HOW WE FUND OUR TRAVELS AROUND AUSTRALIA
HOW WE FUND OUR TRAVELS
We get asked this question A LOT! Which is fair, as it’s an Aussie dream for many people and so it should be. It’s an incredible lifestyle and experience!!
WE SAVED EVERY PENNY FOR A LOT OF YEARS AND FUNDED OURSELVES FOR AN ADVENTURE, WITH NO END DATE!!
Travelling OZ has been on our bucket list for many years and something we have always worked towards. We are savers, and good at it.
Justin was working in the mining game for 10 years, earning great money. And me (Bec), in Nursing and Pathology. We put away as much money as we could each pay week and Justin worked loads of overtime. We paid our mortgage repayments, groceries among other bills and transferred the rest into another account. Justin was working long hours and as often as he could while I was home with our kids. This is what worked for our family, although not ideal, we knew the end goal. TRAVELLING AUSTRALIA FOR 12 MONTHS!!
OUR BIG ADVICE – SAVE!
It’s amazing what you can do without. Buy only what you need, not what you want!! Look at renting your house out if it covers the mortgage repayments, or if you’re like us and want to relocate, sell up and go searching for a new place to call home.
Start plugging away at it and putting away money every week. We decided that for us to do the initial 12 month trip we would need to have $50,000 to do it. We set up a seperate account where all our savings go into via an automatic transfer each payday. Because Justin had a well paying job, saving for us was really doable as we tried to live pretty minimally. We also paid all our bills upfront for the year so we didn’t have any debits throughout our travels. For example, car and caravan insurance, mail redirection, rego and fishing licences.
Each individual financial situation is different, but if you want to travel Australia you’ll make it work. Start now and put away a little bit each week and we’ll be seeing you on the road in no time!!
In our opinion, travelling Australia is one of the most AMAZING adventure you could possibly do as a family!!
HOW DO WE FUND OUR TRIP NOW?
AFTER YEARS OF TRAVEL….
We never set out to do what we now do. It was just a 12 month trip around Australia before the kids started school, to have some time together as a family. What started out as a bit of fun and to showcase our travel memories to family and friends, soon grew an audience and became our new way of life.
About a month after commencing our travels we started up a Facebook and Instagram page and called it Trip In A Van. After a year of travelling we were approached by a couple of companies who were keen to work with us, as well as publications to write articles and do videos. This would nearly cover our expenses so we decided to travel for another year. I really do think we started our page at just the right time. No one else was really doing our type of ‘blog’ and putting out the information we were, so I guess we stood out from the crowd a bit!
WE WERE IN THE RIGHT PLACE AT THE RIGHT TIME.
Another year of travel and we were writing articles, I was doing a mum Vlog for the Caravanning Industry, we were doing our website upkeep and more brands came on board. We started the Road Trip Australia series which created more of an income through YouTube and then our mates at Patreon help us out too. If you don’t know what Patreon is you can take a look here. Our Road Trip Australia series has made it on to TV in Victoria and South Australia too.
We have a social media following which also helps fund our travels and is really the pivotal part of our income. Brands that we work with and great gear we use are showcased to you guys. We are VERY selective in who we work with and it comes from an authentic use and love for the product or brand. Which we think is why we have had success at what we do, and it’s really important to us to keep it that way.
WE ALWAYS REMIND OURSELVES TO KEEP THE BALANCE. BALANCE BETWEEN WORK AND FAMILY, BECAUSE THAT IS THE REASON WE SET OFF IN THE FIRST PLACE. FOR OUR FAMILY AND TO CREATE MEMORIES TOGETHER.
TIP: In all honesty, I think it was just good timing when starting a social media page. We travelled two years before actually making money and it is now a very saturated market.
Our advice… Start up a page, but don’t get bogged down in creating content, or starting a website or YouTube Channel. Go back to the reasons why you wanted to travel. Family time? A break? Mental Health? Simplicity? Enjoy your time away from the chaos, post pictures and take a gazillion photo memories, and post them too – make your family and friends jealous of those amazing sunsets and beach camps, hehe.
BUT, if you want to be a travel writer/blogger or Youtuber, go for it, but stand out from the crowd and do something different. It’s a lot of work (although, FUN) so be prepared to put in the hours to learn and create. PLUS always remember to keep the balance. Your enjoyment, relaxed vibe and fun will shine through your content.
