As to how the plan from above worked, one thing that really helped us was that whenever we spent something I would write it down in a notebook. About every page of spending I added it up. This helped us to know where our spending was and if we could afford to splurge or if we needed to cut back. In our case, it enabled us to splurge and not feel like we couldn't afford it.
Specifics on the plan:
Meals:
For breakfasts we bought muffins from the grocery store when we purchased our dinner food.
Lunch was a sandwich out or a sandwich from the grocery store.
For snacks we often did items we had picked up from the grocery store; fruit, cheese strings, cookies or granola bars.
Dinner was a frozen dinner that could be cooked in a frying pan, deli food (fried chicken, etc), or pre-seasoned meat and vegetables. We had very little trouble finding reasonably healthy, yummy dinner food when we had a whole grocery store to pick from and a camp stove. We also borrowed a cooler that had a fan to keep the food cool when you plugged it into a cigarette lighter.
We enjoyed the food and felt we had variety, etc.
Pre-Trip Library Sign Outs:
We took Lonely Planet USA and Lonely Planet Yellowstone (both of which I signed out from the library). Both of those helped us to plan our trip (since we didn't go on the trip with a detailed plan (just a destination)) to see the cities/towns we felt would be interesting, to find good value places for lunch, to know what we were seeing in Yellowstone, to know what to expect, etc. In the end, those two books enhanced our trip and, therefore, saved us money.
We also signed out from the library several books on CD. We only ended up listening to Charlotte's Web but in the end it helped to make some of the long hot drives more bearable and enjoyable.
Places to Sleep:
We had no problem finding campsites. We did have a bit of a problem finding campsites that weren't next to train tracks or the highway or, yes, BOTH. We also found some great campsites with swimming pools, free showers, or other amenities. So, I guess we took the good with the bad.
One thing that helped us to enjoy almost two weeks in a tent was that we bought a $75 air mattress that pumped up using the cigarette lighter in our car. It paid for itself several times over.
We also got one hotel before Yellowstone and one hotel on the way home. Both were a nice break from the tent.
For costs, our cheapest tent site was $10 and our most expensive campsite was $40 to give you an idea on actuals. Also, one thing that helped us a bit was we stayed at a KOA campsite one night and there we got a free book on all the KOA campsites. This helped us for peace of mind and finding a campsite one night.
Summary:
In the end our holiday was lots of fun, very relaxing, etc. Exactly what a holiday should be. Here's a couple of pictures to prove it.The 6 man tent we borrowed for the trip. |
| Me cooking dinner in Yellowstone. This dinner was pre-seasoned chicken, rice-a-roni, a package of prefrozen asparagus and milk to drink. |
The token picture of Old Faithful. Yellowstone is so much more... |
