Is the Drive Worth it - Deal Trip Cost Calculator
Before you drive across town for a "deal", do a quick gut check. Use the calculator below to estimate the real cost of driving to pick something up - gas or electricity, wear and tear, time, tolls, and parking included.
Deal Trip Cost Calculator
Estimate what it actually costs to drive to a store for a “deal”.
A family member recently asked if I could pick something up from a friend’s house about 50 minutes away. I didn’t know what it was at the time, but since I was off for a couple of weeks, I agreed to help.
What I ended up driving nearly an hour for?
A couple of cans of hot chocolate mix.
They retail for about $13 each, but they were sold out everywhere locally. This wasn’t really about saving money - it was about availability. Still, on the drive back, the question stuck with me:
Was that trip actually worth it?
This is the kind of decision we make all the time without really thinking about it. We’ll drive across town for a deal, make a special trip to avoid shipping fees, or justify a long errand because "we’re already out anyway". We tend to focus on the sticker price and completely ignore the hidden costs of the trip itself.
Gas or electricity is the obvious one, but it’s rarely the whole story.
There’s wear and tear on your vehicle. There’s parking and tolls. There’s the time you spend driving - time that could have been used for something else, even if that "something else" is just resting. None of these costs feel significant on their own, which is exactly why they’re so easy to ignore.
The calculator above is meant to make those costs visible.
Sometimes the answer will still be yes. Helping someone out, availability, or convenience can absolutely be worth the drive. But other times, you’ll realize the "deal" disappears the moment you account for the trip itself.
Run the numbers, then decide with your eyes open.
So, was my drive worth it? Not from a financial perspective. Ignoring the wear and tear and the cost of my time, it cost me a little over $42 to pick up $26 worth of hot chocolate. Not every deal is a "deal". But the fact that I made a family member happy - totally worth it.
