Cost To Live In A Van

Not saying there’s anything wrong with it, just that it could be sustainable with a much lower budget to those just wanting to do Van Life in an easily sustainable way. Many people think they need a heater in the winter and that couldn’t be further from the truth. Unless you live in Canada, you can probably survive by bundling up in the winter or sleeping next to some hot water bottles. Roasting dinner over a campfire is cheaper than heating over propane if you have access to free firewood. The motor on a Mercedes Sprinter can cost as much as $15,000 to replace, for example.

You can get a small camping stove for anywhere between $30-$150+. As I said before, there’s a significant difference in cost between people who travel in their vans and those who remain relatively stationary. But let’s cover one of the biggest worries van dwellers face—where to park. But for those van lifers dedicated to fighting it out with the winter weather, most report around $50 per month in propane costs for heating.

Campervan travel changes the landscape of your adventure, but I’ll save that for when I talk about the best countries to campervan in further down. Electric off-road trucks such as the Rivian Electric Truck and the Tesla Truck Camperare making waves in the over-landing world. And, we may well start to see more electric behemoths hitting the roads over the next few years. Truck campers like this are perfect if your van life adventures regularly take you into the back-end-of-beyond, or if your driveway consists of 50 miles of rough desert road. The Vauxhall Movano is the van I began full-time van life with. I’ve been riding it through the UK for 14 months, and can attest to its virtues for the gig firsthand.

The Cost Of Traveling And Staying In Place

It might not suit if you’re looking for extra headroom, so try out a few different models before you buy. Parts are much easier to obtain for Crafters than their retro cousins, as they’re still in production today. So don’t worry about visiting a garage on the other side of the world on your travels.

Even while growing up in Byron Bay almost twenty years ago, I remember seeing scores of JUCY campervans parked at the beach. Usually, with some happy-go-lucky, not-a-care-in-the-world bangin’ their lack-of-woes away in the backseat. That’s why by choosing to travel in a cheap van or RV rental, you’re going to please the tight-fisted pantheon deities of Backpakistan. Now, don’t misunderstand – you’re not going to cut your travel expenses in Europe down to the level of Southeast Asia. But taking all our usual tricks-of-the-trade backpacker secrets and applying them while living out of a van certainly helps.

Before You Buy A Live

Sink/Faucet – Your sink and faucet mostly come down to space, budget, and aesthetics. I wanted a large sink and a faucet with a water filter spigot. I made this a priority and found one that checked those boxes without breaking the budget. Propane – Unless you are doing a portable stove or an induction burner then you will need propane.

I’m trying to make sure that it is road ready before heading out. This is a great van for van life if you don’t want to put any money into converting your own van. The Westfalia comes with two comfortable captain’s chairs up front, a little kitchen with a stove, fridge and sink and a bed. Choose between a gas or a diesel engine when looking at a step van for van life. These are also typically low-slung vans, which may not be best if you want to do a lot of off-roading.

Van life Stove – For our first build we ended up with a Flame King two-burner stove but for our second build we will be doing a Dometic Oven. There are many stove and oven options to consider which is why you should do your research and decide how much room you have in your van before deciding on a stove or oven. However, what I recommend is somewhere in the middle. I recommend Renogy solar as it is a well-known solar company that the majority of vanlifers use.

And we’ll share with you our detailed monthly van life expenses too. At the RV parks, the machines typically take coins. Loads here can be fairly expensive, but convenient.

We were stuck with standard auto insurance + renters insurance (using a parent’s address) to cover our belongings. We hope this will help give you a reference point for how finances can be managed living on the road. We’ll also be working on the road as freelancers, so we’ll have money coming in to our swissmoney account.

There aremany options availableranging anywhere from $200-$1000 depending on the features. We recommendmaking a mental list of equipmentas you read through this post. We’ve also created avan life packing listto give you an idea of how much storage space to set aside. Depending on what you need, you have a few options for your conversion process.

In the digital age, there are so many resources at your disposal to make van life that much more enriching. Whether you’re searching for a place to camp or refill your propane or want to know where to find the cheapest gas nearby, there is an app for virtually every aspect of #vanlife. You can secure your go-to spices, knives and other metallic objects from all of the bumping and shifting that takes place with #vanlife. Plus you can mount them virtually anywhere to increase your ability to conserve space. You can pick up USB fans, flashlights and any number of other devices and van life accessories that draw minimal power and recharge in minutes. We encourage you to have as many of these devices as possible and say farewell to the day of being dependent upon a store of batteries in an already cramped space.

You need to dip your toes in and that means choosing and acquiring your traveller van. Let’s call it nomadic van living (just to separate it from actual nomadic living in which if you didn’t move, then winter came and you died). Living out of a van means living out of a home with wheels. The pop-top on these four wheel campers provides ample space for standing, cooking and working, and the bed pulls out to make a sleeping platform that you never want to leave. It gets a hard rap from some people in the business, but we think that they’re great runners. Besides, their shape makes them easy to add wood panelling and interior features without too much hassle.

We’ve seen some new 4×4 Sprinter vans, kitted out beautifully and with bespoke designs cost well over US $120,000. You may not even know what costs you might incur, let alone how to work out how much to budget for them. Since you are on the road and continuously moving getting mail can be hard. But you can join a mail-forwarding organization or can sometimes count on campgrounds to be willing to receive mail for you. Be sure to check with the campground ahead of time as some are more cooperative than others.

I’ll break down the costs – and savings – of this quirky money-saving method. You probably already have a cell phone, and these days, most people have unlimited data plans, too. Walmart parking lots, which allow free parking for vans, semis, and RVs. I discovered the power of the outdoors in my 20s, at the time I needed it most. Now 15 years later, prioritizing that critical connection with nature continues to improve my life. My goal at Bearfoot Theory is to empower you with the tools and advice you need to responsibly get outside.