How.... how do you afford a van?

[DXX]

The original question was ‘How….how do you afford a van’.
I guess it’s how do you afford anything, you have to earn enough £ and then choose your priorities.
Personally I opted for a job that not many would stick with long term. Working at sea, minimum of 84 hours, normally 105 hours / week hard graft in hostile conditions, as you would expect it paid well.
If you can’t afford it I would advise against borrowing money to live a dream. Working to pay off finance while the van sits on the drive is the likely outcome.
As others have the mentioned the value, status and brand of the van is really irrelevant, it’s what’s you do with it.

 

[TallPaul_S]

I agree with your man maths. If I was pondering a weekend away somewhere and it was £300+ it's likely I'd do it maybe once or twice a year tops and I'd be loathe to spend the cash each time cause of my yorkshireness...

Also part of my decision to get a van was it giving me the ability to look out the window on a Friday morning and say 'f*** it' and disappear off to Wales/Peak District/Devon/A N Other remote place in the woods for a couple of days, to go and do this:


Booking a campsite takes all of about 20 minutes, and costs 10 or 20 quid, and that's if I even bother booking a campsite and instead just find a parkup for the night.

Compared to trawling through Airbnb/booking.com etc trying to find a place with bike storage for £120 a night!

It also, if I decide to stay in a place rather than camp, let's me stay where I want as I don't need bike storage.

I'd looked at all the options - roof tent on my old estate car, Berlingo sized campers etc etc.

 

[Badjamin]

The original question was ‘How….how do you afford a van’.
I guess it’s how do you afford anything, you have to earn enough £ and then choose your priorities.
Personally I opted for a job that not many would stick with long term. Working at sea, minimum of 84 hours, normally 105 hours / week hard graft in hostile conditions, as you would expect it paid well.
If you can’t afford it I would advise against borrowing money to live a dream. Working to pay off finance while the van sits on the drive is the likely outcome.
As others have the mentioned the value, status and brand of the van is really irrelevant, it’s what’s you do with it

Agree with you fully. I'm struggling with coming out of the realms of fantasy perhaps. It looks like I actually can afford a van but I'm stuck in the mindset that I can't. I didn't realise it but my income has increased to the extent I can actually save rather than thinkin oooh a bit of money at the end of the month lets get a takeaway!

I do an utterly horrible and chenically hazardous job that pays well and I work hard at home to keep the wife happanbut I don't rest well with my ADHD and if I'm not careful am gonna wake up dead and not having done anything And not had any mutual fun times with the wife.

If they'll remove that monstrosity of a nudge bar

I like it on a practical level but yeah. The Mrs won't be happy hehe

 

[Badjamin]

In other news the neighbours son just parked this up outside my house

 

[FerrisBFW]

We have a mad family income (I think), but where we live and kids schools curtail our fun money, add Covid Tax and cost of Electricity & Gas and knock on tax on everything we buy. Plus everytime I get closer to said goal the posts move it seems. I am amazed how expensive everything has got, but VW campers and vans is a whole new level for me.

A guy across the road has a 72 plate Caravelle 4motion DSG like my 2014 model and what its worth (I bet cost) is eye watering. Even if I had the money for that I would rather spend it on something else rather than a van that sits on the road (and not even fits on his drive). I guess its most likely leased (92% of new vehicles last year were |I seem to remember reading). For 20 years I have bought new or very almost new look after etc and keep for a while, but the cost of my sort of vehicle has gone nuts.

As a family we now have a leased EV and my old van I bought pretty cheap and its like a rolling restoration, and I do almost all the work on it, is our occational 2nd vehicle and fun bus/mtb mule/holiday vehicle. We are on the ULEZ border but since its intro wehave paid this four times so no big deal really.

Go buy something cheaper and try doing some of the work yourself. Start easy like discs and pads and rear shocks and keep buying tools. Changing the oil and filter is a doddle for example. I must admit I have not worked on my own cars for 30+ years and now I am back and love it I think the future for me is older vehicles and do less miles.

 

[Salty Spuds]

Agree with you fully. I'm struggling with coming out of the realms of fantasy perhaps. It looks like I actually can afford a van but I'm stuck in the mindset that I can't. I didn't realise it but my income has increased to the extent I can actually save rather than thinkin oooh a bit of money at the end of the month lets get a takeaway!

I do an utterly horrible and chenically hazardous job that pays well and I work hard at home to keep the wife happanbut I don't rest well with my ADHD and if I'm not careful am gonna wake up dead and not having done anything And not had any mutual fun times with the wife.

I like it on a practical level but yeah. The Mrs won't be happy hehe

It sounds like it would be cheaper to get a lower maintenance wifey
Seriously though, VW campers aren't luxury, there's still going to be a certain amount of roughing it. e.g. either reconcile yourselves to using public bogs, or be prepared to stand out in the rain whilst the other one takes a dump on the porta potti in the van. It's much easier(for either partner) to have a pee around the side of the van in the middle of the night, than start digging the aforementioned PP out of its hidey hole. I haven't even got round to the shower issue yet. Needless to say, we have perfected "the Van Shower" which involves a rubber mat, bowl of water & a flannel.
You might be better off with a decent base van & something like an Egoe nest or Ovano, just to see if it's for you. I have a sneaky suspicion that you're going to shell out a shed load of money, go off once or twice & the missus says "Enough".

 

[DXX]

Needless to say, we have perfected "the Van Shower" which involves a rubber mat, bowl of water & a flannel.

Amazon 1m collapsible dog bath, home made 12v shower kit (whale pump not the ebay crap), 4.5L hot water and soap.
15 min’s from prep’ to finished, less time than it takes to walk to a shower block and pick somebody else curlies out of the drain grill.

