By Gail Marsh
Packing for an RV trip can be stressful in and of itself. You want to make sure to take along everything you’ll need. A packing list like this one can certainly help. That’s just the beginning. There’s food and other consumable supplies to be purchased and packed, too. When is the best time to put those things into your RV?
Two distinct opinions
Turns out, there’s quite a debate on this topic. Some RVers prefer to purchase and pack food and other consumable supplies into their RV before starting out on their trip. Other campers strongly feel that it’s better to wait and buy food and consumable supplies once they arrive at their destination.
Pack ‘em before you leave
Michelle spoke first. “I like to pack all our food and supplies before leaving home. With the high cost of fuel, we’ve cut back on eating out. With supplies already in the coach, we can stop and eat whenever we get hungry.”
Dan agreed. “Once we leave our driveway, I’m on vacation. I don’t want to think about grocery shopping or hunting for RV toilet paper once I’m on the road. I definitely think it’s better to pack everything before!”
Barb also likes to pack food and supplies before the trip begins. “It saves time to shop where I know the store layout. Who wants to spend one minute of vacation grocery shopping? Not me!”
Miles pointed out, “After a long day of driving our RV, I’m tired. Then there’s getting parked, setting up, and unpacking clothes, etc. That’s when I’m really happy to have packed supplies and food before the trip started!”
Get food and consumable supplies when you arrive
Alan spoke up, “What you are all forgetting is that food and other stuff adds weight. Instead of hauling that extra weight all the way to your destination, just buy stuff when you get there.”
Tony voiced concern over the additional weight to his rig, as well. “Folks, there are Walmart stores everywhere! We’ve always been able to find what we need. Besides, who knows what the weather will be? We’ve had travel days where we left home in a freezing rain and ended up grilling steaks in 80-degree weather! If you wait to buy food, you can buy what you feel like eating when you arrive.”
Darci added, “Part of the adventure of RVing is discovering different foods in other parts of the country. I like to wait and see what the locals like to eat, so we usually wait.”
Mary agreed. “I enjoy shopping. Finding new local products is fun for me. That’s why I usually wait until I arrive at our destination before purchasing food and other supplies.”
Undecided but flexible
Mike spoke up. “We’ve done it both ways. Prices at little grocery stores can charge a lot more than I pay at our local Costco. I don’t like the idea of adding extra weight to our travel trailer, though.”
Dawn suggested the group try what she has found most successful. “Before we leave home, I order food and other supplies online. I schedule pick up the day we plan to arrive at our destination. We swing through the Walmart parking lot on our way to the campground.”
What’s your plan? Do you buy food and other supplies before you leave or after you arrive at your destination? Tell us in the comments below.
##RVT1087
We are a divided house. My wife prefers to provision before we leave and I prefer to provision on the journey. What happens with pre-departure provisioning is that my wife buys more than the space allows. So I find canned goods in the clothing storage area. I preach about living within the means of the space provided which earns me cold stares. Ah well, happy wife, happy life.
As you might surmise, post-departure provisioning doesn’t really solve the space issue entirely. Whenever our supplies reach the point of “living within the means” my wife heads off for another supply run and I once again find cans of tuna stuffed between my t-shirts.
try meal planning, it really puts you in perspective of what you really need. Even if only for a few days trip, I still am on the learning curve but after 13k miles, I am beginning to get it!!
Our wives must be related, mine insists as long as she has it at home theres no sense in not taking it even though 30 cans of food adds more weight. Even though we’ll probably bring 15 of those cans back with us. Then she complains the RV freezer isn’t big enough to carry a half side of beef that’s in our home freezer. Lol
She’s an old fashioned lady but I love her so I let the issue be what it is. I would hate to have a residential refrigerator in an RV as I can only imagine how full it would stay. Lol
The wives who insist on bringing food from home are probably the ones doing the cooking. I wonder if they complain about all of the tools and spare parts their men insist on bringing “just in case”.
