Housekeeping On The Move
GROCERIES
I am so sick of grocery shopping. I much prefer my home system of occasional bulk shops with a weekly top up. This shopping every couple of days is driving me crazy. I have no idea how some people live like this!!! And I usually LIKE grocery shopping. Of course, it doesn’t help that I’m forever in a different store with no idea where to find anything.
It is a much more expensive way to shop as well although I’m gradually improving on not picking up “extras” when I do pop to the grocery store. That’s one source of extra expense although the unit pricing of smaller sizings is more expensive as well. A few times I haven’t been able to bring myself to pay the extra and we’ve had to have the same meal a couple of times close together. LOL.
WASHING & IRONING
I’ve only had 1 place where the washing machines have been $4. Townsville!!! Everywhere else they have been $3 which is a bonus as I was budgetting on having to pay $4 a load.
What I can’t believe is that I haven’t touched an iron in over 4 weeks!!!! Me, who can’t work out how other people rarely iron! Me, who usually spends an hour plus a week ironing!!!! Me, whose counsellor set her a challenge NOT to iron her kids school uniforms – a challenge I failed I must admit. I haven’t ironed a thing since we left home! And you know what? You can’t really tell. Or I don’t really care. I’m not sure which. LOL. I will have to iron a couple of things this weekend (for church) but that will be my first ironing for the trip.
CLEANING
I was most perturbed when I first saw signs in caravan parks asking me to mop the shower floors after my shower. What? I’m supposed to be on a break from cleaning aren’t I???? LOL. Actually, it’s not a bad idea and one I’m tempted to implement at home. Wonder if I can have a “clean after each use” policy for all areas of our house? 
At least the caravan is quick and easy to clean, which is a good thing because it seems to need cleaning constantly with all the traffic moving through it constantly.
BUDGETS
Things seem to be going to plan as far as our budget goes.
Our average to date for caravan park sites works out to $47.29 which is under our $50 budget. We’re pretty happy with that considering we had 5 nights in the Whitsundays at $77 a night. The only other places we’ve gone over our Narrabri (an absolute rip-off) and Rockhampton (but only because we paid extra for an ensuite site while Farmboys back was bad). I expected Cairns to be more expensive than it was but we found a really reasonably priced place in a lovely location (Cool Waters Caravan Park).
The $350 we budgetted per week for living expenses seems to be about right. One week I finished the week with $5 left. Another week we had $100 left (admittedly a week where we had meals supplied for a couple of days). Generally speaking though, it seems to be allowing a couple of take away meals and a few treats on top of our regular eating. We have eaten out a couple of times now on a different budget but that’s not much different to how things would work if we were home. I worked out we’re spending about $25 a week on washing, $25 on spending money ($5 each), $100 on take away and treats (eg ice creams) and $200 on general groceries.
Our sight-seeing budget has been depleted rather rapidly in the past week but we were expecting that. Cairns is a beautiful place but it’s not cheap.
OVERALL
Life on the road has it’s challenges but it’s also lots of fun and really worth the extra thinking power needed to work a few things out.
Similar Posts:
- Coming Home
- Day Zero
- Grocery Spending For March
- Electricity Challenge - In the Laundry
- Budget Planning For Our “Big Trip”
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Great little report on the practical side of a long family journey. Sounds like you are doing a great job balancing the budget.
Hmm. I think maybe ‘all of the above’ would probably fit around here too. [especially the %$@* laundry!]
Cheers
$25 a week on washing? At $3-$4 a load that’s 6-8 loads of washing each week. That’s an awful lot of washing.
I love finding my way around different supermarkets, but I have to admit I also love doing my regular shopping in my local store, the one I aslo work at, so I know where everything is and can be in and out in an hour if I’m pushed for time. Although being pushed for time is rare for me.
Well, I do 8-9 loads of washing a week at home. By the time you do a load of sheets and a load of towels. We’re actually keeping the clothing down to 2-3 loads a week which is a miracle!!!! We have had a couple of night-time issues creating extra washing and I have had to dry the odd load which is where the extra is being spent. It’s really wet up here! (although they tell me it’s just “morning mist” to them compared to the wet season).