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Budgeting For Your Road Trip
When it comes to holidays, I love a road trip. We often have camping or four wheel driving holidays too, and they usually require a road trip of some type, a great start to our holiday.
Road trips can be a budget friendly holiday, even for families, so whether you want to drive to your summer holiday destination or going on a road trip itself is your holiday, budgeting is important. You can make this experience a lot more enjoyable by assessing your expenses and establishing a budget ahead of time.
These are the main expenses to consider when you’re on a road trip:
Fuel
Essentials
Food
Stopping Overnight
Plan these items ahead of time, follow your plan, and you’ll save enough money for some souvenirs along the way (or have the start of another trip savings)!
Road trips can be a budget friendly holiday, even for families, so whether you want to drive to your summer holiday destination or going on a road trip itself is your holiday, budgeting is important. You can make this experience a lot more enjoyable by assessing your expenses and establishing a budget ahead of time.
These are the main expenses to consider when you’re on a road trip:
Fuel
- Use Google Maps to find service stations in areas where you plan on stopping.
- Use GasBuddy or another similar app to find the most affordable service station in your area while you are on the go.
- Find out what your vehicle’s fuel efficiency is and assess how often you will have to stop for fuel.
- Establish a budget for fuel based on your car's fuel mileage and how many kilometres you intend to drive. Plan on spending a little over this budget just to be safe (we usually allow and extra 10%, and rarely use it).
Essentials
- Make sure the spare tyre, jack and tyre changing kit are ready to go and easy to get to if you should need them.
- Check all fluids before leaving home: water, radiator, oil, brakes, power steering. Check tyres are properly inflated - it will affect the comfort of your ride and fuel consumption.
- Borrow a GPS if your phone doesn’t have a GPS feature and you are unfamiliar with the roads you'll be using, and learn to use it properly.
- Bring some blankets and enough non-perishable food and water to last for a few days in case you get stranded.
- Put together a simple, basic first aid kit if you don't already have one.
- Dowload the National Public Toilet app - it's a life saver on long trips on unfamiliar roads.
Food
- Pack a thermos, tea, coffee and individual UHT milk and snacks in a picnic basket for easy and inexpensive morning and afternoon teas. Refill it with boiling water before you leave your overnight accommodation the next morning.
- Buy snacks in bulk ahead of the road trip.
- Bring enough non-perishable food and water to last for the trip to save on buying.
- Prepare at least a picnic lunch for the first day of the trip. Keep it in an esky with ice bricks to keep it cool and save a fortune over roadhouse meals.
- Use Yelp or a similar app to find affordable restaurants along the way with good reviews.
Stopping Overnight
- Book a hotel or motel room or a cabin in a caravan park in advance to save money.
- If you have an auto club membership or belong to a union, check to see if they offer accommodation discounts.
- You can find hotels or other types of accommodations while you are on the go and compare prices with TripAdvisor and similar apps. Then ring direct to book, asking for the advertised rate and if it's more than on the app, let them know and ask them to at least match, if not better, that price.
Plan these items ahead of time, follow your plan, and you’ll save enough money for some souvenirs along the way (or have the start of another trip savings)!