 | Home > Expedition & Overland > Overland Costs - How much do I need? |
 
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| shaggydog Member Since: 12 Aug 2012 Location: Kent Posts: 3347   
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Hello all,
I know this is one of those "how long is a bit of string question" but hear me out. Having left university 2 years ago I think I have now sorted out that part of my life. I currently live at home with my parents(  ) due to the fact that renting and a mortgage in the South East are the same per month so I have stayed home to try and save up as much as I can. My girlfriend has now successfully secured a full time job and I am happy in my job and we are living relatively comfortably.
But we are bored to tears 
So! Plan - we are young and have the energy to travel so the only remaining factor is how much money we have. We have no capital at all, we have a relatively comfortable income but its not exactly huge so this gives us 2 options. Do what everyone else does which is save up a deposit, take out a mortgage pay it off in 35 years time in which time we will probably have kids and then other commitments and be to tired or tied down to do anything adventurous. (no offence intended in anyway to anyone reading this but life has a way of getting in the way) Or, sort out the 110 properly as an overland vehicle and spend as long as we can driving around the world from east to west and back again and north to south and spend as many years floating around being those beardy people with tans and outrageous stories of "this one time in cambodia!" So how to fund it? Quite a large part of me has thought actually it would be worth us both saving up as much as possible and getting a deposit together on a house as a Buy to rent, which we can rent out to cover the mortgage on it and use the remainder to fund our travels. Sounds easy when you say it quickly but the reality of doing that is various tax and landlord implications plus we would never actually be able to have enough left over to fund the trip but having all the hassle of running a house for someone else. or is it possible? I don't know I'm young and inexperienced in these matters! Another way which has crossed my mind is to sell everything we own and to use the funds to go as far as we can and then try and work our way round the rest. Sounds easy but in all honesty after my tools I really don't have much stuff- maybe £300 at a boot sale but not much more than that. My girlfriend has most of the shoes in England stored under our bed but I'm not sure the value of them and given our total "value" probably comes to £1000 that only buys 9 tanks of fuel which gets us quite far, but only conservatively 4000 miles which isn't really enough to even do half of Europe properly! And thats before you have bought any ferry's, food or beer! Plus thats assuming I can just "get a job" and earn money. Its difficult enough in the UK which has a relatively good job economy and I'm a full resident with no language barriers or visa restrictions- how about when I run out of money in Croatia? or Sudan? what then? Crowdfunding? May be a possibility but I'm not sure I would give £20 a month towards someone else having a damn good trip let alone anyone else. But I don't know! weirder things have happened..... So it comes back to what you can earn first and save up before you leave! So, how much do we need? Has anyone done it? How did it work? was it what you thought it would be or was it a living nightmare? I really want to start a discussion on this because I really do feel that if I ever had a shot of doing this now is the time to do it as both me and my girlfriend are not tied to where we are currently, were free from mortgages, children and commitment so why spend forever thinking one day when today IS the day? Any and all opinions welcome from "Shaggy your talking  " to "yeah do it while you can!" I really want to open this up as a proper discussion because it it a big thing to consider and not to be taken lightly. But similarly I don't want to be 30 and thinking yeah I had a chance and I didn't take it. But I'll do it one day............one day...... Running Restoration Thread http://www.defender2.net/forum/post323197.html#323197
Self confessed mileage hunter  |
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9th May 2015 9:38pm |
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| newhue Member Since: 28 Apr 2014 Location: Brisbane Posts: 351 
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Shags,
