This might be taking the idea of a “transparent life” and openness a bit too far, but so it goes…
I’ve mentioned a couple times that I’ve been tracking my expenses during my current “Drive-By” road trip to meet interesting entrepreneurs, investors, photographers and “change agents” across the country.
A couple weeks ago I wrote about How to Live a Nomadic Lifestyle, primarily focusing on the attitude and approach to living a flexible, nomadic lifestyle. Jay Cuthrell and Joel Mark Witt have both reminded me about my earlier promises to release some expense details behind the trip, and so today, 77 completed days into the trip (Nov 30 to Feb 14), I’m releasing a pretty extensive amount of details about the trip, available for viewing, editing and downloading (CSV).
Highlights:
- Overall I’ve driven 9,079 miles over 77 days, for a median of 58 miles and an average of 118 per day (130 removing the 7 days I didn’t drive at all). That’s actually far less than I drove during my summer 2007 trip.
- The longest single-day drive was 687 miles.
- Expenses have averaged to $49 per day (not counting auto and medical insurance).
- Major expenses were “rent” at $18 per day, $10 per day in food and $7 in travel (gas).
- The most I spent in one day was $167 and the least was $0.
- I’ve spent 27 nights in hotels, 22 nights in hostels (in CA, LA and CO), 22 nights at friends’ places and 6 nights in campgrounds. [1]
- 46 of my 77 nights have been spent in California; I’ve spent just a single night in 6 states.
- I’ve been to Las Vegas on three separate trips, despite any strong liking of the city.
- I’ve gotten gas 36 times, washed my car 3 times, gotten 2 oil changes and made 7 trips to airports (none for me).
- I’ve gone to bars 29 times, been to parks (national and state) 14 times and been to 19 restaurants.
And there are a lot more in the details.
But more importantly, I’ve had fun.
Your chance to analyze the details.
Click here to access the editable sheet: it’s open for anyone to play with and create charts, graphs, visualizations, or to pick out embarrassing details: just add them to the “Charts” sheet (just click on the “Edit this page” link at the bottom of each sheet) or leave your thoughts in the comments below.
I’ll add any interesting graphics or charts that people create to the post.
What else would you like to know?
Drop questions in the comments if you want to know anything that isn’t in the spreadsheet: maybe I have actual data, maybe I don’t, but feel free to ask.
Why have I done this?
For starters, I’m an Excel geek. But more importantly, I wanted to show (with very hard data) that it is possible to live this way. I know few people will choose to travel or live like I do, but the goal isn’t to show my life as a blueprint for anyone but simply to open the mind and the eyes to the possibilities.
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The Google spreadsheet embedded below is locked for editing and only available to view. The editable version is available here.
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[1] Many of the hotel nights were spent at various Marriotts using points, thus the zero expense, if you’re wondering.
