{"id":93183,"date":"2026-05-04T07:59:26","date_gmt":"2026-05-04T12:59:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bricktowntom.com\/blog\/?p=93183"},"modified":"2026-05-04T07:59:26","modified_gmt":"2026-05-04T12:59:26","slug":"taking-a-frugal-road-trip","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bricktowntom.com\/blog\/05\/taking-a-frugal-road-trip.html","title":{"rendered":"Taking A Frugal Road Trip"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"alignright size-full\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"350\" height=\"525\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/retireby40.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/Taking-A-Frugal-Road-Trip-350.jpg?resize=350%2C525&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-26459\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p>Hey everyone! Things are looking a bit grim in the U.S. and the rest of the world. Inflation is high, the stock market is crashing, and a recession is looming. We are all feeling a bit poorer these days. Even with these problems, many of us are splurging on travel. The last 2 years were so depressing and isolating. We are determined to <a href=\"https:\/\/retireby40.org\/get-ready-for-summer-2022\/\">have fun this summer<\/a>, no matter what. <\/p>\n<p>For us, we\u2019re taking a road trip to visit friends and families in California. This trip was put off twice already. Our families are all getting older and we need to see them. We can\u2019t put it off anymore. We\u2019re hitting the road, even with the sky-high price of gasoline and hotels.<\/p>\n<p>However, we\u2019ll try our best to keep it somewhat frugal. That&#8217;s our nature so we\u2019re looking for ways to save on this road trip. I&#8217;ll share how we keep it cheap. Let me know if you have any tips.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Save on sleeping<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Oh wow. The price of a room is insane. Motels cost about $100-150 per night. Moderate hotels run around $150 to $200. I didn\u2019t look at nicer hotels because $200\/night is already a lot more expensive than what I\u2019m willing to pay. These prices look high even for California. Inflation is rough on the wallet. Here are some ways to save.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Stay with families and friends.<\/strong> We\u2019re going to stay with families on this road trip. It isn\u2019t as convenient or private as a hotel room, but we\u2019ll save over $1,000 by staying in the guest room. This is actually good because we haven\u2019t seen them for a while. It\u2019ll give the kids a chance to get better acquainted.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Camping<\/strong>. This is a great way to save some money if you\u2019re visiting for more than a few days. The problem is you\u2019ll have to bring camping equipment. But check out the next two bullets.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Cabins and Yurts<\/strong>. I love staying in cabins and yurts. We\u2019ll stay in a yurt for one night on this trip and it is very affordable. The park system hasn\u2019t jacked up the price as much as hotels and motels. It&#8217;ll cost us $48\/night + $8 processing fee this year. It can be difficult to find a vacancy, though. Most cabins and yurts are booked up months in advance. We got lucky. &nbsp;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"400\" height=\"221\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/retireby40.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/yurt.jpg?resize=400%2C221&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-26453\" \/><figcaption>Last time we stayed in a yurt.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Camping in your car<\/strong>. Another option is to sleep in your car at a campground. This is only convenient if you have the right vehicle. We can fold down the backseats in our minivan and 2 people can sleep back there pretty comfortably. Oh, we got a couple of narrow folding mattresses. You need something comfortable to sleep on.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Use points to book hotels<\/strong>. Some hotel credit cards have great signup bonuses. I got a bunch of points from IHG. I\u2019ll use them when we go to Thailand and the Maldives later. If you book 3 nights with points, you\u2019ll get another night free. It\u2019s a nice deal. The IHG card has a great sign-up bonus right now &#8211; 140,000 points after spending $3,000 in the first 3 months. <strong>Check out the IHG card<\/strong> if you need some free hotel rooms in the future.<strong> <\/strong><\/li>\n<li>The IHG <\/li>\n<li><strong>More sleeping in your car.<\/strong> If you really need to save some money, you can sleep in your car even more often. You can park at Walmart overnight. I haven\u2019t done this, though.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>You can get <a href=\"https:\/\/www.routetoretire.com\/planning-a-road-trip\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">more tips about sleeping in your car from Jim @ Route to Retire<\/a>. They are on a long road trip around the USA.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Save on eating<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Food can get expensive on the road if you aren\u2019t careful. Of course, you could eat fast food, but that\u2019s not very healthy. They probably aren\u2019t that cheap either. I haven\u2019t gone to a fast-food place for a long time. Well, we indulge in fast food when we go on a road trip, but just once or twice per trip. <\/p>\n<p>Actually, the only tip I have here is to buy some food from the grocery store deli. They are more affordable and you can find healthier choices. When my parents took us on a road trip, they used to get the whole roast chicken, salad, and a loaf of bread. That\u2019s plenty for a family of 5. I usually pick up some sandwiches, trail mix, fruits, and snacks these days.<\/p>\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"600\" height=\"519\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/retireby40.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/deli.jpg?resize=600%2C519&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-26451\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<h3>Save at the pump<\/h3>\n<p>Oh man, I heard gas in California cost like $7-8 per gallon. Filling up will be painful on this trip. I wrote a whole <a href=\"https:\/\/retireby40.org\/4-painless-ways-to-save-money-on-gas\/\">post about saving at the pump<\/a>. Check it out!<\/p>\n<p>Alright, that&#8217;s all I got today. <strong>Are you going on a road trip this year? Do you try to be frugal or just splurge a bit. <\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/channel\/UCH8PcOiAjrzR3Td6lyvclrw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Subscribe to my YouTube channel<\/a>&nbsp;to follow along with our travel. This summer should be a lot of fun.<\/p>\n<p>The post <a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/retireby40.org\/taking-a-frugal-road-trip\/\">Taking A Frugal Road Trip<\/a> appeared first on <a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/retireby40.org\">Retire by 40<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Source: Retire By 40<\/p>\n<p id=\"kc_opp\"><small>Republished by  <a href=\"http:\/\/www.blogtrafficexchange.com\/\">Blog Post Promoter<\/a><\/small><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Hey everyone! Things are looking a bit grim in the U.S. and the rest of the world. Inflation is high, the stock market &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":93184,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[52],"tags":[105],"class_list":["post-93183","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-a-head-start","tag-strategy"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.bricktowntom.