Hi Ray,

Good to see you are thinking ahead and looking at what your costs are likely to be.

The one thing we would comment on, is fuel. We use unleaded petrol in our 1992 Patrol. We have been on the road for almost two years, July 2016 is when we set off. Fuel then was anywhere between 99c and $1.15 a litre. Places like the Nullarbor were in the high $1.70's but in February this year we were paying 1.87 a litre and a few weeks later when our cousins came across the Nullarbor they were paying $2 a litre on the Nullarbor. After Easter we headed to Canberra where on average unleaded was $1.49 a litre. We did manage to find a Woolies service station that was $1.28 a litre including the 4c discount.

We are currently in Parkes, NSW, and fuel is $149.9 a litre for unleaded. We have the Apps Fuel Map Australia and PetrolSpy and use them constantly but they are not always up to date.

We are on a pretty tight budget and these higher fuel prices are beginning to impact the amount of mileage we choose to do, daily and weekly, in comparison to when we first set off.

Cheers, all the best to you.

Ray and Jude

Gday...

Ya on the right path Ray ... and it will turn out to be much easier once you actually get a few months, and kilometres under ya belt.

The good thing I always say is that I can control my accommodation costs (free/low cost camp), fuel bill (stay put for a couple of weeks) ... and if I could only stop eating i would be a millionaire.

However, if ya wanna play 'scenarios' with your known and anticipated costs, try this spreadsheet. Populate the yellow cells, <TAB> through to each one and it will give an idea of the 'cost of living' and whether you have a surplus/deficit.

Having said that, it does get easier after a few months and Km because you get a far better idea of just what 'guesstimates' were close.

Cheers - John

Thanks for the comments. Appreciate them all.

Ray and Jude - Fuel will probably be the hardest to keep under budget. Originally I had it 50% higher. The secret I think is to stay put as Rockylizard says. I am determined to go as slow as I possibly can, which will be very hard for me as I am always itching to see what is around the next corner and I just love driving. Fuel is not going to get any cheaper overall.

Rocket - mmmm. Now you have put me over budget lol. I thought about "miscellaneous" but having done my tax over the past umpteenth years whenever I put anything as misc I always had to go back and reallocate it when my Accountant queried it so I got into the habit of not having a misc column. Hopefully most of those you mentioned will get buried in one of my existing columns. Anything for my MH will go under service, repairs and maintenance. No more birthday or xmas presents. I'll steer clear of family at those times of year. They will be happy because they wont have to reciprocate. win win.
Seriously though, I get your point that there are many many things that will crop up that I haven't thought of. Its the little things that do add up.

Rockylizard - I have made up a spreadsheet like yours. In fact I think I based it on one you had on the forum when I first started looking here. Thanks. Having never really had the need or desire to budget in the past, it has been an interesting exercise living on a strict budget over the past 3 years or so while I stack away as much as I can for my "new life" on the road. It is amazing how much money we seem to waste on accumulating "stuff" and on crap.

Neil - Good point about the water. I will do as you suggested as much as possible.

As I see it I have a couple of choices. I can either stay working for anther year or more so I have more of a bankroll to start with or I can stop and work earlier along the road.

Itching to get out there.

rayaroundoz wrote:

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Thanks for the comments. Appreciate them all.

Ray and Jude - Fuel will probably be the hardest to keep under budget. Originally I had it 50% higher. The secret I think is to stay put as Rockylizard says. I am determined to go as slow as I possibly can, which will be very hard for me as I am always itching to see what is around the next corner and I just love driving. Fuel is not going to get any cheaper overall.


Itching to get out there.

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 Hi rayaroundoz, in your words above it seems you like driving and having a look around.

I can only talk about my own experience and I find that even if parked up a while, it still takes fuel to see what is around the next corner. If I only gave my tug $100. fuel per week it would die of thirst. I wish I could travel on $100 fuel but I like to thoroughly have a look around an area, and it seems to cost me more than that.

But once out there you will quickly find out exactly what it will cost you.

Joe

Hi Ray

I think you're on point there.
I only factor in $75 a week for fuel and do fine. In fact at present it acts as a 'spare money' account for me. As long as I keep a buffer amount to enable me to drive 'home' (so 6000klm worth at is stage), then any spare money in that account can get used on whatever. I've only used $76.00 in fuel in the last 3 weeks, so there's $224.00 I could do with what I please. I still don't gallivant around the place more than a few times a week (and I'm a geocacher!). I find I travel so slowly I don't need to be busting a gut to get out every day - life still happens (normal activity). I sometimes look at these travellers (that are way older than I am) and think they must be tired!!! I just cruise and do what I'd normally do. Today I'll be kept busy with housework, once I get up from the horizontal. Tomorrow I'm heading out about 50klm for a kayak and hopefully fit a few caches in.
Just a note on the water - I could never carry enough bottles for the amount I drink, so I have two virtually costless methods there. 1 is a distiller (that helps on alcohol costs too if you're so inclined lol). The other is a brita filter container, which I boil my 0.5 micron water and run it through that. So I technically could drink swamp water really...and still end up with a quality water, without paying (too much) for it.
Obviously the distiller requires power, so I usually just fit replenishing my stocks into the existing caravan park visit when I have to do washing etc, rather than run the generator for it (otherwise it becomes an expensive 4 litres of water - although probably the same amount as buying it). I'll usually do the same with the boiled/filtered.....but that's not quite as critical as it's easier to boil it up. Just a bit of planning required with regard to timing etc.

Depending on ones fridge power source and size, gas costs could be more. I go through a 9kg in around 11 days and you can pay anything from $20-50 for a refill. So I think my averages are set at $29 per fill (I spend a lot of time away from civilisation - if that's what they call it - when I can). So that works out at $18.50 per week if I'm entirely free camping. 

I had a quick read of your blog. Very interesting. I bet you can't wait!!!

-- Edited by Grubbygypsy on Tuesday 8th of May 2018 09:21:11 AM

-- Edited by Grubbygypsy on Tuesday 8th of May 2018 09:26:34 AM