Steal Away With Steele

Midterm break is quickly approaching and this slight reprieve from classes is the perfect time for a quick road trip. Taking a trip to Denver; Kansas City, Missouri; or even Las Vegas is financially possible when splitting travel costs. Understanding an effective way to split the costs can make traveling easier.
Traveling in a group can quickly cause one member of the group to feel like he or she is paying more than his or her share of the trip which can potentially lead to tension within the group. The easiest way to prevent tension from forming is to plan ahead. Letting everyone know the cost ahead of time prevents group members from feeling blindsided.
Through trial and error from several road trips, I have found the easiest way is to divide everything equally. Such simple advice may sound like common sense, but several travel parties do not travel in such a way. One option for splitting costs is one person pays for the gas and another pays for the hotel. Using this payment method makes sharing the costs equally a headache to figure out.

Making sure costs are even is made possible by planning and prepaying for the trip. Commodities, such as gas, you can’t pay for in advance and are not a constant price. This is where your high school math classes can actually be used in real life. Configuring what your group will pay in gas is simple. Take the number of miles you’ll be traveling and divide by the vehicle’s average miles per gallon, then times by the average price of gas. It is important to remember gas prices on the coasts are higher than in the Midwest. Don’t be afraid to add extra miles on for sightseeing adventures.
For example, Chadron to Las Vegas is 989 miles one way. The estimated miles for a round trip would be around 2,000 miles. Let’s say your car gets 35 miles to the gallon. For the trip you would be using 57 gallons of gas. Estimating the average gas price is $2.25 a gallon your total cost for gas would be $128.25. Divide that between four people and everyone would owe just $32 for gas.
When you start your adventure, have everyone pitch in his or her owed amount in cash. Using this method ensures everyone pays the same amount. An added bonus of this method is at the end of the journey everyone splits the leftover money equally. Walking away with extra cash at the end of the trip is always a satisfactory feeling.
May great travel companions find you!