I was just thinking about how much money we have spent over the recent past in travelling from point A to point B. After briefly jogging through the memory lane, I came up with some uncomfortable numbers and these are listed below. I was calculating only the fuel expenses for road travel and ticketing expenses for air travel. Lot of overheads (car buying cost, maintenance, rentals, hotels..etc) are not included…it’s just plain and simple travel expenditure. Data for the just the last 4 years is included; at times, rounded to nearest reasonable number. All this is between me and my wife…so these are not per person costs.
Here are the numbers for our travel by road:
- Miles travelled: 56,000
- Average mileage for our Nissan: 20 MPG
- Gasoline required: 2800 gallons
- Average cost per gallon of gasoline over the last 4 years: $2.04
- Total amount spent on gas (calculated): $5712
- Cost per month average over 4 years: $119
- Average cost per mile travelled: 10.2 ¢
The car is not used regularly for to-and-fro office journeys, so most of those miles are highway miles on weekends. Btw, I also owned a motorcycle in this period..and put about 3000 miles on that…but that’s a different story for a different post. 
Here are the numbers for our air travel:
- Miles travelled: 60,500 (holy cow!)
- Total amount spent on air tickets: $5981
- Cost per month, distributed over 4 years: $124.6
- Average cost per mile (domestic): 12.6 ¢
- Average cost per mile (international flights): 9.2 ¢
Yeah, international travel is much cheaper when it comes to $$/mile, plus international flights have free food and drinks . Roughly, with our air travels, we have been through at least 15 different airports (including arrivals, destinations and stopovers) spread over 7 US states, and 4 other countries.
- Total amount spent travelling in the last 4 years (air+road): $11,693 ..and climbing. (I am uneasy)
Every penny of this amount was spent using credit cards. The car travel gets budgeted every few months and air travel was budgeted on per flight basis…so fortunately, there has never been a debt issue due to these amounts. I wish we could cut on these travel expenses, but that line of thought is not looking very hopeful right now. So, budgeting wisely is our only option for quite some time to come.
Before I finish, below are a few quick (and unconventional) suggestions on saving those few cents off your travel:
- For the road: Sam’s Club gasoline is not always the cheapest, look out for prices at a Walmart nearby. If you are in Texas, check out HEB; their prices are very close (sometimes better) than Sam’s or Walmart.
- For domestic flights: for approximately 7 out of 10 times, we have found better ticket deals on the airline websites directly than any of the travel websites/agencies. You must check out the airline websites before you click “buy” on Expedia or Orbitz. Usually, these fares change everyday. So, sometimes if the fare is not available (or is more expensive than you would like), check it again the next day.
- For international flights: except for British Airways (BA) and certain Asian airlines, most airlines offer very good ticket deals directly through their website…check them out. This is especially true if you are booking well in advance. BA deals are better done through travel agents, in my opinion.
Any thoughts about your travel expenses and unconventional travel tips?…travel “hacks” if you prefer it that way.
Image source: www.milestonesweb.com
{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }
One gas-buying trick that I heard from my RV’ing grandparents is to buy a pre-paid gas card at Wal-Mart. Using this card will save an additional 3 cents per gallon. It’s easy to plan how much gas you’re going to need and buy the correct amount of pre-paid gas cards.
I don’t do this personally. I have a Shell card which gives me 5% off gas at Shell stations, and Shell is very competitively priced around here.
Gaming the Credit System: thanks for bringing that up. I have seen those ads on Walmart gas stations…but never gave a thought to getting a card for myself (for no particular reason). I will check it out the next time I see it.
Use frequent flier miles and hotel points! You and your wife each have about 30,000 miles; most free domestic tickets are 25,000 miles each. If you didn’t use frequent flier miles when taking those past trips, be sure you sign up and start earning them in the future. I was skeptical, but they can really add up!
For the travel websites, often checking the next day doesn’t work. Wait a few days and usually the prices will drop, sometimes lower than the first price you saw.
Ditto on the domestic and int’l flights points: Domestic flights are normally cheaper through the respective airline’s own sites, and you should also score some bonus miles for booking through their flights. AND if you find a lower fare elsewhere, they usually have some form of a low fare guarantee.
Int’l flights, as I’ve found these past couple of days, are still coming up cheaper through travel agents and the travel agents can usually help you with visas and such.
Golb, that is A LOT of miles you two have racked up!!
Motorcycle? I am intrigued… What impact does it have on personal finance? At some point I was thinking to get the toy but the idea never materialized. Maybe when kids go to college.
Yan: I assure you..there is a post coming up soon on that.
Msminiducky: yep…it’s too much travel and it’s only going to increase.
BD: We are getting some miles, but what’s happening is we now have miles on 4 different airlines and none enough to get us free tickets.
MoneyFwd: thanks for the tip.
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