Recently my daily food expense has been around $10-$12 per day average. I rarely "dine", cook most of my meals, I am frugal, but I also eat a lot.

a lot depends on where you're touring. i rode australia for a year and
averaged about $5/day total.....but back then the exchange rate was
about 4:1. i do miss kangaroo steaks.

now all my touring is in asia: cambodia, laos, china, vietnam....no point
in carrying much gear. food is cheap and usually good, sometimes, ummm,
interesting. guesthouses can be found for $3-10 per night. average cost
of a tour here is $15-25 per day.

breakfast runs around a buck.....not many options unless you're staying in
backpacker central with western omelettes and banana pancakes. locals
typically eat rice porridge or noodles. enough for an hour of riding, then
seconds. shopping at night will run about the same cost for fruit and some
type of bread, and perhaps some lovely extruded meat product.

normally try to stop at a small roadside restaurant or stall for lunch. a couple
dollars gets a filling meal. a very filling dinner of whatever is available locally
runs $2-5, then add a buck or two for snacks at night.

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This is about the same as my experience.

carbs, fat, protein and electrolytes......perfect for the long distance rider. I just can't imagine drinking straight pickle juice though.

you may laugh, but years ago I used to regularly buy these big jars of Polish pickles, and especially in the winter when the heating makes the air dry etc, whenever I started to feel a tickle in the throat of a cold coming on, I'd sip some of the pickle juice a number of times per day, and it always made my throat feel better and stop it from getting worse. The idea came when eating pickles with a sore throat and noticing it felt better afterwards, acidity I guess doing its thing.

Weird but true. And it isnt as disgusting as it sounds, at least not with that brand of pickles that had loads of greenery floating in the brine.

That greenery is dill. :)

And what you do there is probably similar to an old recommendation I heard a long time ago to gargle with salt water to ease a sore throat.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/28/he...real.html?_r=0

I liked my grandmother's sore throat remedy: a shot of whiskey with a little honey mixed in:)

Honey is great for a sore throat. The whisky can't hurt...

My $20+ steak and fixings, plus ice cream at some point, blows the hell out of a frugal food budget. Good thing my tours are only 2-3 weeks.

On my first tour I found out very quickly that cereal, hot or otherwise, in camp did not get me that far. At the end of each day, several of us would plan the next day's second breakfast stop. We usually liked to get between 10-15 miles under our belts.

Doesn't really matter if you're sick or not!

Gas stations will suck the money out of you faster then anything....

$10-15 a day if you avoid restaurants with the occasional fast food dollar menu. I like getting sodas at fast foods joints, I will refill the cup several times, then take a cup with me to go to fill one of my water bottles. Loading up at the supermarket is wise to do.. Loaf of bread, pound of oscar-meyer, box of little debbies or other carbs.....

Depends on if you want to eat enough to get by or eat enough to replenish all the calories you burned + your maintenance level. I toured spending about 5$ a day on food but the pace I kept and the calories I consumed did not even out, this would not be ideal for a tour longer than a few weeks.

Some tips to save money:

- Don't purchase fluids, ever. Just refill your water bottles at parks, gas stations, anywhere that has a spigot.

- Don't buy foods from regular grocery stores or gas stations. Buy packaged goods ready to eat from dollar stores, surplus stores etc., that mark items way below retail.

- I didn't bring cooking gear to save time and weight, but if you are hell bent on eating as cheap as you can, a stove + rice will last a long time.

- Roadside fruit stands / farmers markets for cheap produce. Excellent road food.

- Buy some stuff in bulk you can take with you before leaving. I found some Clif Bars & Builder Bars on close-out and brought a ton of them with me. Pack was fairly heavy at first but not ever needing to stop for food those first few days kept me movin.

Eating while Touring
 

Handlebar bags are great places to keep snacks to nibble on while you ride .. :innocent:





See: Freeganism .. http://freegan.info/

Several of these answers are pretty helpful. Mostly just needed to know how much other people had averaged per day. Thank you very much. Your responses are very much appreciated.

I can say that I usually spend $30 to $50 per day on food if I eat at diners and restaurants. I don't do much cooking on tour and find that the most inexpensive way to eat healthy is by putting together meals at a super market. You can get lots of good stuff from the deli, fruit and vegetable sections.

When I do cook I find spices make all the difference in the world. Things like cumin, za'atar and curry are three good spices to bring with you.

There is nothing like fresh food to end a long day of biking weather you eat out or cook your own.

If your not in the wilderness, don't skimp on your meals every day. Enjoy yourself while your on your bike vacation.

and beer!

I'll be leaving Xcountry next May and one of the things I plan to eat a lot of is good old fashioned SPAM! My preference is for a high fat diet SPAM certainly fills the bill! Also I plan to take along some avocado oil to add to the freeze dried stuff. My big concern is getting enough greens, so I plan to stop at grocery stores and buy pre-made salads. Salad dressing will be avocado oil and balsamic vinegar. Time will tell if this is workable.

Thirty to $50 per day for my wife and me. We tend to eat healthy , well balanced meals at home and see no reason to do anything different when on the road. Depending on the duration of the tour, it may even more important to eat well on tour. We avoid fast food places, except Subway, unless they are our last resort. However, we do consume a lot more calories, and always leave room for ice cream.

My wife's rear fender.

http://i783.photobucket.com/albums/y...623d20ac76.jpg

You could try to go the free route when it comes to eating ...

Living on road kill and bush tucker: One family's epic cycling adventure - ABC Ballarat - Australian Broadcasting Corporation