Spend way less on the vehicle and more on USING the vehicle...
I have tried to do that on my current 1970 Suburban..even down to putting 130 miles of dirt on it the day I bought it with old tires, shag carpet and unknown everything.
Over the last 2 yrs I have spent very little time building and more playing with it and just this summer got it painted. Now it is getting axles (disc instead of drums & ARB lockers), an overdrive trans (to boost mpg and deeper first gear), and a few other bits.
But I will put off a diesel swap till spring as the winter is the best time to travel the desert and I don't want to miss out on more camping trips.
My first rig was an FJ Cruiser and I dumped 10 grand into it, beat the crap out of it and before too long realized it wasn't the right rig. Would have been way smarter to use it stock for as long as possible and got rid of it before sinking all that cash.
Other rigs I learned lessons on but they usually were spend first, learn second....even with Expo to draw knowledge from.
The most important thing is to make travel/experience/memories the top goal...building something physical is the byproduct.
Although I will say my sons and I have created some pretty fun memories this summer/fall working on the old iron.