As a young traveller, budgeting is super important. This is because the more you can make it stretch, the longer you can be on the road. When we first headed out on our adventure, we had next to nothing. We had set a date and set up the car and we were ready to leave. There is usually no perfect time to leave, you just have to do it and work it out as you go. Luckily in Australia you can find work in most places, so if you do get stuck, there is plenty of options.
Below are some tips for being proactive with your money that have helped us stay on the road exploring this beautiful country.
Tip #1 - Don't buy crap!
The old saying 'poor man pays twice' is something we have always come back to. Yes there are some things you can get away with skimping out on but I will touch on that later. Important things such as a fridge, UHF, 12V set ups, solar panels and awnings are some of the necessary items for life on the road. We started out with cheap versions of all these items which were great for weekend trips. When we started going on longer trips where we had to rely on these items everyday, we ended up in stressful situations. Some of these stories I have told in other blogs so if your interested, go have a look.
To summarise, don't skimp out on important items. You will find yourself spending more money buying new ones or trying to get yourself out of sticky situations. Do your research!
Tip #2 - Wash your own clothes
What! You can wash your own clothes? Yeah I know as surprising as it is for some people not only can you wash your own clothes, it is also cheaper, more environmentally friendly and you can do it anywhere with a water source. We found that our washing would stack up with the way we were travelling. It would sit smelling out a dry bag, waiting until we got into another town to do our reset. When we did eventually go to a laundromat, we had to get $5-$6 worth of coins and then sit around and wait for it to wash. If it was raining, we would have to put it into the dryer which was more money and terrible for the environment. We found a product called 'Scrubba'. Its a dry bag with a ribbed layer inside. You could definitely DIY something like this but we wanted to give the proper one a go. Pick a lovely day when you are just relaxing by a river, add some river water to the line on the bag, some environmentally friendly washing liquid, roll the bag up and give it a scrub. Get a piece of rope, hang it up and then your back to relaxing.
Wash your own clothes. Its cheaper, more time effective, you can do it anywhere and its better for the environment.
Tip #3 - Meal prep
Depending on the capacity of your fridge or esky, meal prepping is an essential part of touring. Not only is it highly cost effective, it encourages healthier eating choices and it also gives you more time to adventure. Even before we started travelling, meal prepping was how we operated due to our busy lives. By meal prepping I mean buying bulk and cooking up big serves of a couple of different meals. We are fortunate enough to have a big fridge freezer in our set up. This means we are able to have around a months worth of food at any one time if we really needed to. Another option is to vacuum seal your food, making it last much longer in the fridge. You will find after a long day of driving or adventuring on the road you will not want to set everything up to cook a full dinner so you will end up eating out, blowing your budget out.
Meal prep for more adventure time, cheaper meals and healthier eating.
Tip #4 - Plan your fuel stops
Fuel will most likely be the biggest expense on your trip. So finding ways to lower this expense is super beneficial. We have a long range fuel tank on our rig, this means that when we are planning our fill ups with websites / apps such as fuel spy, we will fill the tank up at the cheapest servo and then only top it up at expensive ones, until we get to another cheap one. This techniques can also be done with jerry cans. We have found that for our diesel car, self serve servos are the cheapest.
Plan your fuel stops, invest in a long range fuel tank or jerry cans.
Tip #5 - Weekly budget planner
Typical, I know. Even if you only do it for a couple of weeks to get an idea of your weekly spending. It's good to know the numbers so that you can estimate how long you will last on the road. You always need to have back up money for unforeseen situations. Mechanical problems can put a big hole in your savings. We had to stop for 3 months while we fixed our car. It ended up being around 10k. My partner did most of the work on it which cut out labour costs. We both worked for the 3 months which meant we came out on top after the whole ordeal. Ensure to include background costs in your planner such as phone bills, any repayments, rego and insurance. Here is a template to get you started. https://www.canva.com/design/DAFyD-3aRd4/mAQG0BgJhwDgTx6CkjZJPA/edit?utm_content=DAFyD-3aRd4&utm_campaign=designshare&utm_medium=link2&utm_source=sharebutton
You have to allow for the higher price of fuel you will have to pay in most of regional Australia which will be more than the prices you may be used to at home. This also goes for food and any other supplies you will require.
Do some planning, include all expenses.
Tip #6 - Op shop for the basics
Often you will come across things that you forgot or think may be handy. These things may include kitchenware, storage containers or games. It is amazing the opportunities in an op shop! (get it?) Anyway, a favourite pass time of ours is now finding the op shop in town and having a browse. Lots of our kitchenware has been found this way as well as my upcycle projects to keep me entertained during the downtimes.
Op shop for those less relied on items.
Tip #7 - Off grid rig
Last but not least, set your rig up with the ability to be off grid. Having a water tank, shower setup, batteries with solar and a way to clean your clothes means you can stay offgrid for weeks at a time, saving you lots of money in accomadation and opening up the opportunites to visit remote locations. It also allows you to be more flexible when in caravan parks or on stations to choose your site and save a little by being on an unpowered site. We try and do as much free camping as possible. Depending on the location, some areas of Australia have many free camps but other areas are nearly impossible. Wikicamps is a must have app to find all these camps. On the app you can also find free showers, points of interest and reviews on all these points.
Another important feature of the app is water fill up points. Water can be hard to find in some towns so having this resource has helped us immensely.
Hope this helped!
Thankyou for reading, hope to have helped you gain some more understanding and confidence for travelling Australia! Please contact me if something doesn't make sense or you have any more questions. Thanks again!
Comments