When we first thought of travelling it was years before we hit the road and although there were some people out there travelling and some that had a YouTube presence most had kids, animals or just were not us, so we looked at every aspect of our lives to determine how much to budget for and this is how we did it.
We didn’t have a home to maintain whilst travelling so there were no bills related to that and no income from it. If you have this you will have to look at mortgage, insurance, utilities, rates, maintenance and rental fees.
We purchased a new car for the travel which left us with an additional car, hubbies pride and joy and old 60 series Landcruiser which he sold.
Everything else we owns was sold, given away or thrown away. Yep we got together and had items that were from previous relationships and we wanted to start fresh, build something that was the two of us and if we ever got tired or sick and couldn’t travel anymore then we would get things based on what the two of us now like and wanted not what we brought in from before we met each other.
We took all our categories (meaning everything that we could think of relating to us and expenses) and listed them in a spreadsheet.
| Food |
| Fuel |
| Tolls |
| Toiletries |
| Medical |
| Maintenance |
| Insurance |
| Site Fees |
| Birthday/Xmas |
| Entertainment |
| Incidentals |
| Telephone & Internet |
Against each one we placed an amount that currently reflected what we spent to the maximum, or in a way we guessed what would be the maximum we would spend in this situation. So based on the cost of fuel and driving every day, based on the cost of an expensive caravan park and staying every day. We wanted the worst-case scenario for each situation. I will explain why later. Ignore the odd amounts as I wanted my yearly figure to be even.
| Per Day | Per week | Per Year | |
| Food | $70.05 | $490.38 | $25,500.00 |
| Fuel | $72.80 | $509.62 | $26,500.00 |
| Tolls | $2.91 | $20.38 | $1,060.00 |
| Toiletries | $4.23 | $29.62 | $1,540.00 |
| Medical | $8.57 | $60.00 | $3,120.00 |
| Maintenance | $42.86 | $300.00 | $15,600.00 |
| Insurance | $17.14 | $120.00 | $6,240.00 |
| Site Fees | $57.14 | $400.00 | $20,800.00 |
| Birthday/Xmas | $3.96 | $27.69 | $1,440.00 |
| Entertainment | $27.47 | $192.31 | $10,000.00 |
| Incidentals | $28.57 | $200.00 | $10,400.00 |
| Telephone & Internet | $14.29 | $100.00 | $5,200.00 |
| $335.71 | $2,350.00 | $127,400.00 |
As you can see $127,400.00 for two people is very excessive and caviar is not even on our menu, but that is the worst-case we could think of. Then we took these figures and halved them, with some tweaking so the weekly figure would be rounded, that was when allocating funds into the bank account we were not dealing with cents. Why you may ask? I will explain.
| Goal Budget | |||
| Per Day | Per week | Per Year | |
| Food | $35.71 | $250.00 | $13,000.00 |
| Fuel | $35.71 | $250.00 | $13,000.00 |
| Tolls | $2.14 | $15.00 | $780.00 |
| Toiletries | $1.42 | $10.00 | $520.00 |
| Medical | $4.29 | $30.00 | $1,560.00 |
| Maintenance | $14.28 | $100.00 | $5,200.00 |
| Insurance | $8.25 | $60.00 | $3,120.00 |
| Site Fees | $28.57 | $200.00 | $10,400.00 |
| Birthday/Xmas | $1.42 | $10.00 | $520.00 |
| Entertainment | $14.28 | $100.00 | $5,200.00 |
| Incidentals | $14.29 | $100.00 | $5,200.00 |
| Telephone & Internet | $7.14 | $50.00 | $2,600.00 |
| $1,175.00 | $61,100 | ||
| $167.54 | $1,175.00 | $63,700.00 |
Besides the fact it is more practical figure to expect to be spent this became our goal figures, our budget, something that we could travel and still enjoy things without being too strict, we could cover our costs and had a very healthy amount of money but still be a budget that we would have to keep within. We are not too concerned about the daily amounts as most things are paid for weekly or at one time.
Food – $35.71 per day ($250 per week) for two people is reasonable if you cook your own meals. If you chose to eat out too often this will blow right out. We like home cooked meals more than eating out so having this much to spend for us is more than we actually spend now, however we do plan on going out on the occasion and so we have some buffer in this budget for that or we can use our entertainment budget to cover for it if we like.
Fuel – $35.71 per day ($250 per week) we have an 8 cylinder Landcruiser with a long range fuel tank and are towing a caravan so we will go through fuel more than we would like. We intend on doing short trips and staying a lot of locations so with not driving for hours at a time on most occasions, we are hoping that this is plenty allocated in our budget and if we intend on staying somewhere for a week then we will save on our daily fuel allowance.
Tolls – $2.14 per day ($15 per week) we intend on not using tolls as much as possible as we are wanting to see the surroundings more than get to a destination as quick as possible, but there will be times when our GPS will take us there and we all know that tolls are not the cheapest these days so budget for the worst and hope for the best.
