Full timing how much??

[Pampam]

Discussing tonight just how much it costs to live full time in a motorhome what do you have to pay ? If I rented out my house what bills would I still have to pay I suppose once you rent out your house the bills are taken over by the tenant? Ooh it's quite exciting just thinking about the possibility of it:) pp I suppose there's hidden extras.

[johnnerontheroad]

Ask on here lots of full timers http://www.motorhome365.com/forum/

 

Dave

[Pampam]

Thanks johnontheroad had a quick look and it looks an interesting forum ta. Pp:)

[johnnerontheroad]

It is a good forum for info, they seem to say about £12K to £15K a year depending on your life style some do it for much less.

 

Dave

[Mel B]

Strewth - £12-£15k!!!

 

We only spend about £11k max living at home including holidays! 8-)

[Bulletguy]

Mel B - 2013-12-10 12:00 AM

 

Strewth - £12-£15k!!!

 

We only spend about £11k max living at home including holidays! 8-)

 

 

I think you will find much depends on 1) type of van....(often big A class or similar) and 2) how often the thing is used. Bigger the van bigger the costs of going anywhere.

 

I remember a guy on some forum i used to frequent who had full timed a number of years in an RV, but it got to the point where he simply couldn't afford to run the damn thing more than a few miles each year. He eventually gave up and what bit of savings they had left moved back to the UK and bought a small house.

 

 

[Guest 1footinthegrave]

Mel B - 2013-12-10 12:00 AM

 

Strewth - £12-£15k!!!

 

We only spend about £11k max living at home including holidays! 8-)

 

I presume that's when your not on a "spending spree" .................I'd love to see a breakdown of your 11K, especially given some of the spending you've detailed on these forums, haven't you just had a conservatory this year for example, and loads more besides, not to mention all those "bargains" you share with us all ? :-S

 

As for full timing and how much it would cost, is like asking how long is a piece of string, , parked up on some free French aire or a field in the UK paying a CL rate of what £10 a day, but then having to move every 28 days, may sound OK for a few weeks in the nicer times of the year, but there's an awful amount of less nice times of the year................... ;-)

 

but I suspect like so many things in life it's probably better to travel than to arrive, especially in the depths of winter.

 

now whose turn is it to empty the cassette :D

[Will86]

There you are MEL ... try and answer that one ... don't forget all the doggie food and vet bills.

[Guest pelmetman]

We intend to long term rather than fulltime, as there are less complications re insurance doctors etc.............. and are budgeting on 12k ;-)...............

[Guest 1footinthegrave]

Will85 - 2013-12-10 8:36 AM

 

There you are MEL ... try and answer that one ... don't forget all the doggie food and vet bills.

 

Ah, good point, just cost my daughter £87 for her cats touch of cystitis, I told her I could have sorted it out for nothing apart from a house brick, a sack, and a canal. :D the offers always there if MelB wants to stay on budget with her THREE dogs. ;-)

[bolero boy]

If one was really 'full timing" i suppose then the budget you managed on, for most, would be your income?

When we are away (for anything, currently) upto 4 months at a time, we still have to 'live' so we transfer our 'housekeeping' budget which SWMBO manages and this takes care of the everyday stuff, food, supplies etc.

We also have small personal spending allowances (aw ;-) ) that keep us independent of each other.

Additionally, a few years ago, i worked out a budget for 'touring expenses' which covers fuel, gas and site fees. Add to that the standing expenses of servicing, MOT, road tax, insurance, travel insurance, contingency and you have another element to consider

On the credit side, our water, gas and electric at home is all metered and we are able to keep these costs to a manageable level, especially is away for some of the most fuel hungry months. Haven't managed to avoid the council taxes yet >:-)

To cost out 'full timing' or living in the van for any extended period, you have to look at each of these elements (and more?) to come up with a figure

We each budget differently in some areas but there are also costs which are similar to all of us, so get some opinions together and then its a case of doing the maths.

