AIBU to have fallen out of love with campervanning?

[cluckandcollect]

We've had a camper van for a few years. Secondhand when we bought it and nothing fancy and it's now 14 years old. For the first few years it was fun but I've become increasingly aware of how it's a way of taking housework away with us. We've got a campsite on the coast booked for Easter and already I'm sick of the meal planning and cleaning out the fridge and oven and preparing supplies and bedding and clothes and the first aid kit and on and on. I've had 12 solid months of cooking and washing up and now I'm going to be spending the next couple of evenings cooking and freezing and prepping and then, while we're away, defrosting and cooking and washing-up in a van...

My partner cleans the exterior, checks the mechanical. stuff, looks after the gas and the hook-up leads and points, manages the servicing of the vehicle and the gas safety and so on, which is great. We share the chores while we're away. But the fact is it's still the same-old-same-old and I'm so bored of it!

I know how lucky we are to be able to have this escape, and I know there are hundreds of thousands more vans out there on the road since we first had ours, so there are clearly many who love them. But are there other van owners who dread the drudgery?

When we make that decision I'll let you know first!

Your homemade meals sound nice but too much effort for us. We will mostly stay in cycling distance of a pub or chippy but when not we will buy nice bread, steaks for the bbq (sausages for kid who doesn’t like steak) and if we’re out a long day we’ll have pasta with pesto and cold precooked chicken, sun dried tomatoes etc stirred in. Plus mozzarella tomato salad etc. Nice stuff but no pre-prep involved.

I feel the same every time I pack to camp, but first relaxing beer watching the sunset outside the tent, first fresh Dewey morning enjoying a coffee, and I change my mind.

Focus on the new horizons you will enjoy. The hard graft follows a year of cabin fever. See how you feel when you get there.

It sounds like one stumbling block is that your partner finds ready-meals-for-one too small, and would eat a whole ready-meal-for-two himself. Have you considered taking two ready-meals-for-two?

However, I'm a camper (in tents), and I share your ambivalence about the work/fun ratio involved.

If he doesn't like ready meals then get him to make some of the food?
I couldn't be arsed to be honest.

Camping or comer canning is often intended to be a cheap holiday. Camper van I g in particular actually isn’t because if all the costs of keei b the van on the road. Even camping can be expensive in terms of equipment and some site fees are high now.

If the holiday has to be done on a shoestring which means no chippy tea, no ready meals or pub meal, it actually the meals you have at hone cooked and washed up in cramped conditions, it’s not a holiday at all unless the person who usually cooks and washes up gets at least half the time off.

I knew a family with 4 kids who had a caravan. It was the only way they could afford a holiday and the caravan was pretty old. There was no going to the pub for them because it just cost too much for 6, but they would buy those curry bags from the supermarket and could feed everyone for £20 which was more than they’d spend at home but felt a fair compromise. They could get sausages and fry or bbq them and get chips from the chippy which were enough o feed them all for £10. They would eat 3 packets of filled pasta with pesto and cheese and perhaps some bacon and veggies one night.

If there’s a DH who is particular about his food and doesn’t want the easy camping options or to pay for food out or takeaway, well perhaps he can take a bigger role in cooking and clearing up. Absolutely point out that it’s not a holiday for you if you do the same cooking and washing up as at home. You need to get some breaks from these chores.

Camping or comer canning is often intended to be a cheap holiday.

I know people say that, but frankly, for £20k+++ it costs to buy a van, I can spend a few years of very lovely holidays! I never understood where the "cheaper" part came from.

If you buy a cheap tent and plonk it in your car, yes, it's cheap. grim, but cheap

All that precooking adds an extra dimension of work too. At the very least you could eat the same meal 2 nights in a row and pasta I wouldn't bother making separately, transporting and reheating.

Have a word with your partner. If he's flagging too then do something different - B&B and fish and chips maybe. If he's still keen he needs to take on more of whatever is bugging you most. Perhaps food planning, shopping, precooking, freezer, packing up and reheating. All of it, not just the reheating.

Agree with above. Now would be a nice time to sell it, if you really want to offload it.
I agree that it sounds like no holiday.

Yes, as a poster up thread said, for the price of the camper van and keeping it on the road they could stay in hotels and eat out all the time.

I think camper basic game is either a lifetime love, or or it’s a phase for 3-10 years. When the phase is over, it’s time to sell up and move on.
Everyone has to love it.

