Motorhoming on a budget in Norway - our top tips

There is no getting around it, for those of us who don’t live there, Norway is expensive. There are many good reasons for that, and it’s hard to begrudge restaurant waiting staff and farmers a decent income. Especially when jobs which are held by fat cats in the UK are paid significantly less in Norway. Norwegian prices are pitched at Norwegian incomes. Add to that the evidence that countries with perpetual darkness in winter are prone to issues with alcohol, and if high taxes help to reduce consumption, then you can see the logic. But if you come from the UK, or another country with comparable incomes, then Norway will feel expensive. However, there are ways to keep the cost down, and make the most of the incredible experiences it has to offer. 

Ferries are essential

We spent 35 days in Norway, with an average daily spend of £60, not including road tolls, which we haven’t been billed for yet. Of that £16 per day was spent on fuel, £9 on ferries (£309 in total) and £22 on food. The rest was the few paid stopovers, museum fees, LPG and other incidentals. Ferry prices would have been much higher if we had been over 6m, (we took the bike rack off to ensure we were 5.96m) although many motorhome drivers do manage to convince ferry staff that they are shorter than they are.

Here are our top tips for keeping costs down while travelling in Norway. 

• Wild camp. It’s easy to do there, there are lots of good car parks and lay-bys, and no one will question you if you stay well away from houses and abide by any polite notices asking you not to camp. If you are self-contained and don’t need toilets and electricity, then you can keep overnight fees to a minimum, especially as there are lots of good, free, service points. We paid four times in Norway, mainly to get access to great locations (Jordalsbreen glacier, Trondheim, Henningsvær and Sommerøya) and three of these also had laundry facilities we could use, either on site or nearby. The top picture shows one of the best places we pitched up, by a fjord on Senja. Our App of choice to find sites was Park4Night.
• Check fuel prices carefully and fill up when it’s cheapest. We were given a tip about prices dipping on Wednesday afternoons/Thursday mornings, and on Sunday afternoons/Monday mornings. Waiting until after one o’clock on a Wednesday saved us more than 10p a litre on one occasion - we drove back past the same garage. While we were here, prices were between 14.00 and 16.50 NOK a litre (about 140 -165 pence a litre). We filled up about twice a week, and never when it was more than 15.00 NOK. 
• Give yourself enough time in a supermarket to make good choices, and don’t plan meals in advance. That one vital ingredient could cost a lot more than you expect. Wait and see what’s on special offer, and plan a meal around that. The first time we shopped we were so overwhelmed by the prices that we just went “Oh we’ve got to eat” and bought almost our normal shop. It cost us £80, and we later learned there were savings we could have made.
• Buy own brand. We mainly used Rema 1000 supermarkets, and their Prima brand is significantly cheaper than everything else - and still reasonable quality. 
• Try buying frozen, instead of fresh. Vegetables, meat and dairy are all expensive - but frozen meat and veg are a good deal more affordable. As are packet mixes.

Packet mix cake baked on stove-top oven in van

• Bread. It’s expensive, so if you really want to save money, don’t buy it. If, like us, you eat some daily, then there are still ways to keep costs down. Rema usually discount at least one style of bread. A standard unsliced brown seeded loaf is 36 NOK (£3.60) But there is often one loaf on special offer for 20NOK (£2) And they do a basic small white loaf for 7.9 NOK (79 pence) although we didn’t actually try it. 

Loved this Tine yoghurt

• Buy in bulk - a 500g pack of butter was only 20p more than the 250g. We had to cut it up to fit into our butter dish. An iceberg lettuce lasted several days, and was a quarter of the price of bagged salad. A large bag of Swedish meatballs lasted us three meals - we put two thirds in the freezer. And we bought the big pots of Tine fruit yoghurt, which was lovely, and much cheaper than individual pots. We also batch-cooked and put extra meals in the motorhome freezer.
• Look out for special offers.  The Mattilbud app will help you find the best special offers at a range of supermarkets, but we just tuned into the Rema 1000 special offer sign. We love broccoli, and while we were here it was on special offer at Rema for 10NOK (£1) We had it with nearly every meal. Many other vegetables were pretty much off the menu, either too expensive. or just not available. The range of many products in Norway's supermarkets is surprisingly limited.
• Go without. There were some things that we just couldn’t make ourselves stump up  for. Like dark chocolate at £4 a slab (until we discovered a quite palatable Prima cooking chocolate at Rema for 10.9 NOK) Wine might need to be cut back - the best deal we found at Vinmonopolet was 340NOK for a 3 litre box for very drinkable Chilean brands like Viña Maipo and Concha y Toro. Still £8.50 a bottle, but this is Norway.
• Use convenience stores only for essentials. These places are a lifeline for their communities, and stock an incredible range, but they are considerably more expensive than main supermarkets. We wanted to support them, and the morning walk to the shop for bread or milk is part of travelling, but it just isn’t feasible to buy more than two or three items. 

Allow a few treats

• Make the most of those things that are cheaper than you would expect. We were surprised by batteries, supermarket dog food, Ryvita style crackers, and Tex Mex, which is a national obsession. There will be at least three brands of Fajita seasoning, so get onto that Mexican recipe site. 

The Tex Mex section in a standard supermarket

• Don’t eat out. Our choice was not to eat out at all, as we wouldn’t have enjoyed knowing we were blowing 2-3 days budget on one meal. If you do want to eat out, then eat at a proper restaurant, not fast food. The wages and other overheads make fast food comparatively much more expensive than better quality meals. And Thai and other Asian options represent the best value for money. Remember it’s the wine the will really push up the bill, so being abstemious might be a good option. 

Wine in moderation, take it with you where possible