Expenses whilst full timing

@gypo sorry so long replying! We don't full-time but did spend a year without a "fixed address" as we were travelling around in various countries, not all with the van. Everything, insurance, tax, licenses want permanent address, so if you have family able to be used, willing to sort your official post, definitely worth registering yourself there ( and on electoral roll) . Personally, for fulltiming, I would take your monthly figure and add 20% for things you didn't plan! And if unnecessary, have a couple of treats! Regarding rental agents, ours is quite happy for us to give them the name of tradesmen we prefer to use so if you shop around and find maybe a smaller agency, you may be able to negotiate percentage fees etc.
 
Many thanks for the reply, we are just waiting on the estate agents opening back up now and we are ready to start things. We have worked out that an average month should cost approx £650 not allowing for unexpected things, we should have all being well about 50k in the pot that obviously we wouldn’t want to use but can if need be.
Thanks
Dean
 
Pleased to see your revised figures.
The first year will be a pain as no pension and you will have unknown expenses so allow up to £10,000 to be spent
You may well have taken this into account already in calculating your pot
Maybe 50% from your pot and 50% from Flat income.
Once your pension starts your pot should be stable.and maybe a small refund of say £100 a month
Best wishes
 
gypo said:
Hi all,
Today me and the better half have been chatting and come up with a game plan to go full timing in the van, hopefully being able to spend most of the time in France or spain.
We have worked out that if we sell our house and buy a flat we can get a rental income from the flat of at least £750pm with no mortgage.
In a years time I will be able to take a pension of approx 9k a year.
we have gone through the fingers the best we can for out goings and the figures seem to work.
We are not sure of things like health insurance etc tho and how much that will cost but most things we know the costs of.
I understand we will have to come back to mot the van and little things like that we have tried to account for things like laundry,fuel food,phone and insurance.
Can anyone see any flaws or issues that I may have Missed?
Any advice would be great
Thanks
D
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Only allowing 3 months in Europe once brexit is finalised has been mentioned as a posability. Also look into European insurance for continual periods abroad. Sounds great though. Keep us updated. Al
 
Also allow for keeping a lump sum in case of catastrophe. A truck might rip the side off the van, or you might suddenly be unable to drive, or some major mechanical problem might put the motorhome in the garage for two months. So you need enough put by to cover accommodation for that sort of time as well as enough to fix the problem.
 
in h said:
Also allow for keeping a lump sum in case of catastrophe. A truck might rip the side off the van, or you might suddenly be unable to drive, or some major mechanical problem might put the motorhome in the garage for two months. So you need enough put by to cover accommodation for that sort of time as well as enough to fix the problem.
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Think the 50k "pot" mentioned should cover them ok... ;)
 
Think the plan is to live on rental and the lump is a slush fund? Posts #25 & #62
 
Living in a van full time is not the same as going on holiday in the van, it costs less to full time than it does to live in bricks and mortar. If you live in bricks and mortar and already have a van (which you do) then it will be considerably less as you already cover road tax and insurance.

If you want to go on holiday full time then... :)
 
John H said:
... you will either have to spend a large part of the winter in the UK (or Ireland or some other equally cold part of non-Schengen Europe) or take the Morocco option that others have mentioned.
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Might make more sense to spend the warm months in the UK.
That's certainly what I'd do, but then again, I don't like hot weather.
 
Nabsim said:
Living in a van full time is not the same as going on holiday in the van, it costs less to full time than it does to live in bricks and mortar. If you live in bricks and mortar and already have a van (which you do) then it will be considerably less as you already cover road tax and insurance.

If you want to go on holiday full time then... :)
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Yes/no
Indeed simple living in the vehicle can be very cheap.
I based my £1000 a month on living and touring (3 months in Europe - holiday and 3 months in UK just living).
So significant fuel in Europe but Minimal campcosts .......the opposite in UK.
Extra holiday costs in Europe such as road tolls and entance fees.
Very few meals out but Beer and wine in house.
If the winter is a bit cold then Spain is warmer and cheaper apart from getting there !
Morocco or Turkey would add more travelling costs
Take it easy the first year ! You will find losts of minor bits and pieces to be done many of which are cheap.
Also more wear & tear
I suggest Solar and refillable gas are worthy of consideration and funded from slush
For pleasantly warm days when you are staying put I would prefer to have the use of an awning
 
Concerning the 90 day rule. What is the status of the old Yugoslavia countries Croatia, bosnia hergovia, north Macedonia Albania, etc and also Romania and Bulgaria and the Russian enclave on the Baltic. None of those are part of the schengen area and might be a bolt hole? Has anyone any experience. Some will be warmer or at least brighter and drier than the the Uk in winter? Parts of Ukraine and Belarus are closer than Morocco and Turkey , and they are still in the continent of Europe.
 
