A woman has spent 10 months living in Australia and avoided paying rent and bills, saving up to $20,000.
Hailey Learmonth, 25, arrived in Australia from Canada as a backpacker and googled “how to travel for free”.
Her web search suggested an online directory that offers rent-free accommodation in return for pet-sitting.
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So far, Learmonth has lived rent-free in Queensland while looking after dogs, cats, chickens and cows around Brisbane and the Gold Coast.
She matched with homeowners via a house-sitting website and says the experience has been invaluable .
“When I first came here, I thought it’d be good to house-sit for a while and find my feet,” she said.
“But it’s turned into me living in other people’s houses for the past 10 months.
“I love Australia and I can confidently say through living rent-free I’ve saved about $20,000.”
Learmonth first visited Australia on a four-month university exchange program in 2018, when she travelled the Great Ocean Rd to Melbourne.
On her return, she created a profile on Trusted House Sitters where, for a $161 annual fee, she is matched with customers who also pay to advertise.
Her first job in January 2023, for a family with a farm on the Sunshine Coast, was looking after three german shepherds, 12 chickens and eight cows for nearly three months.
“It was a crazy experience. I’ve never lived that rural before, especially not on a farm,” Learmonth said.
“I used to travel around this 16ha 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.”
Learmonth said the savings were significant.
“The cost of living in Australia and Canada is brutally expensive,” she said.
“All I basically buy for myself nowadays is groceries.”