I know this has been done to death but I just did my sums for the year and thought I would share.
From Feb till 25 Oct
Distanced travelled 17158.14 K's
fuel used 2783.42 litres @ an average of 16.222 litres per 100k
Cost of fuel $4358.3 min cost 134.9 per litre max 196.9 per litre average 157 per litre
Cost of Caravan Parks $2783.5. (note amount of fuel used = Freaky) that is 151 days out of 268 days on the road. the rest was free camping.
This is just fuel and rent, naturally there are other costs ie: genny fuel, gas and the odd mechanicals.
We have a 21.6 Jayco Heritage, God knows what the gross weight was towed by a 2007 Diesel Pajero.
We went from the Central Coast NSW across via Broken Hill to Port Augusta then up the centre to Darwin and back via western Qld to Bourke then via Lightning Ridge, Moree, down through Warialda, Baraba, Tamworth back to the Central Coast.
Sitting here now looking after a Caravan Park for a few months before we head off again.
the rocket said
04:06 PM Oct 25, 2011
thankyou for that. i wanted to know. I never knew it was so expensive to be a grey nomad. thanks. rocket and strop
Joe said
06:03 PM Oct 25, 2011
It isn't a cheap way of life, but the rewards are great.
I had budgeted on about $1,000 per month, but it looks like I may have been a little short of the mark.
Elle on Wheels said
06:45 PM Oct 25, 2011
That's not too bad given that about 60% of nights were spent in parks. Ofcourse food etc needs to be added to the total but overall not too expensive when you think of all the loot you have to fork out just for staying at home and commuting to work everyday. I know which one I'd choose.
Ma said
06:48 PM Oct 25, 2011
If you free camp more than stay in parks it reduces the cost as well.
Also depends on how many nights you stay put. This decreases the fuel consumption
jimricho said
06:51 PM Oct 25, 2011
Joe wrote:
It isn't a cheap way of life, but the rewards are great.
I had budgeted on about $1,000 per month, but it looks like I may have been a little short of the mark.
I can't live at home for that and I'm not a big spender!
AmandaJayne said
06:55 PM Oct 25, 2011
Thankyou for that its given me a better idea of what we'll be up against... we're set up for free camping so hopefully we shall do a lot of it...
gst said
08:44 PM Oct 25, 2011
Just set back and work out what you would pay if you stay home then look up to the sky and remember you cannot take it with you so the more you enjoy the money the less someone else will not
Smokeydk said
08:45 PM Oct 25, 2011
Thanks for that Neil......you sure covered a lot of ground since we met you at Wilmington .near Pt Augusta
Happywanderer said
08:48 PM Oct 25, 2011
Joe, Just remember everyones travel plans are completely different. In my case my monthly budget would be no more than $800. I would be free camping 99% of the time and only moving short distances at a time.
pauline said
08:49 PM Oct 25, 2011
GST i so agree with you and you also must realise that if you are trying to do a set amount of kl's in a set amount of time the expenses will grow, (fuel especially) but if you have no time frame it might be different. I am hoping that is the case anyway !!!!
Gerty Dancer said
08:59 PM Oct 25, 2011
Yes I agree Pauline, long distances in a short time are way too expensive for fuel!
Evie n Rhys said
10:08 PM Oct 25, 2011
This is all very interesting, thank you for sharing. I see that travel as I have done it to date is expensive. Not having time to stop and see things, always having a deadline. I am hoping to just take my time , free camp where possible and soak it all up. What are the supplies of LPG like out there? I will be sticking to the more traveled roads for now. Tess
Cruising Granny said
10:25 PM Oct 25, 2011
I'm now doing it my way - working while I travel - or is that travelling while I'm working. I can free camp or van park it. This week I've done 1200kms a day over the last 4 days - Pt. Adelaide to Lyndhurst, via Gladstone, Jamestown, Orroroo, Hawker and the R. M. Williams Way. The country is looking magnificent. Crops look good, wattles look good, the emus are thriving and all is right with the world outback.
Elle on Wheels said
12:55 AM Oct 26, 2011
Hey Granny that's a lot of kms - surely at least a 12 hour day. I hope you are enjoying and are not too tired.
