Oregon trip wrap-up

We've been back from the trip since Tuesday evening but I haven't had the motivation to update. I'm just discouraged in general because we spent as much in 4 days as we spend most months :/ Eating out is a budget killer.

We didn't spend any money on Sunday, the day of the wedding. The food was very yummy, a big brunch spread with the world's best bacon and a custom crepe station. Monday we ate a lot at the free continental breakfast so we only paid for one meal, an early dinner. Damage: $45.35! Ryan really wanted to go to Claim Jumper, a chain he discovered on a California business trip. There are no locations in the East so I gave in. Their big draw is the desserts. We got the $9 brownie sundae (my hand is in the picture for scale, but the sundae was still bigger than it looks):
On Tuesday, even though we smuggled some food out of the hotel I HAD to get a sandwich at our layover. And Skittles from a vending machine... $7.57 total.

I learned that the town flea market will be May 16. Fortunately I think I can work that in to my schedule, so I should be able to earn back at least $300 into the budget. To elaborate on my weird situation, I am in graduate school for ecology and study the intertidal zone on the New England shore. I will be staying most of the summer at a research station in central Maine while Ryan is back in NJ with the house and kitties. He will visit a couple times as his vacation time allows, but for the most part we will be separated. As far as the food budget goes, it will get interesting. I can't expect Ryan to do as much wheeling and dealing as I usually do, so I'm trying to stockpile stuff for him. He will be eating veggies from our garden. I will take a mini stockpile up with me, and can hopefully find some cheap local produce. The research station is about 45 minutes from the nearest town with full-size supermarkets, so I'll have to limit my shopping to once a week. They have Shaw's (related to Acme) and Hannaford's up there, so I'll have to get used to those. Also, I'll have to make room in the budget for the local specialty and my favorite protein source, LOBSTER! Nom, nom, nom!

After the Oregon trip, my much less impressive totals are now:

Year to date:
Total spent: $604.99
Remaining on Target GC: $5.00
Pending rebates: $66.95
Rebates received: $69.55
"So it's really like": $463.49 spent