Fulltiming?? Yea or Nay?? Opinions Sought!!

[mrbadger]

We're umming and AAHHhhing about going on the road Full time.

Just dont know.

We have a lovely house, right on the A1 near Brownhills. Couldn't be more convenient in every way. We love it, but it could rent out and raise a good income.

We have Myfanwy, all MOT'd and fettled, ready for our trip to Spain in January (shame we're going to miss all that snow and ice, rain, wind, cold, misery.....)

But seriously, what do people think of going full time? We would love to hear your experiences, horror stories, joys, pitfalls etc.

What do you do about post? Insurances, Health care... What have we forgotten to allow for?

Where do we store all the junk that makes home, home?

Love to hear your views!

 

[Deleted member 23433]

We are going fulltime in April 2013. We started off in the summer by doing a few car boot sales to get rid of everything we no longer wanted. We have also sold a lot of stuff on E-Bay. We are now down to the possessions we want to keep and eventually come home to. We have persueded my parents to store some furniture and our possessions for us in one of their spare bedrooms and my brother is going to look after and use some of the furniture. Some we have sold like our beds and bedroom furniture which is quite old and would need replacing anyway. There is no point in paying high prices to storage places as you could replace with new for less when you return from your travels.
We are renting our house and will be living from the rental income. We have worked out we will have around £180 per week for all expenses.
As for post we are changing our address to my brother and have over the last few months tidied up what we no longer want to recieve by post and have removed our names from all the junk mail companies that send you stuff.
We will carry our E11 for healthcare purposes and probably continue with the annual travel insurance. We will join a breakkdown cover scheme that will cover us in Europe and also most motorhome insurance companies can cover you for being in Europe for a long period of time. A good piece of advice we were given was that It is best not to let anyone know you are going to live in your motorhome but that you are just going on holiday and not sure for how long and when you will be back. You have a permenant residence in the UK and Never say you are fulltiming.
Hope this is of some help.
Think of it as an amazing adventure and remember you only come by this way once!!!
Karen & Adrian

 

[Deleted member 2636]

We will carry our E11 for healthcare purposes

You may not get much medical help with an E111 as it is now the EHIC card..

Good luck with your travels and have fun

 

[Deleted member 23433]

Sorry I did mean the EHIC card!!

 

[John H]

Everybody is different and so nobody can advise you whether or not the life will suit you but there are one or two pieces of advice I think may be useful.
The first and probably most important one is to think very carefully about selling up. We still have our house and my sister has moved into it. This has several advantages: we don't have to worry about what tenants might be doing, we have a permanent address for all legal purposes, we have a large attic room to store all our stuff in and we have a room to sleep in if and when we need it. Second, make sure your motorhome insurance allows you unlimited European travel and breakdown recovery for 12 months a year (many don't - we're with Safeguard, which does). Third, don't forget that your EHIC card will need renewing every so often (they are not everlasting as some people think - check the date on the card). After that, just enjoy yourselves. Happy travels.

 

[vindiboy]

Don't be too smug about missing the snow ,as in January you can get a lot of that going down to Spain,through France if that is your intended route, as for your worldly goods you can of course rent a storage facility, but be careful that the storage costs do not overtake the value of what you are storing,after you have long termed for a while you realise that you don't need 95 % of the crap we accumulate around us in our homes , so if it is to be permanent you may want to boot sale it all.you will need an address for your vehicle tax, licence, mail, and van Insurance,etc. full time Insurance is available at a cost,We don't full time, we were going to sell up and full time but in the end we just kept our Bungalow,cheap enough when all other factors are considered and we just long term away up to 8 months has been our longest trip,CCC give us 6 months insurance for un occupancy of our Bungalow so all is covered, You won't know if full timing is for you unless you try it, but I would say try 6 months away in your van first and see if the romance is still there after that, good luck, may see you in Spain somewhere.

 

[Kontiki]

We considered renting out the house & full timing when we retired nearly seven years ago. After a few trips of about 3 months at a time we decided that full timing isn't for us. We still like a few long trips (2-3 months) but it's nice to come home & plan the next trip. Personally we feel that if we were full timing it would just become a way of life & loose some of the enjoyment. It is a personal choice & we have met people all over Europe who do it. Most European motorhomes aren't really designed to be lived in full time, the equipment/furniture just isn't good enough, American RV's are the best for comfort & can be lived in full time.

