And what are you going to do with your 20k gold? Immersion >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> gold.

I recommend (to you, and the OP, and anyone else who likes exploring) getting http://skyrimnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=912 to disable the unvisited location markers on your compass, it makes exploring much more enjoyable when you don't get notified about every point of interest from a mile away.

You walk even in the wilderness? That's way hardcoe, but apparently not hardcoe enough to carry realistic amounts of gear .

I only use those wagons that cost money, no map fast traveling for me. At all. There is so many great sites in Skyrim and you miss them unless you walk.

Buy the houses? We all know playing house with a spouse = Immersion

I'm way ahead of you. I don't even have a compass. I disabled it in my SkyrimPrefs.ini.

Yeah wilderness though you almost never have to leave the road/paths which I try to stick to. Gets obnoxious sometimes as you can get to your destination by cutting across but the road to it loops completely around.

And I can't help but abuse some things...need the game to enforce better encumberment rules, or mods.

I hate myself for even thinking this, but... I'd like to do a no fast travel playthrough as well. I'd probably have to start over, though. Again... First, however, horses need to lose their suicidal tendencies. Second, we need some more companion control. I'd like to trek across Skyrim with Lydia, but it would help if she could mount up with me, or on her own horse. She'd also need to learn how to navigate simple obstacles... Like stairs.

Or ground.

I walk everywhere. I've never taken the carriage, and I only run when my roleplaying dictates I should (like when I'm trying to save a peasant from a wolf). I've gone up the mountain to High Hrothgar a couple of times. Takes about fifteen, twenty minutes when you're walking because you slow down a lot going uphill. That might seem boring to most people, but I love it. My chief pleasure playing this game is immersing myself in the landscape. It's almost as good as taking a real walk. But doubt most of the people on here enjoy that either.

Edit: I take Lydia with me everywhere. I've only lost her once, and that was because I was jumping around on rocks way up in the mountains. Her pathing AI has always been extraordinarily good in my experience. Never have a single hiccup walking all over the mountains.

I wish I could do that, because running often does hurt immersion for me a bit. But how do you keep your brain from shutting down on those long walks? Wish you could at least read the in-game books while traveling.

@TheMagician She gets stuck on spiral starcases coming out of the water. And that's it, really. Her real issue is finding the quickest path from point A to B, and she follows so far behind when running I often don't even see her when I get into a random fight.

On the other hand, if I RP walked everywhere, I probably wouldn't see any issues with her AI. It's a cool concept, but I don't think I'm hardcoe enough to RP walk everywhere >.<

If you’re really wanting to get the most out of the game you shouldn’t fast travel anyway. It takes WAAAY too much out of the game, by fast traveling you miss way too much. Daedric shrines and just random, fun stuff.