Van Life Monthly Expenses || How Much Does Living in a Van Cost?! INSPIRATIONALLY LOW || + TIPS
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 27 ก.ค. 2024
- Van Life Monthly Expenses || How Much Does Living in a Van Cost?! INSPIRATIONALLY LOW || + TIPS
Thanks for clicking on another one of our videos, or if you're new here, thanks for giving one of our videos a chance! We really appreciate you!
Today we are going to reveal exactly how much money we spend each month in total. We hope this gives you some inspiration and we hope it proves you don't need to spend a lot of money to have a good time.
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About us:
After meeting in New Zealand back in 2017, Beth and Jake have travelled the world, working online and creating memories.
Beth left the UK in 2014 and has been travelling full time ever since, she is the owner of www.sheisthelostgirl.com and has a passion for writing and photography.
Jake has been travelling since 2016 and during this time has perfected his photography and videography skills. He is adventurous and has a passion for the outdoors.
Having lived in various countries around the world, we decided that instead of settling down, we'd build a tiny home inside a van.
We've never done anything like this before, we have no building experience, no electrical experience, and no plumbing experience.
This is a huge learning curve for us and we welcome you to join us in this challenge.
Our Wild Horizons documents a journey of continued adventure.
#vanlife #travel #expenses
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What do you think, is this a normal amount to be spending?
£411,- !?! 😲 Now, after that intro I obviously expected a low number, but that is brilliant! If nothing will convince my wife to get into vanlife, this will (I just won't mention the hairdresser and clothes bit). 😁
haha thanks!! Yeah maybe don't mention that part to her haha :) thank you for watching :)
I loved the arty transitions, you made the maths look really fun. Lovely to see you getting more confident in front of the camera Jake💪
yay thank you!! We were stuck in the van in the rain when we filmed this so tried to be as creative as possible :) He is getting lots more confident :D
Such a great video, you guys!! I hope this video blows up for you because it’s clear you put lots of love, thought and creativity behind it. It’s also a wonderful reminder to others of how budget friendly van life can be 🚐🙌🏼💕 Big big love to you both as always 💛 xx Tania
Thank you Tania! We were stuck in the van due to the rain and wanted to have some fun with it so very glad to read the creativity was appreciated!
And yes, we wanted to show that it doesn’t have to be an expensive experience and make it seem more accessible for others. Thanks for tuning in! Hope you guys are doing well X
Wow, I’m shocked about the amount! I wasn’t expecting a number so low! I’m only spending more on groceries for myself than you two do together 😱 . I agree that the most amazing things you can do are for free!
haha no way!! But its so nice to have treats sometimes :D Hope you're having a wonderful time :D :D
Nice mantra... spend less, work less .... now that is a measure of true success, great job guys
thank you so much for watching :D
I really like watching these videos to see other people's lifestyle and how they spend their money.
Thank you so much for watching :)
Such an underrated the channel the editing and production quality is insane!
Thank you so much! 😀
Slow travel is the way to go. Sounds very similar to our way of travelling! Didn’t think we’d find anyone else that spends so little 😀 Great video 👍
Yes we agree!! its such a good way to live, especially because having fun is more fun than working haha :) thank you for watching our video :)
My husband and I are totally with you on oats with some fruit & spices for breakfast every day. We aren't van dwellers (yet) so we buy oats in bulk. We are also vegan and don't go for the meat substitutes very often. We much prefer whole foods like beans, lentils, grains, etc.
yay!! its a really nice way to live, we really enjoy eating like this! its good for van life too because a lot of it stores easily :)
Excited about your future van! :)
It’s really low you guys!! We aim to spend £200 on food a month but usually it’s around £250. Our other expenses are quite similar to yours. And it’s so true about not being able to easily order things on Amazon etc, we’re definitely spending way less money because of it 😁 and not having expensive hobbies definitely helps too haha.
