Travelling oz on a budget

Hi Katrina,
We are a family with three kids ( 9,11,12). I would budget for around $100 - $150 per day, this for fuel, camp siteetc. Some days you will have left over money other days you may not. depending on how far you travel in a day and what touristy things you pay to see. Hope this helps. Michele

That $100.00/day seems to be about the magic figure. But that was 2003/2004. Maybe a bit more with fuel prices.

We are doing it in stages, a month here and there, but asking the same question of others we bump into onto the road, and are doing it all in one go, it seems about right. Not being extravagant, well at least a bit stingy, but doing it reasonably comfortably.

The fuel is the expensive bit. Especially if you allow for the fact that you eat at home or on the road!
Another interesting point talking to a few of the grey nomads who do the whole circumnavigation, is that they all seem to do between 20,000 to 25,000k getting around Australia, whether it is 3 months or 12 months. A bit fo 4wding and more remote places might add a little more.
Can any one else confirm that figure?

Just me and SWMBO, but we usually budget $100 per day for all costs (fuel, food, booze, camping fees etc), sometimes we average a bit more, sometimes a bit less, but that is pretty close to the mark. Also, always have $$$ set aside for those unexpected costs (vehicle repairs etc).

Cheers

Time

Thankyou for your advice..it is much appreciated.
WE were kind of leaning towards $100 per day to allow but I think we might up that to $150 per day just in case.I am so excited about doing thins trip that I have done so much research in the last couple of weeks!We wont have a set ittenery but just have a rough time to be in areas eg we want to be in Tasmania by March,the snow fields in July etc.
Ideally we dont really want to travel more than a couple hundred k's a day(the exception of course is when we do the long hauls like the nullabor)as its not fair on the kids and we want o enjoy the surrounds as well insterad of concentrating on the black top!
Well I am enjoying reading the threads on this site so no doubt you will be hearing my 2cents in the future!
CHEERS
katrina

Hi Katrina

We have recently completed a 3 month trip(not towing a van) with mostly camping and some accommodation. We travelled close on 16,000km which included about 2000km of 4x4. The cost was roughly $110 per day which included purchases of art and other STUFF along the way.

I would budget $50,000 for 2007. If you stay out of Caravan Parks you will bring your costs down substantially. There are plenty of free camping areas especially if you stay off the major roads.

We towed a 27ft van around Oz for 5 years and clocked up 275,000km. But that was ten years ago when fuel was 70c/l :o)

Keep the weight down and the stuff you take. Take minimal clothing with you and if need be you can buy clothes at op shops. Try to be as self sufficient as you can. Put a budget aside for buying presents or souvenirs

Not part of your question, but Camps Australia Wide (3rd edition just released) is a good reference for free and cheap camp sites around Australia. May help to keep the costs down.

Katrina,

We did the trip in 02 with our 2 kids (4 and 7 then) in our 100 series diesel (no turbo) with 16" off road van and we budgeted for between $100 and $150 a day. In the end, we were right in the middle at $1000 per week. We did the trip in 14 weeks, so we probably could have saved a bit by not jamming it in (more bush camps, less eating out etc). We did a few cruises/flights/attractions etc that you could save on, but our attitude was that we weren't going all that way to save money here and there and not see things. We looked on it as an investment in our kids, and we haven't looked back.

Going for 12 months, $50K sounds about right, but bush camps and not eating out help. Also, calling up on the CB for the best fuel prices can save a bit as well. Some servo's don't advertise that they give discounts for being members of different organisations, and the more frugal travellers seem to know the cheapest places. Best thing we found was to talk to some of the older wanderers in some of the not so flash rigs and they have all the tips on free camping at places you wouldn't believe possible. From knowing when the rangers might be around to feigning a mechanical problem (complete with split hose or broken belt), they know all the tricks.

It's also worth while joining Big 4 and Top Tourist (we found Top Tourist were a bit cheaper and almost as good, and sometimes better than Big 4) for when you do stay at parks. Every now and then, it's worthwhile getting a site with an ensuite as a luxury as the kids love that. We even got one with a bath once.

We found that a lot of places were looking for people to do work short term in places where you might want to stay for a week or so. Things like looking after the shop to mowing grass. If you have to, there seems to be lots of places where you could do a bit to get some money back in the kitty. We ran in to quite a few travellers doing a bit of work here and there and it didn't affect their holiday too much.

The only other advice I can offer is try to find somewhere to camp as early as possible in the mid afternoon. Free camps fill quickly in some places at certain times, and it's no fun trying to find somewhere in the dark, and having to pay for a van site. Again, talking to people going in the opposite direction helps here. We went round anti-clockwise and we were just behind the crest of the wave of grey nomads, so we didn't have too much trouble.

One last thing; the cheapest way to keep in touch with everyone we found was to use Pocketmail. Email convenience (no attachments), works on any phone and only a local call everywhere in Oz.

http://www.pocketmail.com/aus/

We had a laptop too, but it's a pain to try and find a phone line to plug in to. We maily used the laptop to keep on top of the money situation. It's easy to find any old phone though. We've still got our pocketmail thingy and we've lent it to relatives a few times, so it's been around the world now. I think that they're about $150 to buy, but if you were interested, I'll find out if my wife wants to get rid of ours.

Have a great time and enjoy the planning phase and sorry for the length of this post.

Andrew

Not one person has taken into account that diesel will be $3 by then (its going to walk $2.00 in this year), so it will probabably be way around $200 instead of $100.

Mate just returned from 12 mths touring. Did everything they wanted but don't think the did any flights. Mainly used caravan parks or NP's so paid for camping with power nearly every night. They spent $35k, did close to 45,000 klm. From memory food was around $10 (lived well), fuel was something like $7k.

My thoughts are you could do it for as little as $500 a week and the sky is the limit for the upper level. If you don't smoke, use some free camps, eat basic don't do many tours and check out the sites yourself I can't see it costing much more than this. Sure you can spend more. I just worked out getting 20l/100k and fuel being $2 a litre it will be approx $300 per week on fuel for 40,000klm. If there are no major breakdowns and you get some free camps and are mainly going to see the natural sights then $2-300 extra per week would do us.

Will soon see as I hope to be doing it next year for 6mths.

Our recent trip in petrol Pajero, towing camper, we averaged 16.5Lt/100. Did 6,200Ks and fuel cost approx $1200, $200/1000ks. Deisel price is currently dearer than petrol and I agree with Truckster, by 2007 it will be substantially dearer.
Towing a 25ft van I'd reckon you'll get around the same consumption as my Pajero so I'd budget on at least $300/1000ks for fuel, mabe even more. Add in more for on the road servicing costs, oil change every 5000ks seems to be the go.
Allowing for 25,000ks that means your fuel bill alone is going to be around $7,500.
On top of that we usually found daily costs to average around the $50 mark, that's around $18k for 12 months, plus camping fees. These vary but currently around $25 for a powered site, $9,125 for a year. Lots of free camps around that can reduce this cost.

So far you're looking at around $35k, plus vehicle servicing, tyres etc, and I'd call that conservative.

You should also have a reserve in case of something unexpected happening. How much? How long is a peice of string?

$35K works out at around $665/week so the magic figure of $100/day is allready taken care of before inflation. My advice would be to budget for around $120/day and make sure you have a reserve.

Cheers....