Woman travels Australia for free and saves $12K by pet sitting

By Hannah Van De Peer via SWNS

A backpacker has traveled for free and saved £10,000 ($12,195) by pet sitting.

Hailey Learmonth, 25, Googled "how to travel for free" before venturing to Australia from Canada in January.

Ever since she has been staying in other peoples homes for free in exchange for looking after their pets and homes for between six days and three months.

She's looked after dogs, cats, chickens and cows in Brisbane, The Hinterland and the Gold Coast, living rent free, saving thousands of pounds.

Photographer Hailey often looks after remote homes, she's saved tons of money on going out too - around £10,400 (or $20,000 AUD) in total.

She matches with homeowners via a housesitting website - and agrees to look after their pets for extended periods of time.

The opportunity has given her the chance to explore all the “underrated” places in Australia - while saving thousands on rent, nights out and booze.

Hailey, a photographer from Squamish, Canada, said: “It’s been a crazy experience.

"When I first came here, I thought it’d be good to house-sit for a while and find my feet.

“But it’s turned into me living in other people’s houses for the last nine months.

“I love Australia - and it’s been a fun little journey to get here. I can confidently say through working full-time and living rent free, I’ve saved around £10.4k.”

Hailey first visited Australia on a university exchange programme for four months in 2018, and travelled the east coast, to Melbourne and the Great Ocean Road.

“I met an amazing group of friends who I travelled with,” Hailey added.

“I knew I’d be coming back.”

During Covid, Hailey began looking into how to travel on a bargain for when “the world opened up again”.

After Googling “how to travel for free”, she was directed to a number of house-sitting sites in different areas.

She then “bookmarked it, and put a pin in it” - until November 2022.

Hailey said: “I was a bit older, and my standards had changed a little, but I was still very much a broke backpacker trying to cheat my way through absolutely everything!"

She created a profile on Trusted House Sitters for £84 for an annual fee, and is matched with customers who also pay so "everyone has skin in the game".

“I added loads of pictures of myself with dogs, talked about my experience with pet-sitting in the past, showed my personality - was transparent about the fact that your dogs will get lots of walking done with me, because I’m a very active person," she said.

She submitted applications for two months before her first job in January 2023, for a family with a farm in the Sunshine Coast.

Hailey spent £900 on flights out to the Hinterland - and was left to look after three German Shepherds, 12 chickens and eight cows for two-and-a-half months.

She said: “It was a crazy experience. I’ve never lived that rural before, especially not on a farm.

“It was the middle of the summer, so I wasn’t working - and we were in the middle of nowhere!

“I used to travel around this 40 acre piece of land with the dogs, we’d go to this dam and they’d paddle in the water. The cows would follow us down and everything!

“I even got fresh eggs for breakfast from the chickens. It was such a cool experience.”

Hailey has spent anywhere from 10 days to six weeks at a time, living in houses and looking after their pets.

She’s currently coming to the end of another three-month dog-sit - which has seen her living back on the Sunshine Coast since July.

Through freelance photography and several stints at coffee shops, Hailey has managed to maintain a constant stream of income too.

She added: “All I basically buy for myself nowadays is groceries.

"I don’t go out much or drink - some of my house-sitting jobs mean I’m unable to venture very far out of my local area.

“I’m in total money-saving mode - just solo-ing it round the beaches and local, unexplored areas.

“When all’s said-and-done, I can confidently say I’ve saved around £10k ($20,000 AUS).

“The cost-of-living in Australia - and Canada - is so brutally expensive. It’s a hot commodity to live in these two countries.

“If I hadn’t been sharehousing with homeowners via the website, I’d probably have paid £6k in rent by now.

“If you’re looking to live and travel by yourself - good luck. Sharehousing seems like it might be your best bet.”

Hailey’s work visa expires on January 1, 2024 - and she hopes to road trip around Sydney, Tasmania, Adelaide and Perth to make the most of her last few months.

After returning to Canada, she says she’ll “throw a dart on a map” to find her next destination.