SiouzQ.
7-4-15, 10:25am
In my oodles of spare time I have right now, I have been sitting here figuring out how much various parts of my trip cost. Here is the breakdown:
$554.97 - fuel for car. I drove exactly 5,221 miles in 3.5 weeks and that breaks down to .11 per mile
$453.10 - camping and lodging fees. I ended up getting two "cheap" motel rooms, both in Colorado, when the weather was bad. The thing that dismays me is it is not so cheap to camp anymore. BLM and Forest Service Campgrounds are around $15 per night, State Parks are around that as well but many times you also have to pay the State Park entry fee too, and private campgrounds are anywhere from $24 on up. KOA's are super expensive so I tried to stay away from those as much as possible, but sometimes after a long day on the road, the convenience factor plus all their anemities seem worth it in the long run. A hot shower was such a luxury on this trip, as I think I only took four actual showers the whole time! A couple of the nights I camped for free outside the town of Madrid, NM but it was a little rough because I had to purchase water to drink and there was no picnic table, just an open field. But free is free, and as long as the weather holds, I can do stuff like that for several days on end.
$339.53 - food. This category includes buying ice for the cooler almost every single day, especially in Arizona and Utah. A fifteen pound block of ice barely lasted 24 hours in the over 100 degree heat in Moab. Maybe next time out of curiosity I will separate out the expense for ice only just to see how it jacks up the cost of a trip. I only ate out at restaurants a couple times, both when I felt like I needed protein. Other than that, I ate a lot of salami and swiss cheese on sourdough sandwiches. It is hard to eat very many fresh veggies while on a trip like this, but I managed to make some kale salads and stuff like that.
So all in all, the actual trip portion came out to about $1500, though there were other expenses that went into different categories like the supplies I purchased for my business, and the cute little boots I splurged on at one of those 25,000 pairs-of-cowboy-boots place they have in Missouri. That splurge went into my clothing budget for the year. So I pretty much stayed within my budget without cramping my style too much. I allowed myself to be spontaneous and do things because I was there and when the opportunities presented themselves. I didn't obsess too much over the money I was spending; I just tried to be frugal where I could and splurge and have fun when it seemed worth it!
$554.97 - fuel for car. I drove exactly 5,221 miles in 3.5 weeks and that breaks down to .11 per mile
$453.10 - camping and lodging fees. I ended up getting two "cheap" motel rooms, both in Colorado, when the weather was bad. The thing that dismays me is it is not so cheap to camp anymore. BLM and Forest Service Campgrounds are around $15 per night, State Parks are around that as well but many times you also have to pay the State Park entry fee too, and private campgrounds are anywhere from $24 on up. KOA's are super expensive so I tried to stay away from those as much as possible, but sometimes after a long day on the road, the convenience factor plus all their anemities seem worth it in the long run. A hot shower was such a luxury on this trip, as I think I only took four actual showers the whole time! A couple of the nights I camped for free outside the town of Madrid, NM but it was a little rough because I had to purchase water to drink and there was no picnic table, just an open field. But free is free, and as long as the weather holds, I can do stuff like that for several days on end.
$339.53 - food. This category includes buying ice for the cooler almost every single day, especially in Arizona and Utah. A fifteen pound block of ice barely lasted 24 hours in the over 100 degree heat in Moab. Maybe next time out of curiosity I will separate out the expense for ice only just to see how it jacks up the cost of a trip. I only ate out at restaurants a couple times, both when I felt like I needed protein. Other than that, I ate a lot of salami and swiss cheese on sourdough sandwiches. It is hard to eat very many fresh veggies while on a trip like this, but I managed to make some kale salads and stuff like that.
So all in all, the actual trip portion came out to about $1500, though there were other expenses that went into different categories like the supplies I purchased for my business, and the cute little boots I splurged on at one of those 25,000 pairs-of-cowboy-boots place they have in Missouri. That splurge went into my clothing budget for the year. So I pretty much stayed within my budget without cramping my style too much. I allowed myself to be spontaneous and do things because I was there and when the opportunities presented themselves. I didn't obsess too much over the money I was spending; I just tried to be frugal where I could and splurge and have fun when it seemed worth it!