Greta video once again!! We absolutely loved the transitions 🤩 especially the one in the beginning where Beth popped up behind Jake haha miss you both! 💛💛
Nice!! :) and with Sunny's food too :) haha yes to cheap hobbies! well.. maybe photography isn't cheap at the beginning hehe!! Thank you for watching! Hope you guys are having a lovely time :D xx
Definitely super shocked but it definitely pushes me to think more before spending money
:) its life changing when you think about it, we love not having to work as much :) thank you for watching our video:)
Love you guys. Totally agree. Itching to get back in the van. It gives you a different perspective on life. Being in a house and normal work just sucks you into consumerism.
100% We love shutting ourselves away from all of that. Thank you for watching, and we hope you get back into the van soon!
Lovely video! Exactly mine and my hubby's mindset. We both started working part time and have so much fun spending more time together. We have stopped spending on clothes, one use items and pointless gadgest. We are now able to work less and even save more money than before (possibly due to lockdown as well - because there's not much to do). The only thing we are still spending more money on is food (around £350-£400 a month for two of us 🤪). But we are big vegan foodies. I eat at least 3 times a day and snack 3 times in between 🤫 and I love to cook.
Thats amazing!! I think working less and spending less is a really good way to live, a really happy way to live! :)
hahahah its sooo nice to have a treat! I don't blame you! Jake is really into food but I'm not bothered, sometimes I eat a plain wrap and think its the most delicious thing haha!
Thank you for watching our video :)
I was waiting for that one 😊 you explained everything in a very clear way 🥰 simply love it
Thank you so much 😊 really glad you enjoyed the video :)
That seems a really low amount, great you can enjoy yourselves. Just shows how little you need x
Thanks Natalie! Definitely! We are quite pleased with that sum. In normal times we might eat out a few times which would bump up the budget but it does show you don’t need to spend much to have fun 😊
Great video. One thing I think you could include as an additional ‘cost’ is depreciation (possibly include that as maintenance/servicing for the van). Say you built a van for £x but was worth £y 5 years later then that could £100s a month.
Ah yes! That’s would be good to factor in and potential repairs! We haven’t had any repairs to do yet so wouldn’t know what ballpark figure to allocate for that but definitely a good point. Hopefully it’ll be a good few years before we want to sell this one! 😊 Thanks for watching!
Y’all are amazing! Congratulations on all your endeavors. 🙌
Thank you so much Kylie! 😃
Great video guys! This is super useful to help us understand what our costs could be 👍
Glad it was helpful! Thank you for watching :)
Amazing, thanks for sharing!
Thanks for watching, Kelly!
Great video guys, it's going to come in so useful for us when we go to Europe in the summer! Thank you :)
Thank you! It can definitely be done as cheap or expensive as you’d like. We’ve been pleasantly surprised with the prices in Spain! 😊
I'm impressed you guys can keep costs so low, but it totally makes sense with your lifestyle too!! I definitely spend twice as much on groceries and food just for myself 😂
thanks! We dont really try to spend so little it just works out like that :)
But it is really nice to have treats sometimes :) Thank you for watching!
wow! that makes me want to try van life so much more!
The combination of working online and living in a van has saved us a lot of money :) I'm sure you'll enjoy it :D Thank you for watching!
Super insightful! 👏
Thank you so much for watching! 😊
That’s really low! Well done! We’re aiming for £1000 a month for a family of 5 once we move into the bus.
thank you!! thats amazing! that sounds like so much fun :)
Great vid guys! Think we may try and work out a family monthly spend. Inspired :)
Thanks guys! Yeah it was very interesting to calculate how much we actually do spend. I think it would be a great idea to do a family one.
