One thing that I enjoy doing is keeping track of my expenses. It’s one of the reason why I was interviewed over at Budgets Are Sexy about my family budget
(SEE ALSO: What does a budget for a family of 8 look like?)
(SEE ALSO: How I eat for less than $1 / meal)
Naturally, this continues while we’re on vacation. I do try to relax (a little) while on vacation, but I do think that you can have a successful vacation without breaking the bank
- Introduction: Big heads, Trains and Bears, oh my!
- My (free) $6500 family train vacation on Amtrak
- Holy Toledo! The lunacy in trying to book this Ohio hotel
- Why you want to transfer Amtrak points to Choice Hotels
- How I spent 350,401 miles and points
- You can book unlimited Choice Hotel award nights?
- Checking historical Amtrak delays
- Amtrak Union Station Toledo parking
- 4 reasons my Amtrak trip was a blast…
- … but I’ll probably never take another Amtrak trip
- 4 laundry hacks when you're doing long term travel
- Amtrak Union Station Chicago Metropolitan Lounge
- Boiling River Yellowstone
- Do you take hotel toiletries, pens and other amenities?
- Finding the REAL geographic center of the United States
- How to get compensation for Amtrak delays
- Amtrak tips: Tipping on Amtrak
- Ranking the 8 hotels we stayed at on our vacation
- Updating my travel map with new visited places
- How I spent 350,401 points
- Why I didn’t spend $9,144.92 on my vacation
2015 Yellowstone trip: Expense report
Here are the expenses from our Yellowstone trip
| Place | Points Used | Transportation | Food | Gas | Entertainment | Laundry | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Little Caesars | $10.00 | ||||||
| Holiday Inn Express | 27,000 IHG Points | 15,000 points * 2 rooms with 10% points rebate | |||||
| Amtrak | 50,000 Chase Points ( transferred to Amtrak) | $30.00 | $10 for breakfast tip, $20 for dinner (SEE ALSO: Tipping on Amtrak |
||||
| Mcdonalds | $8.93 | ||||||
| Amtrak | $5.00 | $50.00 | $15 for breakfast tip, $15 for lunch, $20 for dinner, $5 for sleeping car attendant | ||||
| Wynkoop | $45.00 | Parking Garage 3 cars * $15 due to having to have my brothers-in-law get my car because my Amtrak train was so late | |||||
| Hyatt House | 10,000 Chase Points (transferred to Hyatt) | $5.00 | We got free laundry soap from the Holiday Inn Express in Perrysburg. This was $2 for washing 2 loads and $3 for drying 3 loads (one load wouldn't dry all the way) | ||||
| King Soopers | $11.99 | Birthday cake | |||||
| Mcdonalds | $14.09 | ||||||
| Kum and Go | $29.44 | ||||||
| Kum and Go | $26.93 | ||||||
| Little Caesars | $15.75 | ||||||
| King Soopers | $2.36 | ||||||
| Quality Inn | 5,333 Chase Points (transferred to Amtrak and then Choice) | 8,000 points * 2 rooms | |||||
| Shell | $23.97 | 8.268 gallons | |||||
| Shell | $18.66 | ||||||
| Smith's | $23.46 | ||||||
| Smith's | $5.30 | Sunglasses for Carolyn as she left hers in the van in Toledo 😀 | |||||
| Holiday Inn Express | 36,000 IHG Points | 20,000 points * 2 rooms with 10% points rebate | |||||
| Yellowstone NPS | $60.00 | 2 $30 car passes | |||||
| Rodeway Inn and Suites | 5,333 Chase Points (transferred to Amtrak and then Choice) | 16000 points * 1 room | |||||
| Cenex Kremers | $32.73 | ||||||
| Cenex Kremers | $38.39 | 13.019 gallons | |||||
| Cenex Zip | $32.49 | 10.173 gallons | |||||
| Walmart | $30.37 | $5.99 | |||||
| Econo Lodge | 6,666 Chase points (transferred to Amtrak and then Choice) | $5.00 | |||||
| Cenex Zip | $25.38 | ||||||
| Dairy Queen | $18.65 | ||||||
| Econo Lodge | 5,333 Chase Points (transferred to Amtrak and then Choice) | 8,000 points * 2 rooms | |||||
| Loaf N Jug | $23.00 | 9.432 gallons; saved 30c / gal with Kroger fuel points | |||||