 

[Stanski]

Costs

Its good to read the advice offered by others on this topic as we are considering the option also, albeit we do not envisage a full 12 months away but perhaps 8 to 10 mths.

COSTS
What intrigues me is the suggested weekly cost of £180. May I ask those who are doing it - Is this viable?
FOOD: After our only ever long trip of 2 mths around Scandinavia and N. Europe we experienced a daily food cost of approx £12/day (£84/week), eating in a limited way with only a few extravagant nights out.
FUEL: Very dependant on personal travel plans - Having just spent a 3 day trip to London, via Portsmouth, the cost of fuel alone was £100 for a 500 mile journey so 50p/mile. (30mpg)

With european fuel prices slightly lower than UK a small improvement can be achieved for the moment as well as cheaper food compared to Norway and Sweden of approx 20%.

Here is my suggested costing analysis for a typical week, including items not previously mentioned:

Food (for 2) - £70
Laundrette - £7
Town Parking - £10
Museum/Sights Entry - £15
Occassional Meals - £15
Aires/Stops - £15
Bus Fares - £8
Phone - £6
Gas/LPG - £5
Postcards&Stamps - £5
TOTAL = £156
Some of the above are obviously not accurate as they depend on personal tastes and location. Do others concur or can add other items.

 

[FULL TIMER]

Having "full timed" for around six years now after selling up completely I can't say I have any regrets, infact I've loved every minute of our new lifestyle. Granted it's not for everyone and you soon get to know if you and your partner are really suited. after having our first five years in a brand new Ace Supreme Twinstar caravan I can confirm that Kontiki is right ,most British/ European vans are not built strong enough as they all have to use lightweight materials, however I don't think the RV's are ideal either, all well and good for space and comfort and good facilities etc but most are big and could restrict where you can park, some are probably not as well insulated as they could be ,after all they were not really designed with British weather in mind. I solved the problem of strength and durability by getting hold of an ex prison transport vehicle and building the interior conversion myself, pretty sure most of it will outlast us.

 

[FULL TIMER]

Costs well thats a totally individual thing as I still work in the local area we don't travel with the motorhome much, but main costs for us re motorhome are ;
ROAD TAX £165 per year
MOT around £55 as long as it passes
SITE FEE'S around £65 per week inc water and electric plus free washing machine.
Motorhome insurance at the moment around £700 per year.

We are living this as an alternative to being stuck with bricks and mortar so for us it is a way of life rather than a few months where you tend to spend more on going out/eating out, visting and travelling miles so we feel it has worked well for us.

 

[Stanski]

Sorry Full-Timer - I had not considered your chosen pathway, me being a little naive in this respect.
My perception of fulltiming is the act of living in a vehicle and travelling from location to location so enjoying different places/countries. Is there a precise definition?

 

[FULL TIMER]

Hey there Stanski can't see any need for apoligies, I think most people see full timing as a few months here in the UK in the summer months and then head off to Spain / Portugal, in fact we have friends who do just that they are wardens on a caravan site here during the summer months they save some money and then head of to Portugal for the winter wilding all the way. Our main reason for starting this lifestyle was to get out of the rat race and have time to live a little. The first year I took the complete year off and we travelled quite a bit, now I'm free to more or less work as and when I please within the family business as we need a lot less money than when we were trying to keep a tiled roof over our heads.

 

[Robmac]

........What intrigues me is the suggested weekly cost of £180. May I ask those who are doing it - Is this viable?
FOOD: After our only ever long trip of 2 mths around Scandinavia and N. Europe we experienced a daily food cost of approx £12/day (£84/week), eating in a limited way with only a few extravagant nights out.
FUEL: Very dependant on personal travel plans - Having just spent a 3 day trip to London, via Portsmouth, the cost of fuel alone was £100 for a 500 mile journey so 50p/mile. (30mpg)...............

Slight correction. £100 for a 500 mile journey is 20p a mile not 50p. Sorry to correct you but just in case anybody used that as a guide.

 

[John H]

Costs obviously vary according to how far you travel, how often you use campsites, what your taste in entertainment is etc etc - but as a rough guide, we have been doing this for over ten years and when we started off we could live very comfortably for under £10,000 pa. Today, that figure has increased to around £13,000, without scrimping at all. The figure includes all costs associated with the motorhome, living costs, entertainment, clothing etc. We have a house but it is neutral in terms of costs. We spend most of each winter in warmer climes, we wild and we take advantage of cheap long-term site deals. In summer in the UK we use CLs a lot.