I pack before I leave, especially spices, canned goods and food I have in the house. Why purchase a jar of peanut butter when I have 2 at home? The weight is minimal, unless you are packing for 3 months! With that being said, I have NEVER used up over 50% of my food supplies, so, I will cut what I bring in half next trip! Also, we do eat out at least twice a week when camping.
I keep the freeze dried and some canned in the trailer, a couple of water bottles in the shower. Ready to go.
For short vacations, we pack everything at home. However, if we go to the US (from Canada), we shop once we get over the border. This saves hassle with border regulations.
Me too!
We prefer to provision before leaving home, as we would rather spend our time after traveling exploring the new area, not exploring grocery aisles. We are going to be away long enough to have to go grocery shopping at some point anyway, so the less time doing so the better.
We pack the majority of items before the trip. If we forget, or want something else. It’s not an issue going shopping for more stuff. But occasionally doing it that way, we end up bringing as much, if not more, home with us.
We typically provision our Montana before leaving and resupply as necessary on the road. After a day of driving and then setting up I just want an adult beverage. The last thing I want to do is head to a store.
The point of our RV is to have everything we need right there. So we provision before leaving, and fix meals when we stop at gas stations or rest stops along the way, as needed. For long trips, we may also have to supplement the provisions with quick trips to a store to replace a few things we used up.
We do a bit of both. Preferred condiments & spices especially are loaded before we go. Ditto for food stocks we will use while travelling with only overnight stops. Where possible we make ‘double meals’ in weeks before travel and freeze half for use on those overnight stops and minimize dirty cook & dining ware. Once we reach the region where we will tour or stay, we tend to shop locally.
Having everything on board before we pull out of the driveway is the reason from day one we opted for a class A. It has gotten even better with our current DP and its 20-cube residential fridge and large pantry which gives us more than enough room for our food supplies.
Before we head out we sit down and make a list of not only what we’ll want to take for meals and snacks, but since we are “camping” how are we going to cook what we bring. This includes our Coleman Roadtrip propane grill, a small Weber charcoal grill, the induction cooktop (primarily used for pasta), or an open fire. Nothing beats breakfast cooked outdoors regardless of temps.
I am one of those who packs before we leave. Right now we are 9 days into a 7-week trip and we still have food for a couple more days. After that, we will be fine to shop locally as we wander. I do not carry canned goods, but mostly frozen and fresh. The only thing we seem to run out of early are the adult beverages, so we look for local brews along the way.
For us, it mostly depends if we plan a weekend or week of menu’s. If we know what we are eating, then we tend to stock up before we leave. Sometimes we feel more adventurous to try local fare and wing it on meals cooked at the campsite. Then we shop at the locale.
We have a 30 amp plug so we plug in the RV a few days before our departure, do a big food shopping, and unload the perishables right into the fridge.
Exactly!
I do both…pack some food for on the road, but stay flexible to try local places, or because I am a Harvest Host member, buy products from places I boondock. If I break down, or have to stop for repairs, or am far from any stores (NV), I have food available. When I cook at home I often make extras and freeze the extras, that I put in the RV refrigerator just before leaving on a trip, along with frozen bottles of water so I always have ice cold water to drink. It keeps everything cold when on the road, and is defrosted and ready to eat when I get to my destination. What little food I pack doesn’t add up to enough weight to worry about.
Our motorhome is pretty much ready to roll at all times when we’re at home. The fridge is turned off, but all the refrigerated staples (Ketchup, mustard, soda, etc.) are in a crate in an indoor refrigerator ready to move into the motorhome, same with the freezer. Between work and weather, we never know when we’ll be on the road tomorrow. Milk and eggs we can buy at our destination or on the way.
To save refrigerator space, don’t put the ketchup, mustard and mayo in the fridge. They didn’t need to be refrigerated. They sit in a warehouse and at the store with no issues. My parents always had in the cabinet at home. We do the same camping.