| Loaf N Jug | $27.90 | 11.44 gallons; saved 30c / gal with Kroger fuel points | |||||
| Mt. Rushmore | $22.00 | $11 / car | |||||
| Little Caesars | $16.05 | ||||||
| Holiday Inn Express | 36,000 IHG Points | 20,000 points * 2 rooms with 10% points rebate | |||||
| Avis | 10,229 Barclay Arrival miles | $113.66 - 11,366 Barclay points - 10% rebate | |||||
| Avis | 10,229 Barclay Arrival miles | $113.66 - 11,366 Barclay points - 10% rebate | |||||
| Denver Museum of Nature and Science | $0.00 | Our ASTC membership saved us $89.60 | |||||
| Corner Store | $37.36 | 14.265 gallons @ $2.619 | |||||
| Corner Store | $29.47 | 11.253 gallons @ $2.619 | |||||
| Wendy's | $19.33 | ||||||
| Amtrak | 50,000 Chase Points ( transferred to Amtrak) | ||||||
| Holiday Inn Express | 27,000 IHG Points | 15,000 points * 2 rooms with 10% points rebate | |||||
| TOTALS | How I spent 350,401 miles and points | $100.00 | $238.99 | $111.28 | $99.29 | $15.99 |
So total cash expenses were $799.99 (I swear it just came out that way! Sounds like the price of a new couch :-D). Though I would be remiss if I didn’t point out that while on our trip we also found 3 quarters, 8 dimes, 4 nickels and 28 pennies for a total of $2.03. And, while we were in the parking lot at the Yellowstone Visitor’s Center, there was a group that was ending a week-long hike and wanted to get rid of stuff that they didn’t want to ship back, so we got a free tarp, tent and volleyball/badminton set
Points used on the trip
We used 350,401 points for this trip – (SEE ALSO: How I spent 350,401 miles and points), broken down as follows:
- 100,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards transferred to Amtrak to book 2 sleeper cars roundtrip from Toledo, Ohio to Denver.
- 10,000 Chase points transferred to Hyatt
- 76,000 Choice Hotels points. This was actually 25,000 Chase points transferred to Amtrak, and then transferred 1:3 to Choice Hotels. This is only possible because I have the Chase Amtrak card. The card is no longer available, but is reportedly coming back this fall!
- 126,000 IHG points. This was 4 nights * 2 rooms which was actually 140,000 points, but because Carolyn and I BOTH have the IHG card, we get a 10% rebate on our points.
- 20,458 Barclay Arrival points. This offset our 2 weekly rental cars of $113.66 (SEE ALSO: “You got a great deal-I’ve been renting these for $100 / DAY!”). We used Autoslash to save a ton on our rental car expenses.
I’m noticing that the math doesn’t seem to add up, but… I’m just going to go with it ;-). Part of that is probably due to the rebates from Barclay and IHG, and then there’s the question of whether you count that as 25,000 Chase points or 75,000 Choice Hotels points.
The value of points
So, looking at the points that we used, let’s compare that to the cash cost of what we would have spent. As I booked each of our 8 hotels, I also wrote down the cash cost of a booking on the night(s) we stayed there.
(SEE ALSO: Ranking the 8 hotels we stayed at on our vacation)
- Amtrak trip – our 100,000 points saved us $6540 – (SEE ALSO: My (free) $6500 family train vacation on Amtrak)
- Holiday Inn Express Perrysburg. 2 nights * 2 rooms * $151.23 cost = $604.92
- Hyatt House Colorado Springs. 2 rooms * $112.99 = $225.98
- Quality Inn Rock Springs – 2 rooms * 89.99 = $179.98
- Holiday Inn Express Idaho Falls – 2 rooms * $197.74 = $395.48
- Rodeway Inn and Suites, Gardiner MT – $290 for 1 room
- Econo Lodge Miles City – 2 rooms * 107.78 = $215.56
- Econo Lodge Belle Fourche – 2 rooms * 101.13 = $202.26
- Holiday Inn Express Torrington – 2 rooms * $131.71 = $263.42
- Avis – 2 cars for a week * $113.66 = $227.32
Total cost saved by our 350,401 points was $9,144.92. Not bad!
