Living in a Caravan Vs Living in a house
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I would keep my home anyway David even if I down sized. I would not find it hard to de-clutter as the home is full of things not used by me in years. I am not sentimental for personal possessions. I suspect that Fliss would feel differently.
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For us, these arrangements were quite easy - despite it being 25 years ago when there was no internet to speak of and mobile phones had only just started to come in - so there was no such thing as international roaming. My bank handled all my mail and about once per month, it was sent out to the nearest Post Office where we collected it. An understanding Doctor used to give me a script for 6 or 9 months for my medication and in most places in the Med I could buy prescription only medicines without a script. We sold our cars before we left and the only real issue was the yacht insurance which of course the insurers knew about because they had to extend the cruising ground from the normal UK waters. That said, a number of our fellow 'liveaboards' didn't bother with insurance! The only pain - if that's how to describe it was ringing home which meant often a long walk to the nearest payphone armed with a selection of phone cards - oh how easy it would have been in this day and age!
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Posted on 28/02/2018 12:10 by Goldie146
Just in case you're interested- read all about the intrepid Meeks.
CLICK HERE
And a quote -
In November 2016 we moved onto pastures new. We’d had over two years out of the rat race, more than we had initially planned to do and felt that we needed to add some stability into our lives, particularly for the girls. We returned to Nottingham and began what we called a hybrid lifestyle. We didn’t want to slip back into a life that allowed the jobs to consume our lives but wanted to have a base from which we could continue to adventure as a family. We wanted to enter back into a community where the girls could mix with their peers, but also balance this with regular family adventures. Still wanting to explore and adventure, we use our home and Swift Basecamp as a base from which we can #getoutside and find adventures.0 -
We are gradually freezing up on site in York. We can't get fresh water on board and have had problems draining out waste. I couldn't recommend living in a van in these circumstances! Keeping the fill up side in the sun might help for a short part of the day but finding pipe work frozen that we can't get at us has stymied us. Home tomorrow, second part of break will have to be cancelled unless we need a snow home overnight. Touring vans are for holidays not full time living!
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We're in exactly the same situation here at Poolsbrook CAMC Site at Staveley near Chesterfield. We've taken off the water and waste pipe. I think the site taps are beginning to freeze so we're out a Morrison's buying provisions including bottled water, just in case.
We should have gone home today but weather and conditions are just too poor to travel. Could be here a few days extra.
David
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A lot of sympathy to Brue and DSB and anyone else with frozen water.
Had it happen to us twice now, first time when the fresh water bucket froze one Christmas at Meathop. We took home the biggest ice cube you've ever seen. Second was in France near Lac D'Orient not far from Troyes in early March one year. We'd stopped for 3 nights to view the Cranes and Sea Eagles over-wintering. It never got above minus 10° and the waste pipes froze. We used a hairdryer, as suggested by Ken.
There was one other outfit on site. A very young couple living in a small caravan with a baby. They had a washing machine in their Panel van and a small Belling type cooker. He was there for work. Felt so sorry for them. We gave them some woollies to help them out as they were poor and in need of warm clothing. No fun having to live in a van as opposed to wanting to.
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As has been suggested in the other thread, a year o a CAMC site could cost around £6700-7000. I've just checked my spreadsheets. Annual house costs for my Band E is half that, so Malcolm suggestion that it's a cheap way to live is a consignment of spherical genitalia.
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What about all the household bills on top of that, CY? When you pay to stay on a club site, your electricity, water, waste, freeview tv channels etc. is all covered within those site fees.
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Our caravan has a built in onboard tank, brue. We are getting running water from all of our caravan taps through the onboard tank since the outside water is frozen.
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I don't think there's any limit to that, brue. Caravans can keep being serviced and maintained indefinitely. I recall seeing classic caravans on the National at Sandringham last year that were from the 1930s. They would be over 80 years old! That means your caravan could you last you for the rest of your life, if you wanted or needed it to do so.
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Surely Freeview is, as it says, free? Ours certainly is.
Our council tax, water, waste, gas and electricity in total comes to just under 60% of my state pension, and much less than £7000!
A seasonal pitch may be a cheap way to live, but using touring pitches certainly is not.
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Interesting post CY. I too have had a look at my spreadsheets. For clarity, if I add up last years Council Tax, Household Fuel costs, Water, Home Insurance, Broadband/ Phone, TV Licence, & household repairs etc then divide by 365 to get a daily comparable figure, it comes to £14 per day. Can't remember the last time we bought furniture or carpets etc. so little spend there.
Can't remember either, the last time we stayed on an open all year HS caravan site that was only that same £14...Perhaps add up to £10 minimum per night on average? So for me at least, and probably you, living in a caravan rather than a house would be a much more expensive option and not a route I would even consider.
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I would agree plus the expense of the van purchase etc.
By the way, in this freezing weather, our pipes are insulated and we have an onboard tank but it hasn't been enough to prevent things going wrong. Either a section of pipe or a valve has frozen
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The Aquaroll is empty and unsed at the moment Kj. When we run out of water in the onboard tank, we'll fill the required amount into the Aquaroll and draw the water from the Aquaroll into the onboard tank thereby emptying the Aquaroll once again. So no frozen water for us, Kj! I think you'll agree that we'd have no problem surviving the greater freezing temperatures of Scotland in a modern caravan like ours that is designed to cope with subzero temperatures! It is fully winterised and could probably cope with Arctic weather if necessary.
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There is an aerial socket on the bollard so that you can plug into the site tv in areas where the signal is poor and get perfect tv reception on all the freeview channels. If you haven't got the necessary cable, you can buy one from the warden.
The house tv has a tv licence that is paid for by my cousin. It is valid for use in a mobile home whilst away from the house address, so no need for an additional one.
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We have seasonal pitches booked for a whole year from 16th March this year, so we will be living a lot cheaper than you, Kj!
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What about rent or mortgage? If your house is paid up, what is its value and how much would the mortgage cost if the entire value was mortgaged? That will give you the true figure. If your house is paid up then you've got a huge amount of capital tied up, that if released, could be earning you an income by investing elsewhere, that would probably offset all the cost of site fees etc.
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Typically when our van has gone in for warranty work we have been without it for between 2 weeks and 2 months. Do you have a plan to deal with a situation like that? When you tell us about the benefits of living in the van you unfortunately forget the cost (towing et al) and inconvenience of taking your van for example twice to get the A/C fixed.
We know you present the 'all's well in the rose garden view' but you do have a tendency to cherry pick what you see as the benefits and ignore the down sides.
PS I bet you answer with something about houses having problems to.
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Don’t normally comment on this topic but couldn’t resist……
If the house is paid for what on earth has the “mortgage cost if the entire value was mortgaged” got to do with the household running costs?
The amount of capital tied up in the house will, no doubt, be growing faster than any safe investment.
MM you are free to enjoy you way of life as you please but don’t be delusional about facts!
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