Derekoak said:
Concerning the 90 day rule. What is the status of the old Yugoslavia countries Croatia, bosnia hergovia, north Macedonia Albania, etc and also Romania and Bulgaria and the Russian enclave on the Baltic. None of those are part of the schengen area and might be a bolt hole? Has anyone any experience. Some will be warmer or at least brighter and drier than the the Uk in winter? Parts of Ukraine and Belarus are closer than Morocco and Turkey , and they are still in the continent of Europe.
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Yes we did look at this possibility before deciding what to do . I think I found that if they are not Schengen countries you need a visa and that will be limited to 90 days anyway . So it will probably be possible but a bit of extra work plus mileage and what happens to the timescales if there are unavoidable delays?. Might be wrong so happy to be corrected ? Whilst weather probably better than Britain ,decided we would plump for sunny spain
 
Derekoak said:
Concerning the 90 day rule. What is the status of the old Yugoslavia countries Croatia, bosnia hergovia, north Macedonia Albania, etc and also Romania and Bulgaria and the Russian enclave on the Baltic. None of those are part of the schengen area and might be a bolt hole? Has anyone any experience. Some will be warmer or at least brighter and drier than the the Uk in winter? Parts of Ukraine and Belarus are closer than Morocco and Turkey , and they are still in the continent of Europe.
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As you correctly point out, none of the countries you listed are in Schengen (although Bulgaria, Romania and Croatia are in the process of joining) and thus are not part of the 90 day rule. Therefore you could, after 90 days in Schengen, tour any or all of these for 90 days and then re-enter Schengen. However, the reason that most of us like to spend the winter in Spain is because of the weather and the winter weather in all of those countries can be very severe. I don't think I would like to spend winter in Bulgaria in a motorhome but that is my personal view. In 2018, we spent autumn in Croatia and Bosnia and left pretty sharply in early October because the weather became very wintery. A couple of years before that, in December, we were sunning ourselves in Spain when the next pitch was filled by a bloke who had managed to make a run from Croatia after getting snowed in. If you like snow, then fair enough but not for me :)
 
in h said:
Might make more sense to spend the warm months in the UK.
That's certainly what I'd do, but then again, I don't like hot weather.
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True - but the problem is that, with the 90 day rule, you still have to spend part of the winter out of the Schengen area. For example, you could spend October, November and December in Spain but then have to come back to the UK for January, February and March (or vice-versa).
 
Given it is a rolling rule
Maybe 6 weeks trvelling through France and Spain say 45 days
30 Days in morocco.. Then when back in Spain ..would you get obviosly the 45 days but then another 30 because of Morocco ?
If so basically 5 months The original 90 days plus another 30 in Morocco..then another 30 because of Morocco ? on the assumption every day out gives yo another day in ?
 
Hi a few little expenses you haven't mentioned but do add up. breakdown cover, dentil repairs, phone rental, Wi-Fi rental, gas lpg, and yearly MOT and service.
the other thing you could think about is getting a seasonal pitch in the uk small independent sites often have deals for long stays.
I usually go abroad once a year the rest of the time is touring in the uk it is a beautiful country.
best of luck on your venture.
 
jagmanx said:
Given it is a rolling rule
Maybe 6 weeks trvelling through France and Spain say 45 days
30 Days in morocco.. Then when back in Spain ..would you get obviosly the 45 days but then another 30 because of Morocco ?
If so basically 5 months The original 90 days plus another 30 in Morocco..then another 30 because of Morocco ? on the assumption every day out gives yo another day in ?
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No, because it's a maximum of 90 in 180.
 
John H said:
As you correctly point out, none of the countries you listed are in Schengen (although Bulgaria, Romania and Croatia are in the process of joining) and thus are not part of the 90 day rule. Therefore you could, after 90 days in Schengen, tour any or all of these for 90 days and then re-enter Schengen. However, the reason that most of us like to spend the winter in Spain is because of the weather and the winter weather in all of those countries can be very severe. I don't think I would like to spend winter in Bulgaria in a motorhome but that is my personal view. In 2018, we spent autumn in Croatia and Bosnia and left pretty sharply in early October because the weather became very wintery. A couple of years before that, in December, we were sunning ourselves in Spain when the next pitch was filled by a bloke who had managed to make a run from Croatia after getting snowed in. If you like snow, then fair enough but not for me :)
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Thank you for your experience. I suggested all the close non schengen countries . I was hoping to find experience of the best? I would have thought that being close to the Adriatic coast and as far south as northern macedonia might give you a near Greek winter climate? That is a bit further away than The Croatian coast but still after 3 months you could follow the coast up and cross Italy and follow the med down to the preferred Spain before a return to the Uk? We have been to Provence in November/December so I would think the road to Spain would be mostly possible . I do not have much experience so would be interested in what can go wrong.
I have cycle wild camped in Croatia. At the time it seemed like a cheap Italy, but I think it was May it was not any part of october to march.
If snow did catch you out maybe there is a ferry from Northern macedonia or Greece to Italy that runs throughout the year? It would seem to be worth a bit of expense to have a winter alternative to The Uk for the first part of winter, the 2nd being spent in southern Italy or Spain, then back to the Uk as it starts getting lighter? I really dislike short winter days.
We have tried North Africa but my wife did not like it despite being sedately dressed and hair covered she was hassled too much by men.
 
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