Budget Family Travel
Travel? Yes, travel! You know, that thing called a vacation that so many of us are lacking these days? I’m bringing up vacations because we are currently planning a trip out of state for my brother-in-law’s wedding in April. I’ve got to plan this out since I can’t just charge it up on the credit cards. It’s not an option – at all! Eeek! How are we going to do this? Very carefully, that’s how!
The very first thing that I had to do was to compare the cost of flying vs. driving. My first stop was to look up the gas mileage of our minivan at www.fueleconomy.gov. According to the website, it is “maintained jointly by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The site helps fulfill DOE and EPA’s responsibility under the Energy Policy Act (EPAct) of 1992 to provide accurate MPG information to consumers.” I had no idea this site was out there! Lots of good information can be found here. I found out that my minivan gets about 17 mpg city and 24 mpg highway. Much better than I thought, actually.
I then went to GasBuddy.com to find out what the average cost for a gallon of gas is these days. According to the website, it’s at about $2.72 per gallon, and it seems to be increasing. For my calculations, I’ll use $3 per gallon just to be on the safe side, and the highway 24 mpg. I calculated the total miles we’ll travel on Google Maps. (It’s 1,356 miles – yikes!) I discovered that we’ll spend approximately $340 on gasoline round trip.
Since our kids are older, we are going to try and do this trip in two full days. I looked up the hotel, and for our big family, one room is about $95 for the night. I’m going to round up and say it’ll be $200 round trip for hotels. What’s left? Food! For the first day, I’ll pack food for breakfast and lunch and which will keep the cost down. I’ll also pack LOTS of snacks – gotta keep those kids fed and happy in the car, you know! Since we’ll be spending most of the time out-of-state with family, I’m going to set a food budget of about $200. The total cost of driving for our family turns out to be around $740.
For calculating the cost of flying to our destination, I use Expedia.com. I can also calculate how much a rental car will cost. The total cost of flying – just flights and rental car – is $1426. That’s a difference of $686! Guess, it’s driving for us.
Although I would LOVE to use our tax refund to pay off debt, it is looking like we are going to have to use it for this trip. One question that you should always ask is: Is it really worth it to take a vacation at this point in time? Can you really afford it? Well, if I asked myself that question right now, the answer would be no – we cannot afford this. However, family is extremely important to me and a wedding in which our youngest daughter is going to be a flower girl is an experience not to be missed! Family is the exception to the rule in my opinion, just don’t use credit to get there!
If you decide to put off a vacation far away in exchange for – dare I say it – a “staycation”, find a local blog that highlights free events in your area. I regularly visit two blogs that focus on fun free things to do here in Portland, Oregon. Check out Around the Sun and Portland on the Cheap. You will not be disappointed!
If you are interested in reading more about planning a frugal family vacation, Get Rich Slowly has a new post on this topic. Read about it here. Mommysavers also has a post about this topic. Lots of great information can be found. The key is to do your research, compare prices and decide if it is really necessary. Happy traveling! Have a great weekend everyone.
