How much does it really cost to travel around Australia full-time for 12 months? This is one of the most asked questions for those wanting to tackle the Big Lap or road trip Australia.
While some people make it all the way around in one year, others wander and take many years to complete a lap. A 12-month travelling Australia budget can vary depending on how fast you travel and what you experience along the way.
We were a family of four, living on the road, just meandering around Australia, exploring and living slow. We officially survived one whole year of travelling in a caravan. Well, if you want to get really specific, we haven’t actually left our home State yet. In our defence, Queensland is one BIG State!
While this is nowhere near a ‘Big Lap’ Budget, it does accurately reflect a snapshot of our caravan lifestyle expenses. For a look at other associated costs, heres the Full Breakdown of Caravanning Costs.
Read on to find out the costs!
This post contains affiliate links. For more information, see our disclosures here.
How Much Money Did We Start With for Travelling Australia?
If you think that the cost to travel Australia full-time needs to be expensive or requires a large sum of savings, let’s just squash that preconceived notion right now.
Do you want to take a guess at what our start-up figure was when we embarked on this adventure? $30,000? $20,000? Nope, we didn’t even have $10,000. We hit the road with just $2,500 in our back pocket!
To be fair, we always planned to have much more savings than that.
In the end, we were just so tired of looking at the ‘To Do’ lists. We basically put them aside and figured we’d get to them later (we never even looked at them after that and survived just fine). I guess that’s just a testament to thinking you need more than you actually do.
How Did We Fund 12 Months Travelling Australia?
So, if we only started with $2,500, how did we fund our travel around Australia for the first 12 months?
Well, we survived in a variety of different ways, but mostly from our few stints of stopping for work. My partner at the time was a Truck Driver and found it pretty easy to pick up work. We were also lucky to have a decent tax return last year, which gave our budget a nice little injection.
I kept myself busy building up the website and creating a range of Travel Planning Resources to help people like yourself, which also helped. Head on over and check out the OZ BIG LAP series!
Without further ado, let’s crunch some numbers!
12 Month Costs For Travelling Australia
| ANNUAL COST | COST PER WEEK | |
|---|---|---|
| ACCOMMODATION (Nights): • Free Camps – 98 • Low Cost Camps – 67 • Farm Stays – 5 • Donation Camps – 19 • Caravan Parks – 55 • Family/ Friends – 71 • House Sitting – 42 • Exchange for supporting a business – 8 | $1,788.91 | $34.40/ wk |
| GROCERIES | $8,645.59 | $166.26/ wk |
| FUEL (Total distance travelled = 16,204 km) | $7,296.16 | $140.31/ wk |
| GAS | $458.21 | $8.81/ wk |
| ALCOHOL | $1,261.59 | $24.26/ wk |
| EATING OUT | $2,873.74 | $55.26/ wk |
| EXPERIENCES | $1,339.68 | $25.76/ wk |
| MAINTENANCE | $2,677.56 | $51.49/ wk |
| MEDICAL | $369.30 | $7.10/ wk |
| EDUCATION | $25.00 | $0.48/ wk |
| ON-ROAD BILLS (Rego, Insurance, Phones etc.) | $8,359.92 | $160.77/ wk |
| MISCELLANEOUS (Clothing, gifts, replacing broken items etc.) | $3,496 | $67.23/ wk |
| TOTAL → | $38,591.66 | $742.15/ wk |
Travel Budget Break-Down
ACCOMMODATION
As you can see our weekly accommodation outlay was a mere $34.40 per week towards the cost to travel Australia full-time. That’s definitely loads cheaper than what we were forking out each week on our mortgage before we sold the house! Our favourite way to keep that figure down was with Free Camping as much as we could.
Free & Low Cost Camping
I really enjoy the freedom of being self-sufficient and have found that Free Camps are more readily available (and you can stay for longer) once you get away from the coast. Being able to carry up to 300 litres of water also gave us an extra few days off-grid.
Before heading off, we spent the money on a great solar set-up. That effectively meant that we didn’t need to do the old chase-the-sun-with-the-portable-panel dance. We honestly never had to stress about our usage, so it was worth it.
