The trip so far - Budget ?

While sitting and relaxing at Lake Atitlan, I have had a look at all my trip costs so far, and compared them to what I had anticipated before leaving. I put some of them up here for any of you interested in doing a similar trip, or even those who just wonder how much something like this costs.

Distance. Kms	Expected by San Diego		18391
	Actual by San Diego		22937
Fuel Quantity, Litres	Expected by San Diego		2706
	Actual by San Diego		3116
Fuel Cost, $	Expected by San Diego		$2,891
	Actual by San Diego		$3,634
Days on road	By San Diego		107
Cost per day for accomodation	(Plan $20/day)		$19.06
Cost per day for Food	(Plan $30/day)		$38.00
Cost per day for fuel			$34.93
Average kms per day			214

So you can see that by the time I got to the Mexican border on the 28^th July, I had done 4600 more kilometres than I had expected, used 400 litres more fuel than expected, and spent $700 more on fuel than expected. (That doesn’t surprise me as Janet and I drove virtually every road in Alaska !!)    However my budget for the cost of accommodation per day was almost spot on at $20, while I had spent $8 per day more on food than budgeted.   Not too bad.

Additional costs that I hadn’t really budgeted for were as follows :-

      1)      Car (Oil, servicing, and a new set of 6 tyres, plus a few other bits and     pieces     $2200  

(This includes $1100 on the 6 new tyres, so isn’t too bad)

2)      About $800 on cold weather clothes, but we knew that was coming !                   $ 800

3)      We have spent some $3500 on entertainment (Boat trips, tours, museums etc as well as several meals and alcohol which could have perhaps been in groceries) But as I had budgeted $5000 for this we are still under, but will be over by the end !!             $3500

4)      Also spent some $1200 on “Supplies”, which covers everything from Maps, Park Passes, and Int Drivers Licences to a small stove, batteries, fans, and bed sheets !                   $1200

So not too bad.  I do not include the cost of preparing the car last year, or the cost of shipping it to Seattle, or air tickets to fly to the US from Australia.  Just our costs since being here.   Overall, that works out to about $208 per day, or about $6000 per month, and as that is about what we were spending when we were living at home in Australia, that is not too bad, IMHO. 

In order to keep all the costs on the table, as far as the vehicle costs preparing it for the trip are concerned, I spent just under $25,000 on it after I had purchased it.  These costs included all the mechanical work done on it, the new suspension, tyres, brakes, clutch, bearings, dual rear spare wheel holders, etc, servicing the vehicle for a year of driving, plus every single penny I spent on new seats, carpets, seat covers, wood, varnish, screws etc kitting out the inside.  But I do not include these costs in my “budget” because hopefully all (or at least most !) of these things will still be there and in use after the trip is finished !!  Things like clutches and suspension and spare wheel carriers will (hopefully) last much longer than the 40,000 kms of the trip – So I guess they are just “overheads”.