thankyou for that. i wanted to know. I never knew it was so expensive to be a grey nomad. thanks. rocket and strop

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.

Joe wrote:

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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.

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 I can't live at home for that and I'm not a big spender!

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

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.

Yes I agree Pauline, long distances in a short time are way too expensive for fuel!

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.

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

 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.

Happywanderer wrote:

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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.

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

 

 

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

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.

 

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?