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Great suggestions above. I'd add to start brown-bagging it at work - homemade sandwiches are far less pricey, and you can always make something you like rather than relying on a menu somewhere. Bring canned soft drinks from home, too - those vending machines add up.
Start researching the areas you are interested in now. Consider making a shorter trip - long weekend, perhaps - closer to home. The Great Smoky Mountain National Park is only about two and a half or three hours from Atlanta, and the North Georgia mountains are closer than that.
When you're on the road, pack picnics, a cooler, a water-boiler and dry soup mix, hot chocolate, tea, and instant oatmeal, muffins and fruit for breakfast, and you'll only need to buy one meal a day. Maybe less. Many motels offer free breakfast each morning, and some include fresh fruit, packets of jams and jellies, plus peanut butter packets and bread. You could make your own peanut butter and banana or jelly sandwich for lunch, grab an apple, pack chips along and you'd be good to go.
Charleston, SC is another easily drivable destination - both the mountains and the beach are very, very different from Atlanta itself.Taking a short trip of this kind would not only be fun, but would reassure you about your ability to travel solo, and perhaps help highlight any particular areas of travel or planning which might need attention. Now is the off-season for Charleston, other than for Christmas visitors. Parts of the Smokies get busy in December (especially Gatlinburg) but are quiet until spring elsewhere, and prices reflect it. Gas prices are low now, too, so it's a good time for road trips.
Well if you travel to big cities, safety is an issue. You could end up being robbed or hurt in the wrong areas if you get lost. Plus it is kinda weird to eat out alone.
Why do you believe it's weird to eat out alone? One doesn't need a companion to experience hunger. People eat out alone all the time.
Why do you believe it's weird to eat out alone? One doesn't need a companion to experience hunger. People eat out alone all the time.
I really like doing things alone...most of the time. But I get nervous if I am sitting alone in a crowded restaurant. Sucks. Wish i didn't feel that way. I have missed out on eating at a lot of restaurants in Atlanta because of this.
I really like doing things alone...most of the time. But I get nervous if I am sitting alone in a crowded restaurant. Sucks. Wish i didn't feel that way. I have missed out on eating at a lot of restaurants in Atlanta because of this.
Just take a paperback or magazine with you. It's fine to read at the table if you are alone at the table!
I've always been weird about eating at a crowded restaurant alone, while being totally fine with doing anything else by myself. But it finally took eating at a crowded cafe in Beverly Hills to become completely okay with it. I'm not sure what did it, but if you do it enough you just hit the breakthrough moment of "this is TOTALLY okay"
Well if you travel to big cities, safety is an issue. You could end up being robbed or hurt in the wrong areas if you get lost. Plus it is kinda weird to eat out alone.
I recently went to San Francisco alone. I've been in Chicago alone. No bravery was required. I'm a middle aged female. You just have to be smart, as you do in anywhere, about where you are at and what time. The internet is full of information. Most people have smart phones that can provide directions.
As far eating alone--nothing weird about it. I often will eat at a bar/grill type place and sit at the bar. It's a bit more comfortable than a table sometimes, but I've never felt weird at a table alone.
Nice thing about both Portland and San Francisco is that mass transit is easy and affordable in those areas.
Keep an eye on the free travel bloggers. While about 90% of their content is about credit card churning and you don't have the disposable income to go there, they'll also publicize alternate ways of getting airline miles and hotel points for cheap or free. Currently there's an IHG (Holiday Inn family of hotels) promo where for about $50 in mailing supplies and a willingness to spend a few hours filling out index cards, you can get about 50K points. Since I generally redeem IHG points at a penny a point or better, that's a $500 or better value in free hotel stays for me.
