Introduction

I’ve been asked what does it cost to live a lifestyle of travelling full-time through Europe in a Motorhome.  So, what better way to answer this than to show you all our costs.

It’s often not as expensive as people expect and you will see by our figures that the further we travel the cheaper it has become.

There are two reasons for this.

1.  During the last six months, we spent nine weeks in Morocco where the cost of living was low.

2.  Everything we need to set up our motorhome has now been purchased.

We have travelled 39,226 km to and around 41 countries, 26 of them unique, in two years.

All Our Costs Revealed

All figures are in Euros

Here is what the weekly average costs across 24 months looks like in a chart format.  Starting from the largest expense being groceries (in blue), follow the graph clockwise, ie diesel is next in red, eating out next in green, etc.

The following costs are excluded from the above figures:
* Insurances (for our Motorhome, Healthcare, Travel and Personal Insurances, eg Life, Trauma, etc)
* Setting up costs, eg cups, plates, linen, blankets, etc basically everything that we needed to live in a motorhome.
* Extra-ordinary Maintenance on the motorhome. Our first and second year habitation inspection costs are included.

We haven’t incurred MOT expenses as yet as we purchased Betsy new and only need a MOT after she turns four in 2021, and then only need a MOT every second year (she is French registered).

Betsy Juice (Diesel for our motorhome)

Our running costs continue to be fairly consistent with our fuel economy based on the odometer, and actual diesel purchased, working out at around 10.45 l/100km or 27 mpg.  The Renault on-board computer reported us running around 9.6 l/100km (close to 30 mpg) so I don’t know which one to believe.  The low diesel costs in Morocco helped to keep our fuel bill down to a respectable level although travelling through Portugal, France and Italy bumped it up again.

If you happen to notice the difference in diesel costs recorded here against our cost above, then well done.  The difference relates to driving two different vehicles, ie while in Tuscany when we had a second motorhome.  Therefore we didn’t include these costs for Betsy, but they must be recorded as an expense.

Accommodation

Below is a look at the split in accommodation costs.  In 24 months (730 nights away) we have stayed in 369 different places.  That’s like saying we had 369 homes during this time! 

Of these 74% were wild camping (free of cost), 12% were spent in camping grounds, 11% in camper parking and 3% in AirBnB accommodation.

The nine weeks of staying in Morocco has pushed up the camping ground usage (and reduced our wild camping figures).  Thankfully the cost of staying in camping grounds in Morocco is very reasonable.   

Moroccan Goats Interested In Betsy