I really need… (fill in this space with whatever it is you think you MUST have) … before I go.

Really?

Is having that ‘thing’ stopping you from setting off on your dream trip?

We recently went to the “Geelong Outdoor Living Show” to do ‘research’ on things we want to purchase before we go travelling. It was a great day out. We met a lot of great sales people from the Caravanning industry and picked their brains about everything from Ozpigs to Generators, Portable solar set-ups to inflatable boats.

The people at these events are used to helping people make their travel dreams come true! They know what works and what doesn’t and they are more than happy to talk and explain how things work.

We had a lot of questions. And we learnt heaps.

But the keyword in that paragraph, is “sales people”. We walked away with this ever growing list of things we absolutely NEED before we go and probably an inflated idea of what is value for money and of problems with buying cheap knock-offs.

And now, this list of things is hanging over us like a great big weight! How will we ever save enough money for the trip if we have to spend thousands on big ticket items before we go as well? Based on the list of “great deals” that were only available then and there at the expo, we were looking at almost $10,000 worth of items!

Admittedly, many of these items are great investments in saving us money later on. Solar panels and a good generator will allow us to free camp more often, saving us on accommodation. The Ozpig will mean we can cook on a fire even in fire restrictions, reducing our reliance on gas cooking.

It’s still money we have to fork out BEFORE we can set off, though.

But what is a necessity and what can we (maybe) compromise on?

Is it going to delay us if we continue to think of these as MUST HAVES? Could we possibly get away sooner if we rethink this list?

This week I have started looking at Gumtree and Ebay to try to find some of the things we really want second-hand and there are some awesome bargains out there. And there are often lesser known brands that do the same thing, which are less than half the price of the popular brands.

Maybe we need to be ok with the possibility that we might not start out with the absolute best of everything or be too paralysed by the fear that a cheaper brand or a used item might not be the equivalent quality.

It is really hard to find the balance between being thoroughly prepared and paralysis by analysis.

What if something we have spent half as much money on, fails us in half the time a better brand might have lasted? What if we don’t have the ability to replace items as we go without dipping into our travel savings?

There are always going to be things that come up on the road, and part of our plan is to make sure we are as prepared as possible for these outcomes before we go, but if you let all the “what if’s…” hold you back you might never go, right?

So we need to work out what we are willing to compromise on, and really think hard about what is a need and what is really just a want at this stage.

How about you?

Can we change that sentence from “I really need…(INSERT ITEM)…before I go.” To “I’m going, and I’ll work out what I really need as I go!”