We are for sure going to car pool with the other couple on our camping trip. In light of this I am cutting our gas budget in half from $50 to $25. It will be a tight squeeze in the car, but worth it for the Earth and our pocketbooks to carpool. The ride is only about an hour and by the time we go Andrew will be in a booster seat so that will make more room in the back seat.

We'll borrow my mother's Jetta wagon because of the large trunk. 5 people and stuff for a weekend would never fit into our little Echo!

Carpooling brings the budget down from $240 to $215! :)

We currently have $94 saved or 43% of the trip.

I'm such a geek that I've even started making a grocery list in an attempt to cut down on food costs and to plan ahead.

Stuff we already have and won't need to purchase: Tin foil, Bacon, Sausages, S&P, Spices, Pasta vs. Texas Toast, Chilli Fixin's vs Meat Sauce, Margarine, Condiments, Andrew's Stuff, Tea, Coffee, sugar

Stuff to buy: Steak (15), Eggs (2), Bread (3), Hot Dogs (2), Buns (4), Potatoes (6), Carrots (3), Mushrooms (4), Milk (4), Beer/Booze (40), Chips (8), Sunflower seeds (3), Cookies (4), Pop (6) = 104 bucks

We haven't discussed how we'll split up the food. Maybe I'll suggest that we'll bring the meat if they bring the veggies/fixings. Maybe I'll even ditch having Saturday Lunch on the menu. My husband is not a big eater and we tend to not be very hungry at lunch because we've had a huge breakfast and will have a big supper...

Anyways...we are in a very good position for this trip. :) The advance planning is actually fun!