OK dudes and dude-a-loos…

In an attempt to continue assisting with your budget and trip preparation, I want to make sure you know that one of the other costs you’ll need to factor in for the trip is going to be for gas (as you Yanks insist on calling it).  This liquid gold, which will be purchased from a number of petrol stations along our various routes, don’t come cheap Down Under at around US$5 per gallon.  Yep, you read that correctly.  The good news is it looks like we have secured three donated vehicles for our collective time on the island so we don’t have to factor car hire costs beyond a crisp $100 bill per car and a full tank of fuel for the generous friends and family who are allowing us to borrow their wheels.  I have pulled my abacus out this morning and have figured out each of your pro rata costs for transport (given that people are staying for different lengths of time and traveling significantly different distances by car).  You’ll find your own lucky number below and in the spirit of full transparency I’ll also share my crazy lady budget spreadsheet via Google Drive so you can see how things are calculated.

I don’t need this money up-front however given the number of bodies involved here I do suggest we try using the “Elise Tolbert / Andi Lucas Travel Kitty Stuffed With Cash” theory to deal with this element of the trip.  This basically involves kicking the amount of money in cash on the day you arrive; keeping that communal purse with the car it matches and paying the costs out of that.  Receipts for anything paid out of the kitty are simply popped back into the same purse which It eliminates the whole “…hang on, didn’t I put $50 of gas into someones car on my credit card in Coles Bay?” confusion too.  If you all feel comfortable and in agreement on this, just note the dollar value below as something you’ll need to sort out as part of your ‘First Things To Do When I Arrive in Australia’; withdraw the cash at an ATM, hand it over to me when I collect you at the airport and then never think of it again.  And of course, and as always, if you’ve got a preferred way of handling this please drop me a message and we’ll get it sorted in a way that makes sense to everyone 🙂

IN CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER OF ARRIVAL

* These figures includes a pro-rate per person for contribution towards ‘car hire’ including the car wash and filling borrowed vehicles back up with gas to be returned to the generous souls who are letting us have access to their transport.

Andi & Heather: $340 each

Anni & Andrew: $295 each

Mandy: $235 each

Bev & Jake: $220 each

Laura, Amy & Dustin: $110 each

Susan & Karla: $100 each

Lorena: $40 each (mini-trip for Lolly!)