Old Age After Full Timing

Yes good point @barryd if you use sites that can add quite a bit to monthly costs.

Depends how you intend to live, if you are going to treat it as a holiday it could be a lot more than a grand a month. I don’t smoke, drink or even buy drugs nowadays and I easily pay for everything out of state pension, rarely use campsites though.
 
Nabsim said:
Yes good point @barryd if you use sites that can add quite a bit to monthly costs.

Depends how you intend to live, if you are going to treat it as a holiday it could be a lot more than a grand a month. I don’t smoke, drink or even buy drugs nowadays and I easily pay for everything out of state pension, rarely use campsites though.
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It varies so much how you live I guess in a van long term obviously depending on what you want out of it but more importantly on how much money you have available. As we tend to stay a while these days in one place we have used a lot of remote CL sites. Basically farmers fields. Some are as little as six or seven quid a night and I imagine deals can be done. These are great in the summer. No good in the winter. I absolutely love them though and they are cheap!

I think if you are going to do it you need to be able to treat it as an alternative enjoyable and fun lifestyle not just a way of surviving as cheaply as possible otherwise its going to be a miserable existence compared to a house I think if you cannot afford the former.
 
barryd said:
If you have family that can put you up if something goes wrong then thats a pretty good fall back. Have you thought about a monthly budget? How much are you assuming you will need? I always seemed to think the rule of thumb was about £1000 a month for general van living. Its roughly what we spent but that does not include insurance and maintenance etc. Sometimes its been a bit less sometimes more. You need to factor all that in. where are you going to stay? Are you going to be wilding every night in which case moving around a lot or do you intend to use sites or CL farm sites etc? Winter will be the tricky time I guess. For me personally I would want to be hooked up somewhere and not scrabbling around in the dark hoping the solar will last. EHU sites or even CL sites are expensive now with electricity going through the roof.

All stuff to think about but if its your dream, do it. You are a long time looking at the lid so they say.
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All good points.

£1000 per month isn't too much of a worry as it's comfortably less than I'm paying now.

I would expect to be wilding at least half of the time (subject to finding suitable places) and using sites and CLs as required to empty and fill up. I might also consider a seasonal pitch over winter, although that may not be so important given that some sites now meter the electric, making it more expensive than gas for heating. I don't need/like too much heat, and am happy with the van around 16degC and wearing layers. The dogs help keep the temperature up a bit too, although they're not going to be around for ever.

I've got two 110Ah batteries and 400W solar with no room for any more, and I do sometimes have to run the engine for a while to top them up in the winter. Might consider a generator, but that's extra weight and taking up space.
 
AndyWill64 said:
All good points.

£1000 per month isn't too much of a worry as it's comfortably less than I'm paying now.

I would expect to be wilding at least half of the time (subject to finding suitable places) and using sites and CLs as required to empty and fill up. I might also consider a seasonal pitch over winter, although that may not be so important given that some sites now meter the electric, making it more expensive than gas for heating. I don't need/like too much heat, and am happy with the van around 16degC and wearing layers. The dogs help keep the temperature up a bit too, although they're not going to be around for ever.

I've got two 110Ah batteries and 400W solar with no room for any more, and I do sometimes have to run the engine for a while to top them up in the winter. Might consider a generator, but that's extra weight and taking up space.
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If you aren’t going to be moving around and not having EHU you will want a genny if staying in the U.K. in winter. Of course, if you use very little power you may last. It’s cheaper and quieter to run a genny than the engine
 
AndyWill64 said:
All good points.

£1000 per month isn't too much of a worry as it's comfortably less than I'm paying now.

I would expect to be wilding at least half of the time (subject to finding suitable places) and using sites and CLs as required to empty and fill up. I might also consider a seasonal pitch over winter, although that may not be so important given that some sites now meter the electric, making it more expensive than gas for heating. I don't need/like too much heat, and am happy with the van around 16degC and wearing layers. The dogs help keep the temperature up a bit too, although they're not going to be around for ever.

I've got two 110Ah batteries and 400W solar with no room for any more, and I do sometimes have to run the engine for a while to top them up in the winter. Might consider a generator, but that's extra weight and taking up space.
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Its tricky to advise as I dont want to delve too much into your private financial situation but it sounds like you should be ok really. If you had said I can only afford £300 a week then I would have said forget it. :D

I bet you could do a few deals with EHU CL sites for winter. They are only supposed to allow you on for 28 days but some will bend that rule. Ive certainly stayed on one in particular for two months. He always gave me a hefty discount as well.

