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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To live in my car/camp full time??

86 replies

NevilleLuna · 19/08/2018 14:50

28 and live in a shit area surrounded by drug users, alcoholics and the unemployed. I’m by no means judging but I just don’t fit in here at all and I begrudge spending a fortune in rent for somewhere I hate.

I’m actually debating living in my car/camping full time.

Slept in my car many times before and while it is small- it would be comfortable with bedding. I’d find safe areas to park up that wouldn’t cause nuisance for anyone else.

I’d cook my meals at work, charge phones/tablets at work. Shower when I go to the gym and do my laundry when I visit my parents every weekend.

I’d do it for a year or two which means I can save enough money for a house deposit

AIBU?

OP posts:
ladydickisathingapparently · 19/08/2018 15:47

Camper van, caravan or boat - definitely!

thecatneuterer · 19/08/2018 15:46

That sounds horrible. How much would a room in a shared house cost in a not too bad area?

Iwantaunicorn · 19/08/2018 15:44

What would you do for cooking/showering for the weekend? Where would you park and be safe? It’s a great idea in theory, but how much could you actually save?

It does sound utterly joyless and pretty unstable, but if it is just you, you’ll save a massive chunk for a deposit and you have the financial means to be able to get another place if you want to chuck it in, I’d go for it, but it sounds like you’d be in for an awful couple of years.

Good luck!

NoClueWhatNext · 19/08/2018 15:43

papercranes nice grazia link.

though i do notice its Summer in the pictures Grin

NoClueWhatNext · 19/08/2018 15:40

sounds great to me OP!!!! I'd go for it, you do need a van though rather than a car, and you need to make sure its insulated as much as possible, re. the coming Winter!!!!

MrsMint · 19/08/2018 15:37

It sounds like one of those ideas that's fine in theory but not so much in practice. People have a habit of finding out things and what if someone at work found out you were sleeping in your car? Perhaps move in with parents/relatives for a year or if it must be camping then a proper campsite with showers etc as someone else has suggested.

BossWitch · 19/08/2018 15:28

I'd definitely look into a caravan park and a cheap, old caravan to live in, keep the car for transport and store important docs & valuables at your parents' house. A cheap caravan could be cleaned up and made much more livable than your car. Plus you'd have a toilet for the middle of the night, ability to make a hot drink in the evenings in winter, have lights on past 5 o'clock in the winter without drawing attention to yourself & making yourself vulnerable. You'd still save a load of money.

DerekTheBrave · 19/08/2018 15:25

Sleeping in your car will be fine.

But you don’t just sleep in your home do you?

What are you going to do on your days off? Sit in the car all day? All evening after work if you don’t have plans?

What’s the plan for when you get hit by a stomach bug and can’t stop throwing up/have diarrhoea? Where’s your toilet that you have to be almost next to?

Where and how are you ironing your clothes if needed?

Probably lots of other practical reasons it would be a very bad idea.

glintandglide · 19/08/2018 15:24

No, don’t do this. You’ll just be homeless, and you could freeze to death. If will be utterly miserable and your mental health will be shot. Go back to your parents and get a job near them

EmmaC78 · 19/08/2018 15:23

I definately couldn't do it myself. Is it an option to put a cheap caravan at your parents house?

dangerrabbit · 19/08/2018 15:23

My colleague and her boyfriend did this for a while - in a van tho. Another colleague has just bought a boat.

category12 · 19/08/2018 15:21

Haven't you done this thread before?

LeftRightCentre · 19/08/2018 15:20

YANBU. I'd research it. Use your parents' address for a fixed abode.

PurpleTigerLove · 19/08/2018 15:16

Go home to your parents .

Poisongirl81 · 19/08/2018 15:14

or tent

Poisongirl81 · 19/08/2018 15:13

rent on a caravan park?

EmpressOfSpartacus · 19/08/2018 15:13

If you're sleeping in your car what would you do for a toilet? And you'd still need an address - would that be your parents' house?

Asdf12345 · 19/08/2018 15:13

May very well be workable depending on your job.

infact depending on your line of work it could be advantageous if you spend lots of time on the road or cover lots of sites, whilst opening up options for extra work.

ThatchersCold · 19/08/2018 15:13

And a lot of campsites do cheap rates for people living there long term - I know of one which a few of my mates have lived at which was £30 a week in the winter. Then you’d have access to showers, washing up facilities etc.

ThatchersCold · 19/08/2018 15:10

A car would be shite but yes totally doable in a van. Doesn’t even need to be a particularly big van. Join the group self build campervans on fb for ideas.

jay55 · 19/08/2018 15:10

What if it gets broken in to or stolen?
You’d be very vulnerable.

HoleyCoMoley · 19/08/2018 15:08

It's not going to be safe is it, you could get disciplined at work for charging your mobiles. Do your parents know you are in this position, you would be making yourself homeless which can cause all sorts of issues. Could you afford to rent a roomshare somewhere or move In with your parents. What sort of work do you have.

mimibunz · 19/08/2018 15:07

Definitely could do it in a van but make sure you stay in safe areas.

ImAIdoot · 19/08/2018 15:07

I have done this.

My advice is do what you have to do to get away from the shit area, but never bank on being able to sleep in your car the next night, let alone 2 years.

Whatsthisbear · 19/08/2018 15:06

Imagine waking up in the middle of the night to a face pressed up against your window.
You could end up with hyperthermia in the winter.

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