In August-Sept 2020 I rode 7,929 Miles in a loop around the United States on my Honda CB500x. I called that trip Flight of the Magpie.
Before I left I made myself a budget and did my best to estimate my costs for food, gas, maintenance, accommodation and recreation. However, when I was making that budget it was way before we had any idea of how much things were going to change in 2020.
That being said, a little spoiler: I came in under budget.
While I was planning I expected to spend $3,429, that number included rent and bills that I would have to pay while I was travelling.
I tracked every purchase I made on the trip in this app called Travel-Spend #notspon, they have a paid and a free version. It was helpful because it kept track of what my Daily Average was and also what my Total Spend was and would tell me how much I had left in the budget.
So, in total I spent $2,650 and it’s averaging that I spent about $73 a day.
That includes my new helmet I had to get right before the trip started, the new chain and sprockets, the new tire in Virginia, all the new SD Cards I bought along the way, Food, Hotels, Park Fees, Gas, and a couple of the little pins I bought as keepsakes. That number does not include my bills but rest assured I still came home with more money than I thought I would have.
Breaking that down into the Categories:
You can see by the pie chart in the video that most of what I ended up spending was on accommodation since I ended up staying in waaaay more hotels than what I was expecting to stay at. If I had a pie chart of what I had anticipated spending on it would be mostly gas and then Sightseeing. Which I guess is a good thing since almost all of the money I budgeted for all that sightseeing kind of helped pad my accommodation spending which is why I still ended up under budget.
$948.41 on Accommodation
Out of 24 Days on the Road I stayed in 10 hotels, and paid for one campsite at the KOA in Rapid City. I stayed with friends, and family 10 nights and camped for free three times. When my brother and I were splitting hotel rooms at the first part of the trip we made a deal that I would just pay for the hotel and he would buy our dinner, except for the last night in Pierre, SD where we just went and got some frozen veggies to microwave so he did pitch in his half of the hotel room.
Obviously you could cut your cost for accommodation way down if you camped the whole time, even paying for spots and campgrounds would still make this section much smaller. I had a hell of a time finding space at campgrounds without having to reserve a spot a few days in advance which just doesn’t really work with how I was travelling this trip. I had no idea how far I would get each day and I didn’t want to go hard and feel like poo just to make it to a place because I reserved a spot. I did prove in West Virginia you could still find camping if you got well enough off the beaten path but since miles were a bit more of a priority this trip I ended up hugging the Interstates a lot more than I normally do.
Then again, there’s def people who prefer to stay in hotels so maybe they’re laughing a little at the amount I spent on hotels who knows. Everyone has their preferred way to travel, that’s why everyone’s budget is going to look a bit different.
Fees & Charges category $680.44
I lumped my maintenance costs into this category so this has my replacement helmet that I got hella on sale thankfully, the new chain, sprockets from Roscos, the new tire and labor at Moto Richmond.
I changed the oil and everything before the trip, and did it again when I got home so I didn’t include those things into this cost. I had a little can of chain lube that went with me so I didn’t have to buy that along the way.
Transportation aka my Gas $412.05
Not too shabby for 24 days spent on the road if I do say so myself. I think that breaks down to something like 5 cents a mile. Def under the $500 I budgeted for fuel, I guess one good thing out of all of this was that gas was pretty darn cheap everywhere.
Shopping $322.39
This included things like new SD Cards, I bought like 6 new SD Cards while I was on the road as I filled up my old ones, I also bought a few pins, mostly while I was riding with my brother because that’s what he does, the Frog toggs are in this category also.
Restaurants at $314.51
Higher than I expected but I did get some wonderful crab legs at a restaurant in Kill Devil Hills to celebrate reaching the Atlantic Ocean, and also the Steak I had at a Colton's in Arkansas was so good.
And Jess bought me some Pho in Ohio and then Doodle also spoiled me and bought me freaking Sushi when I was at her house.
Groceries $51.73
Of course this didn’t include the food I started off with, I did have like three backpacking meals for when I knew I would feel to lazy to do anything else, I started off with a couple packs of rice, some veggies and some soup.
Sightseeing $47.00
Which I can literally list off for you:
Museum of the Rockies, Parking in Deadwood, and entrance to Indian Dunes State Park.
One of my wonderful subscribers bought America the Beautiful Pass for me so I didn’t have to pay to enter any National Parks.
I’m gonna emphasize here that yes everyone’s numbers are going to be different, yes you can do it cheaper, yes you could sacrifice all kinds of things to make it cheaper.
This is not a video about that, this is me sharing the exact numbers of what I spent and what I spent it on for MY trip. I am NOT comparing my numbers to your numbers. This is not a competition. Even though I guarantee there will be people in the comments sharing how much cheaper they did their trip for. Awesome, I’m so happy for you.
For everyone else, I hope this gave you an idea of what a trip across the usa on a motorcycle could cost you roughly. Sometimes it’s helpful to get a rough idea of what others have done these kinds of trips for so I’m happy to share!