We were made redundant at the age of 51 and 53 respectively. It was terrifying.

We had a long held pipe dream of giving it all up to do something more fun before we were too old and decrepit. But our planning had all centred around Mark reaching the magic age of 55, when we would have saved up enough and could get our hands on his pension.

And there was always the convenient ‘get out’ of working on. You know, that delaying tactic of “If we work for another year, it will give us just a little more financial security.” Procrastination; which saves you from making that difficult decision to step out of your salaried comfort zone and into the void…

Having been made redundant and finding ourselves too ill to work, none of this was an option – and in hindsight, I am really glad!

The redundancy gave us the boot up the behind that we needed to make our exit from the corporate rat race AND, most importantly, two wonderful years of travel that we would otherwise have spent at work!

In my blog Carry On Caravanning – Part 1; How We Did It I discuss how it is important to know how much you are spending and on what. That way, you know how much money you need to support the lifestyle that you want – and where you can make cuts. You might be surprised to learn that when we did this exercise, we discovered that the odd £2.50 in Costa’s here and there added up to £100 per month on coffee. That’s £1200 per year. You can do a lot with £1200 per year in a caravan!

The question that everyone wants to ask us, but are usually too polite, is “How much does it cost to do what you do?” We tour Europe in the caravan for 9 months and spend 3 months in a ski apartment.

Well, in broad terms, here is the answer. This is our budget for the next year;

Caravan Costs	Gas, Elsan, service, site fees (incl 4 dogs, which costs extra in Europe) for 9 months touring	£4,000
Ski Apartment	3 months rental costs, bills included	£3,500
Ski Pass	2 x seasonal ski passes	£1,400
Tow Vehicle Costs	Fuel, service, MOT, tax, repairs. We have a budget for a replacement vehicle in the future.	£4,000
Insurance	Travel, car & caravan insurance*	£1,300
Ferry & Tolls	2 return crossings to Europe per year with 4 dogs; 1 with caravan; Mont Blanc Tunnel & Motorway Tolls	£1,000
Sports & Hobbies	Replacing windsurfing, cycle & ski kit. Ski servicing.	£600
Food	All food shopping for 2 people. We rarely dine out.	£5,400
Cleaning Products	Laundry soaps, toiletries, caravan cleaner etc	£400
Health	Dentist, contact lenses, prescriptions, sun cream etc	£900
Clothing	Replacing clothing & shoes	£500
Booze	Wine, beer etc. We rarely go out!	£900
Communication	Mobile phone, MiFi, buying CDs / DVDs etc	£400
Dog Costs	Food, vets, medication, jabs etc. We groom them ourselves.	£1,100
	TOTAL	£25,400

*Some insurers will cover you only for 3-months touring abroad per year and will not cover you if you are already abroad when the policy starts! 

Due to the monetary misadventures that seem to accompany our every homecoming to the UK, we have considered adding a line to our budget for “Fines…” (See Home and Briefly Back in the Brick for our first bout of pecuniary pandemonium. Little did we know that MUCH MORE was to follow!)

If you are planning to do what we do, I hope that this information will help you towards making your dreams a reality. Clearly, your budget will be different from ours, but I hope that this gives you an idea of the costs you will need to cover and a starting point for planning.

My other blogs in ‘What Worked for Us’ contain lots of tips on downsizing, getting rid of clutter and how to finance living your dreams by renting out your house.

To help you when living on a budget, see 10 Tips to Save Money while Caravanning. This blog also contains useful links that will help you to calculate the costs of European road toll charges and a link to ACSI, which lists the prices for 10,000 campsites across Europe. 

Postscript – GDPR

And speaking of fines – GDPR (The European Union (EU) General Data Protection Regulation) goes into effect on May 25, 2018.

GDPR sets out your rights regarding your personal information, how organisations should carry out direct marketing and how you can access information from public authorities. For further information, click here.

The fines for non-compliance are €y€ wat€ring – and rather scary for a hobby blogger who makes no money from her site. (I actually PAY money to keep it live! I am like Elizabeth Reyes – “I write because I MUST! It’s not a choice or a pastime, it’s an unyielding calling and my passion.”)

You receive emails from World Wide Walkies because you are AWESOME – you gave your consent (that it the ‘legal basis’) and elected to ‘follow’ my blog!

Every email that you receive, including this one, contains an option for you to unsubscribe. We would much rather that you stayed, but your continued subscription and goodwill is always completely in your control!

I would draw your attention to my Privacy Policy, which sets out what data is collected and how it is used when you follow or comment on my site.

Please be assured that World Wide Walkies does not share data with any third party nor use it for anything other than the mechanics required for you to follow my blogs.

If you are one of my wonderful colleagues in the blogosphere who is equally confused with the regulations, check out this excellent blog by Nomipalony – GDPR for Bloggers – does it apply to you and how to comply.

• It Worked for Us