How much would that cost if you bought a van to sleep in.....and took about 6 months to a year to see everything in the USofA.

What could you do to get income? Or quick money? No bills (not even rent/mortgage) except maybe one phone, and maybe a wifi to stay connected.

I'd love to just say screw it and travel while the job market is in the shitter. Could it be done with a couple thou?

2/11/2009 11:33:04 AM

try to be more vague nobody could estimate the cost it takes for you to live without more details

what about the gas bill and the fact that occasionally it might be nice to take showers

address for employment

some people are able to successfully do this - you aren't one of them


you could sell your artwork on the way for $$ though - that's the ticket

2/11/2009 11:35:47 AM

this is probably definitely not what you think it is

I'm Big Business and i approved this message.

2/11/2009 11:39:10 AM

Quote :

"and maybe a wifi to stay connected."

a wut

the answer is: "to do it right is expensive"

2/11/2009 11:42:15 AM

do you have ANY idea how much money this will cost?

i can tell you a way to get quick money, but you probably won't like it.

The easiest way to do this is to live way below poverty the entire time. You won't be able to get a temp job in this economy, especially if its in Nebraska and you have a NC address.

I'm Big Business and i approved this message.

2/11/2009 11:44:29 AM

I thought you were going to the beach or something?

2/11/2009 11:45:24 AM

Quote :

"Could it be done with a couple thou? "

Umm, that would be about the absolute bare minimum just to buy the van...not to mention the thousands of dollars you'd spend for gas, tires, and oil, even if nothing went wrong.

I've driven across the country twice (one southern route, one northern route), and I want to do it again on a motorcycle (and eventually do it in a small airplane)--it's an awesome thing to do, but be realistic...it's going to cost WAY more than a couple thousand bucks. Hell, it would probably cost that much just in gas/oil/tires to drive across the country and back, much less roam around for months and check lots of different stuff out.

2/11/2009 11:48:04 AM

Quote :

"What could you do to get income? Or quick money?"

I have a feeling you could figure this one out

2/11/2009 11:48:37 AM

^^ its very impractical to drive a plane across the us...

I'm Big Business and i approved this message.

2/11/2009 11:51:57 AM

no, it's very expensive.

but it would be strictly for recreation, anyway, at whatever point I get the time and money together at the same time.

2/11/2009 11:54:11 AM

So let me get this straight, Kiwi has decided to be a gypsy?

2/11/2009 11:54:26 AM

here, this might help!

http://www.couchsurfing.com/

2/11/2009 11:55:01 AM

Well, it's just an idea. Now would be the perfect time to do something like this. That number figure didn't include the van.

I was reading that day labors are popular though they may be obsolete right now.

We would camp out or sleep in the car and most likely come home when it got cold.

It'd be sweet

I've been a gypsy son. I've lived in SC, NY, VA, NC, and TN. Not including all the cities I've moved around to in those states

http://www.roadtripamerica.com/forum/showthread.php?s=372685513282fb3480fa3813c6a59fb1&t=15599&page=2

[Edited on February 11, 2009 at 11:59 AM. Reason : dfsaf]

2/11/2009 11:57:28 AM

With the job market the way it is right now, i.e. TONS of people looking for work and no jobs, this would not be a good idea right now. Unless you plan on giving a lot of back alley blowjobs for gas money.

2/11/2009 11:59:56 AM

A three week trip in June that is covering about 7000 miles will cost me about 3 grand or so from my estimates. I will be sleeping mostly free at relatives and off of reward points.

2/11/2009 12:00:08 PM

i tried to make a "i thought planes were for flying" joke, but no one caught it


seriously though kiwi, good luck. i would not advise you to do this haha.

I'm Big Business and i approved this message.

2/11/2009 12:02:11 PM

^ I caught it, it just wasn't funny enough to comment on

[Edited on February 11, 2009 at 12:05 PM. Reason : a]

2/11/2009 12:04:44 PM

I was thinking $100 a week for everything

2/11/2009 12:07:42 PM

wow, I spend more that $100 a week just going to work and back, without any outside activities.

[Edited on February 11, 2009 at 12:09 PM. Reason : a]

2/11/2009 12:09:25 PM

you could live off $100 a week assuming nothing EVER went wrong. Keep in mind, you're talking about driving across the US for up to 50 weeks.

