Want to know how we are funding our 12 month trip and exactly what its costing us? Read on the blog...
Hi Guys,
Thanks so much for visiting again and welcome if you are new to Life on The Open Road. We hope we can inspire you to do the same with your family :)
In this Blog we wanted to share with you our travel budget and how we are actually funding this amazing trip around Australia for 12 months. Every situation will obviously be different but this is how we are doing it and how you can too!
For those of you who don't already know us we are Ryan, Alex and Ziggy Hutchinson and we live (lived) on the Gold Coast. We decided to rent out our house and take a big leap of faith and hit the road at the start of November 2018! For the last 5 and a half years we have created and grown our fashion Label Mahiya www.mahiya.com.au We have come to a point in our business where we are lucky enough to be able to take a step back and do 99% of our work online so we can basically work anywhere. We have an amazing team back home who take care of our wholesale, warehouse, showroom and marketing and we do the designing and business side from our laptops. We are obviously in a unique situation and are blessed to be where we are but we still wanted to stick to a budget for this trip so we could keep track of the cost and share with our followers just how much it's actually costing us. Ok here goes....
Our original budget was $1000 a week...this is to cover Food, Petrol, Accomodation and extras, here is the break down.
* ACCOMODATION - $350 this is if we were to pay for camp sites 7 nights a week at an average of $50 a night. Obviously if your free camping at some places this will be a lot lower but we thought this would be a good ball park figure. Also take in to account that we are paying for 2 adults (infants are free) so if you have kids in tow over the age of 2 be prepared to pay an extra $10 a child at some parks. We have also heard that in the quieter times you can try and barter them down a little on price..its always worth a try!
* FOOD - $250 we are actually spending more than this as Ziggy loves his fruit and we pretty much live off meat and salad. We do like to buy good quality meat and produce and this all adds up and definitely causes out bill to be higher.. If you happy eating yummy pasta and rice dishes with only a small amount of meat and veg you can definitely bring this figure down. A lot of the smaller towns are higher in price so keep this ion mind when travelling and stock up in the bigger cities. We also are buying nappies and things for Ziggy that aint cheap. We try to catch as much fish as possible too!
* PETROL - $250 This would be doing a lot of KMs a week, this can definitely be reduced if you are doing longer stays at places and less kms a week. In 2 months we have travelled 5500kms at an average of 20 litres per 100km. Take in to account that we are towing a van that is nearly 3 tonne and our car is at capacity. We also sit on 90kms an hour.
*EXTRAS - $150 all the little extras add up like alcohol, eating out and things you need along the way.
THE VERDICT - 8 weeks on the road and our actual spend is just under $8000 woo hoo high fives all round! Take in to account that we have purchased the following extras as well as alcohol but have kept eating out to a minimum.
New Axe $130
Van levelers - $120
Fishing gear - $150
Fishing Charter- $190
So far so good! I think the Christmas week definitely tipped us over after this but I think we are doing pretty good at sticking to out budget...so far!
Any how lets get back to the fun stuff and check out the amazing stops we had though out Victoria! Unfortunately we weren't blessed with the best weather throughout our 3 weeks in Victoria so our spots were limited. Also Ryan was hoping for some good surf and fishing but there wasn't much swell and not good conditions for the boat. Better luck in SA hopefully!
MALACOOTA
What a special little town. We stayed at the Malacoota Foresparkhore Holiday and were blown away by the view over the river from our camp site. We spent a couple of days here exploring the back beaches and Ryan caught a few flathead straight out the front. They have private spots to tie up your tinny for easy access and you must check out the local pub. There was definitely a few waves around but we were warned to stay out of the water as a few whales had washed up on the surrounding beaches and there were big sharks around..eek!
LAKES ENTRANCE
Spent a lovely few days in Lakes Entrance on our way to visit friends in Melbourne and were pleasantly surprised with how gorgeous this town is. Loads of shops and cafes and a great bike path to go cruising along the foreshore and Marina area. We stayed at the North Arm Caravan Park which was a small park with lovely owners and a small pool for the kiddies. It had easy access and was only a short walk in to the main part of town. Ryan spent the day on Far Out Charters and came back with a heap of Snapper for dinner! We also ventured over to Lake Tyre Beach and had a feed at the Water Wheel Hotel had which had amazing views of the lake ..definitly worth a look.
ANGLESEA
Only a short drive from Bells Beach and Torquey Anglsea is a pretty little town at the start of the Great Ocean Road. What a beautiful part of the world. We stayed at the Anglesea family Carvan Park which was one of the most expensive we had stayed at for $60 a night but the Park itself was beautiful with big bush style camp spots right on the river and ocean. There is a beautiful walking track that goes the whole way around and an amazing beach right out the front. The facilities at this park were also amazing with heated pool, toddlers play room and jumping pad. We loved it here and enjoyed exploring the surrounding beaches also.
CUMBERLAND RIVER
Half way down the Great Ocean Road and 10 minutes from Lorne. This hidden little gem Cumberland River Camp has been one of our favs from the trip. Nestled in a stunning little Valley with a beautiful little creek this is a must stop along this part of the coast. Directly across the road from the beach this scenic spot is $35 a night (no power or water but amenities provided). Unfortunately we coped some pretty crappy weather during this part of the trip so didn't spent a lot of time here but enjoyed the time we did. There are amazing walks with waterfalls up into the Valley and you can have a fire. Beware of the duck poo, its everywhere as the park is filled with so many families of ducks, super cute and friendly but one bit Ziggys finger and scared the sh*%t out of him. Also head into Lorne for a shop and some lunch..loads of gorgeous stores and restaurants!
PORT FAIRY
Our last stop before crossing the boarder into SA. Port fairy is a quaint little town with beautiful old houses and cute Marina Area. Looks like there is some good surf when the swells right and Ryan tried his luck fishing off the end of the pier but not much around. The camp ground we stayed in was Gardens Caravan Park and camped right on the river. Beautiful park close to the town with amazing surrounding beaches. A great spot to end our Journey through Victoria.
We didn't spend a lot of time in VIC due to the weather but stay tuned for our next Blog travelling through South Australia as we visit some pretty magical places.
Thanks for reading, Wishing you all epic adventures this year! We hope we can inspire you to get out of your comfort zone and hit the road!