\n| 4 berth island bed<\/td>\n | $35,000-$55,000<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n <\/p>\n What does this terminology mean? A berth means how many can sleep in it. Fixed bed means it\u2019s permanently a bed and doesn\u2019t fold away. An island bed means 2 people can easily enter the bed on both sides.<\/p>\n When I first started thinking about getting a caravan, I aimed for the cheapest type, but after looking inside some and thinking about what living in a caravan would be like, I decided I needed a fixed bed. My budget kept getting higher!<\/p>\n Tips I have learnt<\/strong><\/p>\n\n- UK\/EU caravans have good insulation<\/li>\n
- Older caravans might have leaking problems which sound painful to fix. Try for caravans newer than 2000<\/li>\n
- Caravans are more expensive in New Zealand than America or the UK because of shipping and smaller population. I\u2019ve heard it\u2019s economical to buy 2 caravans overseas and ship in 1 container then sell 1 to make money<\/li>\n
- Haggle! My caravan was dropped by $5k!<\/li>\n
- The cheaper brands are Abby and ACE. The more expensive brands are Jacobs and Bailey Orion.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
<\/p>\n ![\"Karavan-Living\"](\"http:\/\/travellingk.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/Karavan-Living-1024x681.jpg\") <\/p>\n
My costs living in a caravan<\/h3>\nI have regularly travelled rough in the past and don’t need a huge amount of shoes and clothes. But as this is my permanent home, I have a certain standard of living I want. I loooove having a morning shower, access to the internet and good food.<\/p>\n I’ve taken the total cost from 3 months<\/strong> while I was solidly travelling around New Zealand. I’ve also broken that down to how much I’d need each day and each month.<\/p>\nFacts that slant the data<\/strong><\/p>\n\n- I took out about $200 of cash and haven’t included it in the below as I can’t remember what I spent it on!<\/li>\n
- I stayed for free on friends land for 1.5 weeks and paid $5 a day for showers and water at the local accommodation<\/li>\n
- I travelled with a friend for 2 weeks, but we split the cost.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
\nAccommodation<\/h4>\n\n\n\n3 months<\/strong> – accommodation total<\/td>\n| $1,697<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n | \nper night<\/strong> – accommodation<\/td>\n| $19<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n <\/p>\n \n- The accommodation cost ranged from free on friends land and paying $5 for a shower at accommodation down the road to $30 at some of the more popular powered tourist spots<\/li>\n
- Top 10 and Kiwi were generally more expensive as they are a chain of quality campsites<\/li>\n
- Doc campsites were usually cheaper but facilities changed per place. Sometimes no power and no phone reception<\/li>\n
- I paid for my self containment, but only got the official sticker at the end of my trip! I plan to do more freedom camping once I have solar panels… I like power.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
\nFood<\/h4>\n\n\n\n3 months<\/strong> – food total<\/td>\n| $1,899<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n | \nper day<\/strong> – food<\/td>\n| $21<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n <\/p>\n \n- I saved money by mainly cooking at home and avoided restaurants. But I do have more expensive likes in the supermarket. In love with the Collective fig’n’ginger<\/a> yogurt.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
\nFuel<\/h4>\n\n\n\n3 months<\/strong> – diesel total<\/td>\n| $1,333<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n | \nper day<\/strong> – diesel<\/td>\n| $15<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n <\/p>\n This was quite a fast trip, moving locations every 2-3 nights. My longest stay was in Queenstown for 10 night, and sometimes I only stayed somewhere for 1 night. Towing the caravan also went through my diesel faster. I’ll be able to save more on fuel if I stay longer at places and just slow down the pace of my trip.<\/p>\n You can save money on fuel by using<\/strong><\/p>\n\n- A Countdown\/BP card<\/li>\n
- A voucher from Pak\u2019n\u2019save received with your receipt when you shop with them<\/li>\n
- NZMCA have the offer of a fuel card deal once you\u2019ve joined.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/travellingk.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/Map-of-route-1-1024x602.jpg\") <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n Homeware & hardware for caravan<\/h4>\n\n\n\n3 months<\/strong> – caravan homeware & hardware total<\/td>\n| $749<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n <\/p>\n I had a few household items already for my caravan, but there were a lot of things needed. Some of the items were:<\/p>\n \n- Containers to store items under the bed<\/li>\n
- Hose and tape connector to fill water tank<\/li>\n
- Fun kitchenware like tea towels, coasters, cutlery and utensils<\/li>\n
- Camping chairs<\/li>\n
- Spare water tank and funnel for off-grid living<\/li>\n
- Rubber door mat to avoid tramping mud through the caravan<\/li>\n
