Our final month visiting the U.S. was a whirlwind! After celebrating Caspian’s 9th birthday with his grandparents in Texas, we visited Austin for some Jeep work then booked it to Denver. We spent most of the month back at my brother’s. My whole side of the family was together for a week and a half: both brothers and their families, and my parents. We don’t usually get that length of quality time together, so it was really special. Definitely the perfect way to conclude time back in our home country.
While we tried to be present with loved ones, our thoughts were consumed by Africa preparations! The intensity and task list length reminded me of 2021 when we were about to embark on our drive around the world.
As I write this, we’re outside Salt Lake City near our patrons who store our Jeep Wrangler when we’re gone. We’ll be leaving our hotel in an hour and parking the Jeep, then our friends will drop us off at the airport for our first flight.
December 2025 Monthly Expense Report
Dates: December 1-31, 2025
Location: U.S.
Currency: U.S. dollar
Transportation Expenses
Gas: $313 USD
As we’ve driven around the U.S. since September, we thought the decrease in gas prices was due to geography: leaving the west, heading east and especially south. But when we returned to Denver, we realized the decrease in gas prices seemed to be nationwide.
We visited the gas station 8 times, exactly the same as in November. Price/gallon per state (the fill-ups we kept track of):
- Texas: $2.35, $2.39, $2.59, $2.65
- Colorado: $2.98
Service/parts: $462 USD
After all our mechanic visits this year across different states, we finally made it to our long-time, trusted Jeep shop in Austin: Just Jeeps. This shop has been servicing Guardian (our Jeep Wrangler) since we bought him used in 2016, and they built the mechanical side of Dauntless in 2021 before we left the country.
The biggest project was replacing the solenoid in our Genesis dual battery system. It failed early in our visit, so we’ve had power issues for months. This resulted in having to turn off the fridge overnight and eating food that was not kept at the proper temperature. Fortunately, we have strong stomachs!
Just Jeeps also performed basic maintenance and inspections. They were not able to find our coolant leak, leading us to finally conclude that the head gasket is slowly leaking and we need to save for a new engine. Since there was nothing else we could do in the short-term, we prayed we could make it through the rest of our visit until the Jeep was stored in Salt Lake City again.
We also purchased a coolant funnel on Amazon, which we’ve needed to use several times to replace the leaking coolant.
Toll: $50 USD
Typically, toll roads in Austin are free for disabled veterans, but we misunderstood the process and had to pay! It was arguably worth it for avoiding intense Austin traffic as we drove across the city between our campground and the Jeep shop.
Uber: $4 USD
Our time in Austin was tricky, juggling having no vehicle, Caspian, and cold weather. Caspian and I took an Uber ride one day when Guardian was in the shop.
Garmin: $92 USD
We reactivated our Garmin account in preparation for Africa. As a reminder, we’re retiring our seven-year-old inReach Explorer+ and switching to the brand new H1i.
Registration/titling: $46 USD
While we were in Corpus Christi, the city where we domicile (our legal address), we went to the county courthouse to re-register Dauntless and update Guardian’s title.
We’d let Dauntless’ registration lapse because we didn’t want to pay U.S. insurance every month when we weren’t using it. Before doing so, we confirmed with other travelers that we wouldn’t need registration for the Pan-American. And, sure enough, we didn’t need vehicle registration anywhere in Latin America. We were asked for it a couple times, but presented the title instead.
BUT as I started looking towards Africa, I suspected we might need active registration at borders. I don’t know for sure whether we could get away with the title–maybe we could. But we decided not to take the risk. We got one month of insurance, reactivated registration and license plates, and then canceled the insurance afterwards.
Dauntless storage: $744 USD
We paid $72/month to store Dauntless in Montevideo, plus a bit extra for them to wash him before he went to port.
Africa shipping: $6,430 USD
Dauntless went into his container at the Montevideo port on Dec. 16, 2025. Big day! In the end, our costs totaled $7,225, including document processing and compensating our Power of Attorney. I estimate it would’ve cost more like $5,821 if we were there in person. And originally, I think I expected to pay closer to $5,000.
Transportation Total: $8,141 USD
Accommodation Expenses
| Location | Type | # of Nights | Cost/night | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Corpus Christi, TX | Airbnb | 3 | $99 | |
| Austin, TX | State park | 7 | $20 | McKinney Falls |
| Snyder, TX | Hotel | 1 | $122 | Holiday Inn Express |
| Dumas, TX | Hotel | 1 | $133 | Holiday Inn Express |
| Denver, CO | Family | 19 | Free | Brittany’s brother’s |
Accommodation Total: $692 USD
Nightly average: $22 USD
Our week at McKinney Falls State Park in Austin was our final time camping in Guardian this trip. It was a challenging week! The temperature was very cold, so Eric did a lot of hiding in the tent and I did a lot of pep-talking myself to make it through. Even so, it’s a beautiful place to stay and I didn’t want to leave.