I suspect if you actually went through the process you would be horrified at what we spend each year on living and running a van. Still, what else would you do? ;-)

[Easyliving]

We lived in our van summer / winter 2012 and it cost us about £1000 a month I should think, quite a bit of that time was spent touring parts of Europe.

 

Good idea to take a look at some of the many full timer blogs, they often give details of what they are spending so you know how much it costs from people that are doing it for real.

 

Current favourite blogs:

 

http://www.motorhomelifers.co.uk/

 

http://adventuresofbigbird.wordpress.com/

 

http://ericandshazza.wordpress.com/

 

http://www.ukgreynomads.co.uk/

 

 

Paul

[Rayjsj]

Pampam - 2013-12-09 9:05 PM

 

Discussing tonight just how much it costs to live full time in a motorhome what do you have to pay ? If I rented out my house what bills would I still have to pay I suppose once you rent out your house the bills are taken over by the tenant? Ooh it's quite exciting just thinking about the possibility of it:) pp I suppose there's hidden extras.[/quote

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You would need a Postbox for your mail, and of course your Home Address for Drivers License, Road Tax, Insurance.

 

We have friends who do it, Their Son lives in their (downsized Prior to event) house, and fowards their mail to them, they find that Clothes washing to be one of the 'Bugbears'. But have toured most of Europe and further in the last 3 years. They seem to enjoy it, Health can be a problem, if you have an accident, break a bone or need special treatment, then it may be better to return home. Stay mainly on CL's in this Country, Aires when abroad, those that are open out of season of course. Water a constant need, always top up your tanks when you can. Would we do it ?? have been tempted, but not enough.....Yet.

Ray

[Guest 1footinthegrave]

I'm just trying to imagine full timing in a foreign country right now, with a knackered Truma boiler hence no heating or hot water, it's proving difficult enough to sort out here, the idea of being up somewhere wandering abroad without any language skills and trying to sort it would be unthinkable. If it was in the UK of course that may be a different ball game.......................but the UK from end of Oct through to April stuck in a muddy field holds no appeal whatsoever with or without a knackered boiler. (!)

[bolero boy]

Notwithstanding the cost of fulltimimg, i suspect we would still spend some time in the UK. Theres still a lot to see here and, without ties, its a great way to do it.

As a broad concept, i guess (eventually) we would be in the UK from May to August, then travel somewhere in mainland Europe till mid December. Do the Christmas thing (while folks are still with us, bless em!) and then set out mid/late January for 4 months of better weather.

However, we still like lots of 'other' types of holidays and would need to find a way of working in or around these. Still, mot a bad problem to have.

OH currently trying to get us to downsize house (and van......dunno) tho not a requirement to allow the nomadic dream.

[Guest 1footinthegrave]

bolero boy - 2013-12-10 1:58 PM

 

Notwithstanding the cost of fulltimimg, i suspect we would still spend some time in the UK. Theres still a lot to see here and, without ties, its a great way to do it.

As a broad concept, i guess (eventually) we would be in the UK from May to August, then travel somewhere in mainland Europe till mid December. Do the Christmas thing (while folks are still with us, bless em!) and then set out mid/late January for 4 months of better weather.

However, we still like lots of 'other' types of holidays and would need to find a way of working in or around these. Still, mot a bad problem to have.

OH currently trying to get us to downsize house (and van......dunno) tho not a requirement to allow the nomadic dream.

 

Good idea methinks to downsize any house, lots of benefits to that............I hate decorating with a passion for example, so less walls equals less hatred.

 

Downsizing the van though with a view to spending more time in, def a no no, especially if the weather is pants. We loved our IH PVC for all the freedom to reach the parts that other Lagers couldn't reach, but by around week 6 it's starting to get mightily claustraphobic, hence with a heavy heart it went. ;-)

[vindiboy]

Holidaying in a van means one thing,living full time in a van means something entirely different,for a start lets assume you only have the van,in which case it will need to contain everything you need for all circumstances and weathers,so Don,t try it in a little one if you want any comfort.You will need a UK address to tax and insure the van,your driving licence, and bank affairs,full time van insurance is available but not cheap,don,t try and fool the Insurance Companies,they can and will check if the address you. Claim as your home has building and contents cover in your name for instance and may want to see two utility bills in your name in the event of a claim,this is a condition on my policy with Comfort,so saying you keep the van at X overnight may need to be proven.