This site is part of an affiliate sales network and receives compensation for sending traffic to partner sites, such as thepointsguy.com. This may impact how and where links appear on this site. Responses are not provided or commissioned by the bank advertiser. Some or all of the card offers that appear on the website are from advertisers and that compensation may impact on how and where card products appear on the site. Any opinions expressed in this post are my own, and have not been reviewed, approved, or endorsed by my advertising partners and I do not include all card companies, or all available card offers. Terms apply to American Express benefits and offers and other offers and benefits listed on this page. Enrollment may be required for select American Express benefits and offers. Visit americanexpress.com to learn more. Other links on this page may also pay me a commission - as always, thanks for your support if you use them
User Generated Content Disclosure: Points With a Crew encourages constructive discussions, comments, and questions. Responses are not provided by or commissioned by any bank advertisers. These responses have not been reviewed, approved, or endorsed by the bank advertiser. It is not the responsibility of the bank advertiser to respond to comments.
Dan Miller travels with his wife and 6 (SIX!) children. He loves to help families travel for free / cheap, especially larger families. If you are looking for help, drop him an email at 
In general, in your opinion, Choice hotels seem pretty decent enough? I know they are not 5-star or even 4 or anything. But they are clean and have the basic things you need?
Getting tired of staying in just Hyatt/Hilton/Marriott hotel range. And need something to compliment IHG.
I do find that with Choice Hotels, you have to be careful about reading the reviews, but generally yes, I have had good luck with Choice Hotels.
Choice hotels can be great deals in Europe!
Yes! On our upcoming trip to Europe we’re staying at a Choice hotel in Rome for I think 12K choice points (which is only 4K Chase)
Cool article. I do have two questions though. Did you get tired of eating at Little Caesar’s and McDonalds? And, did you try the pretzel crust pizza? It looks absolutely nauseating on TV but was wondering if you tried it. Thanks!
Thanks! I’m glad you liked it. To answer your questions, I’d have to say that the parents probably got tired of it but the kids definitely didn’t 😛 The other thing to consider is that we weren’t eating McDonalds and Little Caesars EVERY day – we also had plenty of days where we made sandwiches. We also had take and bake pizzas at my cousin’s house one lunch. We didn’t have the pretzel crust pizza because that costs extra and don’t you know how cheap I am?!!?!?! 😀
This sounds too familiar! We did a road trip 2 months ago from Chicago to Twin Cities (Iowa, Nebraska, Denver, Yellowstone, Mt Rushmore and Badlands) with our 5kids. We too used our ASTC membership for breaks at Iowa Science Museum and Omaha Children’s Museum. Also IHG pointbreaks, Hyatt Place and Choice (same hotel in Gardiner). Lots of Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods stops for pb&j sandwiches, trail mixes, bars, etc). Limited food choices at our only paid hotel room (Old Faithful Lodge) so kids were happy to have ice cream for dinner. Memorable trip for everyone with little cost (only annual park fee, food, gas)!
Awesome! Those ASTC passes can really come in handy on roadtrips. Awesome that we hit up the same hotel in Gardiner – did you see my ranking of the 8 hotels that I stayed at during our trip?
I am a little surprised that you ranked that hotel in Gardiner at the top of the list. We were a bit underwhelmed (cleaning chemical smell in room), strange outdoor stairs, lousy breakfast. But the location was pretty great – ~10 min to Mammoth Hot Springs. One of our best hotels of the trip was the Quality Inn & Suites 49’er in Jackson, WY. 20k points, but worth every one of them.
My wife ranked it lower also – what I most liked about it was the location (As you said) but also the fact that we had a 2BR suite, which meant that for our larger family it was essentially 50% off!
Sounds like fun and I know you have a lot of kids and stuff, but way too much junk food. NOT healthy and health is too important to be cheap about. Eat better food and show your kids how to eat healthier, I would say.
Not my business though, I know. Good way to show how points can be utilized though and I am learning from this. Won’t eat at Mickey D’s or Little Caesar’s though!
Amen to that Carl! I too was nauseated by the fast food! Of course you can get salads at these places but I’m quite the food snob. Enjoyed the post despite that though!
I get what you’re saying, and I understand but…. the reality is that for the most part, if we went out to a “fancy” restaurant, we’d spend $5-10 / person AND none of the kids would eat anything anyways! 😀
Hi Dan,
My wife and 4 kids sometimes eat Little Caesars, but have not idea how you only spent $10 there for 8 people. We have 4 kids 7 and under and we have to get at least 1 pizza ($5.50) and two breadsticks ($3.29/ each). Or two pizzas which is still more than $10. Are we just big eaters or how do you guys do it?
Thanks,
Normally we get 3 pizzas ($15) but on that particular day, I wasn’t eating so we just got 2 pizzas.