Vacation Costs

How much did my 2 week trip ultimately cost me?
• Hotels $175.64
• Additional gasoline: $187.19
• Maintenance on car before trip: $45.82
• Toll Roads to get there and back: $9.25
• Car Wash to get the bugs off my car: $25.10
• Food at Grocery Stores while in Utah $97.47
• Eating out at various restaurants $248.41
• $118.84 on things bought in Utah for me (including a camping air mattress)
• $61.93 gifts for others
• $63.47 on Activities and places to visit
• Doctors visit + 1 prescription $20.00

= $1,053.12

But, I didn’t pay for piano lessons because I was out of town ($80), nor did I spend all my local grocery money ($61.61), nor did I spend all of my regular gas money ($ 50)…

So there’s $191.61 I would have spent if I were at home. So about $861.51 for a two week trip…

Keep in mind the food and eating out were really high because I treated almost all of the dinners we went to get away from my friend’s family (where we could have eaten for free… but our sanity deemed it necessary to leave so the spending is based on 2 people for almost everything.) To put a long story short his parents are extremely Orthodox Mormon (my friend is not) and while they were very polite to me… they were constantly bagging on my friend and accusing him of doing things he wasn’t…. so it wasn’t an ideal situation. We had dinner a couple of times while we were there with them and I followed all of their house rules to the T (including a 10pm curfew—meaning I had to be in my guestroom by ten and my friend had to be in the basement by ten…) so it was nice to be able to go out to dinner to escape the house (and I got to try fabulous places!!! I finally had Japanese food!).

My friend paid for our campsite which was a burden on him since he’s unemployed… but he felt bad for me footing the bill for the rest of the trip and wanted to pay for the site. He also fixed my computer and did some really useful handy things with it which saved me tons of money because if he hadn’t worked his magic, I’d be looking for a new laptop right now.

Other than food and gas (we drove my car all around Utah because it had AC and cruise control and with all the driving we were planning on doing it made sense to take my more comfortable car.) His friends drove their car between all the national parks once we got to the camp site because that’s how they could chip in for the trip which saved me at least one fill up I think. I paid for 2 hotels for the four of us post camping in the city because his friends weren’t in the position to and I wanted a proper shower and a good night sleep before the long drive home, so I booked all of those before I left for Utah.

I ultimately spent more than I would have normally spent to visit a friend… but we weren’t “allowed” to go camping by ourselves (like I said orthodox Mormons) and his friends were already taking time off work (no paid vacation like me) so we would not of been able to go do half the things we planned without them. .. But around $900 isn’t too bad for a two week vacation when it’s been so long since I’ve gotten away and it was FANTASTIC.

Were trying to work out a way for my friend to come visit me in a few months before school starts up again… but we have to figure out how to get his friends here too because he can’t come alone…” his parents won’t let him cause he needs to be chaperoned….”