Toiletries – $1.42 per day ($10 per week) toiletries are expensive and ladies makeup is even more expensive, we do have our van stocked with shampoo, condition and body soap and have travel bags for when we stop at caravan parks. We purchased a box of “What the crap” toilet paper and I have a small stash of makeup as it tends to last a long time, so we feel that we won’t spend a lot here. Being on the road, camping in the bush doesn’t mean we don’t want to smell nice and look our best, it just means there will be days when the showering is minimal and makeup free is heaven.
Medical – $4.29 per day ($30 per week) medical is so unpredictable as one day it could be zero and the next hundreds. Both Gil and I take certain natural supplements and Gil has a script. I was having a massage weekly due to my health, but that is going to end and we have purchased a massage gun hoping it will tie me over for the occasional massage. This budget is a little thin considering we currently spend around $100 a week health wise, but with less stress, more walking and relaxing we hope to improve our health and slash this to its minimum.
Maintenance – $14.28 per day ($100 per week) we are talking car, caravan and equipment here. It all adds up and is a very healthy budget for the car and caravan to keep up the maintenance and for any unexpected repairs that also could include any equipment we have. The car was purchased in 2020 and the van in 2021 so although they are both pretty new that does not stop them from needing repairs.
Insurance – $8.25 per day ($60 per week) insurance is so expensive when you are on the road. There is car insurance, caravan insurance, contents insurance and we have a life insurance to pay.
Site Fees – $28.57 per day ($200 per week) we plan on doing as much free or low cost camping as possible so spending $200 a week at a caravan park is not on our addenda, however we would like the occasional special accommodation for our anniversary that maybe $200 per night so we have room to play with the budget here.
Birthday/Xmas – $1.42 per day ($10 per week) all of the kids are grown up and we have told them that we will not be doing presents anymore, that also goes for my parents and our siblings. We do have a granddaughter that we still want to send presents to and any more grandchildren that may arrive. We don’t tend to purchase things for each other and besides there isn’t room in the caravan to have too many “things” instead we love to do something together to celebrate.
Entertainment – $14.29 per day ($100 per week) it doesn’t sound much when you look at it daily or weekly but per year that is $5000.00. We know that some places could eat that away in one go. As we will be free or low cost camping most of the time the entertainment will therefore be unpaid most of the time, like sitting around a camp fire chatting, playing games, hobbies, metal detecting or just reading a book. On the occasion that we do go somewhere we have a healthy budget to match.
Incidentals – $14.29 per day ($100 per week) Incidentals is for that rainy day, that oh shit! I didn’t think of that, the money needed to catch a flight because someone is having a baby, is sick or departed, the money because we didn’t plan on that shit happening and if you don’t plan you stress when it does happen, so we budgeted for ‘shit’ to happen. Incidentals may never happen but if they do you are prepared. There is always something that you have forgotten or that happens in life, now you are covered.
Telephone/Internet – $7.14 per day ($50 per week) we have two mobile phones and a Telstra 5G 400 gig wireless modem. We are also looking at a sat phone for emergencies as we know that the reception is somewhat iffy in some places so if we were in trouble, we would like to know that we can get out of trouble with a call.
What to do with the surplus in the budget?
What you do with the surplus is up to you and your personal situation. We are accumulating all our surplus into the accounts that are allocated for each item. We opened up an ING account that has a card attached. This account you keep minimum amount of money in it (incase of card fraud or a stolen card). ING will allow you to open up 9 other “Maximiser” accounts which I have called:- (W is for the weekly amount allocated to each expense)
Food, Toiletries W250 W10
Fuel, Tolls W250 W15
Site Fees W200
Entertainment, Birthday W100 W10
Telephone, Internet W50
Medical W30
Insurance W60
Maintenance W100
Incidentals W100
We can spend money using our debit/credit card and transfer funds from our Maximiser accounts into the card when needed. It helps keep track of our spending (or just get receipts for everything) and we know how much we have left.
After the 12 months we make sure all of our bills are paid for, all of our maintenance is done and we are fully stocked with what we need then we then either tweak our figures for the next year of travelling based on what we experienced, top up our accounts to that years budget and keep traveling.
We make a note of how much we didn’t spend (surplus) so if we want to dig into some extra we know how much we saved from the previous year. If we don’t use it we know that it will help with expenses for another year on the road.
Where does our money come from to travel?
We have been saving for years to travel. We sold everything we own, cut back on buying a lot of things during the years and have money in investments. We sold our business of 8 years and we are pretty frugal as we barely went out mainly due to having a business that took all our time up we didn’t take holidays and hardly went out for dinners. We have purchased a new car and van for our travels we consider this an investment in our safety and our home on wheels. We are also qualified in our field so we can work on our travels if we desire.
Conclusion:
You can speak to thousands of people and they will all give you different amounts of money they budget for. It depends where your money is coming from, what you want to do when travelling, what are you willing to go without, who are you going with and where are you travelling.
This is our budget for 12 months with us continuously travelling without an end date in sight, so our trips will be short and our stays as long as we like. Our advice would be to over budget and under spend.
When you budget take your personal preference in mind, where is your funds coming from to fund the trip, do you want to work whilst travelling, how long do you want to go for and where do you want to stay. If you know you are someone who hates the bush then plan on paying for accommodation. If you love eating out then plan on this. Only you can make a budget that is going to be suitable for your personal preference.