I would say with that set up most of the year you wont need hookup. If I were you I would also head off to France for 90 days at some point (****** limit). You could trundle round there from free aire to free aire indefinitely and wilding is a bit more relaxed than here.
 
barryd said:
Its tricky to advise as I dont want to delve too much into your private financial situation but it sounds like you should be ok really. If you had said I can only afford £300 a week then I would have said forget it. :D

I bet you could do a few deals with EHU CL sites for winter. They are only supposed to allow you on for 28 days but some will bend that rule. Ive certainly stayed on one in particular for two months. He always gave me a hefty discount as well.

I would say with that set up most of the year you wont need hookup. If I were you I would also head off to France for 90 days at some point (****** limit). You could trundle round there from free aire to free aire indefinitely and wilding is a bit more relaxed than here.
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Well that's encouraging, thanks.

I'm not too sure about going outside UK though. I'd love to, and know it's better over there, but driving on the right puts me off. Everyone says it's easy, but I know I'll struggle because even as a taxi passenger in previous trips over there I always got the lanes wrong at junctions. Not so bad if you're following someone, but I wouldn't want to be another Anne Sacoolas.
 
AndyWill64 said:
Well that's encouraging, thanks.

I'm not too sure about going outside UK though. I'd love to, and know it's better over there, but driving on the right puts me off. Everyone says it's easy, but I know I'll struggle because even as a taxi passenger in previous trips over there I always got the lanes wrong at junctions. Not so bad if you're following someone, but I wouldn't want to be another Anne Sacoolas.
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Nah! Give over! driving around rural France is an absolute joy compared to the UK, even in a right hand drive van. In fact I have always said that there is an advantage in having a right hand drive Motorhome in France if you get down some narrow roads as its so much easier to get tucked into the hedgerow or road side if you need to pass something coming the other way. Parking is easier and its pretty much motorhome heaven. After the first few days you will wonder what you were worried about. Its coming back to the UK after a long trip I always found a bit of a shocker. Loads more cars driven loads more aggressively.
 
barryd said:
If you have family that can put you up if something goes wrong then thats a pretty good fall back. Have you thought about a monthly budget? How much are you assuming you will need? I always seemed to think the rule of thumb was about £1000 a month for general van living. Its roughly what we spent but that does not include insurance and maintenance etc. Sometimes its been a bit less sometimes more. You need to factor all that in. where are you going to stay? Are you going to be wilding every night in which case moving around a lot or do you intend to use sites or CL farm sites etc? Winter will be the tricky time I guess. For me personally I would want to be hooked up somewhere and not scrabbling around in the dark hoping the solar will last. EHU sites or even CL sites are expensive now with electricity going through the roof.

All stuff to think about but if its your dream, do it. You are a long time looking at the lid so they say.
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Expensive, i lived on £260 a mth in my house.
 
On a more sensible note than my last comment is:
Go abroad for winter, 90 days, as said previously France and Spain are wonderful, lots of free Aires. If a 70 year old single lady can do it I am sure you can. You don't have to be on your own either, you can find some nice communities.
Secondly, have you looked at retirement flats? Not the big fancy places they are building now, but I have seen some older ones in Brighton and Lewes ( Sussex) that were about 1/2 the price of a house. Usually only one bedroom.
Of course depending where you want to live some of the old terrace houses in the North and Midlands used to be very cheap.
 
Moonraker 2 said:
On a more sensible note than my last comment is:
Go abroad for winter, 90 days, as said previously France and Spain are wonderful, lots of free Aires. If a 70 year old single lady can do it I am sure you can. You don't have to be on your own either, you can find some nice communities.
Secondly, have you looked at retirement flats? Not the big fancy places they are building now, but I have seen some older ones in Brighton and Lewes ( Sussex) that were about 1/2 the price of a house. Usually only one bedroom.
Of course depending where you want to live some of the old terrace houses in the North and Midlands used to be very cheap.
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Thanks, but as much as everyone says driving on the continent it easy I'm fairly sure it's not for me, although maybe I'll prove myself wrong on that one day.

Retirement flats or terraced houses would be fine, but I'm not expecting to ever be in a position to buy property again, even if it's dirt cheap. If/when I have to sell my van I would probably be able to pay a reasonable deposit and maybe six months rent on a property up-front.
 
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