  If you let your home out the tennant will indeed be liable for all bills, but dont forget periods. When no tennant is in it,the bills then become yours as does redecorating costs when a tennant leaves and wrecks the place,you will need to Insure the structure at your cost too,not the tennants liability.

  Living in the van you will have mantenance costs on the vehicle,Insurance and tax,gas costs electricity costs and food,all of which you have to pay if you use the van or not anyway,don.t forget to make financial provision for Times when the vehicle is off road for service etc,you will need B n B at least laundry costs are a consideration too.

  Site costs vary a lot, but if you spend long periods touring Europe. these can be a lot less,are you prepared to wild camp, some can some can,t, if yes this will save a lot of cash. Do you wan,t a busy social life,costs for this can vary enormously too, 

  We are not full timers but spend long periods living in our van, we were going to sell all and live in the van, I had an Hymer B694 tag axle van then and it was. an ideal vehicle for full timing but we had a rethink and kept our Bungalow,a good decission as it happened as we have the best of both worlds,can come and go as we please, Don,t have any storage worries, didn,t have to store our belongings which is not cheap,have a bona fide address, my home Insurance allows 180 days unoccupancy consecutive so no worries there,and closing down the Bungalow when we go away is cheap,no gas or electric or water bills only rates and Insurance which is all cheaper than storage costs overall. Our trips away are usually for up to six months at a time,Winters in Spain Portugal and Morocco  and Summers in France Greece,Italy or whatever takes our fancy. I know this does not fully answer your question on costs but we are all different and want different things so a straight answer would be very difficult.

[vindiboy]

1footinthegrave - 2013-12-10 12:14 PMI'm just trying to imagine full timing in a foreign country right now, with a knackered Truma boiler hence no heating or hot water, it's proving difficult enough to sort out here, the idea of being up somewhere wandering abroad without any language skills and trying to sort it would be unthinkable. If it was in the UK of course that may be a different ball game.......................but the UK from end of Oct through to April stuck in a muddy field holds no appeal whatsoever with or without a knackered boiler. (!)

Well your avatar suggest you have little spirit of adventure,a knackered boiler can be fixed in: any Country with or without language skills, I needed a new clutch fitted in our van on one of our trips and was in Portugal,I got the van to a Fiat garage,explained my problem with broken Portugese and hand signals,spent four nights in an Hotel on my Insurance Company and all was well,why stay in England in Winter when there are much more pleasant places on the Continent out of your comfort zone obviously but all very easy, so it is a state of mind I guess,we are all different and want different things.life would be very boring otherwise wouldn,t it.

[Guest 1footinthegrave]

vindiboy - 2013-12-10 3:21 PM

 

1footinthegrave - 2013-12-10 12:14 PMI'm just trying to imagine full timing in a foreign country right now, with a knackered Truma boiler hence no heating or hot water, it's proving difficult enough to sort out here, the idea of being up somewhere wandering abroad without any language skills and trying to sort it would be unthinkable. If it was in the UK of course that may be a different ball game.......................but the UK from end of Oct through to April stuck in a muddy field holds no appeal whatsoever with or without a knackered boiler. (!)

Well your avatar suggest you have little spirit of adventure,a knackered boiler can be fixed in: any Country with or without language skills, I needed a new clutch fitted in our van on one of our trips and was in Portugal,I got the van to a Fiat garage,explained my problem with broken Portugese and hand signals,spent four nights in an Hotel on my Insurance Company and all was well,why stay in England in Winter when there are much more pleasant places on the Continent out of your comfort zone obviously but all very easy, so it is a state of mind I guess,we are all different and want different things.life would be very boring otherwise wouldn,t it.

