Can I bust a myth real quick? There is no magic daily number for travelling Australia. Every number you find online is someone else's trip, someone else's van, someone else's habits. It is not yours. And planning your savings around it is one of the most common reasons families either run out of money on the road or never leave in the first place. So here's the actual framework. Three things drive the bulk of your daily spend. Fuel, accommodation, and food. Everything else sits on top. Once you understand those three levers, you can start pulling them — travel slower to cut fuel, mix free camps with mid-week park stays to cut accommodation, be honest about your eating habits instead of pretending you'll suddenly become a meal-prep machine. Then you add the stuff people forget. The back-home bills that keep running while you're gone. The ambulance cover that's probably only valid in your home state. The Starlink. The van loan. The subscriptions quietly billing to your card. We averaged $700 a week across 11 months on the road as a family. Some weeks were double that. Some weeks we barely spent anything. But we knew our average. We'd built the buffer. And we had an emergency fund sitting completely separate — untouched unless something went genuinely sideways. That's the system. And I've turned it into a free cheat sheet that's now in the classroom — grab it and use it as your reference while you build your budget. If you want to go deeper and actually run your own numbers, that's what the Budget Planner is for ($7us once off, or free with premium membership). Drop a comment below — what cost category caught you most off guard when you actually started planning? Grab the cheat sheet: https://margieandtim.com.au/big-lap-budget-cheatsheet/ Have a great day Margie Watch the video here:

One of the hardest things to do before you leave is all the stuff that you have to do... And once you start putting your ideas down and the to do lists together, the lists just start growing... When do you leave? - Then the question goes to: what about work? contact the boss, work out leave, do I have leave? contact HR... - What about big family events? weddings? big birthdays.... What do you need to be around for? What about the house? - rent, sell, close up and ask a neighbour. - What about all your personal belongings? As you can see, the list goes on and on... If you're in this arghh stage, check out the 7 day challenge, it might get you on the right track and a bit more organised. What part have you been putting off the longest? Let's start a community thread below, and we'll see if we can help each other out :)

Hi everyone! If you're at the planning stage (or even the dreaming stage!) then start here. Within 7 days, you could have your road map, so to speak, planned out. - How to choose your departure date - and the things that might stop you - Working out a rough plan, including clockwise or anticlockwise - or does it not matter? - Your budget planning to get things started and much more! Comment below if you're going to give this a go, so we can cheer you on :) (PS it's now available for everyone on the free plan too) Head to the Classroom section, and click on the 7 day challenge classroom to start.

We are planning a trip from Sydney to Perth in January 2027, Looking at any youtubes to help us prepare, do not want to "over" prepare either TIA

If you're wondering on how to pick a date, what to do, where to start and more when it comes to planning your big lap, jump into this 7 day challenge! There is one lesson per day + a worksheet that will help guide you through everything you'll need to work out. This is part of the premium membership - but if you join, feel free to do any of my other courses which includes the Freelancing course and the calculators :) If you have any questions, please ask here or email me