For a Driver Ed project, i have to plan a trip to Nagshead, NC. This included food, gas, ect. You are given $1000 to spend on these things. In order to cut back on costs, i am thinking of taking a big box of alka celtzer and bread, feeding it to sea gulls, and cooking their bodies for food.

well, they eat fish and stuff, so i assume if they don't eat poisonous fish...

Driver Ed? Oh, and how long will the trip be? 1000 bucks should be enough for gas both ways, plus a fair amount of food if you get it cheap, plus room at a really cheap hotel if it's only a week or so.

Cup ramen!

You really can't make Sea Gulls Explode with Alka celtzer...

Use Taco Bell Fire Sauce or Del Scorcho! Both make Seagulls make funny squacky noises. And... what kind of drivers ed is this?

1000 bucks. Hmm..

-3x Organic 2lb Beef Summer Sausage: $13.00 at your local grocery
-2lb block Cabot extra-sharp cheddar: $15.00
-4 packages wheat thins (at $2.50 apiece): $10.00
- Big bag o' salad mix: $4 at your local grocery
-3 gallon jugs of potable water ($2 apiece): $6.00
-Tent: less than $200 shipped, REI.com
-Blankets and pillows: No more than $20 at Goodwill or StVdeP.
-Gas: 4 tanks (avg. 15 gallons at $2.00/gallon for Plus): $120.00
- Camping at a state park ($20/night, 4 nights): $80.00
-The good grade you get for showing your teacher that kids DO know the value of a dollar, and doing the trip for less than $500 ($473): Priceless

Edit: you can do it for less.
Non-organic summer sausage makes the meat cost $6 total. Savings of $7.
Local brand cheddar cuts 5 bucks off the cost of cheese for a cut of $5.
Wheat Thins become saltines, saving $1 per package for a savings of $4.
Salad Mix becomes carrot sticks (2 bags at $1.50 apiece) for a savings of $1.
Just use the park's provided water taps swaps the $6 jugs for free jugs from the recycling center and tap water. There's 6 bucks.
Tent: Forget it. Recline the seats and sleep in the car to save $200.
No, you do need the blankets and pillows, but you could do with less of them and cut the cost by $10.
4 tanks of Plus becomes regular at $1.75/gallon. Savings of $15. Deal with the engine tick.
Park in a dark corner of the day-use area parking lot, under a tree if you can. Save 40 bucks for the first two nights until the ranger notices you on the third night and kicks you out at 2:00 A.M. (I've done it)
Total Savings: $288
Ghetto Trip to Nags Head: $185

Couldn't you just borrow someone's tent? Also, saltines aren't very filling at all...

sure there edible..... but have you seen the crap they eat.

PS i remember feeding gulls ' flying saucers' which were like rice paper circle filled with sherbert and that used to make them cough and crashland, though they always came back for more...... weird

People get sick from cigarets, and they come back for more.

wow ctishman, you truely are an valuable asset to this community, i hadn' thought of half those items as food. i was limited to soda and fast food. :)

Fast food is actually pretty expensive... Five bucks for a meal at McDonald's?

Urza easy easy easy:

Okay, go to your local wholesale store and buy the following

Ramen Noodles (2x per meal per day)
Cereal
A styrofoam cooler
Soda/Juice

At home:

Pack bottles of water
Use your own freezer to create ice to fill the cooler
Place the following into the cooler:

Sodas
water
Any cold items

Then, easy, SLEEP IN THE CAR! that immeditaely eliminates the camping or hotel costs.

Eat the cereal as breakfast (stop along the way and get a quart of milk and keep it in the cooler). For lunch and dinner (depending on length of trip) Ramen Noodles, although get some apples or something as taste demands, but sparingly, dont but 7 apples and throw 2 away.

Not a bad idea, but you left out the hot-water maker... An electric tea kettle, miniature propane stove, whatever... Just some way to make hot water... Oh, and chopsticks! Gotta have chopsticks for ramen...

You could always eat the ramen dry... with your fingers...


Eww...

There are these pre-prepared meals that you can get at camping supply stores. I forget how much they are, but they self-heat using water and something that oxidizes with water. They taste descent. I also wonder if there's an Army surplus store that sells MREs. Hmmm... probably not now, with the war and all, but were this peacetime, MREs would be the way to go.

Nah, I looked at the MREs last time I was in the local army/navy store. They're something like 7 bucks a piece, and they're gigantic...

Take Lemming with ya, he's tasty.
Also if you mix gasoline types you can essentially get an in-between grade gasoline which costs in-between! Just make sure you don't head to California... gas costs... ugh, not good :P

You wouldn't need to heat to water, in a pinch you could (depending on state) just open the hood and set the water out on the radiator. But you can get a little camp stove from REI for 20$ that'll last years!

MRE, funny story bout those...my S-4 once shoved a MRE heater (they're water activated) into a Dasani waterbottle and dropped it into a trashcan outside our CO's office. The water caused the MRE heater to become a fuse inside the bottle. The bottle exploded showering two girls in paper and water and also sprayed the same debris in a 50ft radius...


Oh yeah, and MRE's are large because they are designed to replenish a soldier on the battlefield where he is burning Carbohydrates left and right. The MRE is typically very high in Carbs and you may only need two meals (breakfast and lunch) if you go with some MRE's because it'll hold you over until morning.

MRE's in terms of taste arent that bad though, I've eaten several during ROTC outtings (we were out with some actual soldiers and we decided it would be cool to eat MRE's like the big guys) not too bad

Hey, you wouldn't happen to know where I can buy the MRE heaters in bulk, would you? :D

/me runs off to check American Science and Surplus...

Edit: Wooo! 50 cents a piece! I love Google! (note: take out the space I added in to prevent wrapping breakage)

http://www.majorsurplusnsurvival.com/Merchant2/ merchant.mv?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=0204703&Category_Code=16

Edit (2): Huh, it looks like they also sell MREs without the heaters for about two bucks each in bulk. Those actually might be viable, Urza. Assuming you have the space for them, that is...