TO ask how much petrol money to offer for a 2hour 40 minute journey

[Heartraker]

Non-driver here.

My camping group has someone offering me a lift - I’m planning to volunteer money upfront as I don’t want them to have to ask and feel awkward but not sure how much? ( on a tight budget myself) They’re also camping.

£20 id say. Petrol is expensive. Def can't get away with offering £5 it's not enough Op

Can we remember this person was going there any way. She's not going out if the way.

All this talk about including wear and tear and insurance and working out to the T the exact amount when it was going to cost the driver is bs it was going to cost the driver the same amount if she was to go on her own And makes you look tight.

15 or 20 is enough

Tbh, if I told someone I didn’t want petrol money I’d be really pissed off if they threw my generosity back in my face. If I’m going somewhere anyway, I don’t want my passenger to make a financial contribution. It makes no odds to me whether they’re in the car or not.

@WaxOnFeckOff no of course not. I’m 42, the days of offering or expecting petrol money finished in my teens! The OP was asking an appropriate amount to offer, so I gave an opinion on how she could calculate it.

Have a fun time OP.

Be generous with snacks & some drinks for the car and maybe have a think about breakfast options. If you don't fancy services, you can look up places to eat near motorway junctions www.justoffjunction.co.uk you might find somewhere offering a better value breakfast only a short drive off your route.

@Honeypickle. But that's not an appropriate way to calculate it. You've used a method for reimbursing staff for using their car for business use. That is completely inappropriate to the situation of someone being offered a lift to somewhere the person is already going. At your age I'm surprised you can't work that out. It#s not however fair to single you out as others have said similar, but it's clear from the Op that the poster isn't well off and not able to sling cash around for half petrol (or business use calc) plus drinks.

@WaxOnFeckOff. At my age. Ouch.

I also suggested she suggest they split the petrol cost and the driver let her know what the cost was.

It’s completely irrelevant how much money the OP has; she wanted to go on the trip and from what I can see wasn’t expecting anyone to subsidise her. Why wouldn’t a normal offer be to split the cost? How would she have got there otherwise?

Look at how much a train or bus would cost .
Mine does about 40mpg on a long run as older car....
So if your doing 300 miles. . That is about 7 1/2 gallons at £6 a gallon.. £45... For the trip..
Decide how much of that you want to pay ...i'd offer £30. As they are saving you time money and effort.

The ops friend may be going anyway but that only applies if they stay next door to each other.
I was going to an event recently which an acquaintance happened to be going to who said you can pick give me a lift there and back to save me taking my car/get a taxi but that meant me going half an hour in the opposite direction of the event to pick them up.
I declined there offer as I’m taking my car for my own convenience

Def can't get away with offering £5 it's not enough Op

Just as well she didn’t offer that then eh.

It was you that brought age into it. I'm older than you so it wasn't a slight on how old you are.

Why wouldn’t a normal offer be to split the cost? How would she have got there otherwise?

maybe the OP wasn't intending going and then she was offered the lift? It is relevant how much money the OP has because people are bandying about figures all over the place that are far in excess of what a normal person would expect. If the driver wanted half the cost then they would have suggested they share transport costs, not offered the OP a lift. And if OP couldn't afford what was expected then she might not choose to go.

The other way of looking at it is considering how much coach or train would cost if you weren’t offered lift. So if train would’ve been £80 I’d give at least £40 and be really pleased I wasn’t lugging camping gear on a train

I suspect it would be impossible to go by public transport so that is likely to be irrelevant. And then, what do you base it on? there are loads of different train fares depending on when you book.