Road Trip Stats: Month 54 – June 2022

After having a fantastic month budget-wise in May, I was hoping that we’d manage to stay under budget again in June.

I wasn’t convinced we’d be able to do this though because our spending on accommodation was due to be higher last month. What would likely decide whether we went over or under budget was how much we spent on food and drink.

Unfortunately we had all kinds of opportunities to spend on food and drink in June. That spend was all worth it, but it put a lot of pressure on our overall spending. Did we still somehow manage to scrape through under budget? Keep reading to find out.

Miles Driven

June began with 180,805 miles on the clock. At the end of the month our car’s odometer reading was 182,347 miles which meant we drove 1,542 miles last month. I’d predicted we’d drive 1,200 miles, so I was a little way off.

Looking ahead to our mileage for July, it’s looking like we’ll probably drive about 1,500 miles again.

Money Spent

At the start of this year we increased our daily budget from $100 to $125. That meant in June we had a total budget of $3,750 which has to cover everything on the road trip – accommodation, gas, food, drink, activities, hotel pet fees, etc.

By the end of the month we’d spent $3,865,83 which meant we went $115.83 over budget. After doing so well in May, it was a shame to go over budget in June, but as mentioned earlier a key reason was how much we spent on food and drink. Staying at Kinkaider Brewery for a week meant we ended up eating and drinking there quite a bit which ultimately is what pushed us over budget. That food and drink was all well worth it though!

Here’s a breakdown of what we spent our money on last month…

…and a chart tracking our spending so far this year.

Looking ahead to our spending for July, I’m mildly hopeful that we’ll stay under budget. Our accommodation spending should be about average, so provided we don’t end up overspending on food and drink again we should do OK with our spending.

Accommodation Cost

We stayed in six different places in June 2022 – here’s how we paid for them.

June 1-4: Holiday Inn Express Scottsbluff, NE (review coming in the next week or two.) I’d originally booked the first four nights as a paid stay and the second four nights as an award stay because there weren’t rooms bookable with points for those first four nights. Thankfully I checked again about a week before our stay and saw that there was now points availability, so I rebooked those first four nights to save us money.

IHG has dynamic pricing nowadays, so May 27 to June 1 cost 22,000, 23,000, 16,000, 17,000 and 19,000 points respectively, while June 1-4 cost 20,000, 21,000 and 22,000 points respectively. With IHG’s 4th night free benefit for IHG Premier credit cardholders and the 10% points rebate on award stays for IHG Select cardholders (both of which we have), our net cost for the three nights in June was 13,500 IHG One Rewards points per night. We’d bought those IHG points for 0.5 cents per point, so those nights effectively cost us $67.50 which meant it cost us about half as much compared to what it would’ve cost if we’d paid cash for the stay.

June 4-12: Airbnb in Hay Springs, NE. Hay Springs is a small town of fewer than 600 people in northwest Nebraska, but we picked it because it put us near a few places we wanted to visit and because there was a decently priced Airbnb there (although the Airbnb turned out to not be great.) It cost an average of $74.91 per night, but by paying with Airbnb gift cards we bought at a discount our net cost was $67.42 per night.

June 12-19: Kinkaider Brewing in Broken Bow, NE (here’s my review). This was an amazing stay – one of my favorite places we’ve stayed on our road trip so far. It was a two bedroom apartment next to Kinkaider Brewing which even had a beer fridge in the shower! What made it even better was the fact that it only cost $386.75 for the week including tax which meant it was $55.25 per night – an absolute bargain.

June 16-17: La Quinta North Platte, NE (I won’t be writing a review for this hotel.) While staying at Kinkaider Brewing we found out that there was going to be a rodeo in North Platte, so we decided to go check that out. It was a bit of a drive though, so we decided to stay overnight. Room rates were really expensive due to the rodeo being in town, but having hotel points meant we had a solution.

We stayed at the La Quinta which normally costs 15,000 points per night. I have the Wyndham Rewards Earner Business card which gives a 10% discount when booking award stays, so we only had to redeem 13,500 Wyndham Rewards points for the night.

June 19-23: Airbnb in Lincoln, NE. This stay was meant to be from June 19-26. Unfortunately neither their Wi-Fi nor the fridge-freezer worked. We therefore had to cut short our stay and book a hotel instead, although we did get refunded for the days we left. It was $85.48 per night, but paying with discounted gift cards reduced the cost to $76.93 per night.

June 21-26: Hyatt Place Lincoln/Downtown Haymarket, NE. We originally booked a couple of nights here without planning on sleeping there but so that we’d have somewhere to work with good internet as we both had video calls we needed to make. When things got even worse at the Airbnb, we added a few more days on to the end too.

The hotel is a category 2 property in the World of Hyatt program and so costs 6,500, 8,000 or 9,500 points per night depending on if you stay during off-peak, standard or peak dates respectively. The first four nights were standard, while the fifth was peak, so our average cost for the five nights was 8,300 World of Hyatt points per night.