When I was 19 I shied away from buying a house because I didn't want 25 years of debt. However I would now be 800K better of for it, and still could have travelled, got married, and had kids. I'd suggest buy the house, if you think your partner is solid. Just suck it up and get it under way. HOWEVER work out a structure with work, house repayments and so on that will allow you to travel 6, 8,10 weeks a year. I know it's not free as a bird for years, buy it's like sound investing. You are covering all bases responsibly. Part of it is you don't need extravagance. Weather it be a house, unit, overland Defender. Just something modest that will do the job, leave the bling for others. Life is about experiences, not what crap you can show off to others who don't care anyway. I've always wanted to travel, its about all that interest me. But I never did the years up front as many do, I won't bore you with why. So I decided to try and do it all my life as I live life. Initially without kids, now with kids. Both are very good. Good luck and have fun with your decision. Ultimately you generally do what you really want to do anyway. I try and live my by the classic Land Rover mantra. One Life...Live it. My Defender and travels |
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9th May 2015 11:59pm |
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| wyvern Member Since: 13 Dec 2009 Location: Cornwall Posts: 2117 
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Shags
we did it - but not by landrover we did a lot of research before we left and came to the conclusion that the cost of import/export licences just for Africa would eat all our capital for a landrover. So we sold everything and bought 2 bicycles and rode round the world. its the cheapest way and the most flexible. everything you do in a motor will cost you something, even parking it sometimes. with the bikes you can pop them on a plane, boat, bus and in the back of a car if and when neded. spares are dirt cheap and no need for main dealers. We bought 2 touring bikes, a tent, good holo-fiber sleeping bags and a trangia stove, working on the KISS principle, and a ticket to Santander in Spain and then headed East. Six and a half years, 36000 miles and 42 countries later, we returned home and re-entered the rat race - now have a 110 camper and are still traveling - but now in short 3 week chunks. Total cost for our bike trip was less than a fully fitted and insured (and taxed !) 110 would cost. Not what you wanted to hear, but it is the cheapest way of seeing the world and we really have the ‘when-we-were-in-Cambodia…’ stories …  Click image to enlarge Poppy - TDCI (Puma) 110XS 2.2 - Camper conversion - see the build here - https://www.defender2.net/forum/topic56530.html Elgar -TDCI(Puma) 110XS Dormobile - now sold Devon & Cornwall 4x4 Response - DC126 |
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10th May 2015 5:51am |
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| Tribord Member Since: 20 Apr 2013 Location: France Posts: 220  
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What I would do in your position is sell the 110, get the cheapest ticket to somewhere in Asia and spend a while travelling around by bus. Or buy a moped and explore the region. Food,bed, beer and travel all dead cheap. Don't worry much about planning and just see what happens , and where it takes you!
Some years ago I would have recommended getting a motorbike in Asia and riding it home, but that is not so easy/cheap these days thanks to border politics.. You certainly don't need a 110 for overland travel. There aren't many places a normal car or van can't take you these days. At 17 I went around Europe in a very tired VW LT van with nothing other than an old sofa bed (taken from a skip ) and a gas camping stove in the back, and very very little money between the three of us. We sometimes ran out of petrol money, so then based ourselves there and something always came up To help us move on - a bit of work or people willing to subsidise petrol to get a lift. We upgraded to a tired series 3 through to West Africa, but the LT would have been far cheaper and practical - or in one of the many very old Peugeot or Merc saloons making the dash across the balised Sahara. The cheapest I have travelled in has been SE Asia where you can live very cheaply, relying on local transport to move around. You don't even need to take a tent there. Running a buy to let is not a bad idea, but without sufficient capital you are unlikely to make much income and there will always be the risk of something going wrong that could curtail your trip. Don't spend too long thinking - just go with whatever you have and make to best of it. Plenty of time for careers, mortgages and families, and you may find a while travelling challenges your thinking about the future and presents new opportunities! Have fun |
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10th May 2015 7:46am |
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| newhue Member Since: 28 Apr 2014 Location: Brisbane Posts: 351