Hi, Paul. When those jars of condiments sit in the warehouse and the store, they have not been opened. For mayo, the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture says that an opened jar of mayo should not be at room temperature for more than 8 hours, although I’ve read conflicting reports. I think mustard and ketchup are more “shelf-stable” and refrigerating them would just be to maintain the quality longer. Have a great day. 😀 –Diane at Rvtravel.com
“Store-bought mayonnaise is made with pasteurized eggs and contains lemon juice and vinegar — both acids that make the mayonnaise an unfavorable place for bacteria to grow. Refrigerating commercial mayonnaise after opening has more to do with quality and less to do with spoilage.”
Thanks, Gary. That makes sense.👍 But I’ll still keep mine in the fridge since it takes me months to finish a jar of mayo.🙄 Have a great day. 😀 –Diane
We travel with a 27 foot TT so space, while more than adequate for the 2 of us, is at a premium. We prefer to pack enough consumables for the first 7 days of our travels buying what we need as we go.
We camp in a 22* Prowler trailer. I keep it turned on all the time as we also use for extra sleeping for family . I have containers of pre packaged food , canned veges, soups etc. in the storage area. The fridge & freezer are filled with the mayo etc. When ready to leave i put in the lettuce, tomatoes, onions, potatoes etc.to the trailer. Since we BOON DOCK and aren’t really close to stores i have to carry with me all that i might need. Use a cooler for the soda & juice’s. We are usually out for at least 10 days at a time so need to be prepared.
Boon dock
off grid
The last thing I worry about is traveling with all the extra 25 lbs of groceries so we prepack everything. The 5th wheel already has everything we need in it. (Emergency get away if needed). The only thing we put in every trip is food. Plug the RV into the house the day before, turn on the fridge, load it and go!
Groceries don’t weigh that much, so that’s not an argument to me…my concern is keeping everything cold enough while traveling, so we just buy just enough perishables for the first one or two traveling days, then go to a grocery and stock up with the rest of the perishables. That way, the fridge is stabilized once we’re at our destination.
I load the trailer before we go. Oil, condiments are ready to go. If we are going to be gone a longer time of course we stock up along the way.
Even if we go on a 1000 mile trip in the car, no less our RV, we pack in some sort of food or survival stuffs. I guess no one has ever spent the night in a snow drift waiting for the plows to come thru, or have come upon a town that has just been wiped out by a tornado with nothing open, or had a clutch cable go out in the middle of nowhere. We pack before we leave. AND we don’t necessarily have a planned destination – other than to get back home.
We are leaving for at least 2 months tomorrow. We pack things for the road trip..we take about 10 days to go from CA to FL…and we empty our freezer/refrigerator into the motorhome (we do start paring down our food purchases and try to consume everything before we leave, doesn’t always work out). We definitely like to try the different cuisines in different areas, we have our favorite restaurants along the way and at our destination. But, as we are gone for 2 months we don’t eat out every day. Even grocery stores have unique items in different areas. We enjoy shopping in local groceries.
We provision before we leave and I do some meal planning. Sometimes I also prep a few crock pot dump meals to freeze before we leave home for those days that we really don’t feel like cooking. I prefer to put in a little extra work before we leave so I can relax while we’re away. Since we tend to take pretty long trips, we do end up having to grocery shop at some point, but it’s mostly for a few perishables or a meal we have a craving for. I find that the meal planning helps a lot. It gives us lots of meal choices while cutting down on having lots of random and unneeded food packed.
We pack both staple foods, and a variety of on-the-road snacks. The reason is we often stop mid-day and make lunch in a rest stop, or scenic pullout. But, no matter how well we pack, there is always something we forget, like dijon bbq sauce, or marshmallows, and chocolate.
I’m a planner, and I plan out our meals for each day. Our fridge is tiny, so it can only hold about 3 days worth of food for 4 people. I also bring as much canned/pantry type foods as I can, but again, we have a pop up so it’s limited on space. I plan to go to grocery stores every 3 days or so, so we can restock. Sometimes meals go out the window – like when we were at Arches, boondocking and it was over 100, and we ended up throwing out the food in the fridge because the fridge got too warm. Plus, who wants to cook in that heat?