Sheba said
01:11 AM Oct 26, 2011
Geeze Chris !!! Isn't that pushing the safety factor a bit too much ? Take care out there. No Job is worth your life.
Cheers,
Sheba.
-- Edited by Sheba on Wednesday 26th of October 2011 01:13:10 AM
jonathan said
05:15 AM Oct 26, 2011
.. other than doing a urgent dash from Mareeba in Nth Qld to Naracoorte SA in (5) days with just a fuel cost of over $200.00 per day, I would say that my average 'running' would be about $1000.00 per month .. not including of course, vehicle registrations and insurance etc ..
That drops down a lot with concentrated free-camping which I prefer .. but lots of consideration must be given to fuel useage these days.
.. but as this is my home, I don't have other 'overheads' like a house to be concerned about.
Jon
Landfall said
09:20 AM Oct 26, 2011
Don't know how you folk can live on these figures?
If you buy 2 x coffees @ $4 each, plus 2 x small cakes/biscuits @ $2 each, this adds up to $12 for one treat.
Do this each day of your holidays and that alone adds up to $360 per month. So far I haven't eaten a meal, gone nowhere (used no fuel, not even to get to my coffee shop).
I haven't purchased coffee from a supermarket because I haven't used the vehicle to get there, I cannot heat the kettle, cost money for lpg.
When calculating the cost of our holidays we factor in "everything" that we pay out, including registration fees on car and caravan, fuel costs, any bits reuired for maintenance, cost of any new clothes we may purchase, excursions, etc.
Our last holiday averaged out at $800 per week. (This included the over the top fee required by the Tas. Gov. to get on the ferry {$1,500} and the outrageous fees at Maroochydore C/P for two weeks @ $265 per week.
Average was calculated over a two month period.
Cheers
Dusty.
PS:- Looks like more "free" camping at Gubby's place.
Joe said
10:30 AM Oct 26, 2011
jimricho wrote:
Joe wrote:
It isn't a cheap way of life, but the rewards are great.
I had budgeted on about $1,000 per month, but it looks like I may have been a little short of the mark.
I can't live at home for that and I'm not a big spender!
Oops - I meant $1,000 per week.
I blame digital dyslexia!
Of course, that grand a week is on top of maintaining the property back home and all the insurances etc.
Joe said
10:41 AM Oct 26, 2011
Happywanderer wrote:
Joe, Just remember everyones travel plans are completely different. In my case my monthly budget would be no more than $800. I would be free camping 99% of the time and only moving short distances at a time.
Hi HW - as I replied to Jimricho, I really meant a grand a week and while we will be doing a big lap of the country, we will be taking up to 18 months to get round so the travel/fuel costs will be amortised over a relatively long period.
We will also be doing a fair bit of bush camping (I prefer the term bush camping as "free camping" evokes images of crowds of caravans parked under a bridge or on some dusty, fly ridden rest area) as much of our travelling will be in remote areas of NW Australia. The money we save there ($45 gas refills notwithstanding) will be spent doing things like flying to the horizontal falls etc.
Thanks for the thoughts though.
Gerty Dancer said
11:45 AM Oct 26, 2011
Landfall wrote:
Don't know how you folk can live on these figures?
If you buy 2 x coffees @ $4 each, plus 2 x small cakes/biscuits @ $2 each, this adds up to $12 for one treat.
Do this each day of your holidays and that alone adds up to $360 per month.
This is why we always carry a thermos, and have our morning tea "somewhere" out on the road, or if we are in a town sightseeing then in a park. Lunches too. The savings made this way are spent on big specials like Joe said the Horizontal falls, also cheaper outings, which is where our best memories are made. We have some great memories of those morningtea/lunch spots too.
Landfall said
04:18 PM Oct 26, 2011
OK, I'll cut out the coffee and cake.