June 26-July 2: Residence Inn Des Moines Downtown. Our stay was originally due to be from June 27, but we decided to add a day on at the beginning. That first night cost 15,000 Marriott Bonvoy points. The following six nights only cost 86,000 points because Marriott has a ‘Stay 5, Pay For 4’ benefit on award stays. That meant our average cost for those six nights was 14,333 points per night.

Hotel Points Earned

The number of points we earned last month looks impressive below, but it’s sadly not as good as it seems. The large increases of IHG, Hilton and Hyatt points are primarily the result of cancelled award stays in the coming months rather than newly earned points.

• IHG One Rewards – 144,266
• Hilton Honors – 93,306
• Marriott Bonvoy – 18,260
• World of Hyatt – 233,978
• Radisson Rewards – 0
• Choice Privileges – 0
• Wyndham Rewards – 4,011
• Hotels.com Rewards Credits – 0
• Chase Ultimate Rewards – 40,249
• Capital One – 21,000

Hotel Points Redeemed

Quite a few of those points we got back from the cancelled award stays ended up being redeemed for different stays instead.

• IHG One Rewards – 258,000
• Hilton Honors – 0
• Marriott Bonvoy – 22,500
• World of Hyatt – 160,000
• Radisson Rewards – 0
• Choice Privileges – 0
• Wyndham Rewards – 13,500
• Hotels.com Rewards Credits – 0
• Chase Ultimate Rewards – 0
• Capital One – 0

Total Hotel Points Balances

Based on those changes, here’s how our total hotel points balances finished at the end of June.

• IHG One Rewards – 393,898
• Hilton Honors – 1,200,865
• Marriott Bonvoy – 186,072
• World of Hyatt – 132,876
• Radisson Rewards – 43,092
• Choice Privileges – 96,165
• Wyndham Rewards – 142,004
• Hotels.com Rewards Credits – 10
• Chase Ultimate Rewards – 807,593
• Capital One – 296,572

Here’s all that information in table format:

Hotel Free Night Certificates

We redeemed a few Hyatt free night certificates last month, but earned another certificate for each of IHG, Hilton and Hyatt, along with three more Marriott ones.

• IHG (up to 40,000 points per night) – 2
• Hilton (any property worldwide) – 4
• Marriott (up to 35,000 points per night) – 4
• Marriott (up to 40,000 points per night) – 1
• Hyatt (category 1-4) – 5
• Hyatt (category 1-7) – 0

Blog Stats

We had a small increase in the number of page views last month and also increased the number of blog posts we published from 11 to 15.

• Number of blog posts published – 15
• Page views – 21,976

RAGBRAI Update

My training for RAGBRAI had both its lows and its highs this month. I had a week where I just really thought I wasn’t even going to be able to ride it at all. I was feeling fat, out of shape, unmotivated and overwhelmed. Riding wasn’t fun and the thought of being stressed out for 7 more weeks sounded awful. I talked to my important people, hubs, besties, parents and decided that I’d modify if I needed to. That I’d be ok with a “half-BRAI” where I got picked up each day at the meet-up town that’s halfway along each route.

As I shared this depressive episode and decision with my RAGBRAI support group, I started to feel more motivated. I could do this. I rode 40 miles, then another, then 50. They were getting easier, I was hydrating and eating better during the rides and trying to just relax and enjoy. It’s made all the difference. This week I’m aiming for 60 miles in one ride.

One highlight this month was participating in the weekly Nacho Ride in Lincoln, NE. I made a new friend – Hi Jessi! – and we rode the 11.5 miles there and back. “There” being the town of Eagle to Bailey’s Local where you can get their special nachos. It was so full when we arrived as there were probably at least 100+ cyclists who make the ride for beer and nachos each Tuesday from Lincoln. It ended up being darker than we expected when we left. Jessi’s light wasn’t working and mine went out completely. With 7 miles left we had NO LIGHT. So we got creative. She tucked her cell phone, with its flashlight on, into her waist with her fanny pack while I took off my shirt and put it in my sports bra/boobs to hold it for the ride! Necessity is the mother of invention as they say!

I’ve received my rider bracelet, t-shirt, water bottle and RAGBRAI tank top. I invested in a second bike bag, spare tube and tools, a new phone holder with charger included and a second water bottle cage. I got some new sunglasses and it’s all going really well. This final month will be fine-tuning my sun protection with UV sleeves, sunblock and my tutus for each day!

The next time you get a stats update RAGBRAI will be over! I’ll be posting about the experience along the way on our Facebook page, Inner Circle group and Instagram, so follow along for real-time updates. I’ll write a blog about the whole experience once I’ve recovered.

Final Thoughts

June 2022 was a bit of a mixed bag for our stats. We went over budget by just over $100, but we also increased our hotel points balances and earned a bunch of new free hotel night certificates.