Is almost everyone on here loaded?

[Sue and Rick]

We have both worked hard over the years and managed to save and pay off the mortgage. Now spending it before we’re too old or unfit to do so. Not got pots of the stuff, still work albeit part time. Happy as pigs...

 

[VXman]

Is almost everyone on here loaded?​

It's a relative isn't it? You might think I'm loaded but I'm looking at he guy in the 9 metre Niesmann + Bischoff and thinking 'he's loaded'.

 

[Grasmere9]

It's a relative isn't it? You might think I'm loaded but I'm looking at he guy in the 9 metre Niesmann + Bischoff and thinking 'he's loaded'.

me too...are we on the same site?

 

[Pausim]

Sadly I think prices are going to get a lot higher than they already are. If you want unrestricted EHU, heated shower/toilet blocks, sites with lighting and on site staff then it is probably going to cost you a lot more. Perhaps these sites were originally set up to cater for people who only spent 2 or 3 holiday weeks a year on them. I usually prefer cheaper more informal sites but I will use the expensive ones if they are in a location I particularly want to visit.

Last year many of the sites I visited were full but this year I have noticed more spaces. If the expensive sites lose too many customers they may have to rethink the services they provide or the choices they offer. Meanwhile there are cheaper locations available and I think we will all have to adjust our expectations and perhaps do without some of the luxuries.

 

[nicholsong]

I gather from reading this thread that some people pay just to park their self-contained MHs.

Well, each unto their own.

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[John Barrett]

I've never been so well off! Full State pension + modest private one, no mortgage, no credit card debt, I haven't bought a suit or a white shirt for 20 years, no commuting/fuel costs, no hotel extravangances (occasionally £30 for a bottle of wine!), my cars last three times as long, etc.etc...
I no longer go to work just to go to work!
As someone famously posted on here: 'Twice the fun on half the money!'
Happy John

 

[Minxy]

Yep, that's us, real tight arses when using the van, only thing we don't mind spending on is buying the van.

... And stuffing your face eating out when on holiday.

 

[chaser]

... And stuffing your face eating out when on holiday.

But that's a different thing, you have to eat and it's not much different cooking your own or eating out and you get something for your money and someone has had to cook it, so it's cost them to do it.
Parking in a field, you are not getting anything, the owner doesn't have to do anything but collect your money and when you draw off he's still got the field the same as it was.

 

[Mickey1]

I’ve read on forums some will pay £30 a night on sites, I’ve also read some stay at pub stops without buying so much as a drink, I wouldn’t do either.

 

[SpeedyDux]

We go on several short trips, using CMC sites close to the towns that we (especially the Duxette) want to mooch around. She won't put up with slumming on a field or car park, so CMC or very nice independent sites it must be.

We aren't loaded. One state pension and a couple of small private pensions between us, but at least the mortgages are paid off. House improvements and repairs are on hold. The PVC was part funded by a modest inheritance, 5 years ago. Running costs and site fees come out of income. Next year, due to inflation and especially home energy costs shooting up this winter, means 2023 motorhoming expenses will probably come out of savings. It will still be a lot cheaper than the 2 week package holidays abroad in 4* hotels we used to have that are no longer affordable. Also, I loathe the nasty flights and 4 am starts to get to the airport that ruins the experience at both ends.

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[chaser]

I’ve read on forums some will pay £30 a night on sites, I’ve also read some stay at pub stops without buying so much as a drink, I wouldn’t do either.

But pub stops are free apart from your meal which you would have had anyway, that's the difference between getting something solid for your money and just somewhere to park a motor.

 

[62272]

This could be you Chaser the bit after this clip is just as funny as he tots up everything he wants to charge them for

 

[Carol]

chaser As you said you have the land/fields you could charge a small sum maybe £5/£10 but couldn't be bothered with the hassle and that's probably why a lot more farmer's don't bother which is a shame because it means more demand on sites and the more demand the higher the price that gets charged.
I think also if it's your main holiday and you need entertainment then maybe for a couple of weeks it may be worth paying a premium.
Personally though the large amounts on some sites are way beyond my pay grade, and don't appeal to me at all.

 

[chaser]

Looking at this from the other side,I suppose most people live in large towns and are used to paying exorbitant parking fees and other costs and don't see a lot of grass whereas here grass is just about all we see and we can park more or less where we like for free even in uttoxeter so the fact of having to pay this sort of money to be somewhere that's no different than being at home comes as a severe shock.

