So we had basically a month without our mortgage. Not including utilities and insurance and other stuff we were going to be spending $2500 on just the mortgage and property taxes. So I figured if we spent around there or less we'd come out ahead.
Our total hotel/camping spending came out to $1832.70 for 27 days and that included two mistakes and a huge overspend the night before we left. I also did not deduct my $50 gift card from choice hotels for two nights stay.
First off I'd like to say camping is a super cheap vacation. We spent 9 days camping for a total of $268.33. That includes paying $27.13 for a campsite one night we didn't use. So we should have spent $241.20 on average $30/night. We spent 18 days in hotels for $1654.81 averaging $87/night.
However with the hotels we made two mistakes one in Niagara Falls leaving early and paying $44 for a night we didn't stay. Second the night before we left we were staying by the airport. Unfortunately the Rodeway Inn I booked only had smoking rooms which were unacceptable and which I was refunded our money. But we had to scramble literally in the Rodeway Inn's parking lot for another place to stay on a Friday night before Saturday flights. I ended up staying at a ridiculous DoubleTree Hotel for $159.20. We had made a conscious decision to leave the car at our new place and wanted to stay within shuttle distance of the airport since our flights were at 8 am.
But overall we did well for the month. I was hoping to stay under $1500 but $1800 for the month was a great deal. That leaves me with I budgeted $1500 for food for the month eating out and stuff.
I am going to guess we may have gone over $1500 for experiences and food. I was trying to stay under $100/day but we'll see. Traveling and buying as you go makes food very expensive. Somewhat like trying to sell a home and move, you are eating from the pantry but also not shopping in bulk or sales. Instead trying to cobble together meals and buy stuff to compliment what you have rather than truly meal plan.
So our budget has been pretty blown these past few months. I shudder at trying to run the numbers.
Hotel Spending on our roadtrip
August 4th, 2015 at 07:22 pm
August 4th, 2015 at 09:25 pm 1438723531
August 4th, 2015 at 11:36 pm 1438731413
I Ioved the experiences and folks we met camping. It can be fun to meal plan on a cross country trip but you are in totally different grocery aisles. A lot depends on available facilities and reliable cooler. I saw it as a nearly perpetual picnic. The library has a lot of cookbooks for camping with basic ingredients, all easily converted to microwave, induction cooktop or electric griddle/frypan.
http://www.homedepot.com/p/SPT-1300Watt-Countertop-Induction-Cooktop-in-Silver-SR-964TS/202595872
Our DSs learned basic cooking at 5 y/o from one of those cookbooks for university dorm students lol... cheap, fast, easy, healthy.
August 5th, 2015 at 02:08 am 1438740520
August 5th, 2015 at 03:02 am 1438743731
With the kids we've always done food trucks late at night in NYC or DC or LA or SF. But going cross country some of the food places were amazing. One night in Bay City Michigan we tried a stein haus and there was a group of people playing in a band together practicing drinking beers. The kids loved the MUSIC.
Snafu for camping we were packing up most nights quick so we started out fancy with steak and potatoes and eggs in foil sort of stuff. Then ended up with rice a roni and hot dogs and mac and cheese. It was exhausting.
But I'm curious about groceries and eating out. Groceries were certainly higher everywhere we shopped mostly because we were buying at daily stuff at campgrounds since we had only a small cooler and had to buy ice to boot. Our car was already packed to the gills. Thank god we had the rooftop carrier which held the camping gear.
August 5th, 2015 at 06:41 am 1438756901
August 5th, 2015 at 05:59 pm 1438797562