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[quote="wyvern"]Shags
we did it - but not by landrover SNIP Very good point, I have to agree it has to be the best, cheapest, and healthiest way to see a country. Fast enough to make distance, slow enough to take it all in, flexibility and adventure in abundance. My wife and I did quite a bot of cycle touring before kids. Great fun. My Defender and travels |
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10th May 2015 9:55am |
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| Cupboard Member Since: 21 Mar 2014 Location: Suffolk Posts: 2971 
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Something else to add in to the melting pot:
http://kombilife.com/ Have you done any travelling at all? Two years ago two friends and I did the Mongolia Charity Rally (not to be confused with the Mongol Rally where you take an impractical car that the Mongols don't want and line someone's pockets in the process) and took a 9 year old LDV Convoy Minibus with 40k miles on the clock to Mongolia. It was great fun, we raised loads of money for charity, basically we paid all the "fun" costs of the bus and getting there, and all the money went to Go Help, the charity that it was all for. My boss was very accommodating and let me have 5 weeks off work, the whole trip didn't cost that much (it would have been less if we'd brought the bus back obviously) and gave us plenty of "You remember that one time in Kazakhstan?" experiences. We got the bus stuck a few times, but nothing that a shovel, some locals pushing or a Russian truck couldn't solve. I think what I'm trying to say is that depending on what you're looking for, experiences don't have to be too expensive and don't have to be instead of everything else in life (though of course they can be if that's what you want). £1200 of LDV, a load of Diesel, some visas and ferry tickets got us a lot of miles. The other thing is that once you get to more interesting places, fuel gets a lot cheaper. Kazakh Diesel was 1/4 of what it costs here. |
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10th May 2015 1:45pm |
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| steve E Member Since: 06 Mar 2011 Location: Tenby Posts: 2073 
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I would go while you are young.
Life is short so enjoy it now. I have said mortgages and children to pay for so can't go for another 8 years at which point I'll be 50. Just paid for one wedding and one still to go to University so am going to sell up and travel when all is done. I am a very happy chap with my own small business and make a nice living but if given the chance would love to see the world or even Europe with no rush to come back to normality. Owning a house is just something the government has conditioned us to want to do. You work all your life to buy a house and then when your older and need looking after they take it off you to pay for your keep while the chap in the next chair has never worked and has the same amount of care for free that you paid for. Please enjoy yourself and fill your cameras, iPads with memories that will last a lifetime and post on here so I can live them with you until I am free of the bullsheet and go on my travels also. |
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10th May 2015 5:08pm |
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| shaggydog Member Since: 12 Aug 2012 Location: Kent Posts: 3347
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Thank you all for your comments, I have had great pleasure mixed with turmoil reading through them as they all raise valid points - some of which conflict with what I thought I wanted!
Cupboard - yes I have done a fairly soft overland before around Switzerland. Me and 5 friends loaded up the 110 and in 10 days we went UK taking in Chalons en Champagne , Geneva, St Gervais Les Bains, Chamonix, Martigny, Aroste, Annecey (about a week before those tourists got shot  ) Saint Omer and then home! We did it in 10 days and the whole trip cost about £400 each including fuel, food, drink, camp-sites and Euro tunnel crossings. It was the best fun I have had in years and we all had a great time with many memories which will last a lifetime. It took us about 3 weeks to plan and prepare and we were very much inexperienced and running by the seats of our pants. Sadly, University commitments for myself and friends has then put a repeat on hold and now other issues have crept in so I would not be sure they would be able to join us - hence my restlessness! That said, it was a very expensive trip as we had 4 tents on most camp-sites, 2 vegetarians and at least 3 bottles of wine a night (exept for the driver) and were using a tank of fuel every other day as the 110 was right on the edge of its GVW.