 

[chaser]

This could be you Chaser the bit after this clip is just as funny as he tots up everything he wants to charge them for

Love that clip, r I p all of them

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[funflair]

Loaded? absolutely Oh hang on we bought the new (ish) van so no we are not loaded but we can still live comfortably, we can/could afford expensive sites if we wanted and sometimes if they are in the right place we might dig deep for a few nights but our favourites are a field, a rally, THS, stellplatz or aire, we dont wild camp or use pub stops particularly we would buy a meal at a pub stop of course but we prefer our own cooking, my biggest problem with most sites is the obligatory use of electricity OK we don't have to use it but they are going to charge for it anyway.

So chaser if you are in a nice spot get it sorted and we will come "#loads a money"

 

[Spriddler]

I did !
My last motorhome depreciated -£5 in 5 years and cost me £130 tunnel return and next to nothing apart from diesel for about 3 months holiday per year for 2 and sometimes the grumpkids.
I couldnt afford a package holiday

At 65 after 30+ years of touring Europe and the U.K. with a vintage motorbike and tent

It wasn't for cheap holidays but the creaky joints that necessitated something more comfortable so on a whim eleven years ago I bought a 1995 motorhome for £13,000 and have carried on adventuring around Europe. It has been utterly reliable, has been MOT'd every year without even an Advisory, does everything I need and apart from servicing and a couple of DIY jobs on hab stuff it has cost me nothing, is still virtually unmarked and is probably still worth what I paid for it. I have no need to change it.

Don't know how you work that out we find it far cheaper to pop across the channel even done it for long weekends in the past.

One gallon of fuel to get to the ferry port £160 - £180 for return ferry then we spend 6 weeks or more camping for free or just a few Euro a night.

Exactly the same for me. Living just a 17 mile drive from France (Newhaven port) I only tour abroad where m/h's are welcomed rather than in the U.K. where m/h's are merely tolerated.

 

[Mickey1]

But pub stops are free apart from your meal which you would have had anyway, that's the difference between getting something solid for your money and just somewhere to park a motor.

Totally agree, I wouldn’t dream of parking without having a meal and a pint, but there are some who don’t.

 

[gradyp]

We're going through France and Spain end of September. And I'm an organiser , I can't just drive and stop I like organising nights etc. So we've booked 5 sites covering 33 nights all commercial sites with pools and bars etc and its cost a total of £708 :- 33 nights = £21.50 per night , which I don't think is to bad , you try and book something like that in this country.

Even with the cost of diesel , ferries , tolls and sites for 2 is around £1700 , food and beer on top , I think is a cheap holiday

 

[Minxy]

But that's a different thing, you have to eat and it's not much different cooking your own or eating out and you get something for your money and someone has had to cook it, so it's cost them to do it.

I beg to differ, the cost of eating out is a lot more than cooking for yourself although as you say at least you may get more benefit.

Parking in a field, you are not getting anything, the owner doesn't have to do anything but collect your money and when you draw off he's still got the field the same as it was.

But he has to own the field in the first place, pay council tax on it, get approval from the council, manage the bookings/stays, keep it clear etc, the days of just opening the gate and letting people stay is long gone.

But pub stops are free apart from your meal which you would have had anyway, that's the difference between getting something solid for your money and just somewhere to park a motor.

Not at the price you pay though, once you have a meal, drinks etc it could well be £40 or more so the small site charging £10 where you get to stay in nicer surroundings, and cook yourself can be a lot cheaper and IMV better. We wild camp/park, not in grotty places but somewhere we want to be so we can relax.

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[62272]

https://www.

facebook.com/sixties.timemachine/videos/in-honour-of-peter-butterworth-who-passed-away-42-years-ago-today-/1825453420954177/



this was the clip i was trying to find

the only way of getting around Jim’s settings is to cut and paste the facebook bit and add the https bit at the start

 

[chaser]

I beg to differ, the cost of eating out is a lot more than cooking for yourself although as you say at least you may get more benefit.


But he has to own the field in the first place, pay council tax on it, get approval from the council, manage the bookings/stays, keep it clear etc, the days of just opening the gate and letting people stay is long gone.


Not at the price you pay though, once you have a meal, drinks etc it could well be £40 or more so the small site charging £10 where you get to stay in nicer surroundings, and cook yourself can be a lot cheaper and IMV better. We wild camp/park, not in grotty places but somewhere we want to be so we can relax.

But we are talking about over £35 parking.

 

[Folkranger]

Just spent a month abroad, mainly on sites. The weather was just too hot to spend our time sitting in carparks and other similar motorhome stops. We made sure that we were under trees as much as possible and on grass which doesn't reflect the heat.

Price wise we tried to stick below 30 euros, though some that were priced less in apps were much more. We found the best sites were always the small independantly owned ones and they were often about 20-25 euros.

