One of the best ways to explore a new place is by planning and mapping out a road trip. You can see those wide open spaces, you can hit the beaches and you can plan to visit cities along the way. Whether you’re driving from one end of the country to the other or you’re heading from ocean to ocean, you need to ensure that you have budgeted appropriately for the trip. Your budget is going to matter wherever you may go, and when you’re trying to save money but you still want to have a nice time, planning your budget to the penny is what’s going to get that trip cinched for you.
Knowing how to budget appropriately for your road trip is going to help you to save time, save money and save your arms from carrying your luggage everywhere. You’ll book budget hotel locations, you’ll book luggage storage to stash your stuff when you’re in the city rather than leave it in the car. You’ll even budget closely for gas and food. If you want some in depth tips on how to budget for your road trip, take a look at the tips we’ve got for you below:
- Budget for your car. The first and most important thing to budget for is for your car to be appropriately serviced and checked out. You do not want to be broken down in the middle of nowhere, especially if you are working toward a budget! You need to keep up to date with regular car maintenance already but it’s a good idea to budget for a full service plus the cost of tires. You never know when you’re going to be told you’ll need new ones! You don’t want to have to consider the hundreds it could cost in towing fees, right?
- Budget for your driving. Whip out the maps and start using calculators to figure out the amount of gas you’ll need to get from one place to the next. You need to budget for how long you will be on the road and when you calculate down to the pennies for petrol, you can also then calculate your spend on food or drinks at service stations. This’ll really help you when you want to avoid spending too much and help you to stick to what you know you’re free to spend. Google Maps is great for working out the routes to take and stops to make along the way.
- Budget for your accommodation. Some people choose to avoid hotels/motels in any case when they’re road tripping and you may choose to do the same. Instead, save money by packing a tent or a trailer and camping! You can do this pretty much anywhere there’s a camping or caravanning site. You can then leave your things close by when you are heading to the city. If you don’t want to leave your things, you can bring it and use the money you saved on hotels for luggage storage instead.
- Budget for your food. You can pack as much food from home into lunches and meals as possible but if you want to save money, you need to research your options. You may not be ok with stopping for a McDonald’s everywhere you go. Thankfully, the world has pushed forward a lot in recent years so there are always healthy options wherever you happen to be eating. Packing coffee sachets, sugar, teabags and even long-life milk can keep you happy on the road, especially if you’re stopping for a cuppa. Budgeting for food should be per person per meal and it’s always a good idea to round up the figure you choose. You want to have more than enough, not too little. There are only so many places you can eat ramen as you travel!
- Budget for your petrol. Petrol is super expensive so embarking on a road trip is going to push your budget considerably. You want to ensure that you save where you can and while we talked about car maintenance and servicing, you should budget for gas and then some on top. Checking fuel prices ahead of time and downloading apps that show you the cheapest places to get petrol and fill up is going to help! This way, you can note down what the fuel prices are before you arrive and potentially save yourself some cash.
Your road trip is supposed to be fun and fun can be had on a great budget!