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/Taking-A-Frugal-Road-Trip-350.jpg?fit=350%2C525&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3k0YU-oeX","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":93363,"url":"https:\/\/www.bricktowntom.com\/blog\/05\/2022-california-road-trip.html","url_meta":{"origin":93183,"position":0},"title":"2022 California Road Trip","author":"admin","date":"May 6, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"Whew, we made it back to Portland! That was a long road trip to California. We decided to drive from Portland instead of flying because the price of flight tickets for the three of us was so high. Gasoline was expensive too, but it was still a lot cheaper than\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;A Head Start&quot;","block_context":{"text":"A Head Start","link":"https:\/\/www.bricktowntom.com\/blog\/category\/a-head-start"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.bricktowntom.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/2022-California-Road-Trip-350.jpg?fit=350%2C525&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":93243,"url":"https:\/\/www.bricktowntom.com\/blog\/05\/lassen-volcanic-national-park-a-half-day-side-trip.html","url_meta":{"origin":93183,"position":1},"title":"Lassen Volcanic National Park \u2013 A Half Day Side Trip","author":"admin","date":"May 1, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"Hey, everyone! We\u2019re in the midst of our road trip. Unfortunately, I didn\u2019t write anything ahead so I\u2019ll just post once per week about our travels. We decided to drive on this trip because the flight tickets were quite expensive. We also heard about all the domestic flight problems and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;A Head Start&quot;","block_context":{"text":"A Head Start","link":"https:\/\/www.bricktowntom.com\/blog\/category\/a-head-start"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.bricktowntom.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/A-Great-Half-Day-Side-Trip-350.jpg?fit=350%2C525&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":93271,"url":"https:\/\/www.bricktowntom.com\/blog\/04\/june-2022-fire-update.html","url_meta":{"origin":93183,"position":2},"title":"June 2022 FIRE Update","author":"admin","date":"April 20, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"Happy Independence Day! Did you have a good month? June was a fun month for us. RB40Jr finished school and we went on a road trip to see friends and families. This road trip was put off twice due to Covid so we were all looking forward to it. We\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;A Head Start&quot;","block_context":{"text":"A Head Start","link":"https:\/\/www.bricktowntom.com\/blog\/category\/a-head-start"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.bricktowntom.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/June-22-FIRE-Update-350.jpg?fit=350%2C525&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":93155,"url":"https:\/\/www.bricktowntom.com\/blog\/04\/4-painless-ways-to-save-money-on-gas.html","url_meta":{"origin":93183,"position":3},"title":"4 Painless Ways to Save Money on Gas","author":"admin","date":"April 7, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"Well, it looks like inflation will stay high for a while longer. The U.S. inflation rate hit another new high this year \u2013 8.6%. Many economists expected inflation to go down, but they were wrong. As a consumer, this isn\u2019t surprising at all. Food, gas, housing, utilities, hotel rooms, and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;A Head Start&quot;","block_context":{"text":"A Head Start","link":"https:\/\/www.bricktowntom.com\/blog\/category\/a-head-start"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.bricktowntom.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/4-Painless-Ways-to-Save-Money-on-Gas-350.jpg?fit=350%2C350&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":92793,"url":"https:\/\/www.bricktowntom.com\/blog\/04\/5-things-i-dont-skimp-on.html","url_meta":{"origin":93183,"position":4},"title":"5 things I don\u2019t skimp on","author":"admin","date":"April 21, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"I originally wrote this post in 2014. We were doing well financially then, but we are much more comfortable now. Did I change over the last 8 years? Am I still frugal and what do I splurge on these days? Today, I\u2019ll give you an update. \u00a0Frugal lifestyle All right,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;A Head Start&quot;","block_context":{"text":"A Head Start","link":"https:\/\/www.bricktowntom.com\/blog\/category\/a-head-start"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.bricktowntom.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/rice-field-1024x576-1.jpg?fit=1024%2C576&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.bricktowntom.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/rice-field-1024x576-1.jpg?fit=1024%2C576&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.bricktowntom.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/rice-field-1024x576-1.jpg?fit=1024%2C576&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.bricktowntom.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/rice-field-1024x576-1.jpg?fit=1024%2C576&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":93644,"url":"https:\/\/www.bricktowntom.com\/blog\/04\/august-fire-update.html","url_meta":{"origin":93183,"position":5},"title":"August FIRE Update","author":"admin","date":"April 20, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"Hey everyone! It\u2019s September and the kids are back in school. Woohoo! The first week of school was okay for RB40Jr. He used to get in trouble at beginning of every school year, but he is staying under the radar this year. We\u2019re happy he matured a bit. The only\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;A Head Start&quot;","block_context":{"text":"A Head Start","link":"https:\/\/www.bricktowntom.com\/blog\/category\/a-head-start"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.bricktowntom.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/August-2022-350.jpg?fit=350%2C525&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bricktowntom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93183","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bricktowntom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bricktowntom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bricktowntom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bricktowntom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=93183"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.bricktowntom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93183\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":93672,"href":"https:\/\/www.bricktowntom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93183\/revisions\/93672"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bricktowntom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/93184"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bricktowntom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=93183"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bricktowntom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=93183"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bricktowntom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=93183"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}