I have been on many road trips. There are several ways to save money on them. Of course, the most obvious one is to bring your own food and drink. The other less obvious way to save money is by travelling off season. Waiting until after the average Joe hits the highway, you get better deals all around for hotels, restaurants and shopping.
Here are my ways of saving on a road trip: I bring a lot of water. Tons of them. So I wouldn't have to buy one along the travel which usually is tagged very high. I also bring anything that from home that I think I will find a use even if it would be for emergency like bring firs-aid kit. I bring a lot of food, same reason with water so I wouldn't have to buy it on the road. I bring my own cosmetics, vanity and hygiene kit.
I save money on road trips by not buying food, drink and provisions at motorway service stations, I buy them before I leave my home town. Seriously, have you seen the prices? It is like THREE or FOUR times the amount you would pay in a local shop!
Traveling with camping gear is probably the best way to save money. I understand in some places it can be risky but when going on a road trip since most people never travel alone you can pitch a tent at the end of the day and stretch yourselves out there. There's some safety in numbers so yeah . . . you can save money you'd have spent at the hotel.
I always save on road trips as mentioned above I bring my own food or drinks. I try to rent hotels that have kitchens the suite and I cook breakfast in which I bring along and prepare before everyone leaves their rooms. I dont buy alot items I try to visit theme parks and museums and other places that dont cost nothing or much. I always save. I figure the more you save the more roadtrips you can take and I love to hit the highway. I figure gas is high enough so why not save.
I do a little work secret shopping while I'm on the road. If you're going through an airport, a lot of times you can get a secret shop assignment that will pay for your meal at the airport and pay a little over and above too. The airport shops pay more because you have to have a ticket to get into that part of the airport. Also, if you use an app like EasyShift, it's easy and fun to slip into a business or restaurant and get paid $4-$8 just for taking a few pictures. After a while, it becomes like a game. Try it on your next road trip!
Pack your food for road trips, dont do much shopping at convenient stores along the way. This will save you a lot of money. Also, dont stop at restaurants, pack your food. People spend a lot of money on food when on a road trip. I always spend a lot stop at stores and restaurants,maybe I should take my own advice on this one.
Denis has a good point, camping along the way is something to consider. I believe you can camp in National Forests (U.S.) for free, but you will be in the wilderness. You have to be brave, but I love being out in nature so I definitely plan on doing this for my next big road trip. Other places to camp are typically only $10-20 a night, much cheaper than any hotel. In cities, hostels are also much cheaper than hotels if you don't want to camp. I would suggest to bring everything you need, and double-check you have everything. Whenever I go on vacation I always forget some little thing like dental floss and I have to buy it somewhere. Packing food will save you a ton of money, but I don't pack all my meals; I budget in a lot of "splurge" money for eating out. I figure if I'm on vacation I'd like to relax and not worry about dishes or cooking all the time, and enjoy special meals. I also like to collect souvenirs for most cities I visit. Especially shotglasses and fridge magnets, or sometimes even a t-shirt.
All the food I bring from home and avoid buying along the way. If something happens and I'm forced to buy, I shop at cheap stores and supermarkets. For sleeping, I use the car or a tent I brought along. This way I skip paying for hotels/hostels. The drinks. For a longer trip maybe it's not practical to carry many liters of water so I end buying cheap water in big bottles (think 5 liters).
The one thing I make sure to have on road trips to save on money is a lot of water. I find that having to constantly go to gas station convenience stores to buy more water takes a lot of expense on top of the already pricey gas expenditures. I usually put some purified water into a used liter plastic bottle along with a good amount of regular sized bottles so we could use them in place of cups, and we get to save ourselves from buying those paper cups as well by doing this. I don't pack that much food, though, since I like to eat at the various stops we pass by so I can get a taste of the various restaurants along the way.
I just took a road trip a few weeks ago, and the first thing I did was join as many gas station rewards programs as I could. BP has one. It's 10 cents off a gallon (up to 20 gallons) when you sign up, then once you purchase at least twenty gallons over your next two fill ups you get 5 cents off the next one. Shell has a really, really good one. It's 3 cents off a gallon (up to 20 gallons) all the time. The sign up bonus is 25 cents off a gallon. If you already have a card, they'll send you another with that bonus on it. Don't fret, though. You can link both cards to your account. You also get bonuses for linking certain store rewards cards and using them, linking credit/debit cards and using them at certain restaurants and hotels (Mastercards get you more bonuses), and for doing online shopping. You can even get savings for being a Total Rewards member and racking points up at affiliated casinos. It really comes in handy if you're driving with multiple people, as you can all sign up for free and alternate cards at each gas station.
Like most of the people here I bring my own food and drink. On these trips I find a hotel that gives us breakfast and take as much as I can for snacks so that I really only need one more meal that day. We get rooms that have micro waves and refrigerators to help save on food.
When I went on a road trip with my friends last summer I ate after arrived and I think of the food no compromise specially during the trip because you need good food and I think you are not caring about money when you buy the things..
