AIBU to think we could happily live in a van?

[spiritofadventure]

My OH and I have been talking recently about buying a van and converting it into a self contained home to live in full time.

It started off as a joke when we had to change flats, yet again, as our landlord was selling up, but it is now something we are seriously considering.

We are in our early 30's, both work full time 50 hours a week and are still nowhere near close to saving a deposit to be able to buy in this area.

We've done the maths and think we could do this for less than £12k, including the van.

The van we would buy is a LWB Mercedes Sprinter, which would give us a living space of approx. 4.3m x 1.8m. Inside, we would have a double bed, small dining area, kitchen and a small shower/toilet room.

It would be cosy, for sure, but it would have everything we need.

We live in an area that has lots of places suitable to park up for the night so that wouldn't be an issue.

Monthly costs we think would be in the region of £3-400 excluding food costs

Obviously this wouldn't be a forever home, but we were thinking 2 or 3 years so we could build up our savings.

Are we crazy, or could this really work?

Apparently in mumsnet once you turn 30 you have to buy a sensible semi and start saving for your retirement. Anything else is madness

The reason the op is contemplating this is because the op and her dp wants to save for the sensible semi.

Oliversarmy
You beat me to it! I thought that was probably the most ridiculous post on the thread. I note op hasn’t been back and hasn’t engaged about proof of address and credit ratings.

There's a massive difference between living in a van as a part of a lifestyle change where you go travelling and have adventures vs living in a van whilst working 50 hours a week and parking it in a different layby round town each night of the week.
The first sounds exciting the second not so much.
I also cannot see the sense in spending 12k when this is supposedly to save for a house.

Ropsleybunny:
But unless the OP has free parking at work and can fix and tidy everything away to drive the van to work, they will have quite hefty daytime parking fees in places like that.

The key objective for the OP in doing this is to save a significant sum of money towards a mortgage. She meanwhile has to maintain her day job.

have an eberspacher diesel heater and they are noisy if you're cold at night or on somebody's drive.With electric hook up on drive you could run an oil filled rad. Big drawback to me would be if it breaks down and is in garage for a few days you're homeless. I met some people who lived in a scrap motorbike in a farm yard with electric and water. Paid farmer some rent and no other expenses.Just used their cars for work etc. Didnt need to move and scrapped it when they had saved enough

motor home not motorbike bloody autocorrect

sat in my en suite, same size as van. Dont think Id want to live in here tbh.

I'm just imagining being poorly enough to be off work for a few days and being in a van in a layby feeling like shit ...

We're currently living in a bedsit situation in a house which we're going to start renovating next year and that's bad enough even though we have heating, windows, our sofa, telly, playstation and a big bed!

Doesn't look like OP's coming back, but I saw this morning and have to say that this motorhome is definitely my cup of tea! It has a bath!