What do you budget per day for a trip?

[Bobbie Mayer]

If you took your trailer on a cross-country trip, what would you budget per day other than for gas? Maybe this ought to be in the full-timers area but it might be different for a full-timer.

[Joseph Domingos]

I'm curious to see what the more experienced folks have to say here as well Bobby. I'm kicking around doing a cross country trip this fall, and I would love to have some advice on how much to budget for...
Words of wisdom & experience anyone??? hehe

Joe

[Frederick L. Simson]

Budget? Budget?? We don't need no st...

I'm probably not the smartest money manager in the world.

Using The Long, Long Trailer Trip, 2009 edition as an example, once we got home and I tallied up the credit card receipts, I'm remembering vaguely that those 3 weeks cost us between $1500 and $1600 on the cards plus an additional $400 cash.

Those figures include gas, overnight campground stays, the unfortunate breakdown repairs in rural Kansas, occasional restaurant meals, groceries, coin laundromats, souvenir shopping... Not included were pre-paid reservations at Bullard's Beach State Park in Oregon, Babler Memorial State Park in Missouri, and my contribution to the Family Reunion Costs. I think the grand total averages out to $100 per day for 2 people.

[Donna D.]

Like all budgets it really depends on how you spend money. I'm one that likes to know as much in advance what something is going to cost. So, if I plan to visit the standard "tourist traps," I go online to websites and find out about entry fees, etc. But, if you plan to just travel and do the freebies... costs would be considerably lower. It's all in the preplanning....

[floyd]

We generally don't "budget" very closely for our trips with Eggy-Sue {the pull-it surprize}, but we do usually track expenses.
Over the last six years we have spent over 200 nights in our Scamp and have averaged just under ten dollars per night for lodging.
We don't really track food expenses since they are very close to the same as eating when at home[Maybe even a little less].
Fuel mileage has averaged about 17MPG when towing with the Ranger and just over 23MPG when towing with our Escape.
Attractions and activities cost what they cost and these are the expenses that we contemplate before leaving home. We like sight seeing , biking, relaxing, or walking the beach so this number is kept reasonable, unless we find a special antique piece of furniture or face wound clock to take home.
Eggy-sue is a thirteen deluxe front bath Scamp

[Harry Young]

I guess we are the cheap guys on the block, we go camping at the sites we pre-plan for, our average not including gas is about 15.00 per day...break downs we have had but I bring tools. Our 2700 mile two month jaunt cost 900.00. excluding gas.

We eat three meals a day in the trailer, it has a shower and we like state camp grounds.

The dog bones cost, she is picky.

Happy Camping, Safe Trails.

Harry and Kenna

[Robin G]

I should sooooooooo stay away from this post . Sorry, I am not a budget'er.......... It is what it is.

As far as posting this question in a "fulltiming" forum, you will get very tight budgets from full timers cause it's their life. It's not their vacation. People tend to spend more daily on vacation then daily life.

There are so many variables that I think it would be hard to set a daily budget and stick to it. Personally I think it would be easier to say, We have this much money to spend on our trip and stick to it. I am one of those people who is tempted by what I see in an area. And then travel days depend on if your a cruz'er or a scream'er (do you cruz along and stop as you see something of interest or are you a scream'er that runs long and hard to get to your next destination? ) Travel days for us really means eating out. Cause I am not cooking, cleaning, then driving 3 or 4 hundred miles.......... So we usually eat out at least once on travel days.

Harry, I need to have the names of the places you stay, cause state parks around here are so expensive for dry camping!

[Gina D.]

lessee....

I went to Colorado from Show Low a few months ago. Was out for 10 days. I dropped about a grand, most of that gas. I didn't eat out and I did what I *danged* well wanted to.

Stayed in private, state and FS campgrounds, and my mothers driveway.

It was free :-P

So, avg. 100 a day when Vacationing, but I can do much less for long term.

[Joy A]

I'm not a budgeter either but I do keep a spreadsheet of my expenses.

Interestingly enough I just posted on the Scampers Yahoo site my expenses for the 2 1/2 month, 9,600mile 2006 Alaska trip. I averaged $50 per day which included camping, gas and food/misc. but didn't include the ferry trips back. I ate more takeout as I didn't want to attract bears to my camper.

I also just looked at my 3+ month, 12,000 mile trip to the Great Lakes in 2008. I was surprised that it also averaged about $50 per day. I cooked more at my trailer. I don't skimp on food so grocries for me aren't much cheaper than takeout/eating out.

I boondocked very little on both trips as I wanted hookups for various reasons. So if you choose to boondock quite a bit that would take the daily average down. My camping fees on both trips ranged from $5.00 to $30.00. I was in Nat'l forests at Senior discounts ranging $5-$10 and then in SP's and campgrounds ranging from $20 to $30.

