New to caravaning
Hello I’m Laura and my husband is Richard. We have taken early retirement and have decided to buy a caravan. But there is so much to it, I’m feeling overwhelmed 🙈have I done the right thing? Lol
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Of course you have!
Enjoy your van and welcome to CT.
PS. You can select a user name of your own by going to My Profile at the head of the page👍🏻
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We are new to Caravanning this year and felt the same as you! We thought we would never get to grips with it all but after a couple of trips away we have a routine going and can honestly say it's the best thing we ever did! We have had a couple of little hiccups but have found everyone on the sites to be so helpful and always willing to give advice or a helping hand! Google, this site and you tube are full of helpful tips and you will soon be more confident. Just wish we could afford to retire as work gets in the way of our Caravanning 🤣🤣
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Laura,
go to as many dealers as you can to look at new and used vans and find a layout that suits you. I would advise buying something used from a dealer for some piece of mind that you think fits your needs and run it for a couple of years. Buy as little contents as possible run light and acquire things as you need them. After a couple of years you will know if caravanning is the thing for you. If it is then buy something newer that exactly meets the needs you will have identified. Yes you might loose a few thousand on the move but this is a lot less than if you had jumped in feet first on something very new and shiny. This loss will pail into insignificance 5 or so years down the line when you are enjoying what should be a perfect match van.
Best of luck - Colin
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Hi Laura. Welcome to Club Together and to the Caravan & Motorhome Club. Look forward to reading how you get on with it all. I'm sure folk will be only to happy to offer advice here on Club Together - just find the section that matches best with your questions and fire away.
David
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hi Laura and Richard and welcome to the club! Totally agree with Colin above, take time to find the right van/layout that suits you and your tow-car. Keep equipment to the basics for starters like gas, water containers (fresh and waste) and chemicals for the loo. Pots & pans etc. can be borrowed from home. Perhaps the best extra for us was the portable barbeque. The rest will come as you go along. We wish you many happy years of camping.
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We also don't 'borrow' from the house, but we do keep quite a bit of equipment at home as we vary what we take according to length of visit and time of year However, I am one of these folk who make copious lists (to the point of being OCD about it), so we don't forget things... 😃😃 I can't tell you exactly how many teabags we have left in the packet, but I do know there will always be another packet to open when the last teabag gets used! 😃😃
David
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Welcome to the Fun Factory, Laura & Richard, I hope you have oodles of fun & enjoyment in your nice new " Retirement Home "
. At the risk of me being ostracised might I just say one thing :- There's nothing wrong with Borrowing from Home to start with !! For lots of Items I recommend doing just that until you learn what you actually do need !If your 'van is coming from a dealer then quite a bit of stuff, water containers - E H U cable etc should really be part of the package, then take a couple of week-ends away but close enough to home that anything you actually do need can be obtained smartish. Please Remember that many { ?? Most
?? } of us have a shed / garage / spare room full of all the stuff that we truly really honestly thought we would need. Then when we found we didn't need it we could not find anybody to take it off our hands either 
. After 20 or so years you can have great fun discussing with other 'vanners which items really are the daftest things we have bought { Been there, done that, got the t--shirt & badge , honest 
}Have Fun !!
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We took the plunge 11 years ago and bought our first caravan (brand new) after thinking long and hard about the layout we wanted.
We did make a mistake when buying a full awning, we bought one with steel poles which were far to heavy. Luckily we were able to part exchange it for an Isabella full awning with light weight Carbonx poles and the loss was only in the 10s of pounds (about £50 from memory.
We never went down the route of borrowing from home. We bought fitted bedding from Jonic and everything else we needed from the likes of Dunelm, The Range, Go Outdoors etc. We found it much easier to just pack clothes and do a bit of food shopping and then then go.
We must have been lucky or very good planners and researchers because we bought very little that we haven't used. The only thing in my loft is a pair of plastic levelling ramps which i changed for a Lock 'n' Level, which wasn't available when we started.
Good luck with all your purchases and i hope you have many years of enjoyable trips.
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