So far this blog has largely been about making money on the road, but another part of making the digital nomad equation work is traveling cheaply. I was inspired by Nomadic Matt’s excellent post How to Road Trip Across the United States on $50 a Day but, being a little bit competitive, I wanted to see if I could travel even cheaper.
My current cross country road trip began in January of this year. For February, my first full month on the road, my total travel cost was $595.58, or $21.27 per day.
Traveling on such a limited amount requires discipline, and if you can afford to budget a little more, I would recommend it. A few months out, I am currently spending more than that, but I wanted to prove that it could be done. And it can!
February 2019 Travel Expenses
$179 — Groceries
$143.16 — Gas
$56.85 — Parking
$55.70 — Restaurant meals
$49.96 — Attractions/park entry
$31.52 — Airbnb accommodation
$22 — Airbnb experience
$18.49 — Beard trim
$16.07 — Audible subscription
$10 — Meetup suggested donation
$5.50 — Tolls
$2.94 — Coffee shop visit
$2.10 — Postcard home
$1.89 — Bottled water
$0.35 — Fill your own bottled water
$0.05 — Drink from drug store
Accommodations
So, the biggest expense most people have when road tripping is accommodations. I dealt with this by putting a foam mattress in the back of my Ford Escape (okay, technically SUVLife, not VanLife). I parked in natural areas or Walmart parking lots and I slept great!
As you can see, I did pay for an Airbnb one night. I’ll occasionally book nights in Airbnbs or hotels for a variety of reasons ranging from illness, to tornados, to being in cities where sleeping in your car is frowned upon. It is totally possible to sleep in your car 100% of the time, but it’s nice to get a break now and then if you can afford it.
If you are going to book Airbnbs or hotels, experiment with being flexible on dates and locations. Try visiting some smaller towns you might not otherwise visit, but which can give you a window into a totally different world than the cities.
On Airbnb, try setting the ‘max price’ to something very low and just see what you get!
I haven’t personally tried Couchsurfing or Workaway, but I’ve known people who’ve had good experiences with both. Couchsurfing tends to be shorter term (a night or two) and is totally free. Workaway tends to me a little longer (anywhere from a week to a few months) and you’re doing work in exchange for room and board.
Another approach I haven’t tried yet, but have looked into, is house sitting/pet sitting on the road. Trusted House Sitters is one website that’ll help you find house sits/pet sits in interesting places.(If anyone has experience with them, let me know in the comments!)
Food
My biggest expense was food. First off, try to get your food from grocery stores rather than restaurants. It’s almost always cheaper. Cooking when you’re living out of your car can be challenging, but I’ve had pretty good success setting up my propane camp stove in city parks or at campgrounds.
Gas
Unless you’ve got an electric car, this one’s hard to get around on a road trip. Starting with a more fuel efficient car obviously helps, as does not carrying unnecessary weight, but the biggest tip I can give here is, if you’ve got plenty of time, slow down!
Instead of going to a new town every day, find somewhere you like and stay there for a little while. You’ll come to have a more intimate relationship with that place, and a richer experience for it. Plus you’ll save on gas!
It’s also worth noting that there can be big differences in gas prices between different US states. As a point of reference, here’s a list of fuel taxes by state.
And here’s a map of gas prices in the USA.
Parking
This was an expense I didn’t really think about before leaving on my trip, but it ended up being a lot. How much you spend on this is going to depend a lot on where you are. In February I was mostly in Florida, especially South Florida. In places like Miami and Key West, free parking is about as common as mermaids, unless you’re staying with someone or paying for accommodations (which will obviously tend to cost more overall).
On the other hand, out west and in rural areas, where open space is more abundant, free parking is a lot more common.
National Park Pass
If you appreciate the great outdoors half as much as I do, you’ll want to visit some of the country’s many wonderful National Parks. If that’s in your itinerary, seriously consider getting a National Park Pass. Many parks cost $30 to get into for the day, but for $80 you can get a year long pass, and go to as many as you like!
I got one back in January, which helped me save on park entry fees. The park entry fees you do see in my budget were for state parks, and occasionally city parks (yes, there are a few that charge).
Things to Listen To
This may not be an “essential” expense, but you’re going to be spending a lot of time in the car driving. To me it’s worth it to have things to listen to, such as Audible and Spotify. (Audible is for audiobooks, Spotify is for music.)
Sponsored: Try Audible and Get Two Free Audiobooks
I’m on my family’s plan for Spotify, so I don’t pay for that myself. They’re one of the big players, but there’s lots of other options out there for music streaming as well.
Here’s what Consumer Reports has to say about them.
LEGAL NOTICES:
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“2008 Ford Escape Limited” photo taken by Brett Levin, used under Creative Commons license.