As always, we were unspeakably thankful to my brother and sister-in-law for hosting us at their home for most for the month.
Food Expenses
Groceries: $416 USD
During the first two weeks of the month, I kept limited groceries because our fridge could not run properly with our battery situation. Once we arrived at my brother’s, we helped with Christmas meal ingredients and other staples.
This year for Christmas, I made the mashed potatoes and some garlic green beans.
Restaurants/eating out: $1,653 USD
We thoroughly enjoyed visiting old favorites in Austin, including:
- Din Ho Chinese (Caspian’s first restaurant–we went there on our way home from the hospital)
- P. Terry’s burgers
- Top Notch (also burgers)
- Terry Black’s BBQ
- Via 313 (our favorite pizza)
- Lick ice cream
For those of you who don’t know, Eric and I founded at blog called The Austinot, which covered hyperlocal businesses, musicians, nonprofits, events, etc. As long as it originally started in Austin, then we covered it. We ran this blog from 2012-2020 with the help of a team of volunteer writers. Then we sold it, which helped towards the cost of Dauntless’ build.
(We treated family members to meals throughout the month.)
Food Total: $2,069 USD
This puts our daily food average at $67 USD or $22/person.
Activities and Entertainment Expenses
- Alamo Drafthouse movie date: $31
- Louvre tickets (for Paris in January): $73
- Streaming services: $20
Total: $124 USD
Miscellaneous Expenses
Caspian: $249 USD – Misc. clothing and running shoes, trampoline park for his birthday, Christmas stocking items, Grade 4 math book for the coming year
Evacuation insurance: $2,050 USD – This is a new one for us. We purchased a policity called Ripcord through a company called Redpoint Travel Protection. This annual policy, which covers our whole family, will provide evacuation insurance in case of medical need or a security situation. Obviously this is a big investment, but it will give us extra peace of mind as we tour Africa this year.
Other: $1,113 USD – Christmas gifts for family, Eric AirPods, birthday gift for our grandson Max, photos for Africa visas, Brittany clothing, Eric international driver’s license from AAA, Eric phone case, vaporizer supplies, haircut x 3, laundromat in Austin
Misc. Total: $3,412 USD
Missing Expenses
You may notice some missing line items. Some of our phone and Internet costs are currently covered by our business, Hourless Life. And we have a small handful of automatic withdrawals, like my life insurance policy and insurance for Guardian, our Jeep Wrangler, that aren’t noted here. But what you see here is a comprehensive look at what it costs to live on the road in the U.S. (and prepare to overland Africa for a year)!
Grand Total: $14,438 USD
Our Savings account took a hit this month, and will again in January when we pay for our carnet de passage. But this is the gig! We will save aggressively this year, since we’ll be shipping to Europe in early 2027 and need to self-insure in case anything happens to Dauntless.
2025 has been a wonderful year and we can’t wait to share 2026 with you.
Thanks for joining us on this journey.
-B
November 2025 expense report – U.S.
October 2025 – U.S.
September 2025 – U.S.
August 2025 – U.S.
July 2025 – Mexico
June 2025 – Mexico/U.S.
May 2025 – Mexico
April 2025 – Mexico
March 2025 – Argentina/Uruguay/Mexico
February 2025 – Chile/Argentina
January 2025 – Chile
December 2024 – Argentina/Chile
November 2024 – Brazil/Argentina
October 2024 – Brazil
September 2024 – Argentina/Brazil
August 2024 – Argentina
July 2024 – U.S./Argentina
June 2024 – U.S.
May 2024 – U.S.
April 2024 – U.S.
March 2024 – Peru/Chile
February 2024 – Peru
January 2024 – U.S./Peru
December 2023 – U.S.
November 2023 – U.S.
October 2023 – Peru/U.S./Canada
September 2023 – Peru
August 2023 – Ecuador/U.S./Peru
July 2023 – Ecuador
June 2023 – Ecuador
May 2023 – USA
April 2023 – Ecuador, USA
March 2023 – Colombia, Ecuador
February 2023 – Colombia
January 2023 – Colombia
December 2022 – Colombia
November 2022 – Panamá, Colombia
October 2022 – Panamá
September 2022 – Panamá
August 2022 – Costa Rica, Panamá
July 2022 – Costa Rica
June 2022 – Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica
May 2022 – Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras
April 2022 – Belize, Guatemala
March 2022 – Mexico, Belize
February 2022 – Mexico
January 2022 – Mexico
December 2021 – Mexico
November 2021 – Mexico
October 2021 – Mexico (partial month)
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