We regard ourselves as reasonably well off since retiring 12 years ago, mainly because we saved and invested rather than spent every penny while working. Sadly our savings are no longer an investment with galloping inflation and next-to-nothing interest rates, But we'll manage OK (unless we live to be 120)

 

[Pausim]

We're going through France and Spain end of September. And I'm an organiser , I can't just drive and stop I like organising nights etc. So we've booked 5 sites covering 33 nights all commercial sites with pools and bars etc and its cost a total of £708 :- 33 nights = £21.50 per night , which I don't think is to bad , you try and book something like that in this country.

Even with the cost of diesel , ferries , tolls and sites for 2 is around £1700 , food and beer on top , I think is a cheap holiday

I believe agricultural land in the UK costs 4 times as much as in France and I suspect land with commercial possibilities, such as a camp site, will be even more than 4x. Some charitable people may be happy to allow their land to be used for very little but in general most expect to see some return on their investment. I am not at all surprised that camping in the UK cost more than in France or Spain.

 

[DDJC]

Yo

If it wasn't for getting involved with councils and h&s and other rubbish I would be glad to let folks park in my fields for a fiver, money for nowt.

You have fields ????
I havent. You must be loaded.

But yeah, we are currently comfortable with both of us working, certainly enough to pay top dollar if a site is what we want and where.

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[Folkranger]

As I've said many times on here, problem with the UK is they are pandering to the caravan community and its not what Motorhomes want.

Couldn't agree more

 

[Folkranger]

I suspect most on here are going to leave a fair bit to the next generation

We were going to but these past few years they've exceeded our previous (working) standard of living and income so now we're spending more on ourselves.

 

[Folkranger]

In the end it comes down to personal choice and this may or not be limited by personal wealth but there should be no scorn or derision of anyone else's choice. We can't second guess why they chose this site or that car park.

We can't always assume that people who spend more money do it just to impress others. I'm sure this club include all types and why would people want to deride others in the same club. Let's just live and let live.

(It does make interesting reading though).

 

[Chockswahay]

Wow! I’ve found this thread such interesting reading that I virtually forgot what the thread was originally about

As I have said before we do not use our van for either cheap holidays or expensive holidays and that is because we are retired and have no need for a ‘holiday’ as such. What we do indulge in however is having grand adventures for a few weeks/months at a time that would simply not suit any other form of travel by way of practicality or budget. We don’t like to plan ahead regarding exact nightstop location so that we are free to roam when and where we like as the whim takes us. Because we like to travel we rarely spend more that one night in one place so booking ahead or more nights just would not work for us.

Coming back to @chaser’s original point/question yes I do think there are too many people prepared to spend too much money just to stop for one night in their own self contained van! We don’t for the reasons I have already stated, and because we can not afford too (at least not on a regular basis).

For us ….. free is best…… a tenner is acceptable if we have no choice…… more that £15 and we would not stay at all.

Something that is not really being addressed here is that the cost to stay on some of these campsites is not necessarily out of the way for most of us if we only do it for a few weeks here or there, for a few weeks at a time. To spend so much money per night for perhaps 150 nights a year….. well, we can’t afford that even if we wanted to.

Are you retired? are you taking children? do you have a mobility issue? are you time limited? are you secure in leaving things to the last minute? There are so many variables with so many different answers. I have an answer to all of this…… just keep doing whatever is sustainable and enjoyable for you and gives you what you need from motorhoming

Also I think it depends on how far you go. Diesel is probably the greater cost, especially the further you go! We budget for about 12000 to 15000 miles a year, we are lucky that our van is fuel efficient at between 40 and 50 mpg but if you only do 20 to 25 then it gets worse! Add to that the ferry costs then I would say It soon adds up to a fairly sizeable sum of money. And that brings us all round to ………

‘You pays your money and you takes your choice’

 

[bertiebasset]

There are a few folk on here who love speaking for others.
I retired 12 years ago at age 60 having burned myself out working 80-90 hours a week and away Monday to Saturday. I have always been careful with money after 5 redundancies.
SWMBO carried on working in the health service for another 5 years as she enjoyed it so much.
We both have state and private pensions, have recently moved into a bungalow in a lovely area, run a 10 year old Corsa car (24k on the clock) and a 12 year old motorhome. 7.5 mtr 2 berth.
We are very careful with our spending but if it costs £25-£30 per night then so be it. We are away for about 4 months each year. We used to go abroad but with moving house,, covid,, expiry of passports we have been touring UK these last 3 years and thoroughly enjoy it. but we will use CS's, car parks, pubs and commercial sites as and when we need in order to be where we need to be.
Would we be without the moho,,?? no way,, we enjoy it too much but SWMBO does not like to be off grid for more than a couple of days at a time hence campsites it is mostly.
Each to their own is what I say.
We are still saving money in the bank so life is good for us.

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