Somehow, I’m over two-thirds done with my adventure in Australia?! I’m not quite sure how this happened, but wow. This month has been spent in Western Australia, the majority on a three-week house sit in Geraldton on the West Coast. It’s been an insanely productive month for blogging, and – besides the expenses of buying my new car on 28 October – a mercifully inexpensive month.

I typically break down my expenses in these budget breakdowns into four main categories: accommodation, gas, food, and other. Expenses in the “other category” are typically sightseeing or miscellaneous travel costs – I always detail these later in the post. This month, I added in a separate category to include all the costs associated with buying my new car.

How Much I Spent in Month 8 in Australia

So, how much money did I actually spend this month? Here’s my budget breakdown!

Accommodation: $0

Gas: $257 = £134 // $169 USD

Food: $335 = £175 // $220 USD

Other: $400 = £209 // $263 USD

Car: $5417 = £2828 // $3562

Total (excluding car): $992 = £518 // $652 USD

Total (including car): $6409 = £3345 // $4213 USD

Pin this post for future reference!

Australia Budget Analysis

Well, obviously my finances took a major hit this month as I bought a new car. Thankfully, I ended up getting more money than I expected from my insurance settlement. Thanks to everyone who bought me a coffee, I just about broke even from the car costs. But obviously, it was a huge outgoing expense. Not just buying the car upfront, but the associated costs with it: transferring the ownership to my name, getting two new front tires, buying a new mattress and building a new platform, a bunch of random stuff from Kmart for kitting it out, etc.

A lot of this costly overhead was made up for the fact that I spent absolutely nothing on accommodation this month. I am so grateful that I was able to stay with my friend Shelley in Perth while I was getting my life together after last month’s car crash! I’ve spent the rest of the month on a housesit in Geraldton, where I’ve been living in a really nice house for free, taking care of a cute cat named Leo. This housesit is through Trusted Housesitters – I’ve absolutely loved it, and am so glad I signed up! It’s totally worth the money. You can get a 25% discount off a Trusted Housesitters membership here.

I didn’t do much driving this month, mainly city driving, the drive from Perth to Geraldton, and then one day trip to Kalbarri. After two months of literally shitting money on fuel, it felt soooo nice to not have to constantly be filling up. My food expenses are also very low; I had access to a kitchen and fridge for the entire month, not to mention my friend kindly feeding me most nights for dinner!

I had a lot of “other” expenses this month, besides the car. A big chunk of money in this category was my day trip to Rottnest Island – not just the ferry, but all-day parking and bike rental on the island. I needed to upgrade my blog hosting (again, ugh), and buy another one-month WA parks pass. Unfortunately, there aren’t any discount pharmacies in Geraldton, and I needed to stock up on two more months of birth control ($30/month – I’ll never take free birth control for granted again). I got my first haircut in almost a year (!), and bought some clothes at Kmart. But overall, this wasn’t a huge dent in my budget.

Next month will be a mixed bag, as I’ll spend half of it road tripping to Adelaide, and the other half on housesits – where hopefully I won’t be spending much money! I hope this post helps give you a realistic budget if you’re planning a trip around Australia.

Have you done housesitting while traveling before?

You might also like my posts:

How to Get a Work & Holiday Visa (WHV 462) for Australia in 2023

Australia Budget: Month 7 (October 2023)

Australia Budget: Month 6 (September 2023)

Australia Budget: Month 5 (August 2023)

Australia Budget: Month 4 (July 2023)

Australia Budget: Month 3 (June 2023)

Australia Budget: Month 2 (May 2023)

Australia Budget: Month 1 (April 2023)

Pin this post to save it for future reference!