I took a solo road trip and spent less traveling for six weeks than I would have if I’d had a home base. Yes, traveling CAN be less expensive than staying put. Here’s how.
Let me start by saying: I’m not a numbers person. I have a lazy budgeting method for a reason. When it comes to numbers, I hide. I round up. I ignore.
It’s not just about money; I do this for all kinds of numbers. I budget exclusively so that I can travel, have no idea what I weigh, and use clothing items instead of temperatures to describe the weather. Not a numbers girl.
However, I quit my job with a number in mind of what I could spend per month to sustain myself for a year. Therefore, I have to keep tabs on what I’m doing and spending. The following numbers might not be 100% accurate (see the first paragraph), but this is the approximate total of what I spent and experienced over the last 5 weeks of my solo road trip around the United States.
Solo Road Trip: Cost of Gas, etc
- 67+ hours of driving
- 4,765 total miles driven
- My Honda gets 33mpg hwy
- About $370 spent on gas
- Got an oil change before I left for about $55
- Thought: this would be less if it weren’t a solo road trip and if I had friends to travel with!
Solo Road Trip: Cost of Lodging
- Amarillo – CouchSurfing $0
- Denver – stayed with friends $0
- Wyoming – Solo camped 3 nights $30
- 1 night in a hostel in Jackson $50
- Bozeman – 2 nights in a hostel in Bozeman $30
- Billings – Conference hotel with a shared room for 5 nights – $140
- Minneapolis – stayed with friends $0
- Iowa – stayed with family $0
- Kansas City – stayed with friends $0
- Total cost of lodging: $250
Solo Road Trip: Cost of Food
- Grocery run #1: $47
- Grocery run #2: 53
- Other food such as snacks at gas stations: Budgeted $6/day or about $200, but didn’t spend it
- Dining out and drinks with friends: probably about $600 over 6 weeks (my family and friends treated a bit, and we did lots of at-home fun)
- Beer runs: $150
- Total food and beer bill: about $1000
Other Fun Things
- 10 States visited (TX, CO, WY, MT, ND, MN, IA, IL, KS, MO)
- 2 other states crossed (NM, OK) but no stops so they don’t ‘count’
- 2 side trips to NE Iowa and Wisconsin with family
- Returning to the ‘not a numbers person’ thing, let’s say my car was in 13 states total
- 13 different beds/couches/tents
- 37 days away from home
- 2 weeks with family
- 5 nights in hotels
- 4 National Parks/forests visited $80 park pass
Total Solo Road Trip Cost Breakdown:
- $1693 spent, plus some petty cash here and there
- Averages to about $42/day including gas, lodging, food, fun, etc.
- Doesn’t count the $340 plate ticket I purchased for later because I’ll pay it off with points
- Doesn’t count comped events, memberships, credit card annual fee
- $612.50 earned working online
- About $1100 on living expenses at home such as insurance, rent, etc, but not including investment/retirement accounts
- Total home expenses + travel spend – money earned = $2180
What the Numbers Mean
I’m still deciding what I’ve taken away from these numbers. My first thoughts are this:
If I didn’t have expenses at home such as rent, my loss would be significantly less. I’ve run these numbers several times over the last few years, and it’s what’s led me to decide that I’ll take next year off of having a home base. I can build my business and brand while on the road, thus marrying my living and travel budgets.
I spent 37 days traveling on less than $3000 – and could have done it for less. Even though I’m in the negative, I knew I would be and planned for it. Still, even if I didn’t make a little bit of money, I’d come in below $3k. This comes to less than $36k/year, which is a lot less than most people I know live on. Not bad, right?
Additionally, these numbers help me to realize what I spend in the US – one of the more expensive places that I spend time. If I spend time in cheaper places, I’ll have lower expenses.
Finally, it proves that I can work while traveling and that I can increase what I make on the road every month until I find a surplus. To that note, I have enough set aside to last me for a year, but every dollar made while traveling extends the amount of runway that I have before going back to the corporate world. My goal is to never have to go back, and that’s why I’m working to build my income up now rather than just traveling aimlessly.
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Where would you go if you had a month to spend on the road?