I want to try and recreate that sense of adventure but cheaper and travelling to more adventurous destinations for longer. I hear what people are saying regarding Bikes or just plane ticket and backpack but for me a real part of the adventure is the bond between the traveller and the vehicle. I completely understand the bond between people and there VW buses and thank you so much Cupbord for the link I will devour it with great pleasure- it embodies so much of what I want to achieve, the VW lifestyle is fantastic but for me I cannot get excited by a VW. I already have that bond between me and my 110 so why look elsewhere for one? Me and the girlfriend need to work out a 5 year plan. Ultimately even if we decided that we want to go now we couldn't afford it until at least the end of the year and that doesn't leave much time for planning where or preparation to vehicle. I definitely want to travel to Australia, America, South America, Southern Europe, Nothern Europe, Iceland, Africa so I'm not short of destinations. As a point of topic, a few members on here have shipped there trucks out to Australia for a trip - how much does that cost? How long did you go? Would you do it again? I have more questions than I fear answers and sorry if I haven't answered anyone directly Running Restoration Thread http://www.defender2.net/forum/post323197.html#323197
Self confessed mileage hunter |
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10th May 2015 6:57pm |
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| CR Member Since: 28 Jan 2010 Location: Ireland Posts: 947  
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GO
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10th May 2015 7:11pm |
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| leeds Member Since: 28 Dec 2009 Location: West Yorkshire Posts: 8582
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[quote="shaggydog]
Having left university 2 years ago I think I have now sorted out that part of my life. I currently live at home with my parents( ) due to the fact that renting and a mortgage in the South East are the same per month so I have stayed home to try and save up as much as I can. My girlfriend has now successfully secured a full time job and I am happy in my job and we are living relatively comfortably.
.... Or, sort out the 110 properly as an overland vehicle and spend as long as we can driving around the world from east to west and back again and north to south and spend as many years floating around being those beardy people with tans and outrageous stories of "this one time in cambodia!" .... So how to fund it? Another way which has crossed my mind is to sell everything we own and to use the funds to go as far as we can and then try and work our way round the rest. Sounds easy but in all honesty after my tools I really don't have much stuff- maybe £300 at a boot sale but not much more than that. My girlfriend has most of the shoes in England stored under our bed but I'm not sure the value of them and given our total "value" probably comes to £1000 that only buys 9 tanks of fuel which gets us quite far, but only conservatively 4000 miles which isn't really enough to even do half of Europe properly! Crowdfunding? Has anyone done it? How did it work? was it what you thought it would be or was it a living nightmare? [/quote] Am I allowed to be brutally frank? OK pair of you have reasonable income, DINK, living at home and NO savings? What are you doing with your money? Urinating it up against the wall? How will you manage your money whilst abroad? With minimal income? Part of travelling is managing your money! Take a vehicle outside the EU and then you will need a Carnet. How are you going to fund that? No savings then you need to put up a reasonable security. You have various choices, give a large security, preferably in the form of £££s, take out an expensive insurance policy or get your bank to underwrite it at a cost of £100-£200, problem with that your bank needs a charge over assets. Take a vehicle to Australia or New Zealand and it has to be cleaner then clean. Cleaner then when it left the factory. Cost of shipping one? Start looking at £5k+ return. Crowdfunding?? Get a grip. We get begging emails from people wanting to subsidise their holidays. Filed under BIN. Have I asked people to fund my trips? One thing to consider, health insurance. Not cheap but worth it. You will read frightening stories about people not taking insurance and then want other people to pay their bills. WHY? Barbara had an incident in Singapore, no issue the insurance company sorted it out. What is the army saying? Fail to prepare, prepare to fail! Have I travelled? Simple answer is yes, from Europe, South America, Australia, New Zealand, Nepal, India, Asia etc Do your research, be REALISTIC and enjoy whatever you decide to do. Brendan |
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10th May 2015 9:30pm |
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| K9F Member Since: 12 Nov 2009 Location: Bournemouth Posts: 9610 
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Alternatively dependant on how good your degree is and how fruitful your time at university was try and make use of it? Take the Queen's Shilling in the form of a short-term commission in the RAF, bin the girlfriend, travel the World in style with like-minded people and sow your seed with abandon.
Maybe if it doesn't pan out reduce your vision and buy or rent a canal boat.....no Crowdfunding will be needed and the begging bowl could be used for growing pot!  If you go through life with your head in the sand....all people will see is an ar5e!!