Of course, having an onboard ensuite was also a must for us. We stayed at plenty of Free Camps where there were no porcelain thrones available, let alone showers. You can see our full set-up for more of the ins and outs.
We were pretty lucky to have had enough friends and family spotted around with offers of grass patches. That was amazingly helpful (especially when stopped for work and caravan repairs).
RELATED POSTS:
◆ WikiCamps Tutorial →
◆ Free Camping Guide →
Caravan Parks
You may note that our Caravan Park cost per night ($12.56) was rather low. One main factor being that we had a voucher for one park, which we’d won through a competition. That meant that our stay didn’t cost us much out of our hip pocket.
The other factor was a due to a personal incident, which had us prearrange a very good deal with another park along the way. Both of those factors together kept our Caravan Park expenses really low. Without those opportunities we would have sought out alternative accommodation to help keep our cost of full-time travel in Australia as low as possible.
GROCERIES
I’m pretty happy with our weekly grocery cost for full-time travel around Australia ($166.26 per week). This is also taking into account that we spent five months in Central and Outback Queensland, where the big chain grocery stores where few and far between.
Just to give you an idea, we went 5 weeks without seeing a Coles or Woolworths. Let me tell you, feeding a family from those tiny Outback Food Stores is EXPENSIVE! The range of food is tiny (especially with gluten intolerance in the van).
Check out these frugal living hacks to give you some ideas that’ll get you through those rainy days. But, being a budget shopper from way back (in fact this is more than I used to spend!) we survived. Let me share some of my tips and tricks with you.
TIPS TO REDUCE GROCERY COSTS:
Use What You’ve Got
Before buying more stuff, use up what you’ve already got first. This doesn’t just apply to food, but toiletries and cleaning items too. Dig deep into the back of the pantry and use up those items that keep getting shoved to the side. This is also a great way to avoid adding unnecessarily to your payload.
Keep a Running Shopping List
Stick a piece of paper onto the fridge/ whiteboard titled ‘Shopping.’ Whenever you notice an item has run out or needs to be replaced, add it to the list. Come shopping day, all you need to do is add anything extra that you know you need and you’re good to go. This curbs excessive unnecessary buying because you know exactly what you do and don’t need.
Meal Planning
Creating a meal plan doesn’t need to comprise fancy gourmet meals. It’s simply the deliberate act of seeing what ingredients you’ve already got and filling in the blanks to create 7 meals for the week. Add in lunches, snacks and breakfast as well.
Cooking in Bulk
When cooking, it doesn’t hurt to make the meal big enough to stretch out for another night or two. For example, when I make a stir-fry, I use two jars of sauce with the usual veggies, 2 pieces of chicken breast and boiled rice. That way, we end up getting an easy two to three nights out of the one meal. It really helps to keep the cost per meal lower.
Utilise Leftovers
Even if you don’t bulk cook, leftovers are still a thing. It’s much easier to reheat food the next night than it is to cook another meal from scratch, so why not use them up? If we don’t feel like the same meal by night two or three, I just freeze the leftovers. They’re great to have on hand for those busy travel days or if you’re wanting to stretch the budget out and cut the grocery bill down a bit.
Mix it Up with Cheap Meals
Yes, we consider baked beans on toast topped with grated cheese and pepper to be a meal sometimes! Another cheap meal is putting some of those leftovers into toasted sandwiches or adding them into a stew. A bit of leftover meat can be thrown in with rice and whatever veggies are left with some soy sauce and an egg for a basic Fried Rice.
Ditch Disposables
Not only is the elimination of disposables great for the world around us, but it saves quite a bit of money as well. I haven’t bought Glad Wrap or Alfoil in years – I just use containers, jars and beeswax wraps instead. The only cleaners I buy now are detergent and laundry liquid. The rest of the cleaning is done with reusable Norwex cloths. Get a good water filter on your tap and invest in a stainless steel drink bottle to replace bottled water. There is a solution for every disposable item once you start looking.
DIY
Another little grocery bill saver is with a little DIY. Making things from scratch will save you money if you’re that way inclined. For me, I like to make my own deodorant, rather than buying it. I also opt for straight out coconut oil as a moisturiser, which saves having to buy expensive creams.