Our first week of travelling:-
Home to ferry = 300km @ 14.5l/100 @ $1.60p/l = $70
Ferry from Tassie to Vic. $750
C/Park o/night at Ballarat so we can go to S/Hill $24
Entry fee to S/Hill incl. night show (for 2) $150
A lunch and drink at S/Hill (sorry no thermos) $60
4 days travelling @ 600km per day = 87lts p/d $556
Cost of meals over the 4 days @ $20 per day $80
Two more days of travel and "bush camping."Fuel $200
Total for OUR first week is $1,890
This is without any other incidentals and everything is going well.
Obviously, every week is not like the first, but it takes a lot of tight budgeting to get the average back down.
I guess what I am really trying to say is, don't mislead people into thinking that travelling can be done for "free" or almost free. It can be very heartbreaking for some people to find themselves broken down somewhere with noway of having the funds to get going again, with no friends and no family support nearby.
GD, you are so right. Some of our fondest memories are the simple things in life.
Dusty
03_troopy said
01:33 PM Oct 27, 2011
Gerty Dancer wrote:
Landfall wrote:
Don't know how you folk can live on these figures?
If you buy 2 x coffees @ $4 each, plus 2 x small cakes/biscuits @ $2 each, this adds up to $12 for one treat.
Do this each day of your holidays and that alone adds up to $360 per month.
This is why we always carry a thermos, and have our morning tea "somewhere" out on the road, or if we are in a town sightseeing then in a park. Lunches too. The savings made this way are spent on big specials like Joe said the Horizontal falls, also cheaper outings, which is where our best memories are made. We have some great memories of those morningtea/lunch spots too.
And if you do have to boild a kettle to make your tea, put the leftover water in the thermos so you can make a cupper later if you want.
Webcraft said
09:08 AM Oct 28, 2011
Hi everyone,
Just found this website and have spend the last hour reading through the forum. Some good information here.
We travelled for 8 months last year and covered 35,000 klm. Our trip was from Brisbane anti-clockwise via Kakadu, Kimberley, Pilbara, Margaret River, then return through to Sydney and then back up to Brissie. The plan is to hit the road permanently in 2 months time.
I kept a very strict control on expenses as I wanted to do it for under $100 a day. This would include fuel, accommodation, tours and food. We came in at $102.84 per day. We free camped 40% of the time. We went out for lunch a number of times and even a couple of dinners (with wine!). The overnight to the Horizontal Falls was probably the most expensive tour, but we certain did quite a few other cheaper ones.
Everyone can do it to their own budget level. We saw big flashy coach type motorhomes down to people sleeping in the back of their stationwagon. (We have a Landcruiser 100 Series towing a heavy off-road caravan). We were all the same when we sat around the campfire at night sharing experiences of where we had been and what we had seen. As long as you are out there doing it.
All I can say is don't put it off - get out there and enjoy it while you have your health and still drawing breath.
Cheers
Sue
-- Edited by Webcraft on Friday 28th of October 2011 09:08:26 AM
Ma said
09:50 AM Oct 28, 2011
Welcome Sue and you are so right.........to each his own.
I bet you could give a few budgeting tips to us as well, those are astounding figures you quoted.
Webcraft said
10:08 AM Oct 28, 2011
Hi Ma,
Can't say I found it too difficult to maintain that budget, although I think the 40% free camping helped quite a bit.
Ma said
12:39 PM Oct 28, 2011
I've never really bothered with a budget or an exercise in keeping track of costs.
I figure if you are going to constantly worry about the expense then it takes the shine off the trip.
Having said that, it's all things in moderation and I know that when we travel and free camp mostly our biggest cost is of course fuel. If we stay put for a while then that's negligible too for that period.
I would hazzard a guess and say we are probably within range of you most days.
AmandaJayne said
11:49 AM Oct 30, 2011
hmmmm I could get rather worried reading all this as we only have our pension and nothing else and now that looks as if it falls short of what you guy budget for.... might have to rethink the year away by the looks.... altho... living from hand to mouth is what we've done for decades now so whats another year going to do?
pauline said
11:55 AM Oct 30, 2011
You have two choices, live from hand to mouth at home and die of boredom or live from hand to mouth on the road and really LIVE. Although I think all should have some emergency money tucked away if needed, my VERY SMALL super will be ours.
