How to Track Campervan Expenses: Fuel, Mileage and Costs
Last updated: 28 October 2026 · Kervana team
Short answer
Record every expense with three things: the amount, a category and the trip it belongs to. For fuel, add the litres (or gallons) and the odometer reading. With just that, you can see where your money goes each month, what each trip cost, your real mpg and your cost per mile.
Then check your totals once a week. Ten minutes on a Sunday catches a budget going off track while there is still time to do something about it.
What to record for every expense
| Field | Why |
|---|---|
| Date | Monthly totals and weekly reviews |
| Amount (and currency) | The basics; keep pounds and euros apart if you cross the Channel |
| Category | Shows where the money goes (see below) |
| Trip | Lets you work out what each trip cost |
| Note | "BP Lancaster", "two nights, Keswick": helps you remember later |
| For fuel: litres or gallons, price, odometer | Real mpg and cost per mile |
| Receipt photo (optional) | Warranty claims, shared costs, checking a charge |
Keep it to these. The more fields you add, the sooner you stop filling them in.
Categories that work on the road
A short, fixed list makes the monthly picture readable:
- Fuel
- Campsites and overnight stays
- Food
- Water, gas and power (gas bottles, hook-up fees, laundry tokens)
- Maintenance and repairs (servicing, habitation check, tyres, parts)
- Insurance and tax (insurance, road tax, MOT, breakdown cover)
- Phone and internet
- Other
Add your own only for something you pay often enough to matter, such as Ferries or Tolls. Ten categories you use beat thirty you don't.
Fuel and mileage
Fuel is usually the biggest variable cost, and the one where a habit pays off most:
- Fill the tank to the brim and note the odometer.
- At every fill-up, record the litres (or gallons), the price and the odometer.
- mpg = miles since last fill ÷ (litres ÷ 4.546); cost per mile = what you paid ÷ miles since last fill.
Average over three or four fills: a single tank can be thrown off by a windy motorway day. At the UK diesel average in October 2026 (about 199p a litre), 28 mpg works out at about 32p a mile. The formula and a table by mpg are in campervan fuel cost per mile.
Cost per trip and per mile
Give each trip a name and dates (and, if you like, the odometer at the start and end), then tag every expense on the road with it. At the end:
- Total cost of the trip = everything tagged with it
- Cost per day = total ÷ days
- Cost per mile = total ÷ miles driven
This is the number that answers "what did that trip really cost?", and it makes the next trip much easier to plan. To plan one before you leave, the trip cost calculator gives a total from distance, mpg, fuel price, campsite nights and food.
Maintenance and fixed costs
Two kinds of cost are easy to forget because they don't happen every week:
- Maintenance: for each job, note the date, the odometer, what was done and the cost. It becomes your service history, which also helps when you sell.
- Yearly bills: insurance, road tax, MOT, the habitation check and storage. Log them when you pay, and when you budget, spread them over 12 months. A typical UK yearly total is broken down in motorhome running costs in the UK.
Set a monthly limit per category
Totals tell you what happened; limits tell you before it happens. Pick a monthly limit for the two or three categories that swing most (usually campsites, fuel and food) and check them when you reach about 80%. For a realistic starting point, see the three monthly budgets in cost of living in a van in the UK.
Notebook, spreadsheet or app?
| Notebook | Spreadsheet | App | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cost | Free | Free | Many are free |
| Logging on the road | Quick, but easy to forget | Awkward on a phone | Quick on a phone |
| Totals by category and month | By hand | Formulas you maintain | Automatic |
| Cost per trip and per mile | By hand | Possible with work | Depends on the app |
| mpg from fill-ups | By hand | Possible with work | Depends on the app |
| Budget warnings | No | Only if you look | Notifications, in some apps |
| Receipts | Paper in a folder | Separate photos | Attached to the entry, in some apps |
| Works without signal | Yes | Usually | Depends on the app |
A spreadsheet is fine if you're happy to update it at the end of each day on a laptop. Keep one row per expense with the fields from the first table, and use a pivot table for totals by category and month.
An app wins on the road because you log the expense when you pay, on the phone in your hand. If you choose one, check four things: does it handle mpg from fill-ups, cost per trip, budget warnings, and logging without signal?
How Kervana does it
Kervana is built for exactly this, and it's free:
- Ready-made categories for life on the road (Fuel, Campsites, Maintenance, Food, Water/Gas/Power, Insurance/Tax, Internet), plus your own.
- Fuel by the litre or gallon with the odometer: your average consumption (mpg or L/100 km) and price per gallon or litre are worked out for you.
- Trips with dates and odometer readings: total, daily and per-mile (or per-km) cost for each trip.
- Monthly limits per category, with a notification at 80% and when you go over.
- Receipt photos attached to the entry, and logging without signal: entries are sent when you're back online.
- Pounds, euros or Turkish lira; miles or km. No ads, and it doesn't ask for your location.