Camping Food Checklist + Menu Planner
- 4 pages
- 12 food item categories
- Checklists pre-filled with 100+ items
- Menus pre-filled with 21 meals, 14 snacks & 3 desserts
- PRINTABLE & DIGITAL
- Download once, use over-and-over again
FUEL
I wouldn’t say that our weekly fuel costs were neither low nor high, but somewhere in between. What I can tell you is that travelling slower is the key to keeping that cost down. It’s simple mathematics that the further you are travelling each week, the more fuel you’ll be going through.
Not everyone is in a situation where travelling slow is an option. I know many people are on a year-long quest to do the Big Lap, in which case, travelling slow just isn’t going to work. The cost of fuel is without a doubt one of the biggest additions to your travel Australia budget costs!
We had chosen to run a Petrol car for a variety of different reasons. Mainly because my partner could easily service, maintain and fix a petrol vehicle (diesels are more technical and specific). Plus, the parts are generally cheaper if things go wrong. Before we made our vehicle choice, we put hours of thought and research into what was the best financial choice for us overall.
GAS
When we weren’t plugged into power, we went through about one gas bottle per fortnight. That powered our hot water, BBQ, stove top burners and fridge. If we ever found ourselves needing to replace the fridge though, I’d definitely opt for a Compressor Fridge, which would run off the solar.
One tip that reduces gas consumption is to keep the hot water turned off at the switch and only turn it on 10 minutes before showers. This stops the hot water system from continuously heating up all day and night.
If I needed a bit of hot water to wash the dishes, I’d just boil a cup or two in the kettle as it was much quicker than heating up the 30 litres in the hot water system.
Get a Smart Gas Bottle Monitor + App →
ALCOHOL & EATING OUT
We weren’t massive drinkers but certainly couldn’t resist a good Happy Hour here and there. We met some amazing travellers while sharing a yarn and partaking in a cold beverage, which is something we really enjoyed.
Evidently it seems we’re quite the sucker for the old Bakery and Pub Schnitty though. Who knew?!
Maybe I’m just justifying it to myself… or maybe I’m on to something, but we love being able to support those two local businesses. Eating out would certainly not have been something we could have done as often if we weren’t free and low cost camping as much.
Here’s cheers to all the Pub and Bakery owners out there, keeping all of us hungry and thirsty travellers well fed!
EXPERIENCES
The main experiences that we enjoyed were in Outback Queensland. I ticked off one bucket list item – The Dinosaur Trail. Plus, we also did the QANTAS Founders Museum in Longreach, which was brilliant.
While we were in The Gemfields in Central Queensland, we did a lot of Sapphire Fossicking. We also ferried over to Magnetic Island off the coast of Townsville, while in North Queensland.
Besides those big things, we frequented many other local museums and attractions along the way. We always made the most of free activities when they popped up, particularly council run Water Parks.
MAINTENANCE
The ‘Maintenance’ category covers not only servicing, but also tools, parts and other things that needed to be done to both the Patrol and the caravan during the year.
Here’s a look at what maintenance tasks popped up for us:
- Two car services (DIY labour, so we only need to pay for parts)
- New Tie Rod ends
- Wheel rotation & alignment
- Hitch lock
- Indoor/ outdoor car thermometer
- Dash cam
- Airbag sleeves
- Car battery
- Bike tubes
- Jerry can
- Power lead
- Water filter & hose fittings
- TV aerial cord
- General tools, parts & supplies
- Car wash costs
Caravan Maintenance & Service Log
Log and track all of your caravan maintenance and servicing requirements.
- 7-page Planner (digital & printable)
- Caravan Service History Log
- TICK OFF checklists
- COMPLETE maintenance tasks
- ADD in extra tasks
- RECORD maintenance & service dates
MEDICAL
Our only real medical cost while travelling around Australia for the year, was an impromptu visit to a Rockhampton Dentist. A sore tooth resulted in a tooth being pulled out.
Indii also had a hospital visit after getting mild concussion while wrestling with her brother in Townsville. Thankfully hospital visits are free in this country!
RELATED POSTS:
◆ Travelling First Aid Kit →
◆ Travelling Ambulance Cover →
EDUCATION
Dominic and Indii were Home Educated, which didn’t cost anything as such. We still had some workbooks to get through from the year before, so we only needed a couple of extra ones to kick start the year.
