We live in a caravan with our two young kids – we gave up a house and mortgage but it’s all worth it…camping is free
A FAMILY of four gave up a house and mortgage to live in a caravan , saying it’s worth it as camping is free.
The Falzon family, along with their dog Rocco, are currently travelling Down Under with the aim of leaving “no piece of Australia untouched or unseen”.
After a day’s fishing, dad Luke had the task of giving everything a “massive clean” and refilling the water cans in the back of the car which would be needed when they explored the remote areas in the north.
Luke also has to clean out the “tunnel boot” in the caravan because he thought it was “too packed” and they had taken too much stuff and had things they didn’t really need.
He said: “We brought more things that I think than we should have which we always do that anyway if we go away somewhere.
“We always take too much clothes, too much gear, too much everything.”
So he was going to sort it all and anything that hadn’t been used went straight in the bin.
One of the items that they had forgotten about which was in the tunnel boot was a pair of flashy diving goggles, giving them the idea of going snorkelling.
But after clearing it all out they realised it had been a “bit of a waste of time” as there was hardly anything they could get rid of.
Reflecting on their big change of lifestyle he said: “Thinking about like 5-6 years ago, how we were tradies and not happy – not happy as in not with ourselves but not happy with what we were doing, it didn’t feel right for us.
Alex said: “There was literally multiple times that we would sit down on the table, when Ari was a baby, we just started creating content and I was like we have like two mortgage repayments left in our bank account before we’re just going to go bust.”
“Like got to make this happen and so many hard times and a couple of hard years.”
She added: “But it is all worth it now because it’s all come together and that hard work has paid off.
“Iit’s all come together and that hard work has paid off. When you see opportunities like this come through and you know when you started to where you are now it’s just it’s a really good accomplishment feeling isn’t it.”
Luke also warned it was “expensive on the road” after they had gone shopping for various cleaners along with some cutters and crimpers and a gadget to measure tyre pressure.
Alex said: “200 bucks gone just like that – for a water pump and a toilet cassette.”
Luke also got the water cans refilled and checked over to make sure there weren’t any leaks, which was cause for a mini celebration.
Alex said: “Yeah a look at that, oh yeah. We did it.
“We’re ready to go back off grid live on a beach for another month, two months, three months.”
Having been shopping for Scarlet’s first birthday, the family were now preparing to go back living off grid.
Alex started by cleaning out the fridge ready to do a shop to refill it.
She did advise for people living in vans and caravans to invest in “food pods” as she said she had in the past struggled to keep food fresh.
Alex said the food pods were “a saviour” in keeping food fresh for longer.
Before setting off to go and live off grid there was another task to do – clean out the tanks which was done by flushing them out with a chemical.
Then it was time to celebrate Scarlet’s first birthday.