Have you always wanted to take a cross country trip, but the cost of the trip is holding you back? I’m so excited to be sharing how we took a 3 week trip out west for less than $1500! That includes gas, food, lodging, things we did, everything! Here are the exact things we did to save money, and tips on how you can too!
1. We slept in our car.
So you’re probably thinking that in sleeping in our car, I mean that we somehow managed to get sleep in the front seats of our Prius.
Nope! We actually were able to sleep in the back, very comfortably might I add. And my hubby is 6 foot 2, so if he can do it, pretty much anyone can! If you don’t have a Prius, I’ve heard of people camping in their SUV’s or similar cars to that. Basically, you just want to have a trunk that lays down flat so you can make a bed in the back.
So now you’re probably thinking, well how in the world did you make the back of a car comfortable? And where did all of your stuff go?
Let me break it down for you:
For the bed, we got a mattress pad and sleeping bag from Walmart, which cost around $50, and we modified it to make sure the whole area was padded.
To make it flat, we folded the back seats down. Then we spread out the mattress pad and sleeping bag. We wanted to make sure that if we were going to be sleeping in it every night for 3 weeks, that we didn’t wake up every morning with aching backs. And we didn’t!
Like I said, it was surprisingly comfortable. We would scoot the front seats up as far as they would go, and then in the space between the front seats and back seats (where your feet would normally go) we would put our backpacks of clothes, and stack bins full of dry food for our pillows to lay on.
As far as where the rest of our stuff would go when we were sleeping, we would put everything in the front seats. We even brought Timothy’s Red Camera along! We also had a cooler, more dry food, dirty clothes, and our travel toilet (more on this later haha!) in the front. It took us about 15 minutes to set everything up every night, but it honestly just became a part of our nightly routine!
For the windows, we bought black out curtains from Walmart for $10 and put them up in all the windows. I would definitely recommend doing this, because not only does it create some privacy, it keeps the street lights in the Walmart parking lots from shining in your eyes while you’re trying to sleep! We even put up a curtain in between the front and back seats to cut out light, and it worked great. No matter what time of day it was, it was dark in the back so if we needed to go to bed early or sleep in late, we could do either without being woken up with the sun shining in our eyes.
2. We camped in National Forests.
If you didn’t know, you can camp in any National Forest for FREE! Basically, we just looked for little side roads in each National Forest, and once we found one we liked, there were usually primitive camping spots set up, basically just cleared land. We saw a few other people, but most of the time we were alone, which was awesome! We found some of the most amazing little camping spots! We even had camp fires at several of the spots, but if you’re wanting to do that, just make sure to check local/state laws on fire burning, you might need a permit in some states!
3. We Showered at Truck Stops.
You might be thinking, well that sounds great and all, but did you just not shower for 3 weeks? Trust me when I say that I wouldn’t have put up with that! Of course we showered! Last time we did a trip like this, we would stop at campgrounds every few nights and use their showers which worked okay, except for we were basically just paying upwards of $25 for a shower.
Recently, when we were coming back from NYC, we discovered the phenomenon that are showers at gas stations. Which sounds a little sketch and I was super skeptical at first, but it turned out to be super clean! We literally haven’t have one negative experience. You can take as long of a shower as you want for only $12! So instead of getting a hotel or camp site every few days, all you need to do is find a gas station with a shower.
Here’s a few things we learned about using gas station showers:
If you can, try to shower at odd times of day, not in the morning or at night. Most gas stations only have a few showers, so since most truckers want their showers in the evening, you’ll end up having to wait a really long time in line. We had this happen to us a few times and it really sucked.
Make sure to check in the areas you’re traveling to that they even have gas stations with showers! Canada didn’t have any, and we were hard pressed to find ones with showers even when we got back into the US.
If you need to charge anything like camera batteries or toothbrushes, doing that while taking your shower is a great option!
4. We cooked most of our own meals.
Okay, now moving onto food! Even if you don’t want to sleep in your car, cooking and eating your own food saves SO MUCH MONEY. We brought about a week’s worth of food with us to start, and then as we were gone longer, we went shopping and cooked!
Here are some meal ideas if you’re interested in making your own food for a trip:
Dinner
Rotisserie Chicken + Brown Rice:
Buy a rotisserie chicken the day that you want to eat it, and then either buy frozen brown rice that you could microwave at a gas station, make it before you leave, or cook some over a single burner propane stove. Then use the leftover chicken for another meal or sandwiches!
Veggie + Sausage Bake:
I made a big batch of this right before we left, and we were able to eat it for 2 dinners! It’s basically a package of Chicken Sausage (I love the Italian kind), butternut squash, onion, Brussel sprouts, and tons of Italian spices. You could also have it with a side of sweet potatoes and grass fed butter for some carbs and healthy fat.
Burrito Fixings:
Pre cook rice and beans, or bring microwavable rice and cans of beans. Pre cook chicken and shred or ground beef. You could make a taco salad, a burrito, or even nachos!
Chili:
I made a big pot of chili with noodles before we left, and we were easily able to heat it up at gas stations.
Side dishes/Snacks:
- Trail Mix
- Protein bars
- Sweet potatoes with butter/cinnamon that you can just heat up
- Apples
- Oranges
- Dried fruit with no added sugar
- Chips
- Guacamole
Breakfast:
- Greek Yogurt or Coconut Yogurt with blueberries and granola
- Muffins (make before you leave)
- Cereal
- Pancakes using Kodiak Cakes mix (a healthier version of Bisquick) and cooking them using a single burner propane stove
Coffee:
We also brought everything to make coffee, because buying coffee every day would’ve cost upwards of $100 for the whole trip! We brought a small French press and ground coffee. We would go into Starbucks or a gas station and ask for a cup of hot water (free!) and a cup of ice (if you want it iced like me!). Then we had milk in the cooler and voila! Delicious iced coffee on the road!
Lunch
- Sandwiches with different kinds of meats/toppings
- Egg Salad Sandwich with Avocado
- Quesadillas
- Salads with chicken, peppers, tomatoes, boiled egg, and a simple dressing
Those are some of the meals that we really enjoyed while on the road! We tried to save most of our eating out for the end of our trip, because we knew that the longer we were away, the harder it would be to prep and cook meals.
As far as storing food goes, we brought our cooler and to keep everything cold, we would buy ice and then put it inside non leak bags that we got off of Amazon. These were lifesavers! Last time we did a trip like this, the ice would melt and we were left with a puddle of water in the cooler, and it spoiled a lot of our food. Here’s the link to the bags, they also have a spout so that you can re use the melted water for washing dishes!
Here’s the link to the bags:
We stored all of our dry food in bins behind the passenger seat. It was somewhat tricky to get to all the time, so we put snacks and things that we needed for every meal like utensils and bowls in a bag that was easily accessible.
5. We bought a National Park Pass.
For $80, you can get into any of the National Parks for free for one year! There are so many beautiful parks to visit, so we would definitely recommend getting a park pass if you plan to go to enough parks to make it worth it, because then you’ll have it for a whole year after that.
If you want to get your park pass online, here’s the link:
Otherwise, you can get them at pretty much any park at the fee station.
I hope these tips were helpful! If you have any questions, feel free to leave them in the comments!
Megan
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