When due to get some more, I hit up Officeworks, Kmart, Big W and the like for relevant Maths and English books. We picked up reading books and educational games from Op Shops along the way, the rest was learnt through hands-on experience.
ON-ROAD BILLS
The ‘Bills’ category was the second biggest expense, coming in just behind ‘Groceries.’ Insurances were one of the mains costs, but making sure we were properly insured was not something worth skimping on.
Below is a list of all bills that we had, keeping in mind, we sold the house and did’t have anything in storage, so it’s just what we needed to live on the road.
- Car Insurance
- Caravan Insurance
- Car Registration
- Caravan Registration
- Phone #1 ($69/ month postpaid | Telstra | Unlimited calls, sms & data)
- Phone #2 ($35/ month prepaid | Aldi | 26 gb data + unlimited calls, sms)
- We put money aside to cover all servicing & maintenance
- Licenses
- Netflix
- Website costs
MISCELLANEOUS
The ‘Miscellaneous’ category was kinda like that third drawer that collects all of the bits and pieces without a home. Our figure for that year was particularly high ($3,496) because of a last minute trip, where we flew back home to see family and friends.
The other things that fell into the Miscellaneous this category:
- Shoes
- Clothing
- Op Shopping
- Gifts & souvenirs
- Hair cuts
- Post office
- Fishing bait
- Replacing the flogged out camp chair – $99 for the cheapest one in the Outback!
- Books
- Laptop charger
- Uber and any other random thing that pops up
Keeping Track of Travel Expenses
FUEL MAP
To keep up with all of our associated fuel and kilometre figures, we used the Fuel Map App.
Every time we put fuel in the car, we logged how many litres of fuel and how much it cost. In turn, the app automatically kept track of how many km’s we’d travelled, how many litres per 100km we were using and how many fuel top-ups we’d had.
It was brilliant, I totally recommend using it!
WALLET APPS/ PEN & PAPER
I knew before we’d even hit the road that I wanted to be tracking our total cost to travel Australia full-time in a caravan. After all, facts and figures can be highly motivating.
I began by trying a few different Wallet Apps, but they all failed to do what I needed. Some linked to my bank account (which I’m highly uncomfortable with) and weren’t categorising the info correctly. For example, it would log Woolworths fuel under ‘Groceries,’ instead of ‘Petrol.’ Too much time ended up being spent editing it all, just to keep on top of the true running costs.
I soon ditched the idea and went back to good ol’ pen and paper. This worked fine for a while, but I knew the notes would be stacking up too quickly before long.
EXPENSE TRACKER SPREADSHEET
Since I couldn’t find what I needed elsewhere, I created an Excel spreadsheet to track my cost of travel around Australia full-time. I included all of the categories relevant to travelling Oz across a 12-month time frame. I spent hours inputted all of the formulas so that everything would automatically tally up as I logged it. Now the numbers-nerd in me was happy.
Then I figured, well if I’m finding this rather useful, surely others could get a lot out of it too. So, I made the spreadsheet available for download and hence, the Expense Tracker was born!
In just 10 months it had easily become our Best Seller. That definitely shows that there are others out there who love to keep track of their own stats!
Here’s where you can download the Travel Expense Tracker Spreadsheet for your own trip.
Planning Your Big Lap Budget
If you’re in the planning stages and want to nut out how much a Big Lap or Road Trip around Australia is going to cost you, download our Big Lap Budget Spreadsheet.
It’s the perfect tool to work you through all expected costs, savings/ income, at home expenses, plus all of your set-up costs.
Final Thoughts
As with every budget write up, there is no one size fits all. Please bear in mind, this is just one family’s cost for one year of full-time travel in Australia. No doubt yours will look different.
Even our own numbers looked vastly different after a second year on the road. There are just so many variables at play.
To be honest, I could have easily cut a few things out if I wanted to (which I didn’t). We could even have lived a bit more luxuriously if we wanted to as well, but we were working to live, not living to work.
This budget layout is merely a snapshot to be used as a helpful tool. It’s an opportunity to see some real costs to help plan your own budget.
