Budget
Q - How much does it cost to drive around the world?
A- Not as much as staying at home!
You won’t find a complete breakdown of our entire budget here, we decided against it for a couple of reasons… Firstly it has been done before by others (links below) and secondly, if you are planning your own trip I think it’s vitally important that you go through the process yourself – different people have different levels of comfort and what works for us might not work for you!
Q - You guys must be rich?
A – Erm.
It’s a common misconception that if you are driving around the world you must be rich. I can see how this fallacy has come into existence, especially when at overland shows, or very occasionally on the road, we encounter people with shiny +£60,000 vehicles (way more than the cost of our vehicle and entire budget for our trip to date). In that regard it is all relative, those guys are rich compared to us but we are rich compared to a Mongolian Yak herder. If you come from or live in a similar developed economic background to us and you want to drive around the world you can find a way to do it. Whether it’s in a £500 car or a £150,000 truck is up to you!
Q – How did you work out how much money you needed?
A – With a little research and some basic maths.
Initially at the inception of our trip we picked a random figure that we thought was a fair amount of cash that was needed to complete such an epic trip. That figure wasn’t really based on any facts but seemed ‘about right’ for the task at hand. The figure also seemed realistically obtainable over the 18 months prior to our proposed departure date considering the sad state of our bank balances.
Our initial guestimate was calculated using the worldwide diesel price website, an atlas, a route planner, knowledge of our vehicles fuel consumption and some simple maths. We planned a desirable route dictated by the price of diesel that soon revealed that the average expense of travelling one mile was around 25p. This figure didn’t take into account the cost of shipping, food, visas, breakdowns etc. With a bit more research we soon found respectable data to allow us to guestimate those figures fairly accurately with a contingency and add them into the budget.
Q – How did you manage to raise all that money?
A – We sold almost all our possessions, we worked hard and we saved.
We made sacrifices, changed our lifestyles and implemented a pretty strict regime on ourselves. We sold literally everything we owned with the exception of a few sentimental and personal possessions. 25p per mile became known as ‘the adventure mile’ and a comparative cost measurement for every temptation and a great way to save; do you want to drink a beer or travel 12 adventure miles? Once that incentive became ingrained into our daily living we saved at a considerable rate.
A- Not as much as staying at home!
You won’t find a complete breakdown of our entire budget here, we decided against it for a couple of reasons… Firstly it has been done before by others (links below) and secondly, if you are planning your own trip I think it’s vitally important that you go through the process yourself – different people have different levels of comfort and what works for us might not work for you!
Q - You guys must be rich?
A – Erm.
It’s a common misconception that if you are driving around the world you must be rich. I can see how this fallacy has come into existence, especially when at overland shows, or very occasionally on the road, we encounter people with shiny +£60,000 vehicles (way more than the cost of our vehicle and entire budget for our trip to date). In that regard it is all relative, those guys are rich compared to us but we are rich compared to a Mongolian Yak herder. If you come from or live in a similar developed economic background to us and you want to drive around the world you can find a way to do it. Whether it’s in a £500 car or a £150,000 truck is up to you!
Q – How did you work out how much money you needed?
A – With a little research and some basic maths.
Initially at the inception of our trip we picked a random figure that we thought was a fair amount of cash that was needed to complete such an epic trip. That figure wasn’t really based on any facts but seemed ‘about right’ for the task at hand. The figure also seemed realistically obtainable over the 18 months prior to our proposed departure date considering the sad state of our bank balances.
Our initial guestimate was calculated using the worldwide diesel price website, an atlas, a route planner, knowledge of our vehicles fuel consumption and some simple maths. We planned a desirable route dictated by the price of diesel that soon revealed that the average expense of travelling one mile was around 25p. This figure didn’t take into account the cost of shipping, food, visas, breakdowns etc. With a bit more research we soon found respectable data to allow us to guestimate those figures fairly accurately with a contingency and add them into the budget.
Q – How did you manage to raise all that money?
A – We sold almost all our possessions, we worked hard and we saved.
We made sacrifices, changed our lifestyles and implemented a pretty strict regime on ourselves. We sold literally everything we owned with the exception of a few sentimental and personal possessions. 25p per mile became known as ‘the adventure mile’ and a comparative cost measurement for every temptation and a great way to save; do you want to drink a beer or travel 12 adventure miles? Once that incentive became ingrained into our daily living we saved at a considerable rate.
Regular followers of our website will know that our initial trip didn't go exactly to plan... but fast forward to 2019, having now travelled quite considerably in Bee-bee through 51 countries we still use 'the adventure mile' as a guide giving us confidence that our initial guestimation was actually fairly accurate.
Our trip has never been a luxurious affair, in fact I would argue that we’re right at the bottom end of the scale - we sleep in our 25 year old car every night and rarely eat in restaurants. When planning your own trip you’ll need to budget for the level of comfort that you’re happy with.
If you are looking for some actual figures have a look at these two sites…
Drive Nacho Drive
Transworld Expedition
Our trip has never been a luxurious affair, in fact I would argue that we’re right at the bottom end of the scale - we sleep in our 25 year old car every night and rarely eat in restaurants. When planning your own trip you’ll need to budget for the level of comfort that you’re happy with.
If you are looking for some actual figures have a look at these two sites…
Drive Nacho Drive
Transworld Expedition