Are you Stingy?

[Madmaggott]

No, just a bit frugal!

I keep some home made lasagna's, curry, bolagnaise sauces, etc in the freezer of our van .  We prefer to eat out when we are away and provided we are 'allowed' to park in the car park within the town boundary we go to the pub/cafe/restaurant and spend our cash.  If the local council in it's infinite wisdom chooses not to allow us to park in their (usually) empty car park for the evening/overnight, we park elsewhere and I will use one of our ready meals or if we can find a decent out of town eatery they get our cash.

BTW; I do not ever leave my rubbish for others to clear up, whether in the MH, walking or otherwise (it's the way I was brought up!) and certainly do not 'empty out' anywhere other than the proper place and if we need to call at a site and pay a nominal fee to do so, we do. 

If using a site we choose CLs because we do not require all of the 'facilities' provided by some sites and prefer not to have someone's little precious kicking their ball against our van or cycling round it!

 

 

[747]

As I had no plans to visit the Islands this Summer, I am content to be patient and see how things work out.

 

Having read the report on changes on some islands, I believe that the changes have come about as a result of a minority of Islanders, some of whom have vested interests in the leisure area. There will of course be genuinely upset people but it is human nature to not follow through with issues. How many of you have felt unhappy but have never lobbied your Councillors for change? We have all been there.

 

Money talks and if the Islanders lose out because of the situation, there will be something better next year.

[Neil Hunt]

“Talking to a chap on a site this week who toured the islands last Autumn, evreywhere was generally OK, just the odd niggle, except Harris where he said he ran the gauntlet of some very nasty locals. His worst experience was bizarrely, in a business. As he walked in the door the shopkeeper shouted at him "And where are you going to empty your toilet? Not before you get to Stornaway." The conversation coninued in similar vein so he left the shop, and the island, as soon as he could. “

 

 

I find it a curious attitude that if you are able buy an expensive toy you also feel you are entitled to play with it anywhere and sod anyone else’s perspective.

 

Maybe the issue with small communities is not whether motorhomers buy from local shops but the impact their stay makes on their lives both financial (somebody has to pay for water, sewage, roads, litter etc, etc) and visual. I do doubt whether someone on a six week stay (or even half a week or two) removes all trace of their presence when they leave.

 

I remember thinking on another thread about generator use when someone was describing their six week stay on a car park in Portugal how well heeled, well off souls (those able to buy a motorhome perhaps) in the UK would feel at having a new age travellers site at the end of their village. No doubt the travellers feel it their right to roam anywhere.

 

I live in Cornwall and witnessed a car pull up outside our house, deposit a soiled nappy on the pavement and drive off. Would the occupants have given it any thought as long as they solved their immediate needs?

 

I am NOT suggesting this is typical behaviour, but any small community witnessing a build up of irritating activity would not take long to develop a negative group response, just as a group mentality of justification along the lines of "I paid £X.000 for my toy and I'll be damned if I cannot play with it wherever I choose".

 

[Colin Leake]

Thrift is a virtue which sadly departs from my wife every time she visits her hair stylist. For a woman who picks up the rubber bands discarded by postmen for future use this is both inexplicable and alarming!

[Clive]

Yes.

 

Ok, having now had a quick look at the thread I can expand on my basic answer to the initial question.

 

1 If I were not stingy we could have never afforded a motorhome.

2 Scotland, been there 3 times on holiday and it rained throughout each time. We were constrained by School holidays and limited cash.

3 The islands, would love to go when we are free of the many domestic regular commitments we have at the moment. But if it has to be "go north" or "go south" then I am afraid that the mediteranean wins every time for me. When we can do both then we will.

4 We buy local fuel, visit local pubs for meals and use sites some of the time. But if just wanting an overnight stop before continuing in the morning then we do as lorry drivers do.

 

What were the other winges?

 

!!!!!

C.

 

 

[Usinmyknaus]

Neil Hunt - 2010-03-26 11:00 AM

 

I find it a curious attitude that if you are able buy an expensive toy you also feel you are entitled to play with it anywhere and sod anyone else’s perspective.

 

 

Not my attitude at all and I'm sure not the attitude of almost all members of this forum.

 

My attitude is, if an area welcomes/permits wild camping and no other facilities are provided, e.g CL-type sites. then I too dream of wild-camping in the style of many who have enjoyed it and posted their experiences on here. (I have never wild-camped yet, just dreamed about it.)

 

If an area does not want motorhomers at all, then if the local council or tourist body would care to make that public (or I see a negative press report) I will avoid it. I have too many good choices on the mainland of Europe to line myself up for disappointment in precious holiday time.