The trouble is when largish families need holidays and ready cash isn’t available. That’s why many turn to camping in particular and why some do all the catering themselves and live in the same Tesco cornflakes or same spag Bol they eat all year. At the end of the day you can only Dow hat you can afford. Sometimes being a bit more creative means there are other mealtime options. If you don’t eat many vegetables for a week, it’s hardly going to hurt is it. If you eat more pasta with a sauce and not much more gourmet than that for a week, it’s fine.

Personally I’d rather go for fewer days and not have to cook than go for longer and find I’m living the same as at home but without the dishwasher.

I love our motorhome, but it's OK if you've fallen out of love with your camper. You don't need our permission to LTB

If I had to cook before leaving and when there, I think I'd fall out of love with it pretty quickly too though. We have simple stuff like beans, bread, cheese and pasta and biscuits with us and then get takeaway for most of the time.

It sounds as though the real problem here is, as is so often the case, a man who’s not pulling his weight.

Who does the cooking? Who does the washing up? Does Mr I Don’t Like Ready Meals contribute equally to the prep/ clean up?

An 8 year old cooking simple meals?? I just about trust my 8 year old with the toaster.

8 is too young to be cooking meals, simple or otherwise.

An 8 year old cooking meals ahahahaha

Honestly cooking and freezing meals etc is a bit joyless not surprised you’re sick of it

We camp a lot and we take porridge pots, cereal, nibbles like crackers and crisps, maybe pasta and pesto or some tins of ravioli or spaghetti hoops, but that’s it, we bbq, get takeaway, eat out

No I only loved camping when I was single and child free. I can still enjoy a holiday in a static caravan with dc, but you've less to pack and even then we don't eat in much. Campervans ideal on your own or with one other carefully chosen person!

This is why I refuse to go on self catering holidays any more, it's not a holiday, it's just a change of venue.

We’ve had campervans in the past and the novelty wore off really quickly. Between what feels like extra housework as you describe and the cost of keeping the things roadworthy, we decided not to bother any more. I’d rather stay in a hotel (when they reopen!)

We had a motorhome for a few years.

We almost always ate out or got takeaways, although I sometimes used to make and freeze a vat of chilli to take, and we always had a couple of packets of Aldi pasta and sauce for emergencies. We'd occasionally cook a breakfast, put a pizza in the over or heat up some soup at lunchtime, but DP would do that as often as I did. Eating out sounds extravagant, but as we were Britstop members, we rarely paid for anywhere to pitch.

I used to wash the sleeping bags and pillow cases when we got back, but DP always cleaned the inside of the van.

The only extra thing I did was put stuff in the fridge on the day we left. We kept a few cans on board all summer, plus tea bags, coffee, sugar, wine etc.

Far less work than staying at home imo. No hoovering, hardly any worktop or cupboards to clean etc.

I love the freedom of campervanning. Ours is always packed up ready to go. When we get back from a trip the bedding and clothing is washed and put straight back in there ready for the next trip. I always buy two sets of clothing, shoes, cosmetics etc so one set can stay in the van.

Much of the time we will eat out at a nice country pub or the local in-trend fancy restaurant or have fish & chips at the beach. Sometimes we'll stay at the beach late and BBQ there. Some evenings it's more relaxing to cook at the site and we'll pick up local produce at a farm shop. OH is the campervan chef, as outdoor cooking is always the man's job - that's the law isn't it?!!

We've had ours for 3 years, so because of covid it's not been used much. But we love it. We take fresh fridge food, salad type stuff, cereals and bread, but eat proper meals out. The oven has never been, nor will ever be used.
Not much cleaning really,
So yes still enjoy it, maybe change our minds in 10 years?

God op, you sound totally joyless.
Sell the van. Life’s too short.

YANBU. I think after 8 years it's fine to want a change.

We haven't had ours very long - we were tent campers for many years before - and Covid has scuppered all our more recent travel plans, but before Covid hit, we managed to have a wonderful two-week family road trip in ours along the Dorset coast. We keep it pretty packed already, so it;s just clothes and food we need to pack, and we only bring basics for food, stocking up on the road (easy meals, steak and salad, bbq, pasta etc.) or eating out. We like to keep moving, a night or two here, then onto the next site. We loved the sense of freedom without needing to pitch a tent each time. It's so great to have a night by a fishing lake one day, then on top of a cliff looking down on Chesil beach the next, then in an orchard after that, with a pub next door... bliss. We can't wait to get away again. We'd hoped to be doing the NC500 this Easter, but never mind. Maybe next year!