Working Fulltime & Van Living Fulltime

Eg. Canterbury Caravanne and camping club

Winter pitch, incl all amenities. ££910
5 months till April,,,,

Summer pitch ,,, £2300
April to nov,,,, incl all amenities


Even with spending an extra £30 a month when you have to vacate for three nights a month is a bargain!!

Just over £3,000 a year to stay ten mins from one of the loveliest towns I’ve seen is, in my opinion a bargain!

And I’m sure this is not the only place that does these pitches!!


Xxxx
 
Katrina Coe said:
Thank you so much everyone for your input, it makes for fascinating reading. Only gripe is OP? Hope that is not short for OAP! Lol. I am getting a van 5.99m. New, fully winterised, solar panel and 2nd leisure battery. Whilst I want to save money, I am planning to be off exploring on my days off. I have also signed up for Brit stops.
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There is a Facebook group called campingpubs which could give you some more overnight options for your trips out exploring.
Should you decide to join one of the main clubs for access to the small site networks, then they also have rallies, usually long weekends, at festivals and events like Bristol Balloon Festival. Good value camping even if you don’t want to join in with the social side.

Have you found somewhere suitable to stay whilst working?
 
We have been fulltime 3 years in April and don't regret it. we were lucky to find one of them rare £5 a night places +electric +lpg +red diesel for night heater it all ads up.we sold the house which was mortgage free seems to work out similar money wise .
 
I would suggest you make a contingency plan for any occasion when you may not be able to live in your motorhome. For example, if you had a major mechanical breakdown, say a clutch of gearbox failure, the vehicle could be off the road for several days of maybe even weeks and not many garages would let you continue to live in it while it's in their hard or workshop.

D.

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pappajohn said:
This was brought up a few years ago on the RVOC forum and general consensus was you needed around £14000 pa for a normal existence full timing... More if you ate out and pubs a fair bit.
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We live on less than £12,000 a year including holiday expenditure and that includes running a car, having the odd meal out etc, so I would have though in a MH it should be less - an American RV would need more due to the extra cost of fuel for their 'hungry' babies, but for a standard diesel MH/camper I should think it would be at least £2,000 less, however there does need to be a contingency 'pot' for repairs etc.
 
Everyone is different of course, and everyone has different things in their lives that they want and/or need... but...

... I promise you, I never, ever, ever needed to spend £269 per week when living full time for all these years and years in my van(s).


JJ :cool:
 
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mitzimad said:
rent 15000 a year water rates 800 council tax 1500 tv licence 170 electric 1200 a year 12k sounds cheap to me and i was highlighting a worse case for site fees you can probably save at least a third of that with long term deals
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£15000 a year? Is that London prices though? You can rent a decent 2 bedroom house for £600 a month in a lot of areas

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GreenHell said:
£15000 a year? Is that London prices though? You can rent a decent 2 bedroom house for £600 a month in a lot of areas
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My London 4-bed terrace house with on-street parking rents out for £35,000 p.a.

But my tenants combined incomes total £180,000p.a. So it is all relative.

Why a couple want 4 beds is beyond me, but their choice - and my income for 4 years.


Would be easy to live cheaper than that even in a Phoenix or other upmarket MH and paying commercial site fees every night.

Geoff
 
nicholsong said:
My London 4-bed terrace house with on-street parking rents out for £35,000 p.a.

But my tenants combined incomes total £180,000p.a. So it is all relative.

Why a couple want 4 beds is beyond me, but their choice - and my income for 4 years.


Would be easy to live cheaper than that even in a Phoenix or other upmarket MH and paying commercial site fees every night.

Geoff
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Crikey. I don't feel as bad for paying £1k a month on a mortgage now :D2

We are a young(ish) couple in our thirties and live in a detached 4 bedroom house. We did it just incase we decide to have kids in the future. If not, the 'man cave' and 'music room' will stay as those and not become additional bedrooms :-)
 
Just took a look at this thread as I may be full timing (currently on night 2 of a potential marriage breakdown) I have loaded up ready to start and see where we go from here just in case.

I am currently parked in a really nice pub that has electric hook up for 4 vans and if you have food here its free. I am planning a hunters chicken at £5.95 shortly and a pint at £3.50? So that could be as cheap as £9.45 for the night including electric food and a beer! life cant be any cheaper than that.

Now I appreciate you can only do a couple of nights max but there are a few of these deals round here... You could save a bit of short term costs doing this.

However if I do end up full time from current situation ill be commuting to work in the van and using the staff car park over night when working then back to a sort of regular base on my off days to do general life stuff like washing clothes and seeing friends and family etc.

It could work????
 
davidathomas42 said:
It could work????
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Of course it could if needs must.
I don't think I'd want to do it but who knows what the future holds.
Sorry to hear of your marital problems, it is a shame with young children.
Hope whatever happens it works out for you (y)
 
My plan for the future is not to use the conspicuous motorhome I have now but to build out the inside of a slightly larger than average box van, by that I mean a small 7.5 tonner. (can drive that size of vehicle yes)
I've seen people take the box off the back, throw the tail lift away and fit the box back on back to front and then fit the door in the existing cab end for complete discretion. Then just park the the thing in towns where legal as if you are just doing deliveries. With no windows, and decent insulation, no one would ever know... This to me is the only way you'll make it "affordable" within the realms of saving for retirement as well. It's the camping fees that will kill it IMO.
I don't think it'll be gas or electric as you can pre pl;an for that by fitting a large solar install on the roof of said box van and then make sure all your heating / lighting / cooking is electric.
With a decent sized battery bank I think this is feasible and the only way for me it would ever be workable (I'm going to have to work til I drop dead too I think)

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I have fulltimed for over 10 years now...
At some points I have lived as cheap as possible including a full year wilding (no campsites).
I could live as cheaply as £0 per week excluding fixed costs and food.
Insurance was £1200 per year and was my biggest expense.
CL/CS's I used to look for sites that were <=£10 and only stop 1 or 2 nights which was basically to empty tanks, fill water and give the battery a full recharge cycle.

I would say it is possible and practical to survive on £6,000 a year excluding insurance/MOT/Repairs. If you are gunning for cheap living as much as possible.
However, if you want to live in comfort then I would suggest £10,000 per year excluding insurance/MOT/Repairs more realistic.

If you want to eat out, travel quite a bit and do other stuff then you will obviously need to add to your budget.
 
As per Gromett above, I'd use sites to give the van a clean through, do the washing, empty and refill etc. I'd probably look for a weekend stop at a cheap site every three weeks or so if it was me..
Batteries charged
Van cleaned
Washing done
Bed clothes changed
Tanks topped up
Proper lengthy shower
and off we go..
 
Our house is up for sale as of tomorrow. Dusseldorf end of the month for a good look round for our next home on wheels. We have no option but to use sites, for a few years anyway, as we plan on doing and keeping the jobs we do now, albeit on a part time basis. We have some cheap cl type site near our places of work, but might struggle to get anywhere near to us for wintertime and a hard standing pitch. Also we will be in search of a two bed flat for a rental income. Well that's the plan anyhow. (y)
 

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