Hi all,  I am very excited.  My husband and I just spent a fortune and bought ourselves a brand spanking new caravan.  We are not at retiring age yet, but practice makes perfect, don't you think!  Some of my questions are -

Can anyone out there survive on just an age pension.  Hubby has worked for himself for years, and hasn't put super away.  We will use our van for holidays and weekends away, but when it comes to retiring, I don't know if we will be able to afford the big trip around Aus.  Preferably, I would love to travel forever and never come home, but life isn't all that we think it is at the time and it may not suit, but I want to do plenty of preparation beforehand.  Just need to know if I have to rob a bank before we retire, or can we live frugally on an age pension and take off into the wild red yonger.  thanks.

Thats what I'm doing ENTERPRIZE and theres only one of me so the pension is a little smaller, but it can be done. Just have to be a bit frugal and do some planning. Perhaps when you decide to do the big trips, like right around Aus for a 12 month trip, you could rent your house out for that time to give yourselves a bit more spending money on the road. Oh and by the way, welcome to the site. Lots of great info here.

Thanks happy wanderer.  I love the idea of being frugal as excess and consumerism stress me out, which is one of the reason I want to get away from it all.  I will try to practice living on the pension before it happens and work through the issues when they arise. Thanks again

Welcome ENTERPRIZE.   I'll be one soon, but have to wait a little while yet.   There are quite a number of Nomads on the road whose only income is the Pension .  

When they need to, they just stop and wait 'till the next Pension Cheque is in the bank.   Needless to say, I would think most of them Freecamp as much as possible, but no doubt you'll get firsthand info. here soon.

Cheers,
Sheba.

Thanks Sheba

I live now as i would on road to get into pratice .. food wise i mean and this included personal item such as toothpaste, shampoo.. ect .... fuel will be my major cost ... but i am planing on working as well so hope to see you out there one day .....

We live on a pension only and do quite well. Of course you cannot spend willy nilly but you need a budget to work to. Petrol/fuel probably the biggest item. Food you need whether at home or travelling. Expenses for your home if necessary need to be taken into account too. We have not made the round trip yet. We are enjoying shorter trips with maybe one longer trip each year. The trick to it is not to be on the road every day, we freecamp mostly and stay a few days if we like a place before moving on. Just depends on what you want to do. You will work things out as you go, good luck, and safe travelling. Cheers Val

Enterprize Welcome to the site. We are on the pension and do a four month trip[ away each year we then do shorter trips the rest of the time all done on the pension we free camp mostly obviously can't do a lot of the tourist things but hey we meet some wonderful people and when you stay in the little country towns the hospitality is overwhelming and you quite often see things that the touristy things don't get to Hope you have many happy travels. Helena.

Hi Enterprize!

We travel on my disabled pension. Hylda is not pension age so has no income. We use a mix of bush camps (using camps 5 book & forum knowledge) & caravan parks (we use ' http://myparklist.com/ ' to find the caravan parks to suit us).

We try to eat as cheap as possible but still have very good meals. buying mince or fish when cheap, lots of microwave chooks & silversides & any cheap meats for BBQ's & lots of salads & vege's. We have the odd treat around pension day like deserts etc that will last a few days.

We have found solar power, generator & a caravan set up for 12v living is essential for budget living.

Also we try to pick the free or very cheap tourist places unless its someplace special, eg: for us one was Adelaide Zoo to see the giant pandas.

The one pension would not have been enough for us as Rego & other expenses always impinge on your budget plus, most times, expenses tend to be a little bit more than my fortnightly pension so, in 16 months of traveling we have also spent about $8000 of savings, that includes a new set of 4WD tyres $900, 2 services & twice paying rego & insurance for the car & caravan - about $2000 per year (being NSW registered doesn't help the price).

I believe we could have done it easy on 2 pensions as long as there is savings to cover the dreaded rego, insurance & other regular vehicle expenses including the unforseen ones.

We are only on a 2 or 3 year trip as our house is rented out & we would sooner or later run out of savings if we kept travelling but, if you have 2 pensions you should be able to put a bit away each fortnight to help out if on the road permanently

Hope this helps
Cheers
Jon

Thanks every one. I thought it might be possible, so I can now start practising. With regards to work, my husband is an electrician, and I have no doubt that he will be able to pick up work, but what is the best way to generate that. I thought maybe phoning through to a pub before we arrive in the town to put the word out or even an RSL. Does anyone think that would be good.

Work Wanted in the Classifieds on the front page of the GreyNomads here is a good start, also word of mouth.
If you are staying a while in certain places just mention it to a few folk and I'm sure the word would get around. An electrician can always find work that could suddenly come up in the area you are staying in.
Notices on the supermarket bulletin board is another option.

-- Edited by Happywanderer on Thursday 27th of January 2011 08:51:01 PM

If you are staying in a caravan park for a few days then most places will have some sort of notice board in the laundry. That's where people stand around waiting for their machines to finish and will read anything to pass the time, you could well pick up work that way.