I'm Big Business and i approved this message.

2/11/2009 12:09:31 PM

how far are you going to drive on 100/wk - you said we but for 100/wk with no real way to cook your own food you must mean 1 person

2/11/2009 12:09:33 PM

yeah that $100/wk would only work for one person. and no offense, but you look like you eat alot

I'm Big Business and i approved this message.

2/11/2009 12:10:40 PM

And I hardly ever go out to eat. I cook dinner at home every night. When I do eat out for lunch, I hit the dollar menu. And I STILL exceed $100 a week.

2/11/2009 12:11:31 PM

I spend less than $100 on gas and food every week. Then again i have a freezer and a micorwave, things you will not have in a van.

I'm Big Business and i approved this message.

2/11/2009 12:12:44 PM

You should watch "Into the Wild" if you haven't.

2/11/2009 12:12:51 PM

Bring a cooler and a little stove for camping. Hardly eat out, mostly grocery shopping.

Driving distance is an unknown since we'd be taking our time. We don't have to see the entire US, we'd like to go coast to coast though.

The way we are living right now is under 100/week.

2/11/2009 12:15:54 PM

^^ don't even bring that movie up - there is no way you can compare the guy that did that trip to kiwi - he was intelligent

2/11/2009 12:17:11 PM

theres nothing to see on the east coast but asphalt, unless you go past new york, but you said you'd leave if it was cold.

I'm Big Business and i approved this message.

2/11/2009 12:17:47 PM

If we did this we plan to camp and had the cold, so cold regions are out.

We won't spend a lot of time on the east coast since we've seen a lot of it already.

2/11/2009 12:19:38 PM

$100/wk is not enough, you are just asking to get stranded on that amount

2/11/2009 12:20:59 PM

figure that a full tank of gas in a van like that will probably cost around $40, and you will AT MOST make it probably 400 miles on that tank of gas. Not going to get very far on $100, and that's not even counting food.

2/11/2009 12:25:05 PM

Most (used/cheap) vans that two people can comfortably sleep in and carry gear will be lucky to see 12 MPG. Hope you're not planning to drive very far or you're going to sink half your budget on gas pretty quickly.

And a lot of the attractions you're going to want to see are going to have entrance fees and parking/camping fees including national parks.

I'd say $100 a week would be doable if you plan on being as boring on the trip as you are on here though. Like if you just want to sleep in all the Wal-Mart parking lots between here and Nevada you're probably set. You might want to budget higher if you want a real experience though.

2/11/2009 12:32:18 PM

Back in the summer of '06, myself and 3 friends did a 10,000 mile road trip across the country. Started out on the northerly route through MO to SD and then to WA. Then we came down through CA and ended up staying three nights in Las Vegas at Circus Circus. Along the way, we hit the major national parks and several state parks. By the time we got to Arizona, we started getting tired of each other and just hit I40 and came home. Total time was 28 days and about $1200 each. We generally tried to do things cheap, but a KOA membership helped when we wanted to stay in nicer campgrounds. We pretty much always lied about how many of us there were when camping and staying in hotels . Its cheaper that way.

The van we drove ended up getting an average of a little less than 12mpg cause we drove fast and had a lot of stuff. We changed the oil once (synthetic) and should have changed the fuel filter - discovered it was a little bit clogged up towards the end of the trip. That would have helped our mpg.

[Edited on February 11, 2009 at 12:46 PM. Reason : ^lucky to see 12 MPG - spot on - I was typing when you posted that]

2/11/2009 12:35:10 PM

Awesome. I wanna hear more stories. It feels like a pipe dream right now but it's something I want to seriously consider some day. Though it will most likely be shorter road trips.

We found a van for $1800 that would fit all our crap and have room for sleeping but I dont know the mpg. Then we thought about taking my car which gets damn good mpg but then we'd be cramped and have to camp.

2/11/2009 12:42:27 PM

A shorter road trip is pointless. 95% of what you want to see is west of the Mississippi.

2/11/2009 12:44:04 PM

Shorter as in not 6mos. minimum, maybe like a month at a time or something.

2/11/2009 12:46:09 PM

a month would be enough time to see a ton of stuff. take a southern route one way, work your way up the west coast, then come back through the northern route. you'd get a decent taste of America, minus New England. A month would be PLENTY of time to do it, too.