 

[Badjamin]

It sounds like it would be cheaper to get a lower maintenance wifey
Seriously though, VW campers aren't luxury, there's still going to be a certain amount of roughing it. e.g. either reconcile yourselves to using public bogs, or be prepared to stand out in the rain whilst the other one takes a dump on the porta potti in the van. It's much easier(for either partner) to have a pee around the side of the van in the middle of the night, than start digging the aforementioned PP out of its hidey hole. I haven't even got round to the shower issue yet. Needless to say, we have perfected "the Van Shower" which involves a rubber mat, bowl of water & a flannel.
You might be better off with a decent base van & something like an Egoe nest or Ovano, just to see if it's for you. I have a sneaky suspicion that you're going to shell out a shed load of money, go off once or twice & the missus says "Enough".

Yes yes and yes... no to a new wife but yes to the rest. With one caveat... the wife is worried I will eff off for good the next time we have a row if I have a van... so I'll see how itnpans out ha!

Am off to look at that van tomorrow. I wasn't after an LWB though so am a bit stuck. I reckon I could upgrade the wheels and sort it out a bit and flog it in a year or so though perhaps...

 

[drinfinity]

LWB gives you many more options, especially for bikes inside, or a camper conversion. Ours still fits inside a supermarket parking space.

 

[Salty Spuds]

LWB gives you many more options, especially for bikes inside, or a camper conversion. Ours still fits inside a supermarket parking space.

This^^^^^^^^^

 

[Badjamin]

I may be youtubing this whole process btw so prepare to be saluted in my awards ceremony when I get over 100 subscribers

 

[FerrisBFW]

You know the really scary bit was handing over a lot of hard earned dosh to a bloke on his drive really hurt. All my car and bike buying life its been new/almost new to a dealer with a perceived warrenty or cheap street-side sale, and not lots of money to a random :-O I bought a dodgy bi-turbo but its been brilliant

 

[Badjamin]

H

You know the really scary bit was handing over a lot of hard earned dosh to a bloke on his drive really hurt. All my car and bike buying life its been new/almost new to a dealer with a perceived warrenty or cheap street-side sale, and not lots of money to a random :-O I bought a dodgy bi-turbo but its been brilliant

ow do you know if it's a bi turbo? I know to avoid them but if something is listed as a 2.0 tdi how would I know. Does it actually say it on the engine

 

[t0mb0]

Funny thing to say on a van forum, but I think the van part of this is somewhat tangential. I think the key part is to take a really good look at your finances and budgeting to work out how much money is coming in, where it's currently going out and how you might want to try and plan changes such that you maximise your enjoyment of life - of which a van is potentially one part of the puzzle. The other thing that strikes me is that your wife's very strong preference for using toilets at home sounds actually quite restrictive from a lifestyle perspective, I realising raising this issue is unlikely to be popular, but fixing that sounds like it would really widen your options for day trips, holidays and all sorts of other things - apart from anything else, camper toilets aren't exactly the finest part of the whole experience and you don't want to spend six months doing up a van only to find you literally can't stay overnight in it because of that issue.

 

[cgtmiles]

Add it to the mortgage and get the best base van you can.

You only live once! If you have enough equity in your house do it. No way I could have found the money otherwise

We did this and I like the van more than my house so the question is why I borrowed money to buy that sh*thole not the van

 

[Badjamin]

Funny thing to say on a van forum, but I think the van part of this is somewhat tangential. I think the key part is to take a really good look at your finances and budgeting to work out how much money is coming in, where it's currently going out and how you might want to try and plan changes such that you maximise your enjoyment of life - of which a van is potentially one part of the puzzle. The other thing that strikes me is that your wife's very strong preference for using toilets at home sounds actually quite restrictive from a lifestyle perspective, I realising raising this issue is unlikely to be popular, but fixing that sounds like it would really widen your options for day trips, holidays and all sorts of other things - apart from anything else, camper toilets aren't exactly the finest part of the whole experience and you don't want to spend six months doing up a van only to find you literally can't stay overnight in it because of that issue.

To be honest, I like the idea of having the option to quickly go in the back rather than find somewhere. It's not all about her preferences with wc's. I get what you are saying, though. I have literally figured out my budget now and it's £300 a month that I can afford as mentioned.

 

[TallPaul_S]

The other thing that strikes me is that your wife's very strong preference for using toilets at home sounds actually quite restrictive from a lifestyle perspective, I realising raising this issue is unlikely to be popular, but fixing that sounds like it would really widen your options for day trips, holidays and all sorts of other things - apart from anything else, camper toilets aren't exactly the finest part of the whole experience and you don't want to spend six months doing up a van only to find you literally can't stay overnight in it because of that issue.

I missed this bit - yeah, if the missus flat out won't use any public toilets, or squat in a bush for a pee, then I don't see how she'll cope with a couple of days on a campsite. A porta potty in the van isn't much better IMO, that's a last, last, LAST resort type thing!!

 

[Badjamin]

Add it to the mortgage and get the best base van you can.

You only live once! If you have enough equity in your house do it. No way I could have found the money otherwise

We did this and I like the van more than my house so the question is why I borrowed money to buy that sh*thole not the van

House is up for remortgage in 2026 so may be if the potential T5 thing works out we will upgrade.

 

[cgtmiles]

The downside is that the wife requires a certain minimum standard of toileting facilities so stops in pub car parks etc are not an option for us but I keep finding very nice sites with very nice pubs next door so win win

 

[cgtmiles]

House is up for remortgage in 2026 so may be if the potential T5 thing works out we will upgrade.

Could be worth seeing if they will add an additional loan on. That’s actually what we did sits along side the mortgage then refinanced when we remortgaged