[toomuchcoffee]

In order to keep my costs down, I stayed with a friend the whole week... I cooked all my own food.

That's not "travel." That's "staying with friends." Completely useless to compare day-to-day budgets for the two categories.

On that note, I'm sure I'd save a heck of a lot of my day-to-day expenses in the major city I live in if I was "staying with friends" and had time to cook my own meals all the time.