You have no concept whatsoever of how much it's going to cost, though, even doing it on the cheap.

2/11/2009 12:50:43 PM

Our trip was the reason I got a credit card...

2/11/2009 12:51:47 PM

Well that's why I'm asking how much it would cost.........

For future reference, even if we can't do it right now.

I want to hear more stories!

2/11/2009 1:01:13 PM

Quote :

"A month would be PLENTY of time to do it"

We had our route planned to be 33 days IIRC, which included pretty much every major national park anyone would want to see. We cut out the last week or so though and headed home. Didn't miss much in doing that. Not a whole lot to see in TX and the other gulf states.

2/11/2009 1:05:45 PM

Quote :

"Not a whole lot to see in TX and the other gulf states."

It depends. On the type of things you like to see (are you more into cultural things, or natural attractions), as well as how easily amused you are.

Personally, I'd want to see the alamo, the riverwalk in san antonio, and just look at the different landscapes in the state. Of course, I want to do that last one everywhere I go. The alamo and riverwalk are not exactly boring.

And if you gave me 20 minutes, I could easily plan out a week or two in the gulf states.

I'm sitting here thinking that a month isn't nearly enough time. If I had funds and time, and the right person with ♥, I'd want to take closer to two months. In fact, that's what Nerdchick and I started to plan in 06.

2/11/2009 1:09:44 PM

^What were the details of your roadtrip last yr?

Costs, time, unexpected expenses, etc

2/11/2009 1:12:53 PM

do all the above AND keep your job

http://outside.away.com/outside/culture/200805/garrett-lisi-1.html

2/11/2009 1:18:09 PM

^^^ sure, you could easily fill 2 months with stuff to see and do, but a month is enough to see a ton of stuff. beyond that, i think it's sort of diminishing returns. not that it isn't worthwhile...just that if you are constrained by time and money, you might be better off in the 1-month range (or even in the 1.5-2 week range for just driving straight across the country and back, stopping to see a few things along the way).

also, the Alamo is kind of underwhelming, but still absolutely worth going to see. The Riverwalk is a blast...I've been to San Antonio twice, staying in hotels right on the Riverwalk both times (once was in the Hyatt...a little section of the river is diverted to flow right through the middle of the hotel ). You can also go down to Gruene, TX. It's a historic town. There's a river that everyone floats down, and there's Gruene Music Hall, where a lot of Texas country musicians cut their teeth.

2/11/2009 1:27:41 PM

I did 7k for a month in a chevy cavalier with a friend. cost us about a thousand each, we bought a national parks pass and hit up almost all of them. Mostly eating pb and J and ramen, we slept in the back country for the experience and to avoid campgroupd fees (they will add up). I think we spent 5 nights at road stops, mostly in montana and the midwest.

2/11/2009 1:39:56 PM

I just drove across the country last fall. Did it in about a month.

$100 a week just isn't going to cut it, try about $300 a week and you might not starve.

Good luck.

2/11/2009 1:57:23 PM

Quote :

"Personally, I'd want to see the alamo, the riverwalk in san antonio, and just look at the different landscapes in the state. Of course, I want to do that last one everywhere I go. The alamo and riverwalk are not exactly boring."

2 of us on my trip had already been through through the gulf states and visited The Alamo and the River Walk on another trip we took across the country in high school (http://www.teenswestwardbound.com/itinerary.html). I guess when I said there's not much to see there, I mainly meant in the line of National Parks. Compared to the NPs out west, the ones in the SE just aren't the same.

2/11/2009 3:21:22 PM

showering is overrated anyways

2/11/2009 3:25:36 PM

hobostripper.com has everything you need to know about van living. And being a stripper, if thats how you choose to finance it.http://www.hobostripper.com

[Edited on February 11, 2009 at 3:52 PM. Reason : ]

2/11/2009 3:46:51 PM

I had 2,500 and my friend had about 3,000. We spent 10 weeks on the road in my parents Chevy S-10. We slept in the back of Wal-Mart parking lots or went camping and took showers at campgrounds. The best thing we had was a national park pass, which is like 70 bucks and you get into all the parks for free. I came back without a dime and half of my money went towards gas and the other half to gambling.

2/11/2009 4:06:16 PM