yeah man....living can be as cheap as ya want it to be.....i prob spend £15 a week on foods, your insurance is much higher, def look for a different solution to your gas canisters , this would keep that down, and less waste...i have the small half sized gas bottle.Lasts me ages !! The booze thing, in uk they used to ,if you;ve had a drink & have your vans keys on your body, they can do ya for drinkin /drivin !! yrs ago we had to be super careful ! I love that when you work out how little it costs you don't have to slog at full time/ hectic/stressd jobs...def the life for me ...great video guys..love all the lil quirks/angles & PIE (yum) chart ...keep smiling :) *X*
Thank you!! :D
Hopefully our insurance will keep going down in price, we had both been out of the country for too long so had no no claims, so that was a bit annoying :( and we found it hard trying to get all the European cover we needed :O Hopefully next year it will be better :)
Wow thats such a good idea! I really think we need to rethink our gas situation when we get back to the UK :)
I heard about that!! Its crazy that they would go looking for van lifers with booze but at least it saved a bit of money too haha :)
Thank you!! Hope you're staying well :Dxx
@@OurWildHorizons yeh it will come down, iv never looked into european cover, used my 'thumb' in those days ;) Im sure you can undo the bolt on the table top cookers and fit a different fitting to then allow for a gas bottle attatch/pipe ( the blue bottles that you get a refill) we did it yrs ago on one..just need to find the space for the bottle then ! We werent called vanlifers then , crustys, oddbods, new age travellers etc....so we were targets as seen as unconventional and misfits...( i like that tho) can't tell ya the ammount of times cops pulled me over in them days !! Yeh im keeping well man....half way thru the TEFL But gotta say im finding the 'understanding grammar & metalanguage very hard to grasp...we weren't taught anything like that, just basic reading /writing etc ( im old tho) so getting thru it :) hope you're still really enjoying the life :) Big love *X*
Thanks for the video 🧡🧡🧡 this is such an informative video. Wish my shop was 150 quid a month 🙈
Aha, ah we are quite frugal and only buy what we need most of the time. Then treat ourselves every now and then 😀
Love this so much!!! Quitting my job and doing a season in Cornwall next year then buying a van and going travelling!!! I'm really curious about your kitchen supplies, like what type and how many plates, cups, other accessories you have? Thanks!
Thanks May! Ooh a season in Cornwall sounds brilliant. Our kitchen supplies are just regular house ones and they never smashed or chipped but lots of people do have enamel camping stuff. 2 of each so we're not the best hosts haha but most van lifers just bring their own things over or we'll take our to theirs if we're invited round someones :)
I love the way you end your videos with a high five. So sweet! 🧡 Really interesting video, thanks for sharing. Do you think it’ll increase once places start opening (“post-covid”) and you can visit more paid attractions? Also, what do you do for books? Do you use an e-reader? 😁
thank you!!! Yeah maybe, I do really miss going to vegan cafes and finding a little cake! we dont normally go to paid attractions very much but it would be nice to visit a few museums and stuff when things open :)
Good question haha! the space above our cab is a pile of books haha! not very organised!
That is a crazy low amout for food, I assumed it would be like 400! Good for you guys, definitely inspiring to think of being able to live with that small of expenses
Thank you for watching!! :) we've never really spent that much on food, its just something we've been used to :)
Really, really interesting vlog 🤗 Would you ever consider installing an LPG system for cooking/heating(fridge?) (speculating to accumulate)? We've found it is really economical (once you've paid for the installation via cheaper refills). Also ....V envious of your current geographical location - our first planned outing when we're 'let out of jail' in the UK is a long weekend in York in our van 👍😁 👍
Thank you! Yes we definitely want to invest in a gas set up. We didn’t want to cut any more holes in before (for the drop vent) but think it’ll definitely be worth it since we love longer cooking meals that we’ve been skimping out on lately.
Yes, we’ve been very fortunate to spend this lockdown out here but our time in the EU is nearly over! York looks like a beautiful city though, we’ll have to visit there too at some point.
