Things I have no idea about

How much does it cost to do a road trip of the UK and Ireland then?

How much will we spend on food?

Won’t days out be a fortune?

Will we get bored going to the beach every day?

The answer to all of the above is ‘I don’t know!’

 (Please excuse this rambling post, I think I am trying to justify things to myself.)

I haven’t mentioned our plan recently.  Mostly because it’s actually boring to talk about something that is just a vague plan and also because I really want to learn to NOT plan!   We’re saving everything we can, but in this country it is hard.

So, loads of questions have been going round in my head lately.  Not least because I am very aware of this miniscule budget we’re planning to have.  I have this worry that people read my posts and spit their coffee over their screen at my ideas!  I feel a little embarrased over it if truth be told.

Overall we’re planning to live on £1000 ($1500 approx) per month at a minimum, I hope a bit more just so we have a nice cushion for fun things.  It doesn’t *seem* too little, I mean we live on only a little bit more at the moment with rent and bills to consider.  Am I setting myself up to fail?  Hmm, maybe don’t answer that!

Out of this won’t come insurance for the campervan, breakdown cover, the camper itself and it’s many accessories , travel insurance (need to research this), and possibly any memberships we’ll purchase beforehand like camping and caravanning club, English Heritage etc.

But it will include food, fuel, parking, overnight stops, days out, new clothes we might need, ice cream on the beach, trips, toiletries.  It might even need to include ferry crossings.  Will it be enough for 4 people????  £1000 for a month will be £32 a day, and that sounds tight!

But you know what?  It’s what we have and we’re going to make a bloody good go of it no matter how budget it is.  We have plans, we’re going to wild camp wherever possible and I am going to draw up lists of campsites that will be under £15 a night.  This is our country and so we know the food, know the supermarkets, so we can keep costs down there.   We have plans to volunteer using wwoof or workaway especially while in Ireland and if needed we’ll add more in and we’ll keep our eyes open for house sitting assignments.  If we go past friend’s houses we’ll smile sweetly and hope they have a drive in return for a bottle of wine or sharing food   It will be a struggle to try and not plan too much with this tight budget though.

We still want to contribute to the areas we’re going to, actually it is really important to me that we have a positive impact as we travel, so hopefully by being frugal and wildcamping and buying in staples from supermarkets we’ll be able to indulge in cream tea in cornwall, and ice creams and visits to little museums that need donations.   We’ll buy eggs and meat from farm shops and fish and chips at the beach.  We’ll also try staying in pub car parks in return for buying meals, which would normally be out of the budget but once in a while will be a nice treat for us and a help for local business.

The more I look at other travellers blogs and lives it is hard to not compare, I need to remember that this is what we want to do and from the very start we knew it would not be luxury travelling.  We have thought about trying to go to cheaper countries for our 6 months, but we always come back to the thought of pulling up in a camper at the beach and we all still want to do that.

So there are lots of things I don’t know and am guessing at, but I do know this:

It won’t be fast paced days going to every attraction going, and driving miles.  It will be getting back to basics with my family, having fun together, cooking, eating and enjoying the simple things in life.

I can’t wait.