 

Anything can be fixed anywhere, I had my front disc pads replaced in Liborne France this year, but to pretend language difficulties don't get in the way, nor the price in this case 241 euros for something I could have sorted out myself for a quarter of that is a consideration, well it is for me anyway, I notice your insurance paid out, could I get a £2000 boiler plus fitting and accommodation whilst it's done on that policy I wonder, sign me up if I can. ;-)

 

P.S, I may have spent more time in Europe than you've had hot dinners, so best not to assume anything. ;-)

 

P.P.S. my avatar is based on a character that makes me laugh, nothing more,nothing less.

[vindiboy]

1footinthegrave - 2013-12-10 3:30 PM

vindiboy - 2013-12-10 3:21 PM

1footinthegrave - 2013-12-10 12:14 PMI'm just trying to imagine full timing in a foreign country right now, with a knackered Truma boiler hence no heating or hot water, it's proving difficult enough to sort out here, the idea of being up somewhere wandering abroad without any language skills and trying to sort it would be unthinkable. If it was in the UK of course that may be a different ball game.......................but the UK from end of Oct through to April stuck in a muddy field holds no appeal whatsoever with or without a knackered boiler. (!)

Well your avatar suggest you have little spirit of adventure,a knackered boiler can be fixed in: any Country with or without language skills, I needed a new clutch fitted in our van on one of our trips and was in Portugal,I got the van to a Fiat garage,explained my problem with broken Portugese and hand signals,spent four nights in an Hotel on my Insurance Company and all was well,why stay in England in Winter when there are much more pleasant places on the Continent out of your comfort zone obviously but all very easy, so it is a state of mind I guess,we are all different and want different things.life would be very boring otherwise wouldn,t it.

Anything can be fixed anywhere, I had my front disc pads replaced in Liborne France this year, but to pretend language difficulties don't get in the way, nor the price in this case 241 euros for something I could have sorted out myself for a quarter of that is a consideration, well it is for me anyway, I notice your insurance paid out, could I get a £2000 boiler plus fitting and accommodation whilst it's done on that policy I wonder, sign me up if I can. ;-)P.S, I may have spent more time in Europe than you've had hot dinners, so best not to assume anything. ;-)

You misunderstand me, The Insurance only paid for our four nights accomodation in the Hotel, we paid for the clutch and fitting,1200 euros as it happened ,if one has a breakdown of any sort in any Country one has to be prepared and able to meet the costs incured of course.I assume nothing,whether you have spent more time than me in Europe or not is of no interest to me. I too could have replaced my clutch cheaper had I done it myself but my days of crawling about under vehicles are long past thankfully.

[Guest 1footinthegrave]

The point I was trying to make about the supposed adventure of full timing and it's costs are commensurate with whatever befalls you, and where it does, that's all. ;-)

[Dave225]

When you are talking costs you have to look at 2 parts of the equation.

 

Firstly there are the home costs, which you will have unless you sell up totally and move abroad, and be careful about doing that as you will give up your right to residency in the UK. The Government is much harder on returning UK citizens than anyone else it seems, and you may even be not allowed back. It has happened. If you are renting the house then you will get an income, which is taxable, unless again you declare yourself a non resident. If you rent to family then things are reasonable, assuming you trust them, but if to strangers then you must be prepared to have more than 1 family in the time period and they may,, or may not be good tenants. Yes, you have a deposit you can keep if it goes bad, but if they do a lot of damage it may be difficult to get any money out of them. Plus, once you decide to return you are unlikely (at least we are not) to wish to just move back in after it has been well used. This means redecorating, replacing any damaged items, probably a lot of new furniture and anything else, so a lot of your income may be assigned to that, so do not blow it while you are away.