Ma said
12:39 PM Oct 30, 2011
What the heck AJ. Go out there and live the dream. If you run out of fuel and money just stay put till next pension day and carry on from there.
I know this has been done to death but I just did my sums for the year and thought I would share.
From Feb till 25 Oct
Distanced travelled 17158.14 K's
fuel used 2783.42 litres @ an average of 16.222 litres per 100k
Cost of fuel $4358.3 min cost 134.9 per litre max 196.9 per litre average 157 per litre
Cost of Caravan Parks $2783.5. (note amount of fuel used = Freaky) that is 151 days out of 268 days on the road. the rest was free camping.
This is just fuel and rent, naturally there are other costs ie: genny fuel, gas and the odd mechanicals.
We have a 21.6 Jayco Heritage, God knows what the gross weight was towed by a 2007 Diesel Pajero.
We went from the Central Coast NSW across via Broken Hill to Port Augusta then up the centre to Darwin and back via western Qld to Bourke then via Lightning Ridge, Moree, down through Warialda, Baraba, Tamworth back to the Central Coast.
Sitting here now looking after a Caravan Park for a few months before we head off again.
thankyou for that. i wanted to know. I never knew it was so expensive to be a grey nomad. thanks. rocket and strop
I had budgeted on about $1,000 per month, but it looks like I may have been a little short of the mark.
If you free camp more than stay in parks it reduces the cost as well.
Also depends on how many nights you stay put. This decreases the fuel consumption
I can't live at home for that and I'm not a big spender!
Thankyou for that its given me a better idea of what we'll be up against... we're set up for free camping so hopefully we shall do a lot of it...
Just set back and work out what you would pay if you stay home then look up to the sky and remember you cannot take it with you so the more you enjoy the money the less someone else will not
Just remember everyones travel plans are completely different.
In my case my monthly budget would be no more than $800. I would be free camping 99% of the time and only moving short distances at a time.
Tess
I can free camp or van park it.
This week I've done 1200kms a day over the last 4 days - Pt. Adelaide to Lyndhurst, via Gladstone, Jamestown, Orroroo, Hawker and the R. M. Williams Way.
The country is looking magnificent. Crops look good, wattles look good, the emus are thriving and all is right with the world outback.
Geeze Chris !!! Isn't that pushing the safety factor a bit too much ? Take care out there. No Job is worth your life.
Cheers,
Sheba.
-- Edited by Sheba on Wednesday 26th of October 2011 01:13:10 AM
.. other than doing a urgent dash from Mareeba in Nth Qld to Naracoorte SA in (5) days with just a fuel cost of over $200.00 per day, I would say that my average 'running' would be about $1000.00 per month .. not including of course, vehicle registrations and insurance etc ..
That drops down a lot with concentrated free-camping which I prefer .. but lots of consideration must be given to fuel useage these days.
.. but as this is my home, I don't have other 'overheads' like a house to be concerned about.
Jon
If you buy 2 x coffees @ $4 each, plus 2 x small cakes/biscuits @ $2 each, this adds up to $12 for one treat.
Do this each day of your holidays and that alone adds up to $360 per month. So far I haven't eaten a meal, gone nowhere (used no fuel, not even to get to my coffee shop).
I haven't purchased coffee from a supermarket because I haven't used the vehicle to get there, I cannot heat the kettle, cost money for lpg.
When calculating the cost of our holidays we factor in "everything" that we pay out, including registration fees on car and caravan, fuel costs, any bits reuired for maintenance, cost of any new clothes we may purchase, excursions, etc.
Our last holiday averaged out at $800 per week. (This included the over the top fee required by the Tas. Gov. to get on the ferry {$1,500} and the outrageous fees at Maroochydore C/P for two weeks @ $265 per week.
Average was calculated over a two month period.
Cheers
Dusty.
PS:- Looks like more "free" camping at Gubby's place.
Oops - I meant $1,000 per week.
I blame digital dyslexia!
Of course, that grand a week is on top of maintaining the property back home and all the insurances etc.