Treat every day as if it is your last....one day you will be right!! |
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10th May 2015 9:46pm |
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| shaggydog Member Since: 12 Aug 2012 Location: Kent Posts: 3347
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I would love to have been able to join the armed forces but due to a severe allergy I was told in no uncertain terms once I got to the interview stage that I would never be able to serve in the armed forces.
I hated my university experience. I hated every last moment of it and left with not a great grade because of that. Unfortunately when I was in 6th form the Apprenticeship schemes were not available and those that were available were (and in some cases still are) very exploitative with no real end result. Ultimately I made the best of a bad situation but it was my choice to do so and as such I stand by my decisions. Even if they were Isn't hindsight wonderful?
Brendan, yes you are allowed to be frank Thats the point of this discussion!
I haven't been living at home for free, my parents have quite rightly been taking a third of anything I earn by way of keep/rent. Comparatively its still cheaper than renting in Kent but its still a large chunk of my income. The other thirds being shared between commuting/living costs and savings. It hasn't been helped by having to pay off debts from university and supporting my girlfriend who only got her job 3 weeks ago. But I will admit that I haven't been saving up directly for a overland as most of my savings have been for a mortgage or contingency. How much is a carnet? Where do I get one from? What does it involve? I have read that your vehicle needs to be cleaner than clean to go to Australia or New Zealand and yes it would have to be something budgeted for to do. £5000 one way from Britain sounds more reasonable than I was expecting but obviously the cleaning costs have to be factored into this which will make it much more expensive. I totally get your comment about crowd funding and share your thoughts on it - it was a bit of a rhetorical point rather than a serious proposal but weirder things have happened. We get similar emails at work usually from university students who have left it to the last minute to make the vital part of there final year project and expect us to drop everything to redraw there crappy drawings and then make there product for cheep. They are always disappointed. That said some big companies are no better
Health insurance is a very good point and something we would both have to look into. My girlfriend is quite lucky in that she has no allergies to anything, I unfortunately have a severe allergy which will kill me with 10 minutes notice so food is an issue here in the UK- let alone in Mongolia or even Spain so would be a factor to consider. And thats before we have got Malaria or I have slipped a disk lifting something up onto the roof rack or twisted my ankle etc. This is the point of the discussion, what are the things I need to consider? How much will it cost? What is involved? This is very much the beginning of the do your research and be realistic part. Everyone starts with I want to travel the world and then end up exploring Europe. Fine I have no problem with that and I am realistic to that. But I need to have a starting point and this is where I'm at currently. You have travelled you have done it so share your experience! How did you fund it? How long did you go for? How much did it cost? What were the issues? Running Restoration Thread http://www.defender2.net/forum/post323197.html#323197 Self confessed mileage hunter |
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10th May 2015 11:18pm |
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| Tribord Member Since: 20 Apr 2013 Location: France Posts: 220
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You may want to do some research here:
http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/hubb/ |
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11th May 2015 6:40am |
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| Spookytooth Member Since: 19 Jan 2014 Location: Lincolnshire Posts: 202 
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shaggydog, I am afraid I agree 100% with 'leeds', please don't go, at least for a while, you appear to have no idea of even the basics nor any idea which direction you want your life to go. A week away in Switzerland will prepare you for a trip to Lidl not the Russian/ Chinese border. If you really wanted to go most of what you are asking you would have already gorged on through the numerous web sites detailing fellow travellers experiences and be asking for more specific insights probably contacting the travellers direct.
I needed to travel extensively with work and even from that closeted position it was often difficult in places like Sudan, Argentina, or Northern China and therefore overland is a very serious proposition, although done many times and well documented on the web, and in all successful reports there seems to have been this spirit of 'get up and go, make it work, have always known this is what they were going to do', usually with great emotional support either from a partner or long standing mates. I may be being unfair but I do not detect this in your thread. Might be better to book a fortnights holiday in Australia (with your parents probably) |
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11th May 2015 7:20am |
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