- A surprising amount of cleaning products!<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
\nGeneral caravan bills<\/h4>\n\n\n\n3 months<\/strong> – general bills total<\/td>\n| $1,020<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n | \nper month<\/strong> – general bills<\/td>\n| $339<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n <\/p>\n These are my phone, internet, Adobe programs, insurance type bills. This is actually higher than I realised! I think I need to look into other insurance companies for my car and caravan. I’ve already changed my phone plan to a cheaper option and will look into other ways to drop the amount.<\/p>\n The caravan bills are<\/strong><\/p>\n\n- Caravan\/contents insurance<\/li>\n
- 3rd party car insurance<\/li>\n
- Broadband for the caravan<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
\n The grand total<\/h4>\nThis is how much it cost me over these 3 months and how much per day\/month I’ll need for the future. This is excluding the initial homeware \/ hardware I needed to set-up.<\/p>\n \n\n\nGrand total spent over 3 months<\/strong> to travel & live in a caravan<\/td>\n| $5,949<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n | \nAverage needed per day<\/strong> to travel & live in a caravan<\/td>\n| $66<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n | \nAverage needed per month<\/strong> to travel & live in a caravan<\/td>\n| $1,980<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n <\/p>\n Then there are the other one-off costs to consider too.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n <\/h4>\nOne-off big costs<\/h4>\nThen there are the bigger costs that I paid after buying the caravan – things I hadn’t really factored in when budgeting!<\/p>\n \n\n\n| Joining NZMCA<\/td>\n | $130<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n | \n| Self Containment (discount through NZMCA)<\/td>\n | $360<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n | \n| Ferry Crossing including caravan (discount through NZMCA)<\/td>\n | $290<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n | \n| Mechanic (sudden brake problems)<\/td>\n | $440<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n | \n| Starting the broadband plan and getting the modem<\/td>\n | $299<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/h5>\n
\nFuture costs<\/h4>\nThings I need to make sure I’ve budgeted for in the future beyond the general monthly bills!<\/p>\n \n\n\n| Yearly NZMCA membership fee<\/td>\n | $90<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n | \n| Car Rego per year<\/td>\n | $197<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n| Car WOF per year (2 checks a year)<\/td>\n | $100<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n| Diesel Yearly Charge – $62 per 1,000 kilometres<\/td>\n | Guessing $800<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n | \n| Caravan Rego & COF per year<\/td>\n | Guessing $90<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n <\/p>\n Sure there are items I’ve missed off this list…<\/p>\n
\nCaravan wish list<\/h4>\nThen there are items I really really want to to buy for the caravan!<\/p>\n \n\n\n| Solar Panels<\/td>\n | $1,500<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n | \n| Awning<\/td>\n | $475<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n | \n| Car ramp to get heavy water tanks in and out of car boot<\/td>\n | $50-200<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n
\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/travellingk.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/TravellingK-Caravsn-Cost-1024x680.jpg\") <\/p>\n
This has been a handy exercise for myself. I now know I need about $2,000 a month to live comfortably.<\/p>\n I know I can bring the cost down once I get solar panels and a car boot ramp. This will mean it’s easier to stay at self-containment sites and cheaper non-powered campsites.<\/p>\n These 3 months involved a lot of driving. I went through the fuel twice as fast when towing the caravan. In the future, I’ll be able to bring my fuel cost down by travelling slower, staying at places longer.<\/p>\n I am also going to look into my general bills and see if they can be lowered.<\/p>\n Do you have any money saving tips? I’d love to read them in the comments below.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The answer? More than I expected. I bought the caravan in October 2016 and went on a 3 month road trip around New Zealand. I powered through [\u2026]<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1584,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"video","meta":[],"categories":[19,5],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nHow much does living in a caravan cost? - Travelling K<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/travellingk.com\/how-much-does-living-in-a-caravan-cost\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How much does living in a caravan cost? - Travelling K\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The answer? More than I expected. I bought the caravan in October 2016 and went on a 3 month road trip around New Zealand. 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<\/p>\n