Camping trip expense calculator
Camping costs are small and frequent — pitch fees, firewood, the big food shop. Log them fast and settle once.
Short answer
Split the pitch fee and a shared food kitty evenly across everyone, and split shared gear (tents, cooking equipment) either evenly or by whoever needed it, keeping personal kit entirely out of the group total.
People
Expenses
Balances
- Alex$375.00
- Sarah$15.00
- Mike$165.00
- Emma$195.00
+ gets money back · − owes money
💸 Settle up
Only 3 payments needed.
- EmmaAlex$195.00
- MikeAlex$165.00
- SarahAlex$15.00
Who paid what
- Alex$600.00
- Sarah$180.00
- Mike$60.00
Saved on this device. No account needed.
How it works
- 1Add everyone camping.
- 2Log the food shop as a single shared expense.
- 3Add pitch fees and fuel with whoever paid.
- 4Settle when you get back to signal.
Camping costs are small and frequent — pitch fees, firewood, a big food shop — which makes them easy to lose track of if you wait until you're home to add them up.
Shared gear is the trickiest part: some of it (a communal cooking stove, a shared tent for the group) genuinely benefits everyone, while personal kit like sleeping bags shouldn't be split at all.
A food kitty — one shared pot everyone contributes an equal amount to upfront — works well for groceries bought throughout a multi-day trip, avoiding a dozen tiny grocery-run reconciliations.
Worked examples with real numbers
Four campers, a shared kitty, and one rented tent
Four friends camp for 3 nights. Una fronts the food shop for the shared kitty, Theo pays a 15/night pitch fee, and two of them rent a 2-person tent since the other two brought their own.
| What was paid | Amount |
|---|---|
| Pitch fee (4 people, 3 nights): 15×3Theo paid | 45.00 |
| Food kitty shop (4 people)Una paid | 160.00 |
| Tent rental (2 people only)Vik paid | 60.00 |
| Total | 265.00 |
| Person | Paid | Fair share | Balance |
|---|---|---|---|
| Theo (own tent) | 45.00 | 51.25 | −6.25 |
| Una (own tent, kitty holder) | 160.00 | 51.25 | +108.75 |
| Vik (rented tent) | 60.00 | 81.25 | −21.25 |
| Wren (rented tent) | 0.00 | 81.25 | −81.25 |
- Wren (rented tent)Una (own tent, kitty holder)81.25
- Vik (rented tent)Una (own tent, kitty holder)21.25
- Theo (own tent)Una (own tent, kitty holder)6.25
Pitch fee is 45÷4=11.25 each and the food kitty is 160÷4=40 each, so those who brought their own tent (Theo, Una) owe 51.25. Vik and Wren also split the 60 tent rental between just the two of them, adding 30 each to reach 81.25.
Underspent food kitty refunded at the end
Five campers each put 30 into a food kitty (150 total) before a weekend trip. Xena does the food shop and only spends 118 of it; the pitch fee of 60 is paid separately by Yusuf.
| What was actually spent (not collected) | Amount |
|---|---|
| Food actually spent (5 people)Xena paid | 118.00 |
| Pitch fee (5 people)Yusuf paid | 60.00 |
| Total | 178.00 |
| Person | Paid | Fair share | Balance |
|---|---|---|---|
| Xena (food) | 118.00 | 35.60 | +82.40 |
| Yusuf (pitch fee) | 60.00 | 35.60 | +24.40 |
| Other camper 1 | 0.00 | 35.60 | −35.60 |
| Other camper 2 | 0.00 | 35.60 | −35.60 |
| Other camper 3 | 0.00 | 35.60 | −35.60 |
- Other camper 1Xena (food)35.60
- Other camper 2Xena (food)35.60
- Other camper 3Xena (food)11.20
- Other camper 3Yusuf (pitch fee)24.40
Only the 118 actually spent counts as a real cost: with the 60 pitch fee that's 178 total, split five ways at 35.6 each. The leftover 32 from the kitty (150 collected − 118 spent) is simply handed back to contributors outside the settlement — log the actual spend, not the amount collected.
Handling a food kitty and shared gear
1. Kitty contribution
flat amount × number of contributors
2. Actual spend from kitty
log real receipts, not the amount collected
3. Leftover to refund
kitty collected − actual spend
4. Shared gear share
gear cost ÷ number of people who needed to rent/share it
5. Pitch fee share
pitch fee ÷ everyone camping
Mistakes that cause arguments
Treating the full kitty amount as spent
If contributors put in more than was actually spent, only the real spend counts — refund or roll over the rest.
Splitting a rented tent among everyone
Only the people who needed the rental (because they didn't bring their own) should share that cost.
Losing small receipts
Firewood, ice, a forgotten gas canister — log these immediately, they add up more than people expect over a weekend.
Practical tips
- Use a flat-contribution kitty for groceries so you're not splitting every small grocery run individually.
- Keep personal gear (sleeping bags, personal cookware) out of the group ledger entirely.
- Split rented or shared communal gear only among those who actually needed it.
- Settle any kitty leftover or shortfall at the end, adjusted against the pitch fee and gear balances.
Questions
- How do we split shared gear someone already owns?
- Either leave it out or agree a flat usage fee and log it as one expense.
- Does it work offline?
- Once the page is loaded it runs locally, so patchy signal is fine.
- Can we split fuel by distance?
- Yes — use custom amounts weighted by who travelled how far.