 

[Stanski]

... journey is 20p a mile not 50p. ...

Quite right to correct the error Robmac. Thanks.

I can smile a bit wider as I see my error in the calculation and at the much improved mileage costs. For those interested the engine is a Fiat Ducato 2.5L TDi, and we drive fairly conservatively at approx 40-45mph on main roads and 50-60mph on motorways.

When we travelled on our first trip around Scandinavia and N. Europe we achieved 30.3mpg.

 

[Stanski]

... we have been doing this for over ten years and when we started off we could live very comfortably for under £10,000 pa. Today, that figure has increased to around £13,000, without scrimping ....

Thanks for these figures John H, it brings confidence to my calculations. I'm curious - if possible could you suggest rough % for the following:

1. Travel (Fuel/Ferry/Vehicle)
2. Living (Food/Clothes/Cleaning)
3. Entertainment & Social
4. Other/Incidentals

Also how much of the year do you spend in UK?

 

[John H]

Thanks for these figures John H, it brings confidence to my calculations. I'm curious - if possible could you suggest rough % for the following:

1. Travel (Fuel/Ferry/Vehicle)
2. Living (Food/Clothes/Cleaning)
3. Entertainment & Social
4. Other/Incidentals

Also how much of the year do you spend in UK?

Hi

An interesting question - I've never worked it out before! However, I've been adding up some figures and I reckon our expenditure probably divides as follows:

1. Travel (Diesel, all other vehicle costs and ferries etc) 20%
2. Living (Food, household, clothes, capital items, camping costs etc) 60%
3. Entertainment (we like enjoying ourselves!) 20%

Obviously if you don't use campsites, don't travel as much and have more moderate tastes in entertainment then these figures would be different but thanks for the question; it made me look at our expenditure with a different eye (we won't change though!).

As for the amount of time we spend in the UK, it varies but a typical year might be that we leave England in September and return in March/April - so that means we are in the UK about 5 months in a typical year.

All the best
John

PS Just re-read your post and realised I have included miscellaneous/incidentals in the Travel and Living categories - eg unexpected expenditure (new tyres etc!) for the vehicle has gone in "travel" and miscellaneous living costs have gone in "living". I suppose that together these would come to less than 10%.

 

[Stanski]

Expenditure Analysis

... An interesting question - I've never worked it out before! ...

Dear John, Thank you for your reply.
Our only experience has been the single trip around Scandinavia and N. Europe. With changing our original planned route and poor weather conditions we travelled much further on some days, also with higher living costs in Scandinavia we felt we had an unusual initiation to motorhoming.
From people such as yourself who have experience and can offer financial analysis we can become comfortable with our own budgeting as we are hoping to experience Spain, Portugal and Morroco next year. Again Many Thanks for your information.

As an aside we are off to Ireland next week and have discovered that P&O have a policy that allow motorhomes only on the late sailings between Liverpool and Dublin which then requires you to take a cabin at an extra charge of £70 each way. (Each way is £159 for the motorhome.) We have not taken this route but chosen the Heysham to Warrenpoint freight ferry instead.

 

[John H]

Dear John, Thank you for your reply.
Our only experience has been the single trip around Scandinavia and N. Europe. With changing our original planned route and poor weather conditions we travelled much further on some days, also with higher living costs in Scandinavia we felt we had an unusual initiation to motorhoming.
From people such as yourself who have experience and can offer financial analysis we can become comfortable with our own budgeting as we are hoping to experience Spain, Portugal and Morroco next year. Again Many Thanks for your information.

As an aside we are off to Ireland next week and have discovered that P&O have a policy that allow motorhomes only on the late sailings between Liverpool and Dublin which then requires you to take a cabin at an extra charge of £70 each way. (Each way is £159 for the motorhome.) We have not taken this route but chosen the Heysham to Warrenpoint freight ferry instead.

Scandinavia is a very expensive area. If you travel through France, Spain and Portugal you will find costs to be much less. Enjoy your travelling!

 

[Greytop]

So it is you!!!

For those interested the engine is a Fiat Ducato 2.5L TDi, and we drive fairly conservatively at approx 40-45mph on main roads and 50-60mph on motorways.

So it is you I always seem to get behind no matter whether I am driving my car or my Motorhome!!!!!:mad1:
Could I just ask you to speed up a little. Enjoy yourselves. Lol.