Cheapest way to live? Flat/Caravan/House-boat/Van ?

onwards&upwards

mark88man wrote: »

actually live with your parents?

if you do enough round the house to help, they may be so surprised you get free rent and free food and lend you a £10 now and again

Was just going to say the same thing.

If all you’re bothered about is cost, for most people this is the absolute cheapest and still pretty comfortable.

zagubov

mark88man wrote: »

actually live with your parents?

if you do enough round the house to help, they may be so surprised you get free rent and free food and lend you a £10 now and again

Third vote for this. You could save a fortune. You'll have to pay for your keep but it's not remotely as expensive as rent, in fact it's the bargain of the century.

Maybe not a glamorous or exotic as the other suggestions but immensely practical and very MSE.

POPPYOSCAR

gingercordial wrote: »

How about being a property guardian?

Yes I was thinking the same.

This is something I would have loved to do.

Fire_Fox

FreshFruit wrote: »

Job will be self employed, it's already running and ready for me to step in and take it over. On the record i'd be living at my parents address. In regards to legal issues, i'm pretty sure you can sleep in a vehicle for 2 days before you have to move and parking isn't an issue there's plenty of empty roads and public carparks around.

I am starting to think vanlife would be full of downsides, and to the person who asked why, it's just a mentality about investing in the future taken an extra step, live like nobody else will now so in the future you live like they can't.

Cheapest is probably a room or bedsit in a House in Multiple Occupation. You will share a bathroom and perhaps share a kitchen, but most bills are included, you will be able to lock your door and generally do your own thing. Move Ooop North to save more money if you are going to be self-employed.

It can be expensive to heat a caravan or motorhome because they are relatively poorly insulated. You also need an energy source for lighting, refrigerator, TV/ computer, cooking, etc. so electric hookup or a solar panel. Plus a place to top up your tank with drinking water regularly.**

A chemical toilet uses some water to 'flush', and needs to be emptied periodically. _pale_ Peeing and pooping in the great outdoors is seriously unpleasant in poor weather. Handwashing clothing, bedding and towels is fairly easy, air drying them is more challenging.**

You are misinformed. Wild camping is not legal in Great Britain, you can be and will be moved on by the Police.**

**Based on my parents' decades of largely off-grid travel, including heavy involvement in the Silk Route Motorcaravan Network. And based on my childhood memories of such travel across Europe.

davidmcn

Fire_Fox wrote: »

Wild camping is not legal in Great Britain

Maybe in less civilised parts of Great Britain. It's part of the right to roam in Scotland (but only for temporary stays, you don't have the right to stay indefinitely).


(that's wild camping in a tent, there's no right to roam with a motor vehicle)

Facknats

I'm going to be honest as someone whose lived in both boats and vans and say that you don't sound like you're particularly well equipped.

- Most people living in vans have strong social ties with others, which is helpful for everything from security to finding somewhere to winter, to practical skills needed when the thing breaks down or heavy rains wreck the insulation. The fact you ask here makes it sound like you don't have many people to ask in these situations
- So I'm also guessing you'll have no access to a site, legal or illegal. In Bristol, lots of people do live in Caravans by the side of the road, but there's a lot of them and it's getting grim.
- You almost certainly won't want a toilet in your live-in van.
- Being 'on the record at your parents house' is going to invalidate your van insurance if anything happens, which it almost certainly will. This will push your premium up sky high.
- Continuous cruising on a boat is tough if you want to keep regular employment and don't have somebody else to hike your car when you move.
- Those rare pockets of land which aren't owned by some waterway etc and can be squatted under some kind of dispute are usually already inhabited by the sort of people you *really* don't want to break into your boat.
- You'll probably want a big dog for either option.

There's oodles of live-in landlords offering rooms for £350-400 bills inc :money:

DieLard

Shared ownership is what I'm working towards, have you looked into this?

Nebulous2

I think people may be over-egging the difficulties, but you need to go into it with your eyes open. For instance, I've never known anyone have a glass of wine in the back of their motorhome and get caught for drunk driving. We've also had some people, possibly with mental health problems, sleep longterm in local woods in a tent. The police are more likely to do a welfare check than to ask them to leave. I've slept in a van in a variety of situations, as long as you keep below the radar, arrive in the evening and leave in the morning no-one has ever bothered. We've regularly caravanned in the winter - some sites are open all year, and we haven't frozen. Some of those situations may be locality specific.



The caveat to that however is price. I rarely see campsites under £20 a night. For that you get a hook-up and can run heating. We converted a van to a camper. It took weeks of work and we bought an old donor caravan for some of the fittings. You need somewhere to keep it while you work on it, a degree of diy ability and plenty of spare time. Buying a 'real' motorhome will cost you at least £5k for a 25-30 year old bucket of rust.



All of ours have been leisure, part-time stuff for people who are veteran camper/caravanners and it wouldn't suit everyone for holidays- never mind fulltime. Here's a reasonable article about a couple of people living in vans, including covering the downside.

Splatfoot

Living in a van is something we as a family have considered. I've looked into it a lot. I have friends that live in a Winnebago and have been for 6 months (family of five). They stay in the same area and sometimes stay on a site but a lot of the time they stay on streets. It's not illegal, you just have to be mindful of residents, some are a bit nimbyish... They tend to stay for a couple of days then move on. A van like a sprinter or a crafter would be plenty big enough. Having an address for post is a must and I see you can use your parents which is good. Good luck with whatever you decide! It is doable, don't be put off.

coffeehound

gingercordial wrote: »

How about being a property guardian?

That's what I was thinking. I did a couple of properties some years back and it can be a cost-effective option. You may get quite a big living space to yourself, which is extremely rare in UK budget accomodation.

However . . . they can be rather over-occupied leading to some friction. They've been latched-onto by foreign nationals who don't have the concept of sharing in their culture and so take over communal areas like kitchens for their own use.

It's a gamble, so worth a look. Try to meet the people you'll be sharing with on the viewing. It is first come, first served, so being the last into a property will guarantee you get the worst living space choice. It took months for applications to go through so flexibility is required. Prices might not be as cheap as at one time, but still an interesting option.