What does your travel budget look like? How do you keep track of your own costs and figures? Let us know below in the comments.
Packing Up to Travel Australia
The ultimate pre-travel planner for anyone hitting the road for a big trip!
- 41-page Planner
- Checklists
- Decision-making prompts
- Travel set-up planning
- Budget estimates & more
- DIGITAL & PRINTABLE
TRAVELLING AUSTRALIA ESSENTIALS
Travel Planning Tools
| TRAVEL PLANNING RESOURCES |
|---|
| ✔️ Checklists → 💲 Budget Spreadsheets → ✏️ Planners & Guides → |
PIN IT for later!
What an amazing account of your planning and annual expenses. This is such a great inspiration to those who love this type of travel. You have really put it into perspective that this is feasible for anyone if they really want it. I applaud you for following your passion. You are providing yourselves with such an enriching experience. And, such a great experience for your children- priceless!
Thank you. I really believe that it can be achievable for most people if they really want to travel Australia for an extended length of time. With the right planning it can be done.
I love your detailed breakdown – thanks for sharing all the numbers. It strikes me that managing and categorising expenses is a big part of cheap/frugal travel living. I find it funny that you never left your home state – but I guess that just says that there’s lots and lots to do in Queensland!
It sure is a part of frugal living, I learnt those skills from when I was a poor student in my early twenties. Queensland is HUGE! We covered over 16,000 km’s and only really looped around half of the state.
We just got back from a one month loop around outback QLD (around 3,500kms) from Townsville, up to Kurumba in the gulf and back through different towns including Longreach and the gemfields ( I’m still sifting my bag of gems lol. I got a handful but small ones). It was amazing. I’d love to have done what you are doing and doing it much slower. We will one day and it was amazing bumping into people you met before hundreds or thousands of kilometres away in another town all doing a similar trip. Thanks for all your advice.
Hi Sue, sounds like an amazing trip! How cool that you’ve still got some gems to go through – we loved sapphire fossicking. I have some small ones that I’ve put into a locket pendant and wear all the time as a keepsake. Meeting like-minded people and bumping into familiar faces along the way is the best. Thanks for checking out our blog and safe travels in the future.
Well, you turned the myth that ‘travelling is expensive’ on its head. Impressive figures here, showing that one can save in so many different ways. Not that I would mind the extra frill 🙂
Haha I don’t mind a bit of extra frill here and there too 😉
That’s a brilliant and detailed insight into life on the road. Aus can be expensive for things like food (my mum was an ex-pat in Addie) but you’ve stretched your grocery budget until it squeaked. And with someone gluten-free too! As a coeliac, I know that can be expensive.
I love how you got to the point where you decided it was time to go. We can all wait for the perfect time, and sometimes that time is now. And what an adventure it must have been and will continue to be. Wishing you lots more happy miles!
Australia can definitely be an expensive country to live in. It’s kinda like we have no choice being all the way over here on our own. There were some really tough moments being GF on the road where I just wasn’t organised enough, so I’ve had a few lessons there along the way.
We could have been prepping forever, but got so over it. It was time to just bite the bullet.
So awesome that you traveled around Australia for a year in a caravan. This detailed budget report was so interesting. I always wondered what the costs would be like to live on the road. I actually was surprised at the total as I actually thought it would have been cheaper. I also am impressed that you kept track of all your expenses for an entire year.
Haha yeah tracking it all for a year takes commitment. There are definitely people doing it cheaper and some spending much more. As with everything in life, the variables are far and wide.
Such an awesome and very detailed post chock full of useful information and insight. You have fully embraced the travel nomadic lifestyle, good for you. But even better for your family. I know one family that picked up, sold their house, bought a sailboat (hey, a caravan is a land yacht) and headed off to see the world. It was a life-altering experience for them and for their children. The sort of education and upbringing you simply cannot get in a school house immersed in only books and theory.
Man, I couldn’t even imagine doing it in a yacht. But I am more of a land-dweller. I can see how it would be have been such a fantastic experience for that family. You certainly do learn so much more through life than you possibly can do through books within four walls.