Thank you for watching 😊
Buzzcut’s a big difference!
a new man! :)
luv it guys : p
Thanks so much for watching! 😊
I moved to Spain in early retirement because it is much cheaper to live here. I (normally)spend much of my time outside and Spanish fruits and vegetables are delicious and cheap. Your food expenditure sounds similar to ours as a couple although we are not vegans. Sunshine and generally warmer, drier weather do mean that a lot of money can be saved enjoying yourselves.😊
amazing place to live isn't it! and your so right, when its nice and warm its nice to just do free activities like walking :)
Thank you for watching our video :)
Love this video, we have finished our build and hoping to get on the road ASAP. We've spent the morning sorting renting out our house and working out how much £ van life will cost so this is hugely helpful - thank you.
Who do you use for your breakdown cover?
Thanks for taking the time so watch and leave a comment Caitlin 😀 Hope your plans are all coming together!
We use AA for our cover, we renewed with them since we had a good experience with them when we broke down in France!
Nice Van.Nicely done with the Pie Chart! Vegan lifestyle is the best!
Thanks Erik! Any excuse to make a pie haha!
I wonder if I'm your oldest follower (except perhaps from your parents!). Anyhow, love following your life on Instagram..I live in a caravan but increasingly tempted to convert a van. Yours looks so cozy. How do you find teaching online? Can I ask which company you work with?
you have my grandparents as competition for oldest follower :D haha! thank you so much for following along our journey! Teaching online isn't our dream job, we would love to make money from TH-cam and our photography, but we love that it has enabled us to travel so much :)
there is some info about the company we work for on @sheisthelostgirl :) in a story highlight, it explains more about our job :) We are trying not to talk about it too much here on TH-cam as we want to focus on being completely creative on here, so we probably wont be making any TH-cam videos about it :)
Wow, that's so cheap! Well done. I wondered if you have talked about the dreaded B word before ? (brexit) How that changes your travel plans going forward and your thoughts on how it will change van life for Brits? Thanks!
Thanks Holly! Yeah unfortunately it means we can’t stay out of England for as long as we had hoped. We’re planning to just continue doing 6 months of the year in Europe (2 separate 3 month trips) then spend the other 6 months around Scotland, Wales and Ireland when they open up 😊
I don’t even know what to say 😂😂 I’m going to add up ours in a second x
Ooooh hope it's a number you're happy with! We'd love to find out :)
Whoa! I must say that I never had a favourite youtube channel or what so ever, but here I feel like yeah.. I wanna see this series :D One question - do you guys drink water bottled or have any other solutions? I'm not up to date with all your movies yet.
Thank you so much Amelia!! We’re delighted to read that 😀 we drink tap water and it it’s questionable then we have these bottle filters that we run it through before drinking! I hope that you enjoy some of the other videos too 😁
Without rent this is about right for me, but as one person lol
Still a good amount though!
Thank you very informative video? Your insurance does it cover if your van gets broken into or just if the van has an accident? What do you do for work? Also I find that the Internet has a cap put on it if you go abroad ?
for example I have the Vodafone unlimited data with no tether worrying which cost me around £30 a month fantastic until I go to Spain then I have a cap of 25 gigs which for me is nothing as I am quite Internet hungry.
Thank you for watching! I'm not actually sure whether it covers the contents, I don't imagine that it does though. We used to work as online teachers teaching English to foreign students which was a great job but now we are focussed and making money as photographers/content creators working freelance for brands mainly.
Ah we were so lucky last year as we had a voxi sim (vodaphone company) but it didn't cap it abroad last year! That's changed now though unfortunately. We both have a sim and we also have another sim in the wifi box so I think we'll just have to limit our internet usage if we manage to get through all that. Thanks for watching :)
Hi, watched all the videos on your van conversion. How much did you spend in total? Thanks Andy
We spent 3k on the build with the electrics being the most expensive part so could have been nearer 2k without that 😀 We’ll do a breakdown at some point!
What's it compare to now? The cost of diesel is a big killer to our budget.
