap water is still your friend!
Dinner time, soup’s on every pony! We can (And I do) try to maximize our savings by just repeating the meal I had for lunch but let’s say you can’t live on Peanut Butter or you want to have a low cost special meal Saturday night to prep you for some crazy raving! Cup noodles are perfect as are a number of the other brands of ramen in a bowl. They can run you between 2 and 4 dollars depending on the brand. Hot water can be made by filling the hotel coffee pot with water and allowing the hot water to drop from the machine into the coffee pot. Once the water is done boiling, transfer it from the pot to your cup. If you are hardcore thrifty, bring your own bowl and buy the super cheap 99 cent bricks of Ramen. If Ramen isn’t your thing and you’re OK with cold spaghetti(ish) meals, Chef Boyardee as well as a number of it’s competitors, offer many of their foods with a key on the can for easy opening without a can opener. There are also individual tiny meals of tuna fish and crackers you can find in the tuna aisle but they start to get expensive.
If you snack, snack with a purpose. Foods that will keep and provide you with energy. I like apples for that reason. I would also go back to the off-brand poptarts as they can be very filling. Cereal without milk (Frosted mini wheats especially) can be low cost if you buy off brand and quite filling. Nutri-Grain bars can also be your friend.
All these numbers might amount to a lot at first, so let’s run through a worst case scenario, but bear in mind all numbers are approximate:
Bananas: $1.00
Apples/Oranges: $2 .00
Poptarts: $1.00
Peanut Butter: $2.00
Jelly: $4.00
Bread: $1.50
Potato Chips: $2.00
Utensils: $2.00
2 Cup Noodles: $6.00
Grand total: $21.50
A cheap footlong sub, small chips, drink at Subway outside of Otakon: 9.50
Skip Breakfast so 9.50×4=$38.00
That is almost double, with no snacks, no breakfast, and very little energy by the end of your day. It’s small but you can even shave money off my estimate by eliminating a lot of the things on my list because they’re not all necessary. That twenty bucks could mean the difference between you having gas money or standing on the street corner with a sign that says “Will Yaoi for gas money!”
