Financial Trip Planning Spreadsheet

Hi all,

I just put together a spreadsheet on my site to use for trip financial planning (trip cost and savings calculations). I hope it will be useful for someone. Please, let me know what you think.

EDIT: For those that don't want to read the whole thread, the files have been revised and moved a couple of times but here are the current file locations as of 2/24/10:

Standard version:
http://www.halolightingsystems.com/wp-content/uploads/motorcycle-trip-financial-planner-v4.xls

Metric version:
http://www.halolightingsystems.com/...torcycle-trip-financial-planner-v4-metric.xls

Any value in blue can be user modified, including adding additional maintenance items. Also, if you hover over any cell with a red triangle in the upper corner there is a description that pops up.

If you are proficient in excel and want to modify it, the password to unprotect the sheets is "adventure". As long as you give credit where credit is due, feel free to copy, modify for your own use, etc. Enjoy!

I downloaded the excel file, opened it with openoffice 2.4.1 and everything works fine. Nice tool, thanks.

Cool, glad to know it works with openoffice. Thanks!

Damn fine job

.. it is on my desktop and will have me tweaking things for months to come..

Guess I have to plan a trip now.

Thanks, great job.

Thanks for the work and post. It's far better looking than the one I cobbled together. And more extensive.

I'll have to download that to my smart phone so I can take it on the road with me... great job. I'll have to add a couple of fields to it later.

Nice job. Only 222 days until departure.

I will have to start plugging in some numbers for my CDT trip coming up next year. Thanks for the work!

planning? i'll just figure it out when i get back home

nice looking spreadsheet you worked up, i like it. thanks and I added it to my favorites.

Plan the finances? Where is the fun in that. I plan the route. That is fun. I plan the sites. That is fun. I plan the gear. That is fun. I leave with a credit card in hand and have fun. Come back and give to my wife to figure out how to pay off. Not so much fun there, but I can deal with it.

You must tell me how you do this. Usually, my wife is the one with the credit card and I'm the one figuring out how to pay it off.

Thanks for all of the positive responses. I really like the smart phone idea. Too bad all I have is a dumb phone.

Just a quick update, I tweaked a few things and added a couple of graphs in the current Excel download version.

too cold to ride + bored engineer = fun with excel spreadsheets

Enjoy!

BTW if there are any fellow Excel gurus (nerds?) out there that are interested in modifying this sheet for their own use, send me a PM and I will send you the password to unlock the sheet.

Nicely done! Would it be possible to add a field for a second bikes average fuel? It would make it a little slicker for a couple traveling together on 2 bikes

Thanks

Good idea, I'll see what I can do.

Nice job! Do have a version that comes with the money??

this thing is great i have no idea how to use excell but this is easy. now to plan the next trip
cheers

I guess I'm different than most------most of the time I don't know where I'm going till I get there.

I remember one time I got pulled over by a local cop and after a few questions he asked me where I was going----I just smiled and told the truth---"I don't know".

He didn't like that at all---!!! Told me I was a smart *%$#@!

So-------if ever asked--make up something.

Thanks WQ,

This next year I will be traveling and this will help with planning. Every little bits helps then again maybe I don't want to know the cost

No shit! Nice job, I work with a bunch of geologists and engineers that use spreadsheets to schedule taking a crap. I drive them insane with my "cowboy" approach to getting things done by doing and working through the plan as I go.

My travel philosophy is much like BigDog's : I got $$$ & time lets go.

Not bashing your tool at all (downloaded it already, may even use it) as it's a good one, just saying bored engineer = spreadsheet gymnastics