Financing/planning trip around Oz queries

For Gods sake....oh and my mastercard no is..

Cheers.......BIGDOG

Check out this very comprehensive website of a Adelaide family's two year trip around oz. Full of info, fantastic photos and an online diary.
Well worth a visit for anyone doing some laps of Oz.
http://goingtheredoingthat.com

also a bloke I work with took 6 months off this year and took the wife and two kids and did a lap around OZ in a jayco dove outback. they didn't work, I will get some info off him and post it up here if you like.

well looks like you have a few ? there. We too are heading of next friday to start the big lap. first of all we have aalowed a budget of 40,000 for the 12 months, alot of that will go on fuel pobably $15,000 the way prices are at the moment. We have a goldstream camper trailer and a roof top tent, but we have 3 kids, 13 ,10, and the other one is 5 weeks old holy bleep e what were we thinking, anyhow we plan to school them through distant ed, its all very well set up now days, all you need is a laptop and a phone. As far as our house goes we are renting that out,, atleast that will pay for something....moving all your stuff out is a pain in the aaaaaaas, so we are just storing our personal stuff,,,.. we dont have any plans as far as what and where we are going, but from Melbourne we are turning left and heading to Perth , thats as far as the planning has gone. south in the summer nort in the winter..... anyhow dont think about it to long , just do it......................... see you on the road...

Leanne
I think for a Tradesman there should be odd jobs here and there, but if you have mobile internet you could use this website

Job Location Finder

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Havent actually done all that myself, but from hearing other peoples stories they'd rent furnished house - one couple put all their "belongings" into one of the bedrooms and locked it...the tenants had the rest of the house.....

if you do $800 pre week, then that would be $41,600....so sounds about right.....

one couple we met at Kings Canyon sis coastal stuff and even stopped in Darwin for 4 months as he was an air conditioner fitter-er, she worked in pubs along the way and they had sold their house in Nth NSW and home schooled the kids..... They were heading back to Sydney for a week when we saw them and then getting going again! They bushed camped as much as possible but of course in the big towns they had caravan parks, on top of the Pajero (the caravan was 25yrs old) they had an electric scooter. It was a load and half they had but all worth it.....

I guess a lot of your cost would depend on how long you stayed in places, would you stay put for a few weeks or just keep on going all the time?

When do you plan on going??

What Ive always had in mind is put 25% of pay away each week for 4 yrs....then you have a whole yrs wage to go with.....

Good luck with your plans....

Laura

Leeb1973,We did a 10 month Trip in 1995 with 2 Kids. Had a Fantastic time but it was a lot of work with the Kids. They where 2 and a half and 13 months when we left. We where definitely the odd ones out on the rd. Mostly either retired people or People on 2Weeks to 1 Months Holidays. We sold our Unit and invested the money so we could get an income Monthly.We lived on this and child support payments.We had a budget and mostly stuck to it but we could withdraw from our investment if we needed it.We decided we didn't want to go back and live in the big smoke[Sydney] that's why we sold everything. We went in a 10 yr old 4by and a new camper trailer which we bought a yr before we left and spent the yr getting it how we wanted it. We got the 4by in tiptop shape mecanicaly be for we left and we had no major mechanical breakdowns on the rd. We camped 80% in bush camps and cheap N.P.s to cut on costs. Caravan Parks are very expensive. We decided before we left that we wanted to eventually live on the east Coast so we spent a lot of time in W.A. knowing we mightn't get back there for a long time.We never booked accommodation , we just had a rough idea of where we would like to go from reading 4WD Mags for years but we where always open to suggestions from people on the rd. They where a Fountain of information,and we got to see lots that we hadn't read about. I did work for a week but found that the wife got the bleep s staying at camp by herself with the kids so we moved on. We where experienced campers before we bought the Camper trailer we just adjusted to towing the trailer. My advice is forget the Caravan it will restrict where you can get to as in bush camps or low cost camps. Which way? Definitely North to south down the W.A. coast you are going with the wind not against it.40 knots at times!Winter in the northern half of aust and summer in the southern half. We still have the Camper and it still gets used so its a lifelong investment. My advice, buy a rig that suits you and get used to it before you go on a long trip. That's all I can think of'hope that helps. I'm Jealous!

hi Leanne

My husband and I did the trip in 2001/2002. We planed it for about 12 months before. We brought a camper trailer and Toyota troopcarrier. Got the troopie at the gov. auction and the camper 2nd hand out of the paper. We brought a 70 lt trailblazer fridge/freezer new. Dont cut corners on the freezer 'cause they work hard up here in the tropics and food costs to much to have it go off. We brought a 2nd hand tinnie that sat on top of the campertrailer and a new motor for it. (didnt want to be broken down up a croc infested river) We didnt do many short trips before we set off as we were both to busy working to save some money for the trip.

We have 2 houses so the rent from one went to pay the mortgage and the rent from the other was what we lived on. We set aside $20k for the trip for 1 year. We returned after 2 yrs with a 6 month old son and still $20k in the bank. We worked in WA for about 10 months when l was having the baby and saved lots. We put all our stuff in storage while we were away. If we did it again I think we would sell a lot of it and save on storage. We had rats nesting in the storage unit so lots of things were damaged. The storage people paid to have it replaced/cleaned, but the hassle is not worth it.

When we set off I planned everything. From where we would spend the night to where we would stop for a pee along the way. That lasted about 3 days. Just decide which way you want to go and head off. We bush camped where every we could and N.P's cost less than van parks. We did stay in van parks sometimes, and you will need the hot showers and washing machines some times. We even stayed in cabins every few months when we were sick of the camping bit. Dont forget its your holiday and you have to enjoy it.

My husband is a carpenter and we carried his tools all the way around Australia and I think they got used about 3 times. We were offered all kinds or work everywhere and only took the one job in WA. We were in our 30's and I think that thats why people offered us the work. Most people on the road are older and not looking for work.

One of the ways we stuck to our budget was with food. We NEVER brought anything from the servo when we were filling up. Its to easy to get in the habit to just grab a drink/chocolate etc and next thing you know you have spent an extra $10. I didnt buy "luxuries" at the supermarket. I baked cakes/biscuits etc in the camp for treats. You can buy a home brand cake mix for about 70c and they taste great as cakes or add some tin fruit and custard for dessert. We brought local fruit and veg where we could and always what was in season so we got more for our bucks. We ate lots of rice and pasta. Cereal and tin fruit are cheap and a healthy breakfast. I used powder milk in cooking as it is easier to carry and cheap. I could not get use to the taste so we drank long life milk. We fished a lot and this helped with supplying food. I dont think it "saved" us any money when you look at the cost of fuel and bait etc. We enjoyed it so the fish is a bonus. If we were going to be on the road or out and about for lunch we always took a packed lunch. I was able to feed us for about $10 per evening meal on an average, that was a few years ago so you would need a bit more now. I always had a good suply of herbs etc so that we ate food that tasted good. I was not going to spend a year living on beans and 2 min noodles. If you give me your email address I will send you some of my recipes, I dont have a lot but I have enough to get you going. (I lost my recipe book somewhere in country nsw...whole other story that my husband will NEVER be forgiven for)

When we set off I had never towed anything, my husband had. Now I dont have a problem and can back the camper or boat into any tight corner. So dont worry about that by the time you get back you will have worked it out!