Budget: Six months of motorhome finances

"A wise man should have money in his head, but not in his heart."

- Jonathan Swift

I (and more recently Kate and I) have been rolling for six months now - so I thought it'd be good to do a post about our spend. Pulling all this data together will help me plan for future trips, but I hope it will inspire others to see it isn't out of reach if you are inclined to do similar!

I didn't keep a budget whatsoever on this trip - I just smashed my mortgage to bits having a blast. But thanks to technology I can retrospectively construct one by downloading my UK banking history and categorising the data. So here it is - total tour costs, mid March to the end of September:

Doing a monthly breakdown was fun - you can see a few themes:

The Camp Sites green line went down as I got more in to free camping - and there's a kicker in Van Misc where I had to pay for unreasonably shitty insurance coverage, otherwise the spend there was set up costs. 

Using cash has been a shame for the stats! I spent it on pints and burgers, cheap attractions, parking, ice creams, gas bottles and other bits and pieces. The specifics are lost forever, which is a bit annoying now.

The other bugger has been alcohol on the grocery docket - no way to track that. But we've been eating and drinking like alcoholic monarchy, and this has been our spend.

Interestingly the cost of travelling alone (March - June) is about the same as travelling for two - sans the grocery budget!

Not in sexy graph form, but here are the totals:

• March: £792.97
• April: £1,274.98
• May: £1,021.36
• June: £1,081.91
• July: £1,597.60
• August: £1,133.93
• Total for six months touring: £6,902.75

So what can one take from this? Six months of exploring the United Kingdom, boozing up a storm and missing nothing: roughly $14,000 NZD. Though I travelled alone four months of that, the trend suggests it's about the same for two, so if you consider doing this with a friend or partner, halve that.

Based off my expenditure, for a six month jaunt for two around these fascinating isles, you're looking at about $8,000 NZD per person ($1,333 per month, all inclusive!) Add up the cost of your flat over six months and if this kind of thing rattles your dags - get in to it!

...I also know a guy with a van you could borrow...

UPDATE: A £711 MOT was had at the end of this - service, tyres, headlight, wipers, tow bar, both rear brakes. Keep a couple of bucks in the back pocket for unforeseen emergencies!