Congratulations on completing a year out on the road, that is something we are looking forward to be doing later on. The pie chart was a touch of genius and gave a very quick understanding of how the money flows. Also thank you for all the individual tips you included under the different sections, ready pointers like these help future travelers and gives them a lot of confidence 🙂
Thanks so much for having a read of our budget break-down Mohana. It really does become useful data and seeing where the money flows I think is extremely important when understanding your own financials. Knowledge is power 🙂
That’s a great breakdown on costs. Aus is expensive especially on fuel and food in the outback but there are ways to keep costs down. We lived in Aus for a year but we worked and did shorter trips but still quite long with one from Melbourne to Darwin and Brisbane to Cairns!
It sure can be an expensive country to travel! But there are definitely ways to save a bit of money and keep the dream alive a bit longer. Melbourne to Darwin and Brissy to Cairns are huge trips! It’s a big country.
Good for you for embarking on your journey, even though you didn’t have the funds you were aiming for. It seems you’ve found ways to be very resourceful and budget carefully – – good tips for keeping food costs down. I could do a much better job of tracking travel expenses, so I’ll take a look at the Expense Tracker.
Hi Cindy. Yes being resourceful is such a great skill to have and luckily I learnt a lot about that in my younger years!
I just loved reading this as I love life in a camper! (Dream!) The map shows just how huge Australia is! The details around the budgeting are super interesting to read. How great that there is free camping to reduce the overall daily budget from time to time. Love how you have developed an app to suit your needs and those of others. Happy Travels.
Thanks Alison. Free Camping in Australia is just amazing. Really, pulling up on a piece of dirt or grass should be free anywhere in the world in my opinion. After all, it’s everyone’s planet. The Expense Tracker is not quite an App, but rather a spreadsheet ;).
I absolutely love how thorough a post this was. My goodness! I’m absolutely impressed that you left with $2500 in-hand! That’s so brave! I don’t have the skill to pick up the same sort of work as your husband, but I am able to pick up freelance writing work and the like. I’ve often extended vacations that way!
What a lucky life for your girls too! My goodness! If I could go back in time, I’d raise my children much the same way! As for the compressor stove, have you considered seeing if you could get sponsorship? Maybe write some sellers of the product, or the product manufacturer and show them this amazing post, then sell the older stove so that it’s not wasted?
Lastly, are you ever in one place long enough to get Amazon deliverys? If you are, I usually get my beeswax sheets for free. If you look up Amazon Deal and Code sites on Facebook, that’s one of the items that sellers are often looking to give away to get their position up further in search results.
Anyway, I’ll be bookmarking this. I’m in the US, but still, there’s so much useful information in this post… SOO Much!
Hey Cathy, I’m so grateful that Allan is able to pick up work along the way, I don’t think we’d be able to live this way if he couldn’t. Freelance writing is definitely a great way to help fund the travels, I’ve done a bit of that myself.
It’s actually the fridge that we’d get compressor-style if we could. It’s definitely possible to look into sponsorship to get it changed, we might possibly look into that in the future.
We can easily get mail delivered. I didn’t know about the free beeswax wraps. Thank you, I’ll definitely have to look into that! At the moment I’ve got a nice stash of some that Mum bought for me for my birthday. They are great, love them!
Thanks so much for taking the time to read this post!
Hi there, great information for those of us planning to do a loop in the not too distant future. How many people are you feeding?
Hi Anna, we’re feeding 4 (2 adults and 2 primary aged kids).
A very good read, we aren’t proposing to do a big lap but travel to Darwin via Uluru.
We will get the Fuel Map App and Expense Tracker, I’m a figures person also, thank you and safe travels to you.
Hi Margaret, thanks so much for having a read. That sounds like a really Aussie trip to take, it’ll be loads of fun. We definitely recommend the Fuel Map App and Expense Tracker if you’re a numbers person, they both make life much easier when it comes to recording and tallying up figures.
What caravan did u buy and why
Hi Jason, after many months of research we ended up deciding on the Jayco Starcraft Outback bunk van (23 ft). We love and haven’t had any problems with it, besides the usual wear and tear type stuff. You can see the full run down if you click on ‘OUR SET-UP’ at the top of the page.
How many kilometres did you do in the 12 months
Hi Jenny, our total distance travelled is 16,204 km’s.