Tam &Toby do Europe ...Take two

[shawn&emma]

Ours is about 4 times yours (around £800 in most months), and theres only two of us too.I don't include booze or dog food. Its a bit less if I do the shopping rather than swmbo but I dont like it and she does. She likes Tesco which I avoid, as I dont think they're good for quality or prices.

We only just spend that much a month with everything, pensions, insurance, healthcare, all vehicle stuff, fuel, dogfood.

 

[shawn&emma]

You must starve we are very frugal with food shopping in the UK we spend about £45 - £50 a week. In Spain and Portugal we spend about €20 - €30 every 2 or 3 days as we tend to eat better when away in the van.


Over the last three years we've changed our lifestyle in many ways and our eating habits has been a big part of that, we feel healthier than we've ever been. When we both worked full time over 10 years ago our average UK weekly shop was £60. Looking back a lot of that was meat and diary based. I used to drink a couple of pints of milk a day, 80p or so and straight away that's £6.40 just on 1 product each week. I now spend 50p a week on fresh milk for my cornflakes, have water with porridge and milk powder in my tea, that's about £2 ish a box and last about a month.

We're on a tight budget at the moment but still more than happy with the quantity and variety of food we eat.

 

[busby]

Value bags of fruit and veg and yes plenty of rice, pasta and beans. Porridge with water for breakfast which is mega cheap. We're not vegetarian but rarely eat meat and very little dairy which all tends to be pricey. Don't drink that much these days, nothing over the last 6 months.

Works for us and we don't go hungry.

Shawn

Some people eat to live,,me I live to eat,,nice wine and nice food are one of lives pleasures,,bugger the expense.BUSBY?

 

[Bobandfay]

Value bags of fruit and veg and yes plenty of rice, pasta and beans. Porridge with water for breakfast which is mega cheap. We're not vegetarian but rarely eat meat and very little dairy which all tends to be pricey. Don't drink that much these days, nothing over the last 6 months.

Works for us and we don't go hungry.

Shawn

You should take my wife shopping you would save me a fortune ? but I could not live on rice and beens without some strong alcohol to help ?

 

[Northernraider]

So we are in ghent now .....parked here yesterday afternoon

Its probably the closest and safest place to park within walking distance to the city , really cold night last night and toby is covered in frost this morning.
I think I need to invest in thermal Matt's for windscreen and cab windows and possibly the skylights too ....to try and cut down condensation as it's pretty bad.

Anyway we are going to walk in to town in a while as theres a castle and cathedral here , probably stay here tonight again and then move to the aire outside of ghent tomorrow as theres one with hookup again and at the minute I'm needing hookup every 3 or 4 days as the heating don't half drain my batteries.

Didn't get the toad I was after on Ebay as the shit ignored my 2 messages and then suddenly it was marked as sold despite me having contacted him literally 20 minutes after it was listed ....hey ho there will be others.

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[Lenny HB]

3 or 4 days as the heating don't half drain my batteries.

Combi's aren't that bad if you had it on for 6 hours in the evening & a couple of hours in the morning + hot water I would expect to use about 16a/h a day unless it's blowing a gale with the wind sucking all the heat out of the van.

Your problem is lack of charge, you are not in Spain now so you will get bugger all out of your solar at this time of year.

 

[Rob and Val]

We love Ghent. Like it much better than Bruges. Took loads of photos when we were in Ghent. Here's one: -

 

[Lenny HB]

We love Ghent. Like it much better than Bruges. Took loads of photos when we were in Ghent. Here's one: -
View attachment 347175

Agree nice old town.

 

[Northernraider]

Combi's aren't that bad if you had it on for 6 hours in the evening & a couple of hours in the morning + hot water I would expect to use about 16a/h a day unless it's blowing a gale with the wind sucking all the heat out of the van.

Your problem is lack of charge, you are not in Spain now so you will get bugger all out of your solar at this time of year.

Yeah I mean I have the heating on from around 6pm till 11pm , I dont use it in the mornings as usually up and out with dogs after breakfast anyway so it would just be getting warm when we go out .

