I can't imagine how you spent $4500 on a three week camping trip with sites at 40-60 bucks a night.
Me neither. I had a lapse - vacations are my weakness - and I paid for the trip with a credit card. It took me a while to pay it off, with some interest as a result (about $60), and cost me some hard-won savings to get the bill down to zero. I didn't keep track of my pre-trip or during-trip expenses. But as with my overall budget, I find that having to list it out will probably help me realize where my spendy errors were. So let's see....
(Some of this won't be repeated next time, as for example, we can use the same tent next time).
$150 New Tent
$120 for sleeping bags
$30 camping pillows
$50 stove and cord
$50 various camping gear
$100 special clothes for the trip (that's another weakness of mine; I don't travel without buying clothes)
$1140 for regular food budget we would have spent at home anyway
$200 special/impulse camping food treats purchased at grocery stores
$50 toys and car entertainment for 1600-mile trip
$500 for dining out, which averaged about once every 3 days, the rest of meals were made at camp
$100 for various unplanned road snacks bought at gas stations
$500 entrance fees to various attractions (museums, natural wonders, gate fees)
$130 Stayed in a cabin one night during a thunderstorm
$130 Stayed in a hotel one night during another thunderstorm
$180 Most expensive campground for two nights @$90
$25 Least expensive campground for one night
$680 for 18 nights at average $40 per night camping fee
$120 car repair
$245 unsure/not recorded/Miscellaneous
$4500 Total
Edit: So $1140 for 3 weeks of regular, eaten-at-home food for 6 people is apparently exorbitant. More on that here:
http://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/ask-a-mustachian/how-fear-is-impacting-our-grocery-budget/So let's say this trip cost $3360 for 3 weeks, since we would have had to eat even if we stayed home. I still find that shockingly high. Seems I could find a way to get that down to $1500 or $2000 if we made entirely different choices about what kind of trip it would be next time. Still, does it make any kind of sense to drop major funds on camping trips when you are trying to retire early?