Living On The Road

[Cuppa]

Wifey said yes.

Yeeehaaa!

Now that's decided you'll find your own way of doing it,
One thing however........ Do have some money put aside as an 'emergency kitty'. How much will depend on what suits you. For us we decided that we needed enough to cover the cost of our engine blowing up ( about the most expensive mechanical disaster I could imagine) & enough to get back home on a bus or plane if the wheels really fell off.

We did meet several folk who had hit hard times when travelling, & had no back up plan. These were folks who had suffered major mechanical breakdown, illl health etc, & had become financially 'marooned' in caravan parks, with no means of moving on, only able to continue to survive where they were as a 'permanent', often exploited by the park to supplement their government pension. The thought of being 'out there' with no choices would be a nightmare I reckon, but is reality for more than a few.

In 2008/9 we managed quite comfortably on an average weekly spend of $500 for the two of us. Some weeks as low as $300 others $700. This was for everything except fuel.
We had, over 5 years bought the bus, fitted it out & saved every dollar we could. We lived & breathed the forthcoming trip, it was all that mattered. We left our home in the care of friends house sitting for us, & with around $70,000 total in our funds, divided into 3 budgets. Living expenses, fuel, & emergency kitty. I worked out what I thought would be the maximum number of kilometres we might do, & put fuel money in a separate account. That way I didn't have to worry about fuel, I just used the card whenever I bought it, confident that we had enough to 'get round'. We did a bit over 45,000kms, had a new motor, alternator, & a couple of tyres fitted, were away for 18 months, didn't do any work, & arrived back home with $20,000 left.
However, we own our home, & were debt free, just a few standing orders to be paid which we had also saved for (including covering my wife's superannuation payments). These were not included in our travelling budget but meant we could travel freely without having to be concerned about bills back home.

There were folk out on the road spending far more than us to travel, & folk managing on a fair bit less. As a general rule the faster you travel, the more expensive it is, the more tiring it is & the least satisfying.
The travellers I recall being most impressed with were an elderly couple, both in their late 70’s, pulling a tiny 'L'il Nipper rear door caravan with a Subaru wagon, with a pair of kayaks on top. They were getting by on the age pension. Their style was to set up camp (had a little awning under which they spread out all their belongings, a place for everything) & would stay there until next pension day, when they could afford to travel a max of about 100kms. They used their mobile phone's daily free hour to catch up with all their travelling friends, & to arrange meet ups. They were having a ball & were the centre of activities around the camp. I asked them if they ever got a bit bored. "No dear, we did all the big ticket items years ago, now we just get out on the road for the social side of things, doesn't really matter where we are, as long as we're out here, & not sitting back home staring at four walls". They were on the road for 6 months of every year, squirreling away what they could of their pension whilst at home.
They knew more about & had seen more of Australia than anyone else I've met.

Cuppa