Hi HW - as I replied to Jimricho, I really meant a grand a week and while we will be doing a big lap of the country, we will be taking up to 18 months to get round so the travel/fuel costs will be amortised over a relatively long period.
We will also be doing a fair bit of bush camping (I prefer the term bush camping as "free camping" evokes images of crowds of caravans parked under a bridge or on some dusty, fly ridden rest area) as much of our travelling will be in remote areas of NW Australia. The money we save there ($45 gas refills notwithstanding) will be spent doing things like flying to the horizontal falls etc.
Thanks for the thoughts though.
This is why we always carry a thermos, and have our morning tea "somewhere" out on the road, or if we are in a town sightseeing then in a park. Lunches too. The savings made this way are spent on big specials like Joe said the Horizontal falls, also cheaper outings, which is where our best memories are made. We have some great memories of those morningtea/lunch spots too.
Our first week of travelling:-
Home to ferry = 300km @ 14.5l/100 @ $1.60p/l = $70
Ferry from Tassie to Vic. $750
C/Park o/night at Ballarat so we can go to S/Hill $24
Entry fee to S/Hill incl. night show (for 2) $150
A lunch and drink at S/Hill (sorry no thermos) $60
4 days travelling @ 600km per day = 87lts p/d $556
Cost of meals over the 4 days @ $20 per day $80
Two more days of travel and "bush camping."Fuel $200
Total for OUR first week is $1,890
This is without any other incidentals and everything is going well.
Obviously, every week is not like the first, but it takes a lot of tight budgeting to get the average back down.
I guess what I am really trying to say is, don't mislead people into thinking that travelling can be done for "free" or almost free. It can be very heartbreaking for some people to find themselves broken down somewhere with noway of having the funds to get going again, with no friends and no family support nearby.
GD, you are so right. Some of our fondest memories are the simple things in life.
Dusty
And if you do have to boild a kettle to make your tea, put the leftover water in the thermos so you can make a cupper later if you want.
Hi everyone,
Just found this website and have spend the last hour reading through the forum. Some good information here.
We travelled for 8 months last year and covered 35,000 klm. Our trip was from Brisbane anti-clockwise via Kakadu, Kimberley, Pilbara, Margaret River, then return through to Sydney and then back up to Brissie. The plan is to hit the road permanently in 2 months time.
I kept a very strict control on expenses as I wanted to do it for under $100 a day. This would include fuel, accommodation, tours and food. We came in at $102.84 per day. We free camped 40% of the time. We went out for lunch a number of times and even a couple of dinners (with wine!). The overnight to the Horizontal Falls was probably the most expensive tour, but we certain did quite a few other cheaper ones.
Everyone can do it to their own budget level. We saw big flashy coach type motorhomes down to people sleeping in the back of their stationwagon. (We have a Landcruiser 100 Series towing a heavy off-road caravan). We were all the same when we sat around the campfire at night sharing experiences of where we had been and what we had seen. As long as you are out there doing it.
All I can say is don't put it off - get out there and enjoy it while you have your health and still drawing breath.
Cheers
Sue
-- Edited by Webcraft on Friday 28th of October 2011 09:08:26 AM
Welcome Sue and you are so right.........to each his own.
I bet you could give a few budgeting tips to us as well, those are astounding figures you quoted.
Hi Ma,
Can't say I found it too difficult to maintain that budget, although I think the 40% free camping helped quite a bit.
I've never really bothered with a budget or an exercise in keeping track of costs.
I figure if you are going to constantly worry about the expense then it takes the shine off the trip.
Having said that, it's all things in moderation and I know that when we travel and free camp mostly our biggest cost is of course fuel. If we stay put for a while then that's negligible too for that period.
I would hazzard a guess and say we are probably within range of you most days.
hmmmm I could get rather worried reading all this as we only have our pension and nothing else and now that looks as if it falls short of what you guy budget for.... might have to rethink the year away by the looks.... altho... living from hand to mouth is what we've done for decades now so whats another year going to do?
What the heck AJ. Go out there and live the dream. If you run out of fuel and money just stay put till next pension day and carry on from there.
Lots of us do it that way.