I cook and freeze meals at home. Fill up the RV freezer with about 21 days of meals (I eat only once a day) and put a weeks worth in the fridge to thaw. Two years ago I spent three weeks traveling from NV to GA and spent less than $7 eating out. I bought some fruit and vegetables along the way, oh yes and some girl scout cookies. I’m just not a big fan of spending money on mediocre to bad food and having a stocked freezer makes it easy to eat on the go.
I like to pick before. the weights not the issue, its the running and forgetting at the store on the way up as you rush through it to get items. Coming from a big city we get way better pricing on goods locally compared to a small town. We do like to support local and try to eat out 2x or 3x on week long trips and buy local brews and wines while in the region. This year we will be smoking briskets and other items on the Trip. I prefer to be a campfire watcher and cook and relax hardly inside our camper other than late at night or if it rains.
Always before. Helps us to avoid eating out en route. When one is a planner, it also eases the anxiety of what you’ll have access to. We still leave room for “local flair” but nice to have fallbacks as needed
We try to bring all our food with us. We find restaurant food to be too high in fat and salt to eat out frequently so I pack the fridge & freezer the morning we leave for our trip. I like bringing meals I previously cooked, froze, and can be easily thawed and reheated along our way. Works well for us.
I always have can and dry food packed in the RV in case of an emergency bug out. I also pack some of my favorite foods just before I leave. The rest I buy near my destination.
Since we mainly camp in Banff and Jasper where food is expensive, we load all our food at home before we leave.
We are planning to snowbird starting next winter. Because we will be crossing a national border, we will shop for food after we cross.
We pre-cool the refrigerator with gallon jugs of frozen water. Takes the load off the cooling system. When we leave, the frozen food goes into the freezer and the gallon jugs are put into the shower for drinking water. Dry staples and canned goods and condiments go into the pantry. Minimal things put in the refrig, just enough for overnight stops.
We have a TT so there is always a vehicle available for a quick trip to a grocery store.
Like almost every one else, we’ve learned the hard way not over pack.
We travel VERY light. No kitchen gadgets (insta pots, microwaves….or an oven even!), no excessive outdoor furniture or grills. We are very comfortable packing all food before the trip, with one caveat: If we are staying at an HH with farm goods (eggs, meat, etc), we will buy that sort of thing there, since we would buy it anyhow, and then we are shopping local as well. No added cost to the trip to stay there either (cuz we all know HH is not free)!
We always pack up before we leave. We travel in a large class A pulling a toad. It is difficult to go shopping along the way because of access limitations (crowded Walmart parking lots are difficult to navigate with this rig). And, most of our destinations are remote (Matagorda Texas is 25 miles from the closest Walmart). We rarely eat out as my wife has serious medical dietary limitations. I prepare all of our food (it has become my retirement hobby), so that I am sure it is healthy for my wife. So, in preparing to leave, I simply empty the household refrigerator/freezer into the residential fridge in the motorhome and off we go.
We are fully packed with food and water before we leave. We travel and have been out for months at a time. We do not necessarily know where we will land for the night. Once we leave, our destination is to make it home safely.
I like to pack my rv at home so I can load stuff like condiment and paper products from home supplies and not have to buy new. saves money and the problem of having multiples of mayo, ketchup, dressings, etc., open when we get home and unload the rv refer. we haven’t had any problem with weight.
We generally go away from “civilization” and we rarely eat out. If we don’t take it with us we may not be able to get it. On rare occasions we wind up somewhere “civilized” and buy groceries after we’ve left home. We do like to have basics on board so we’re free to do whatever we need to if we don’t make it to our destination on time.
Some places do not have a convenient WalMart or other large grocery so we load most of what we need. Places without all the stores are the kinds of places we like to go. Rather see critters than people.