Hey Team …. in our last blog post we chatted about our van and how it came to be ours and in the latest episode of The Van Life Podcast we talked about our reasons for buying a van. The reasons are pretty simple, in a nutshell, we are tired of paying huge amounts of rent to have a roof over our heads. When our boys were still living at home, we needed a large house with all the facilities but these days it is just Deb and I and honestly, we can survive without such a large house. With our rent currently being just over $1700 a month (July 2022) and the owners aiming for $1800 a month and all this before we pay for Gas and Electric and Water, then we are in the hole for well over $2000 a month before we even eat.
Of course, there are expenses to be paid for owning and living in a van but these are minuscule in comparison to a fixed dwelling plus living in the van eventually gives us incredible freedom to travel and take on adventures without the shadow of a rental property to deal with alongside the cost of an adventure.
A few people have expressed concern about the whole “van life” thing but Deb and I have had a taste of van life in the past and have enjoyed the freedom it brings. Not many people know that in 2000 we originally traveled to Queensland in a 40ft Leyland Leopard bus which we lived in for about 3 months and then in about 2005 we acquired a 21ft Hino bus that we built out for traveling to triathlons and bike races. Both of these experiences left us wanting more of that lifestyle.
What are our immediate plans, well first up we are starting to build it out and plan on moving into it at the end of March 2023? Initially, we will still have work commitments so we plan on moving into a local caravan park so we have an established base to work from with an occasional trip away to do some adventures. Whilst there are overheads staying in a caravan park they are way less than a rental property. Our other option will be some local house sitting to give us a break from the cost of the caravan park.
That will do us for this blog post.
In the next blog post and the next episode of The Van Life Podcast, we will chat about the very first stages of our DIY van build ….. the floor and the walls.