Dinner from $40 to $4

When Chris and I really got serious about planning this trip, we took some easy steps to help us save more money. Key to this plan was cooking at home. Before embarking on this plan, we would typically go out to eat at a number of our favorite restaurants in Mill Valley - sushi, gourmet burgers, Indian burritos, Italian - about 4 times a week, and we think we'd average about $40 per meal. And even under our new plan, we still would often be lazy and shop at the very nice but very expensive local grocery store a block from our apartment. However, now that we have been gainfully unemployed for 2 months and are no longer living off the good will of family, we are being even more careful with our food allowance. For the last 3 days, we have averaged about $4 for dinner, including our choice of tasty beverages. For example, tonight we are staying at the lovely Mission Bell RV resort, complete with saltwater pool, jacuzzi, shuffleboard, and horse shoes for $26. A little rich for our tastes, but we're right on the border of Mexico and RV resorts seem to be the only camping options. For dinner we had tasty chicken and dumplings with peas and carrots, a Hostess-like dessert, and the champagne of beers.
 

Once we leave the US, we don't imagine there will be such cushy RV resorts very often in our future, but last night's camping experience will probably more closely resemble our camping options (we hope!). We drove our car out onto the beach on Mustang Island, on the Gulf of Mexico, and were lulled to sleep by the gentle sound of the ocean.  We'll find out tomorrow as we will be crossing the border into Mexico for several nights of camping in Monterrey.