 

Secondly there are the costs you will have yourselves. These will be site fees, electricity costs, fuel costs, plus the associated costs of the vehicle. Some of these you may feel you are paying anyway, but you will be putting more wear and tear on the vehicle by living fulltime than your normal holiday periods. Again, as 1foot says any major repairs will have to be completed wherever you are, not locally where you know the system. You may fancy wintering in Spain or somewhere where the weather is hopefully better than the UK but be warned, Spain is high season over the winter and although you can get ACSI this is still €16 per night so £400 per month at current rates. You will also need long term medical cover as well. Staying in the UK even on a CL etc will be around £10 per night. It adds up, plus if as 1foot again states, your house is not rented out. you are then paying the Council Tax, and bills etc as well. Again, if you are not resident somewhere then your GP is entitled to remove you from his lists so you need to try and get any consultation wherever you are at the time. It may or may not be that easy. Of course you can always use the local A&E.

 

Some have stated the easy answer is to sell up and skip the home bills. This is fine until you ever decide to get a home again, which will be expensive, if at all. Your money in the bank will always lose against house price rises so the idea of buying a small place later in life may not be so cheap at that time.

 

The other thing is to be wary about any advice you may get from others who have, or are doing it. Their circumstances maybe totally different from yours and all too often they have skipped looking at the possible problems and assume blithely that it will all work out fine in the end. People will rarely tell you they have screwed up. You can of course take the same optimistic approach, but things often go pearshaped in bundles and especially if one of you is suddenly no longer there, it can get very stressful.

 

I am not saying do not do it, that is your decision, but to my mind it may be a lot easier on your stress levels to just maximise your holiday time and get the best of both worlds. We spend 5 months way in 2 trips and enjoy them very much, but also enjoy coming back home for a while to 'recuperate'. However, the 5 months costs us nearly £8000 excluding any vehicle maintenance, and we live cheap, but it does add up.

[Will86]

We considered it carefully and decided to remain in a house in the UK and spend the odd occasion away doing whatever we wanted with no ties at all. In hindsight it was the best decision for us.

 

The same goes for so called 'retirement homes' or 'gated communities' I would hate to live amongst a lot of old people, which is what 'long terming' may be as I'm sure it would only be older folk who would 'long term'.

 

Where we live we have a small amount of through traffic and a school nearby. To shut myself away in a secluded area like a campsite would kill me very quick.

 

The cost was not considered, self appreciation was.

 

 

[Guest 1footinthegrave]

That sounds like a good plan................

 

but whenever I hear the cry go up from someone about full timing or going somewhere warm in the winter months, I'm reminded of visiting a site full of Brits near Turre, down Mojacar way one winter doing exactly that, all sitting out in their sun loungers, with skin that resembled tanned hide. Looking round the place that resembled a refugee camp on a bad day was enough for me, it all looked pretty desperate, but no doubt they would say it was marvelous, I'd be dead from boredom inside a few days, thanks, but no thanks folks. :-S

 

And I do think Dave225 is bang on the money with his well written full analysis ;-)

[Bulletguy]

1footinthegrave - 2013-12-10 5:15 PM

 

That sounds like a good plan................

 

but whenever I hear the cry go up from someone about full timing or going somewhere warm in the winter months, I'm reminded of visiting a site full of Brits near Turre, down Mojacar way one winter doing exactly that, all sitting out in their sun loungers, with skin that resembled tanned hide. Looking round the place that resembled a refugee camp on a bad day was enough for me, it all looked pretty desperate, but no doubt they would say it was marvelous, I'd be dead from boredom inside a few days, thanks, but no thanks folks. :-S

 

 

:D :D :D

 

A "site full of brits" would be enough for me to move on!

 

Bottom line Dave is it's each to their own. Some people can live without creature comforts very easily whilst other's can't. I knew a guy who sold up everything and bought a cheap-ish (£18k) small motorhome. His only 'luxuries' were an i-phone and i-pad. No idea where he is now as we lost contact but i reckon he made it ok.....undoubtedly helped by the fact he was a northerner. (lol)

 

I've 'lived' in my van for fourteen weeks, but only through fairer weather months, and the longest i've stayed on one site was just over two weeks and even then the van was out on the road each day. My van isn't really suitable for winter touring as the insulation is minimal even though the heater is excellent. However a Duetto owner on the AS forum has 'winterised' his van himself and done an excellent job too (water tank, pipes, and all underfloor), which proves anything is possible.