Cash in our pocket: The 1 month Prius update

It turns out we picked a good month to trade our Sequioa for a Prius (which as you can see is very conductive to family tailgate parties at baseball practice).  We had quite a bit of unexpected travel this month and ended up driving close to 2000mi (that's including me bike commuting which would add another 400mi to the total!), quite a bit more than our already excessive 1400mi/month average.  In the Sequoia days this would have cost us about $450 but due to our newfound automotive badassity we spent a "mere" $150 on fuel traveling all those miles.

Hopefully this isn't a continuing trend and we aren't experiencing the "hybrid effect" (added non-necessary driving due to reduced fuel cost) but regardless we're well on our way to beating the savings and ROI numbers I originally calculated with my fancy spreadsheet (it's pretty basic and tailored to our key metrics but I'd be happy to share with anyone interested):

The little Prius has been very versatile and we've yet to run into a situation where we needed more space, whether it be on tournament weekends loaded up with the double jogging stroller, baseball gear, and enough food to sustain us all day to avoid the temptation of ballpark hotdogs and fast food:

 

Or our monthly Sam's Club trip, which after looking at this picture seems to be heavy on dairy products:

   

The back seat is also very cumfy and has plenty of space for 2 compact carseats and an adult (even my broad-shouldered and wide-wasted frame) and gives multiple sleeping options from the padded c-pillar to the adjacent car seat, the top of which is the perfect height for a nap on the way home from Easter Egg hunting:

 

As I've alluded to in previous posts, I suspect we'll need a little more space on our 3500mi road trip to the East Coast this summer and am in the process of designing/implementing my external storage solution which I'll provide the details of when complete.  Stay tuned!