[Nancy]

We are in the $100 per day camp. Sometimes even more. We cover lots of ground when we travel. Get 17-18 mpg. Generally eat one meal a day out (two of us), sometimes nice dinner, often just fast food. Oh, and we often share a meal with one of us just getting a salad or soup. Hearty breakfasts; just one of us orders the plate, I get 2 scrambled eggs. We often opt for table water and pass on wine or soft drinks.

We do not splurge on campsites. Often forest/government places with our senior discount. Maybe half of the time inexpensive campsites, 1/4 of the time moderate price places, and 1/4 of the time more expensive sites. I prefer to eat out than to have full hookups in resort area.

The year the gas prices were up we had trouble meeting that $100 per day.

We don't budget. This just happens to be the cost it works out to.

My records are from trips of 3,000 to 6,000 miles.

Nancy

[Adrian W]

What! A Budget, that's some kind of small parrot like bird isn't it. No, I'm not a budgeter. We just try to keep the cost down as best we can. Mainly the fuel cost will be the major price tag. We look for low cost campground, mainly public caming, we will be eating if we are on the road or not, we mainly cook or own food, etc. and we do not go over board on shopping and entertainment. The entertainment is the traveling and camping, walking, bird and animal watching. Maybe a museum or some other attraction now an then. We often over night on the road at a Wal-Mart if possible or look for a free site at http://www.freecampgrounds.com/ . We take a lot of per made meals with us, mainly frozen and a supply of can food, etc.

Been doing it like this for many years, started with a TT in 1986.

Key is never spend more than you can pay for now.

[Alf S.]

Hi: All...Budget...They rent cars don't they??? We keep track of expenses. Fuel & KOA/ Good Sam etc. avg. $80. per day. Food doesn't count as you'll eat at home too.
Last summer we did 4000 mi. to the east coast with 2 free nights meeting members from the forum. Very entertaining!!!
Alf S. North shore of Lake Erie

[Raya]

I think it's like asking "What does it cost you to live in your regular life, day to day?"

That is, it's totally different from person to person, depending on how they choose to travel.

That said, it's still a fun question, even though there's no "answer."

I'm not sure what you mean by cross-country trip (?). If you mean a "makin' miles" type of trip, then I don't budget anything extra beyond gas. That's because on that sort of trip I eat regular food (peanut butter sandwiches, carrots, home-made coffee, cheese and crackers, etc.), and I figure I would have been eating that at home anyway.

Of course I keep a chunk o' cash (or a chunk o' card) handy in case of breakdown or etc.

If you mean a cross country long/fun trip, with camping, destinations, activities, or etc. then that's another whole ball game.

Raya

[Bobbie Mayer]

Well, my plan is to visit friends coast to coast. I'm not going to do the tourist attractions so no big expenses there. I'll probably spend about 1/3 of the nights in someone's driveway (at least.) I'm thinking at most 400 miles per day on driving days but that depends in part on where I am that day. I'll work in a few dog shows (rally or agility) but I'd budget that separately. I guess the main things are average cost per night to camp, and gas. I'd probably spend about the same for food on the road, maybe a bit more, though but that would balance with scrounging other meals at friends' houses.

[Robin G]

I eat regular food (peanut butter sandwiches, carrots, home-made coffee, cheese and crackers, etc.), and I figure I would have been eating that at home anyway.

Raya

Oh so raisin bread is for special occasions?

[Rick in OKC]

Budget, that's like something we did during our first 15 years of marriage. Nope, no budgets now but our cost arn't outta sight as long as I can keep the wife outta those dang Walmarts. She thinks they're like flea markets expecting to something different at each one. I keep telling her it all comes from China but she just don't believe me. Budgets - yeah right.

[Raya]

Oh so raisin bread is for special occasions?

<_< Very funny....

()

[Weinel, Alan]

Put us in the "what budget??" category. We seem to average around $100 day. Just happens. Some days WAY more, others less. We tend to eat in - and on travel days frequently do sandwiches at lunch time. Like to stop at a park in a small town.

Camping fees & gas are the two big drivers. BEFORE this trip we always had hookups. I use a CPAP and we really wanted the 110. NOW I picked up an extra battery and a small Honda 2000i genny and we are doing it a bit different.

We are 10-11 days into a 6 week trip. Will report back to this topic with a post trip breakdown. (Thank GOD Michele is good at keeping those records. I was a bean counter before retirement and don't care to count them so much anymore. lol)

[Robin G]

<_< Very funny....

( )

I thought so!

[Bill MacDermod]

we did a big trip to the northwest in 2006, gas prices were real high, we went right at 12,000 miles and spent just under $5,000 bucks. We were gone 8 weeks in all and we aren't big spenders. that included a set of tires and a new battery, both for the trailer. Sounds like you will be more travelers than destination folks. 400 miles a day will be about 3 tanks of gas for every 2 days of driving plus when ever you stay in a campground average [at] 30.00 per night. so the activities and eating will be the unknowns, plus emergencies (hopefully none) These figure are still estimates but would work for our situation. We are taking the on the southwest this year starting with the Blue Bonnet