This past weekend, my husband, puppy and I loaded up the car and headed to Dallas for an incredible weekend of family. My husband and I love road trips. About a year ago, we decided we wanted to do one mini road trip a month to explore all there is to see in middle America. We didn't do such a great job of turning that thought into a reality, but we still love the road trip!
Living life on a budget cuts back on our road trip possibilities (we just had to cancel a weekend trip with our best friends because of it) but being able to have a very low expense weekend in Dallas, we couldn't pass up the idea of it. Luckily Dallas is a quick, 7 hour road trip. We both ate lunch before we left the house and knew we would get to Dallas in time for dinner which saved us money right off the bat. My mother-in-law also stocked us full of some car ride goodies in order to keep us from eating the crapola you find on the road as well as save us a few dollars from having to buy it in the first place.
The hubs and I are also pretty good at gauging our gas, no pun intended. We knew that one tank of gas would take us almost all the way to Dallas (we would roll in on fumes, but we could have done it), so at about half a tank we started watching the gas stations. We knew that gas was anywhere from $2.92 a gallon to $3.10 a gallon depending on where we stopped and we didn't want to get stuck at a $3.10 station. Luckily, on this drive, you go through a bunch of towns in Oklahoma, which is a pain for speed limit purposes, but is great for gas hunting purposes. As soon as we hit about 1/2 a tank we ran into a stop that was $2.94, a good deal if you ask me. We know that we aren't going to get "cheap" gas anymore, so rather than taking our car as far as we can go and getting stuck getting whatever we get stuck with, we tend to play it safe and try to fill up at a half tank at a good price. If you are going on a road trip, check out the AAA website...they are great at letting you know about how much the round trip will cost you, allowing you to budget better. Just an FYI, I checked it on Friday before we left and it actually said it would cost us more in gas than it actually did!
While in Dallas my amazing husband understood the importance of girl time. We know we are living on a budget, but like is the purpose of this blog, we like to continue to live. My cousins and I were headed to H&M, a store found around most of the country except where we are in Springfield and were my cousins are in Houston. Luckily, Dallas has one single store! The hubby gave me a $30 budget, which I found completely fair considering our financial situation and the cost of clothes at H&M (easily could have bought me a sweater...bought my cousin 2 shirts)! With a little extra boost from my mom (my parents like to make sure we can continue to live our lives as well) I headed to H&M with a $60 budget and walked out with 2 great new sweaters.
We headed back to Springfield on Monday with a car stocked with goodies. My incredible uncle packed us sandwiches and my equally incredible aunt stocked us with snacks and goodies and insisted we take more bottles of water than we had planned on (there was no shortage of bottled water at this house)! We were smart again on our gas on the way back, although when we went to fill up to head out we thought we had hit the motherload with $2.89 gas only to find out the station was actually out of fuel. Explains the lower cost on their sign, they must have been out for at least 2 weeks.
Hubs and I definitely spent more this weekend than we would have if we had stayed home, but we wouldn't have traded the trip for anything. We would not be able to live our life and be so safe living our lives as we have continued to do without the support of our families near and far. But more importantly, we would not have been able to do the road trip had we not done it smart. We stayed with family, we budgeted while we were there, but more importantly, we planned ahead. Planning...it comes naturally for us, but it is what allows us to continue living our lives the way we want to live them!
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