Half of UK Vacationers Surveyed Fess Up to Pilfering the Bread Rolls

When I was a teenager, we traveled across America on vacation, even though my father been laid off. We kids slept in the back of a red Nash Rambler station wagon. Our lunches of baloney and cheese sandwiches were dressed with condiments surreptitiously pocketed - along with packets of sugar and coffee creamer - at the roadside rest stops where we freshened up. An occasional doggie bag from the grownup's supper made things interesting. I can still remember chunks of steak eaten out of a cardboard box on the shores of Green Bay in Wisconsin.

Packed Lunches and Petty Theft
So much for reminiscing. In the midst of the credit crunch, hard pressed consumers are still stretching the vacation budget with a little culinary petty theft. According to a survey of British vacationers conducted by The Post Office, 40 per cent of vacationers (55 per cent of the under 25s) admitted stashing food from hotel breakfast buffets to eat later in the day.

Not only that, they are bringing food along from home when they go on vacation. The survey, conducted in connection with the launch of a Post Office pre-paid travel money card, found that about 72 per cent of British vacationers pack their own food in their suitcases to save money - an average of £34 in savings over the course of a vacation. In fact, 30 per cent of vacationers say that packing their own food will be their number one way of saving money - compared with only 18 per cent who will cut down on alcohol (well this was a British survey).

Among the popular items to pack?

• Tea bags
• Cornflakes
• Marmite - a love it or hate it yeast spread that lots of British people spread on toast.
• And potato chips. Bet those arrive in tip top condition…for a tuna casserole topping.

If you are visiting the UK and arriving from Europe, you can bring pretty much any kind of food that you can buy there along with you - stocking up at the cheaper Hypermarkets before crossing the Channel.

Arriving in the UK from North America? If you are willing to sacrifice your luggage weight allowance and space to bring along your favorite cookies or breakfast cereals, you may be surprised at the kind of foods you can bring into the UK from the USA.

And here are some other ways to save money while traveling in the UK:

• Cheap Eats
• Cheap Rooms
• Cheap Admissions to Attractions
• Cheap Travel
• Cheap Shopping

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