Sometimes I'll start the van up when I first put heating on as that's when it uses the most battery power when running full pelt , but once up to temperature it doesn't use a lot but keeps the van pretty cosy.

I've not found yet how many days I get from one bottle I'm testing that out now.

But the most I'm getting charge from engine is around 4-6 amps
And at the minute despite it being sunny here I'm only getting .5 -1 amp from the solar ?

But at least it pushes up the battery voltage as they were at 12.3v first thing this morning but 12.8 at the minute from the solar.

 

[Northernraider]

We love Ghent. Like it much better than Bruges. Took loads of photos when we were in Ghent. Here's one: -
View attachment 347175

Yes it's a nice town we are just back from our walk around.

Haven't been to brugge yet that will be our next stop in a few days.

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[Lenny HB]

And at the minute despite it being sunny here I'm only getting .5 -1 amp from the solar

How much solar have you got?
Have you cleaned the panels recently?

 

[Northernraider]

So here's the photos of ghent , lovely old town and I imagine it's much prettier in the spring and summer ....although I think it would also be nice around Christmas with the lights etc . Lovely castle

 

[Northernraider]

How much solar have you got?
Have you cleaned the panels recently?

I think its 200 watt ...they were on there when I bought it and both panels are slightly different sizes ...but remember I've crap controllers at the minute and wired through ebl which we think is dodgy

Last cleaned a few weeks back but had lots of heavy rain so I'd expect them to be pretty clean. I'll pop up for a look after lunch


That said lol despite me saying its sunny I have just noticed that the suns blocked from my van by a block of flats at the minute

 

[Floydster]

Love the bicycle fishing

 

[Northernraider]

Love the bicycle fishing

Yeah that was funny as there are literally thousands of bikes in this town and all the others in belgium holland and germany ...but it shows that theres also thousands get chucked in the canal lol ....they fished all them just out of that one stretch between the two bridges.

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[Lenny HB]

And at the minute despite it being sunny here I'm only getting .5 -1 amp from the solar

With a decent regulator you would probably be getting around 3 amps, even then you would probably only get around a max of 15 a/h a day with clear skies at this time of year and you are probably using over 30a/h a day.

 

[chrisinplymouth]

Not sure if this is of any use...... saw it today on another site...

 

[busby]

So here's the photos of ghent , lovely old town and I imagine it's much prettier in the spring and summer ....although I think it would also be nice around Christmas with the lights etc . Lovely castle View attachment 347188View attachment 347189View attachment 347190View attachment 347191View attachment 347192View attachment 347193View attachment 347194View attachment 347195View attachment 347196View attachment 347197View attachment 347198View attachment 347199View attachment 347200View attachment 347201View attachment 347202View attachment 347203View attachment 347204View attachment 347205View attachment 347206View attachment 347207View attachment 347208View attachment 347209View attachment 347210View attachment 347211View attachment 347212View attachment 347213View attachment 347214View attachment 347215View attachment 347216

Is it cold Tam because you look well wrapped up..Your Samsung takes far better photos than my A3,,or is it you.? BUSBY.

 

[Northernraider]

Oh Please!

I decided about 5.15 to start up toby and run the engine for a bit while I put the heating on as my batteries were reading 12.3v ? once the bit of sun had gone

Had it running about 20 minutes or so and the guy from the belgian camper next door came out and knocked on the door and said can you turn of your engine .....

I'm afraid I had to tell him to go and get stuffed and I'd turn it off in about 20-30 minutes. I explained to him that I had charging issues and that its obviously freezing so I need the heating on etc

And that there was plenty of space in the carpark that he didn't need to come park right next to me.


Now I know some of you are going to tell me its double standards as I complained about that guy running his engine in salamanca that time

But I would argue there are a few differences

1 ....its not 11pm

2 .... there were other ways to cool his van down like open windows skylights etc whereas I cant heat the van any other way than setting fire to it.