 

 

Bob

[Neil Hunt]

Hi Bob,

 

My specific comment was in response to a statement made in the relevant MMM letters. (P17 April)

 

"I didn't pay nearly £50K for this so I'd have to pay £16 for sites".

 

I don't know this but I have a suspicion that although this is a minority view it will not be tiny minority. I do hope that I am wrong and it is an isolated view.

 

I also do feel very uneasy about the idea of m'homers spending (as an example from forum comments) weeks in a car park in Portugal, which is a poor county (relatively) after all and we do need to be sensitive to how other communities view us.

 

Unfortunately the dream that we can camp in unspoiled and remote places without leaving a foot print is just that , a dream from a bygone past.

 

I have been disgruntled as a cycle tourist in rural North Wales to receive a much less than polite response, as a non Welsh speaker, when purchasing goods in a shop, but I also feel you do have to consider the other's perspective in these situations .

 

 

 

 

[Brian Kirby]

Funny old thread, this, isn't it?  Lots of wracked consciences working overtime, methinks!

The Hebrides are isolated communities of relatively few souls.  Everyone will know everyone.  Living costs will be higher than elsewhere, because everything has to be brought in from the mainland.  I believe most older kids even have to travel to the mainland for secondary education, the definitely have to for college/university.  The locals will, inevitably, be a bit otherworldly and have strongly held beliefs and traditions.  They will have become introspective.  Most of us would be so if we lived there! 

Then, along come all these outlanders with eye-wateringly (and, by Hebridean standards, totally useless) expensive toys, who appear to take what they can, and put little back.  They are impatient, hasty, and appear rude.  They don't have the "time of day" for anyone else.

We think we are normal, and they think we are not; but we think they are maybe a bit slow compared to us, and perhaps a bit backward.  It is a classic culture clash between townies (and, for them, southerners) and the inhabitants of a wild, windswept, often harsh, rural environment.  Similar clashes arise around the airbase at Stornaway.  Different cultures, different timescales, different expectations of others.

Simply put, they need to be understood rather more than we need to justify our motivations.  We look like rich invaders, leading them to believe all motorhomers have high incomes and, by refusing to spend accordingly, are mean.  They do not realise the motorhomers are often pensioners on restricted incomes, who have simply "blued" their disposable cash on a one-off purchase of an expensive toy so that they can travel around and see, and perhaps even learn about, places like the Hebrides.  Mind, some on here show little capacity for the learning bit, just a capacity to criticise others not inhabiting quite the same planet!

[Usinmyknaus]

Neil and Brian,

 

Good points. As in so many areas of life of course, motorhomer - local relations principally require good manners and civility on both sides and I get the impression that a majority of motorhomers strive to keep their side of that bargain.

 

Neil's point on North Wales struck a chord as at dinner on Saturday, two friends related that last week they spent several days in an expensive hotel in Llandudno and met suprising hostility, when out and about, including being refused service in a sea-front cafe solely because of their English (OK, posh Southern) accents. Now, if a tourist-dependent resort

like Llandudno is going to insult top-spending visitors who stay in their town's best hotel, one has to question what the locals would like as an alternative economic driver - incapacity benefit as, sadly, is the lot of some ex-pit villages?

 

Brian's implied point about islanders' knowing every stranger took me back to my landing on Barra in a small plane and leaving it parked on the beach. Throughout my stay, local's greeted or referred to me as "The Pilot" thus according me an undeserved minor celebrity status. I was treated with great courtesy and the warmth of the welcome has been unsurpassed anywhere since.

 

Going back to the concept and degree of stinginess in motorhoming. My three-year spreadsheet reveals that in 179 nights of staying on sites from free (aires) to an eye-watering 40 Euros per night on a white-water river side pitch in the Ardeche my average cost per night for site fees has been £9.91. The gross cost per night including all van costs has been £315.05 and the net cost, allowing for the current value of the van is £131.52. Refering to my holiday spreadsheets before I bought the motorhome the average cost of staying in hotels was £160.43 per night. So already I am saving money so am bound to be considered stingy by hoteliers.

 

I therefore conclude that for me, site fees are negligible in the grand scheme of things. If the van lasts long-enough, the cost per night of my holiday should be a lot less than staying in a hotel over the same period and hoteliers will thoroughly disapprove, which might explain why lots of them like to see restrictions on motorhomes and caravans!.

 

Bob :-)

[colinfrier]

Ther is a time and a place for everything but here in Southern Spain beauty spots and beach car parks are often spoilt by large numbers of motorhomers doing it on the cheap.They think it's their god given right to inconvience all other users usualy hogging the best spots.In a residential suqare in Torre del Mar it's not unusual to see 30+ vans parked round the square in full view of the appartment occupants I know what I would do with them?