Here is our financial summary of our three month tour of Scotland.
As usual we keep track of all our spending. We review our spending as we go and use our final summary to help us understand our travelling behaviour and to budget for future trips.
You might find this information useful too. We try to explain why we have spent what we have so you can see if it applies to you and extrapolate to make a budget for your trip..
On top of the figures mentioned here we obviously have other costs related to our motorhome (ie insurance, MOT and servicing) and our home (ie bills and maintenance).
How we pay for our trips
We have a combination of rental income, savings, and income from work. Paul took early retirement in early 2023, and I still work on a consultancy/contracting basis. This means I work either between trips, or – as in this case – while we are travelling.
Learning from this trip
This trip was a bit unusual because I (Becky) was working a couple of days a week throughout the trip. This had a few consequences, and as I am likely to work during our next trip we will learn from this:
- firstly, it meant we sought out electric hook up (EHU) more often that we would normally. My work laptop can only be powered from 230v electricity supply (I haven’t been able to find a 12v charger that my current employer is happy for me to use with their equipment) which means either being on hook-up or using our inverter. As we progressed from autumn into winter our solar wasn’t always providing enough of a top up to our batteries and so EHU became the default.
- secondly, it meant I was sitting still for long periods of time which meant I was getting cold and we used the heating a lot more than we do normally. Usually we’re out and about during the day and only use heating in the evening and morning. My work days increased our LPG use significantly.
- thirdly, we were more inclined to treat ourselves on non-work days. You will notice a much higher spend than usual on drinking, meals and snacks.
Spending Summary
Our trip was 88 Days long and we drove 2337.2 miles. Our total spend was £6165.53
Campsites and Overnight parking
These days we are much less likely to seek out free parking. Given the negative publicity around motorhomes and campervans, especially on the NC500, we are much more inclined to use designated overnight parking spots. We do still like a bargain though.
All the way up the east coast of Scotland we found lots of reasonable value motorhome parking, whether private “aires” or community supported parking, like the highland council scheme for overnight sleeping bays (OSBs). We only really use non designated parking in remote areas, where we felt welcome or where there just wasn’t anywhere else to go.
Of our 88 nights, 69 nights were paid for and 19 were free. The average cost per night was £15.26. Our most expensive campsite was, unsurprisingly, Morton Hall campsite near Edinburgh at £39 per night including hook up.
Some of our favourite spots were harbours and seaside spots Cullen, Port Errol and Elie Bay come to mind, but there were just so many affordable stopovers. You can see all of our stops on our map here .
Fuel
We drove 2337.2 miles, paying 689.93 for fuel. Bertie is not the most fuel efficient vehicle but we thought it was pretty reasonable to achieve 21.75 mpg given the roads.
Diesel was approx 1.41 per litre, with quite a few fluctuations in price during the journey.
Eating Out
We spent £1747.07 on eating out. This includes everything from a couple of pints in a pub watching seals and ice cream at the beach at lossiemouth to the delicious seafood platter we had for my birthday in Aberdeen.
We loved the amazing Fish and Chips at Pierowall and Pizza at 59 Degrees North (which was also a great stopover). The toasted sandwich from St Andrews was lush, and featured on Saturday Kitchen a few weeks after we visited and who knew we would find amazing french hand made chocolate on the Fife peninsular We treated ourselves a lot more than usual which we really enjoyed.
Groceries
We spent £1297.84 on groceries. This is pretty similar to what we spend when we’re at home. We nearly always cook from scratch and so our spending on groceries was mostly on ingredients for the dishes we like to cook. The total also includes cider, beer and wine when we fancies a drink.
Days Out
This total includes our membership of Historic Scotland which turned out to be a great money saver for a long trip. It also includes entry fees and donations at other attractions.
Our trip to the antiquities on Orkney was a real bucket list item. Skara Brae, the Stones at Stenness, Maeshowe, all the smaller sites dotted around. It is hard to describe the feelings associated with seeing the evidence of human occupation from so many millennia ago and realising that really, they weren’t any different than modern humans. We also visited many castles and stately homes from the fantastic ruins at St Andrews with their underground mines, to significant castles which have been used over hundreds of years like Edinburgh or Stirling, to 18th century mansions. Of course there were the abbeys and cathedrals and the amazing carved pictish stones that mark a transition from pre-Christian society to early Christian worship.
Also included in our numbers is daytime parking for attractions, outdoor locations or town visits.
We sometimes used public transport to get into towns and cities or to return to Bertie at the end of a walk. The costs for buses and trains are also included in here.
Our total spend on all of the above was £443.88
Many of our days out were low cost or even free. Seeing dolphins off the fife coast, or grey seal pups on South Ronaldsay. Climbing an incredibly windy Ben Wyvis, and the wild lonely road to Ben Hope, most northerly of the munros. There were so many amazing spots to swim, my favourite being Portknockie Harbour. We had some incredible mountain biking experiences from the downhill trails like Learnie Red Rocks to the rough Orkney outrun where we bobbled along on our bikes past amazing cliffs and sea stacks. Being outdoors in Scotland is good for the soul.
Gas
We used our heating more than usual and spent £115.13 on gas
Ferries
We took 6 trips on ferries. To get to and from Orkney we used the crossing from Gills Bay to St Margaret’s Hope. Then we had two other return trips, from Kirkwall to Sanday and from Kirkwall to Westray.
In total we spent £448.40 on ferries.
We hope you enjoyed following us on our trip to Scotland in 2024. We have one significant cost we haven’t mentioned yet. On our return from Scotland we made a momentous and costly decision. More to follow….