What A View!!! : budget

Saturday, August 23, 2025

NORTH TO ALASKA 2025 - BUDGET RECAP - FINAL 30 DAYS - TOTAL FINANCIAL REVIEW OF ENTIRE TRIP TO ALASKA AND BACK

Now that we are home, it's time to do a final budget and expenses report. Also, we would like to do a recap of our trip with "Top Five Favorites" in various categories....

So far, we have done a budget blog post on the first 30 days:

https://kareninthewoods-kareninthewoods.blogspot.com/2025/06/north-to-alaska-2025-31-days-one-month.html

and the second 30 days:

https://kareninthewoods-kareninthewoods.blogspot.com/2025/07/north-to-alaska-2025-budget-recap-for.html

Now it's time for the third 30 days and a wrap up of our total costs for the trip!

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FUEL, which is the one everybody asks about the most, came in well under budget.

For the last 30 days we spent $1,201 US currency. That is after the Canadian exchange rate has been applied through our credit card. We also spent $23 on a container of DEF fluid which is necessary for our Mercedes-Benz diesel engine.

Total fuel costs were $2,696. Our budget was $3,200. So we did really quite well. That is over a span of 9,500 miles. We averaged about 14.5 miles per gallon.

Most expensive was $6.07 a gallon in Jasper / Banff

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CAMPGROUNDS: For camping the last 30 days we spent $535. Monthly budget was $750 so we were below budget in our camping. We did have five nights of zero cost camping either at free campgrounds and at one Walmart this month.

Total cost for camping was $1,730. This included 18 free nights. Our budget for camping was $2,275 so we came in under budget.

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FOOD: Our grocery items only came to $443 this month. The budget is $500 per month. And we definitely came home with groceries that got brought back into the house.

Our complete cost of groceries was $1,156. That was well under our $1,500 budget for the entire trip. Granted, we left with some groceries from home. But just as well we are coming home with groceries to put back into the house.

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PROPANE: Our propane costs, which weren't really budgeted, were only $38 for this month. Of course we ran the furnace less often and really only used propane as needed for the stove, refrigerator, water heater, and sometimes to run our propane generator.

Our total propane costs were $285 for the 90 days.

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LAUNDRY: came in at $31 this month. Our budget was actually $120 per month. So we were well below on that.

Total laundry cost for $98 for the entire trip. We had budgeted $360 so we were well below on that.

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DUMP STATION: Dump station fees and water fill fees for this month were only $5. And that was after we got home at our own little city dump station a mile from our house.

The total we paid on the entire trip was $47 for dump station costs.

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RESTAURANTS:. I know this is a high item for many people but that's not the way we travel. We prefer to cook our own food. This month we only spent $26 at a restaurant. That was for my beloved Godfather's Pizza the day before we came home. The entire trip was only $147 for restaurants. That was including two Godfather's pizzas, one on the way out and one on the way back, and the rest was cinnamon rolls at various places that Steve wanted to try out. That was it for restaurant eating.

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GIFTS & SOUVENIRS: This month we spent $195 on gifts and souvenirs for ourselves and for family members. We needed to pick up a few things to say thank you for some people that made our trip easier, and some special things for the grandkids. In total we spent $460 in souvenirs. Part of that though was my beautiful Alaskan jacket and my rabbit fur mukluks.

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TOLLS / FERRIES: We had zero expense of those this month, and over the entire 90 days we spent $260. Our budget was $500. This included the ferry we took from Skagway to Haines, the toll for the Whittier tunnel, and the shuttles that we used going from McCarthy out to the Kennicott mine and back.

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MISCELLANEOUS: items little odds and ends we picked up. $27 this month and a total of $96 over the entire 90 days. These items range from repair clips for our recliner chairs to some bungee cords to some extra tape etc

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Our total financial expenditure for 90 days was $7,028.

That comes out to $2,342 per month

which averages out to $77.23 per day

We traveled a total of 9,500 to miles

and we had budgeted for 9,000 miles

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Now that we are home there are some minor repairs that we are taking care of ---

Our doorstep became erratic in operation. We had of course lubed it with dry silicone and did the good old hammer on the side of it to make it work again. It worked from time to time. But we knew on the inside the gear was stripping out. We've done this before on our last motorhome. We ordered a new one for $34 to replace. Easy peasy.