3.... he was on an official aire , he arrived last , there were 20 Van's a parked right next to each other. Whereas this is a carpark, I was here first and parked away from everyone else , he arrived only an hour before and decided to park one space away from me despite there being literally dozens of free spaces.

4 ... I don't have noisy fans blowing aswell as the engine running so is considerably quieter than the van in spain


So anyway he wasnt happy but went back to his van , I ran toby till 6pm till the truma had switched down to a steady low fan to keep it at 20°


?‍ if there was another way I would have done it as I don't believe in disturbing others.

 

[Northernraider]

Not sure if this is of any use...... saw it today on another site...View attachment 347264

Is that £675 ???

That seems very cheap but yeah ideal if it is...I've dropped him a text message to see if still for sale

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[Northernraider]

Not sure if this is of any use...... saw it today on another site...View attachment 347264

Unfortunately it no longer has the a frame etc fitted it's just a regular smart car the frame has been removed

 

[chrisinplymouth]

Unfortunately it no longer has the a frame etc fitted it's just a regular smart car the frame has been removed

?

 

[Northernraider]

?

All is not lost though , apparently it still has the electrics and brake connections attached.

And I've found an a frame with bracket etc on Ebay at £250 buy it now

So maybe a possibility

The guys gonna WhatsApp me some pics of the car etc tommorow and I'll take it from there


A trailer is also an option and there's one of those on ebay at 500 quid

So thanks for heads up

 

[Stonemags76]

If you got the trailer it would give you the choice of taking the car abroad?

 

[chrisinplymouth]

You’re welcome Tam

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[Northernraider]

If you got the trailer it would give you the choice of taking the car abroad?

Yes I was thinking that

I can get the trailer for less as the guy has just come back with an offer for less ....and I think I'd still get that lower

I could probably also haggle the car a bit too . But I'd have to store a trailer

Also the trailer is in Northumberland and the smart is in Cornwall lol

The a frame is in Somerset

Never easy


But I could possible get the car and a frame for around £800

It the car and trailer for around £900

My other option is a ford ka I put an offer on with an frame fitted in Newcastle for £1000


Which is better ka or a smart ?

 

[Stonemags76]

We’ve got a KA and can get the dog in the hatchback as it’s bigger than most - saves putting the seats down. She’s good at jumping in now!

 

[Northernraider]

We’ve got a KA and can get the dog in the hatchback as it’s bigger than most - saves putting the seats down. She’s good at jumping in now!

Yeah I think the smart is a bit smaller with no back seat for dogs

Hmmm decisions decisions

 

[TinaLes]

Now let me see.....Scooter, then newer Bicycle, now A frame with Toad.... Hmmmm
What next I wonder?....back to tuggin a caravan?
Les

 

[busby]

Oh Please!

I decided about 5.15 to start up toby and run the engine for a bit while I put the heating on as my batteries were reading 12.3v ? once the bit of sun had gone

Had it running about 20 minutes or so and the guy from the belgian camper next door came out and knocked on the door and said can you turn of your engine .....

I'm afraid I had to tell him to go and get stuffed and I'd turn it off in about 20-30 minutes. I explained to him that I had charging issues and that its obviously freezing so I need the heating on etc

And that there was plenty of space in the carpark that he didn't need to come park right next to me.


Now I know some of you are going to tell me its double standards as I complained about that guy running his engine in salamanca that time

But I would argue there are a few differences

1 ....its not 11pm

2 .... there were other ways to cool his van down like open windows skylights etc whereas I cant heat the van any other way than setting fire to it.

3.... he was on an official aire , he arrived last , there were 20 Van's a parked right next to each other. Whereas this is a carpark, I was here first and parked away from everyone else , he arrived only an hour before and decided to park one space away from me despite there being literally dozens of free spaces.

4 ... I don't have noisy fans blowing aswell as the engine running so is considerably quieter than the van in spain


So anyway he wasnt happy but went back to his van , I ran toby till 6pm till the truma had switched down to a steady low fan to keep it at 20°


?‍ if there was another way I would have done it as I don't believe in disturbing others.

Don't worry about it,,BUSBY?

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