February was one of those months you would rather forget when it comes to expenses.
This is the reality of life on the road, something a lot of YouTube videos don’t really talk about. There are always the overheads of life — costs that exist whether you live in a house or travel full time. Insurance is usually somewhere in that mix.
Below is a breakdown of some of the costs that popped up this month.
- Bills: A general category, but in this case it mainly covers insurance for the car and caravan. We don’t have a particularly expensive setup, with the agreed value of both vehicles being under $170,000, but it still shows how costly insurance can be. Last year I spent some time shopping around for better prices, and in the end our current insurer still came out on top. That’s even with the car excess set to the maximum. The caravan excess unfortunately can’t be changed.
- Car repairs/Maintenance: This one that hit harder than expected. Late last year we had the rear lower control arms replaced for a GVM upgrade, all seemed fine until we got over the Nullarbor. It was there that I noticed the rear tyres where almost worn out. Once we got to Perth I booked the car into a workshop to find out what happened. It turns out that somewhere along the way the rear wheel alignment was knocked out. The result was 2 new tires, wheel alignment and a service. Those tyres were only 10 months old!
- Accommodation:At first glance this category looks fairly reasonable, but it’s worth mentioning that a lot of our accommodation was prepaid back in December and January. During summer we have mostly been staying in caravan parks, mainly because air conditioning can make a big difference during the hotter months. That will likely change soon as we start heading north again. In the south-west of Western Australia, getting into caravan parks during the summer period also requires a fair bit of forward planning. Many parks book out early, and travelling with a dog can sometimes limit the number of lower-cost or free camping options.
Expenses – Sumary
| Month | Total | Acommodation (avg/ay) | Per day |
|---|---|---|---|
| December | $8,211 | $87.5 | $264 |
| January | $4,090 | $20.8 | $131 |
| February | $10,309.54 | $16 | $368 |
| March | |||
| April | |||
| May | |||
| June | |||
| July | |||
| August | |||
| September | |||
| October | |||
| November | |||
| Averages/year | $7,536 | $41 | $254 |
Summary
If you take the two large bills out of the equation, our spending comes back to roughly the figure we often talk about — about $1,200 per week. That’s travelling comfortably, but without spending heavily on tours or big experiences.
I keep a running spreadsheet of all our expenses (above), which also tracks things like our average accommodation cost per day and our overall daily spending. Over time this gives a much clearer picture of what full-time travel actually costs.
Months like this are a good reminder that while the weekly averages are useful, there will always be the occasional bigger expense that comes along.
If you’re interested in what it costs us to travel full time, you can see all of our monthly expense reports here.
Thanks for reading February 2026 – Travel Expenses. Shadow, the van, and the two of us will catch you at the next campsite.
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