Perhaps it was the fact that we just returned from the most fabulous family holiday travelling around Tasmania in a campervan (the bug for adventures is BACK!), or the fact that winter is almost upon us which has meant less outside time… but for some reason I woke up last week with a deep seated need to connect with nature and the conviction that it was a caravan or camper trailer that would solve my woes.
As my husband has rightly pointed out, this type of random ‘buy something and it will make my life immeasurably better’ concept is completely out of character for me. I tend to overthink every purchase and take a less is better philosophy when it comes to stuff, toys, and accessories in life. But a week later and the burning desire to take off in a caravan is still holding strong.
Despite the fact that my husband is convinced I would never in my right mind happily hand over $15,000+for something like a caravan, I decided to investigate the cost of caravanning holidays a little more closely to see if the dollars made sense! I always find it interesting how little number crunching people do before they make a large purchase like a car, house, caravan or toy.
So here are a few financial points to consider if you too have thought about the idea of buying a caravan or camper trailer:
1. How much for a caravan or camper trailer – That’s like asking how long a piece of string is. You are looking from anywhere between $5,000 or so for a basic camper trailer to $100k plus for a you beaut, house on wheels caravan. You need to have a good think about where you want to travel, and what features are important to you. I have my eyes on what looks like a bit of a mix between a caravan and a camper trailer – the Jayco Eagle. Brand new you are looking at around $25k, but we are usually second hand buyers! A Jayco Eagle that is a few years old would set us back $18,000.
2. What could I do with that money if I didn’t buy a campervan? The economic term for this is opportunity cost. In our case, that money would be sitting in an offset account to our home loan that has an interest rate of 4.8%. So the cost of using that money for a camper trailer is $864 each year . For you, the opportunity cost may be an investment in shares, an indexed fund, a high interest account or… (and I’m shuddering at the thought) perhaps you are considering ‘borrowing’ to buy one.
3. How much do caravans tend to loose in value each year? Or for the accounting minded – how much do they depreciate? After all, a caravan is not an investment as many may like to believe! It’s a depreciating asset…. So it will just continue to go down in value year after year, even if it gets minimal use. Let’s say our van loses 5% a year in value. So in a year, my camper trailer will lose $900 in value.
4. Registration and insurance – Yes a van or trailer needs to be registered. Rego and safety check – $315 for a 1000 tonne trailer/camper trailer in NSW for example. And I would certainly look to have insurance.
5. Repairs, upgrades and tinkering! – You would be doing well in a year not to spend anything on your van or trailer– be it an upgrade of equipment, a repair, or a spiffy new something to make the trip that much better! Again – let’s be super conservative and say $200 on gadgetry and repairs.
6. Fuel – Hauling a big arse caravan or camper trailer does actually effect fuel consumption (and in our instance would actually mean we would need a bigger, fuel guzzler of a car!). I’m not even going to try and attempt to work out the extra cost of this, but it’s just another consideration.
7. Is hiring or borrowing an option? The other consideration is whether you can borrow, or hire a caravan or campervan if trips are likely to be infrequent. Our campervan hire (a mid range campervan) cost us $160 a night. A little quick research found that you can in fact hire Jayco Eagles locally for around $100 a night. Or maybe the good old tent is an adequate substitute?!
8. Site fees – If you choose to stay in caravan parks or national parks there will most likely be nightly site fees.
I am going to be reasonably optimistic for a moment and say that in any given year we would be away with the camper trailer for 4 weeks. Typically it would be somewhere like Forster NSW for a week in peak season over summer, a week at the Barrington Tops, a week in Sydney, and a week up the coast. I’m going to assume we stay in caravan parks the whole time. Of course you can cut costs by finding cheap or free camping spots. But here’s my scenario played out:
| Barrington Tops – The Steps | Spring | $322 |
| Tuncurry Caravan Park | Peak Christmas | 441 |
| Lane Cove National Park | Easter | 273 |
| Urunga Caravan Park | September School holidays | 294 |
So for my rough back of the envelop numbers, it looks like our 4 weeks of holidays are likely to cost us over $3,600. Hmmm… not quite the cheap caravanning holiday that I thought?! Of course this whole scenario is based on hypotheticals. But the exercise is a useful one to actually think about all the possible costs of a purchase like a caravan.
The jury is out – I’m still debating with myself whether I am getting caught up in the world of wanting more, bigger, better or whether this is something that we would really get a lot of value from. And of course there are a myriad of options for places to stay – some free. I haven’t talked myself out of the idea yet, but my number crunching added a little reality to my otherwise idealistic vision of cheap caravanning adventures!!!
So have you got a caravan or camper trailer parked in your driveway or back yard? Has it been the best ‘investment’ you’ve ever made or is it a money pit? Am I being too conservative with my estimates or too generous? Share you experiences and persuade me!
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