When I started planning the road trip I broke down our major expenses into 5 categories. These categories are Lodging, Food, Transportation, Fees, and Miscellaneous. Our overall budget was $2000 for 2 people (so $1000 each). After the trip, I do believe we could have done it even cheaper if we needed to. For the entire trip, we ended up spending right about $2000. Which was on budget for us.

We did buy a few things along the way that made us go over budget, but were not necessary to be included in the budget. If you include every single purchase we made while away as well as the costs for making the car ready for travel we spent slightly less than $2400.

Where we went and what we did for this budget: @crewelerr

Lodging

Total Spent: $240 

So the first category is Lodging. In total we spent $240 on places to stay. We slept in the car 15 out of the 20 nights we were gone. Out of those 15 nights we stayed 3 times at campgrounds, Great Sand Dunes Oasis, Wahweap RV and Campground, and the Moab KOA. Out of the 5 nights we didn’t sleep in the car we spent 3 nights with friends/family, 1 night in an airbnb, and 1 night in a motel. 

Lodging can be the largest expense on any trip, so in order to keep our trip inexpensive we stuck to sleeping in the car most nights. We could have gone without staying at any lodgings or campgrounds, as you can pay for showers and can park places for free. Check out my blog on our best overnight parks spots here!

I would say that our hotel stay wasn’t really worth it, but the camp ground stays were worth it even though we were still sleeping in the car. If our route had been more planned out, we would have been able to crash with friends a bit more as well. It really depends on how willing you are to save money by sleeping in the car, and who you know along your route. A big thing to note is the weather! We did not sleep in the car at all in Arizona because it was way too hot, dangerously hot. Keep in mind your sleeping conditions if you are camping in a car.

Food

Total Spent: $715

When it comes to food, it really is a give and take situation. My rule of thumb when doing an initial budget is to spend $20 a day on food per person. This will vary based on how much food you can keep as your traveling, and if you have supplies to cook. We don’t have any dietary restrictions and don’t really care about eating cheap, but we do splurge from time to time!

We mainly ate sandwiches, hot food from travel centers/gas stations (like breakfast sandwiches), as well as fast food. Our camping stove made it so we were able to cook, but it was hard to keep food cold, so we didn’t end up cooking as much as we would have liked. 

On top of that, we are big coffee people. We would buy coffee once to twice a day, and included that in our food budget. Alcohol was also included in food. 

For us, food is the one category that we don’t mind being loose with because we like to try new and different foods and drinks everywhere we go. 

Transportation

Total Spent:  $795

This part is relatively straight forward. We spent a total of $795 on gas, and that’s something you can’t really avoid. On average I would say we filled the tank once a day. So when budgeting for gas I would budget by how much it costs to fill your tank and then how many days you’ll be driving. Keep in mind if you are doing more cities than parks, you’ll have to pay for parking, the only place we paid for parking was in New Orleans and it was only a couple of dollars.

Fees

Total Spent: $60

For this trip, we did not include our America the Beautiful Pass ($80) because we had purchased it months prior during another trip, but if you plan on visiting more than 2 parks it is the way to go, fees for National Parks add up fast! We did pay to get into Monument Valley ($20), Dead Horse State Park ($20), HorseShoe Bend ($10), and a tour at Mesa Verde ($10).

Miscellaneous

Total Spent: $100

Now this category are mostly things that we spent money on that we didn’t initially have included in the original budget. Only about $100 in this category were things like souvenirs, a day at The Greenhouse, and little purchases here and there.

This brings our total spent on the actual trip to approximately $1910 which was pretty spot on our budget.

Related Expenses

Total Spent: $450

To get the car trip ready we spent a little over $150, we also spent about $150 on a couple camping supplies including our stove, chairs, and little items. And then we purchased an Osprey hydration backpack for the trip as well. These things we didn’t necessarily include in the initial budget because they are investments into future trips and will continuously use. If we did include these purchases, we spent a little less than $2400 split two ways. 

In the end, it was almost cheaper to be on the road than to be at home! Of course you can be much more luxurious than we were, but without spending an arm and a leg we had an amazing time and saw and experienced so much.

If you can save $1000 and rope a friend into doing the same you can plan a similar trip! We are lucky that taking the time off of work is fairly flexible and easy with our jobs, but if you are able to even take 2 weeks there is so much you can do. We had our trip money as well as our “home expenses” (rent, utilities, etc.) saved before we left so we did not have to stress about our finances while away.

You don’t have to make lots of money or spend all of the money you do or don't have, in order to plan and take an amazing trip! Just be smart with what money you do earn and make calculated decisions about how you want to spend it!