LPT Request - How to keep cold food on the road.

Submitted by EheroDC t3_10nkzt1 in LifeProTips

I've recently started a job where I'm going to be travelling and using hotels a lot. My company gives me a very small food allowance to the point where I can really only afford fast food.

I would like to try and make my own meals with my budget but it would require buying perishable food without a fridge. I've done some research and found electric cool boxes that might work, but it's a lot to spend if they don't.

Can anyone recommend how to keep food cool (e.g. milk or cheese) when on the road?

Thanks

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Bongos-Not-Bombs t1_j69xorv wrote

It took me years to finally admit it, but Yeti builds a damn good cooler. I bought a Roadie 24 (their smallest hard cooler), and it keeps ice in the middle of the NC summer for a week.

With any cooler, though, pre-cooling is important. Load with ice the night before you need to use it, and then dump the water/ice and replace with new ice. The new load of ice won't be wasted in getting the temperature down, just maintaining it.

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EheroDC OP t1_j6a3sz6 wrote

Thanks, that's some great advice. Does it really last for days? That's the kind of cooler I need.

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Bongos-Not-Bombs t1_j6ac4bi wrote

3-4 days of ice easy, even without pre-cooling. The other thing I like about the smallest Roadie is that there's no drain valve - I had an Engel before, and it always leaked a little bit.

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pocapractica t1_j6av7r5 wrote

I have an Igloo with a drain. It doesn't leak, but the wall is thinner there and it sweats condensation.

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United_Stable4063 t1_j69juc8 wrote

Get a quality cooler. Make and freeze some soup in mason jars and use them as ice packs in the cooler (works with other frozen meals as well). You can even just freeze water. Pack sandwiches, hard cheeses, fruit, yogurt, ready to eat oatmeal in the cooler. You can also bring nuts, granola, etc. Eat in order of perishability. Most hotels have a mini fridge and even a microwave in the room.

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speculatrix t1_j69bj84 wrote

You can buy small fridges that run off 12V. You might be able to use in the car, might have an auxiliary power socket in the trunk/boot.

Also, get an insulated food bag or box, and keep things cool by putting in a freezer block, a thing you freeze overnight.

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ivanhaversham t1_j69avfj wrote

Dry ice in a cooler might help, but keep foods that aren’t meant to be frozen from contacting the ice. Failing that, a job from a company that pays a decent per diem would also work.

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Beautiful_Path_3519 t1_j69pg11 wrote

How many days are you away from home? Boat shops sell some really good coolers - throw a whole of ice in there and you might get several days of use out of it. In some countries bags of ice are easy to find in grocery stores, in other parts of the world the shops that sell bait to fishermen are worth looking out for.

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EheroDC OP t1_j6a3ooq wrote

Easily 4-5 days, hotels back to back. And these are cheap hotels, you get a bed and a bathroom and that's it. Most of the times not even a TV, so working with very limited resources.

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Voobman t1_j6c61jx wrote

If the allowance is so small, what is the cost of bags of frozen ice then? This in combination with the cooler that other posts have mentioned would be really effective. Otherwise you could buy the freezer blocks to keep the food cold and recharge them at the various hotel freezers that you will be at - though I think most hotels only have fridges and not freezers.

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keepthetips t1_j69akab wrote

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rededelk t1_j6apqik wrote

It's called a cooler, ice blocks last longer

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EheroDC OP t1_j6c9m36 wrote

But what happens on day four of staying in a hotel with no freezer? When the ice blocks have thawed and are room temperature?

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rededelk t1_j6cb4fl wrote

Buy another block, that's just camping these days if you want fresh eggs, etc

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