Chart Your Adventure
Travelling sounds simple. Pack, grab car keys, and go! When we were single men, it was about this easy. However, now that we are family men, it is not quite that convenient. Many family men get stumped here, or deal with buyer's remorse after running up a credit card far above their expected expenditures. Below are some simple steps to planning a fantastic adventure that won't break the bank.
Step 1: Find Your Ranges
Using a protractor on a map, mark out an approximate 2 hour radius, 4 hour radius, and 6 hour overnight trip.
Next, find your mileage for each range.
2 hours is going to be less than 240 miles round trip.
4 hours is going to be less than 480 miles round trip.
6 hours is going to be less than 720 miles round trip.
Step 2: Establish Your Budgets
Next, calculate your fuel mileage. For example, my car gets 28 mpg pretty consistently. If I was not sure, I would drop the fuel mileage average down by 3 mpg to allow room for wind resistance, extra driving, or errors. If I take 100 miles / 25 mpg = 4 gallons. You can then multiply the current fuel price, adding about 30 cents for geographical price change (or use GasBuddy), and know your budget per radius drawn on your map. Mark down the estimates on a separate sheet of paper with the current fuel price so you can alter it in the future if needed.
For 2 hour road trips, you will not likely require a hotel room. However, food is always a factor, so decide if you're pre-packing meals or decide how cheaply you plan to eat. For example, my wife and I, with our two year old, require about $35-40 per day on average when eating out.
Step 3: Take an Adventure
Once you have your budgets pre-determined, begin setting aside $20 per week in your budget. At minimum, this would allow your to afford a 2 hour adventure with food included once per month. Rather than waiting to spend time with family for one or two weeks out of the year using vacation time, think about splitting up your vacation time into more affordable and spaced out blocks of time. Theoretically, by leveraging your weekends, you can turn 14 days of paid vacation (including weekends), into five maximized 4-day vacations = 20 vacation days off.
Another way to leverage you time is choosing long work days over a 5 x 8hr work week. I'm blessed to knock out my work in two days = 27hrs. This works out for my family, as they know that I'll be devoted to work for 2 days, and have 5 flexible days to spend with them unless we, as a family, choose that I pick up a PRN shift.
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