I also go market research surveys and 'get paid to' programs to cover about 70-75% of the costs of our domestic trips. Some of them pay out in PayPal cash, some in gift cards, some in hotel points/airline miles. It's not 'make money fast' but I'll make a few bucks a night playing on my laptop while spousal unit watches something on tv I'm not terribly interested in. My current rotation (and probably more than what you wanted to know)
Swagbucks- surveys and watching video ads- I redeem for- PayPal cash, American Airlines GCs or Hyatt Hotels GCs
PrizeRebel- surveys- redeem for PayPal, Southwest Airlines GCs or American Airlines GCs
MyPoints- surveys, shopping portal, some videos. Redeem for United miles
Checkpoints- watch videos, scan barcodes for products in the grocery store (food companies want to expose you to their latest version of Rice-a-Roni Extreme) redeem for either Southwest points or American Airlines miles
perk.com- videos on a smartphone (not it doesn't have to be an activated cell phone so you can run it on an old or burner phone you got for $15 at Best Buy and if you've got unlimited internet, Perk will let you run 2-3 phones at a time) redeem for American or Hyatt GC or Starbucks GCs (Spousal Unit is not much of a fast food guy and there are times we end in a Starbucks when one of us are horribly bonking. Since the Starbucks app works in the UK, we have indeed had tea and frappachinos during one such bonk while looking out over the Tower of London)
Opinion Miles Club- surveys for United miles. After the great Houston ground stop fiasco of 2015, Spousal Unit is reluctant to ever fly such an incompetent airline again, so I'm pretty much trying to figure out a way to use these on a United partner airline
Points for Surveys- surveys for Jet Blue points. No Jet Blue service at nearby airport so I turn them into IHG points at points.com
e-miles- slow earner that offers a few redemption options for IHG, United, and Southwest. I go with IHG because for some odd reason, they post as elite-qualifying points.
eRewards- surveys using their mobile app- admittedly a weird one offering all kinds of points & miles awards in generally but only a few will normally show up as redemption offers for your specific account. Signing up with an airline (United and Southwest currently have this as an option) should also give you a decent number of the hotel options. For domestic travel, IHG is the best option- currently no limit on the number of awards you can redeem with them and points post as elite-qualifying. If you're planning a trip to Europe, you can set up a Le Club Accor account, and it's not hard to get enough points for €40 vouchers off a future stay. And you can often find nights in their budget level clean, modern, and climate-controlled Ibis brand hotel in the €50 a night range. (Right now the Accor points are also posting as elite -qualifying and that will get you a free drink at check in and a later check out time upon request)
Location: We_tside PNW (Columbia Gorge) / CO / SA TX / Thailand
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Lots of great budget hints above, there are more on Frugal / economics forum. Food / entertainment budget, I put $100 / month in an envelope. When the envelope is empty, I get creative. (Have done this for our family, and still eating / entertaining on $100/ month, as I have for 35 yrs (excluding travel expenses )
Car trips are CHEAP. When not flying & renting a car, I drive a 50 mpg Waste cooking oil burner car that cost me $35.00 (VW Rabbit found in Brier patch), So my fuel is free (As it has been since 1976). I can drive 1250 miles / tank, so not hard to find a chinese / mexican eatery who needs to dispose of their cooking oil, (Don't try this in Portland! Too many WVO burners, you have to PAY to collect waste cooking oil. Don't try this in SF... Illegal to collect and transport WVO (over 5 gal at a time). Restaurants must track cooking oil disposal records (to assure no 'locals' are getting it.)
Eating alone... Don't let it weird you out. Find another spot... or... sit with your handphone 'browsing / pretending to browse'. I seldom eat in restaurants or hotels. Food trucks (specialty not to be missed in portland and SF) do not care if you are eating solo. Get out of the box and join someone else who is eating solo (This is very common to do in much of the world. (out of necessity))
I really like doing things alone...most of the time. But I get nervous if I am sitting alone in a crowded restaurant. Sucks. Wish i didn't feel that way. I have missed out on eating at a lot of restaurants in Atlanta because of this.
Sit at the bar and eat. And if you can sit at the corner of the bar there will nearly always be someone to talk to.
Been all over Michigan in last two months in my new vehicle. I mainly travel alone and have no problems doing it. I live in Tennessee.
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