Who,s got a caravan

suzy_g

Hi
I saw the thread about caravan cooking, which got me wondering about getting a cheap caravan, now I get sundays , mondays and tuesday morning (till 5 pm )off work and my husband does every third week, has any got a touring or static caravan and what are the costs involved ..

Peggybabcot

I no longer have one but used to. Whilst I loved the freedom etc I think the price they're charging for sites these days, petrol, storage and insurance etc makes them somewhat of a luxury. Obviously if you only go to cheap sites locally and can store at home you'll cut your costs significantly. We now have a tent and even that is about as expensive site wise if you have hook up as a travelodge sale room. Obviously they're a totally different experience *shudder* but if its down to cost then sadly caravanning is no longer a budget option x

System

our 26ft caravan costs us yearly:

£550 Indoor cover storage rent
£250 Insurance

suzy_g

thanks Judi that's not bad do you stay on the park you store it on or is this somewhere else?

System

Our van is stored on a Cassoa gold site all year round in Devon (8 miles from Bude). We dont have the facility at home to store it and we no longer have the 4x4 to tow it. The van is towed out and sited (for a charge). Our van is slightly more expensive because of the extra length which is something we should have looked into before we bought it. We should also have looked into having a twin axle caravan too as they are more expensive to insure. If we had opted to take the van out of the storage barn it would have cost considerably less in storage fees.

We travel from home in the Midlands when we want to use it and they charge £17 a night to use the touring site. They also do 4 night bargain breaks which cost £30.

jemb

we've got a tourer and it costs;
Caravan club membership £40 a year
Caravan insurance £18 per month
Then as we're in the CC can go on CL sites, for example, Easter cost us £13 per night for x2 of us, the caravan, awning and dog!

suzy_g

Thanks I like the sound of that, my husband can tow but I would not want to, and I could take the grand kids with me when my husbands working.

System

Hubby was quite happy to tow it but he did get very stressed with it. He also injured his shoulder manoevering our old caravan which was considerably smaller so he fitted a motor mover on the new one..... however, he's never needed to use the motor mover on the new caravan as the site is pretty flat and the site owner makes sure its level before we use it.

suzy_g

Next step and the big expense is the caravan

joedenise

I would recommend the Camping and Caravanning Club rather than Caravan Club, particularly if you want to take children with you.

We often rally and use Temporary Holiday Sites which generally cost about £5 - £6.50 per night and are usually fairly near to towns or holiday areas.

The CCC also has small sites, called CS's which are generally cheaper than private sites - anything from £3 - £10+ per night depending on what facilities are available.

Denise

agreenmess

Hey,

We dont have a caravan but we do have a few campers (bought two for spares for the one that is a rolling resto). The main one we are using at the moment cost us £200 to buy we've paid around £600 in getting the brakes and a couple of bits of welding to be done. Its either stored on the driveway with a camper cover (sorry cannot remeber how much it cost) or in our lockup which is £80 a month (perfect as it has lighting and were allowed to work on the camper there, which is very hard to find around here, took us 3 years to find this place).

In other costs we have a couple of spare clothing that we keep in it, with spare bedding, a few tins e.g beans spagetti ect, spare money (around £20, for a quick shop for extra food items e.g eggs/milk), the usual tea, honey ect, dog food, treats and bedding. Oh and bottled water. Oh and the cultery ect. This is so that on Friday afternoon we can just decide to go around for the weekend.

The above is the best advice I can give (leaving items in the camper, obviously of no high value) as it gives such peace of mind to know you can just up and go, especially if you've had a bad week and want some quiet time. I think all in for the main one we use we've probably spent less than a grand and thats with all the added extra's we keep in the camper.

Hope this helps

P.S we tend to do alot of our camping at the side of the road, e.g when your near the beach ect, around 99% of that time there isn't a charge doing this and as long as your always moving.