To be honest its about the same because we dont drive too far :) But If we do go on a big trip its painfully expensive :( Its only going to go up which is annoying :(
Lovely video! So interesting to hear your costs. So when you say break down cover, do you mean it's completely free or do you have to pay a sum for it when you break down? Like swedish break down cover still have you pay 130 pounds even tho you pay the insurance for it... Trying to find a break down cover that's completely free 🥰
thank you for watching!! SO for the breakdown cover we have to pay a yearly cost and then if we do breakdown we get it sorted out for free :) Or if it goes really wrong it can get toed already paid for. Its well worth it as you only need to have a couple of flat batteries to make the yearly cost worth while. Also if you are in the middle of nowhere you know who to call and they will come pretty quick, so its a safety thing too :)
I've never heard about a free one :)
@@OurWildHorizons Thank you so much for getting back to us. We pay a yearly cost for brwak down cover and then still we pay a towing cost each time that's 130 pounds. Strangely enough we had to get towed last night haha so that just costs us 130 pounds. What I mean with free is that the towing cost is already payed for yearly like yours. What's the name of yours?
Have you done a video dedicated to wifi on the road? Eg what speeds you get, reliability, does it drop off? what to do if got work and turn up to place with bad signal? How you choose places with wifi.
I could reduce my hours at work to 3 days per week for an income of roughly £1,000 a month. Which be perfect to live off if you only spend ~£400! But I need reliable good internet, and don't know how hard that is to come by
we spoke about it a bit in our "preparing for Europe" video but we didnt go into it that much! we might do a proper video about it, thats a good idea :)
it really changes so much depending on the country.. in the UK its awful, a lot of places just have really bad signal! but in france its really good! and in spain we have had signal EVERYWHERE!!!!! I put the SIM card info in the description of this video :)
But yeah, the UK isn't the best for signal, spain is the best :) even in the middle of the desert we had full 4g!
@@OurWildHorizons thanks for that! Really insightful! I'll look in to the simcard you mentioned in the video
Very impressed in your choice to do this together, a great opportunity while you don't have children and other things to tie you down. Sorry if I missed it but if you aren't working how are you making money? Is it from making videos and doing media? And how long do you plan to do this?
thank you for watching :) We are working as online English teachers 5 days a week in the van, but thankfully we don't need to work full time hours because we aren't spending too much :)
We would love to make money off our videos, thats why we really appreciate you watching :) Thanks again
Guys who are your insured with just out of curiosity?!x
Adrian flux :)
What SIM card packages are you currently using? Do you have any unlimited European SIMs.. Loving the Vlogs and you guys are so Savvy!
We’re using Voxi sims (vodaphone partner) They still work in Europe under the same UK plan so it’s been super easy for us. We actually have better here than in England most days! There’s a link in the description for you to check out if you like the sound of it and we and you will get a £20 Amazon voucher if you use that link. 😊
@@OurWildHorizons Have 2 Voxi SIMs one for my phone and one for 4G Mifi. Great Minds😁
What work do you do online?
We are both online teachers 😊
Nearly paid of my insurance that's over 1.2k to lower the costs for the future. And I cut my own hair too hahs. Can you drop a link for the pie cooker please?
insurance is crazy isn't it.. but sometimes you can lower it by saying you've already had a lower quote, they dont want to loose a customer!
Yes! amzn.to/2DqW0Gk :)
Sadly I have a curly mop that requires professional attention 😂
Ha! I bet that takes a skilled worker to maintain, surely looks great though! I enjoyed the ease of the buzz cut but I've since let it grow a bit longer.
Have you got a video of Jake cutting your hair Beth?
yes haha I do!! its not on TH-cam though! its on my "van hacks" instagram story highlight (@sheisthelostgirl) :) He did so well!! haha
£400 a month 😮 why aren't more people living a van ?
We are still on the cheap end! Some people spend £2000 a month while living in vans!
Once the cost of van purchase, conversion and running repairs are factored over say five years, this figure will almost certainly double.
It's good you don't have to work as much and your monthly spend is low .live more work less :0)
Yes, you are right :D Thats how we like to live :) Thank you for watching :)