Van Life Expenses
Getting into the nitty-gritty of finances for off-grid living, you have to factor in expenses. While you do not necessarily have the normal expenses of electricity, water, or rent there is an additional expense that you incur.
I am going to use van life as an example, simply because it is the one I am most interested in, and the one I know the most about.
initially, you have the huge expense of buying the Van itself. This can range from $5,000 to $50,000 depending on what make you get, what year it is, and what the history of the vehicle is.
Now you figure you can then do your modifications of the vehicle, and this is where you can heavily impact how much you spend. if you hire all of the work out to others and get an absolute top of the line, you can get into $20,000 to $30,000 worth of modification. If you are willing to put in the work and do your research, you can spend under $10,000 on your modification.
From what I can find, the biggest modification costs are the bathroom (whatever form that may be taking for your van, whether that be a full wet room or just a composting toilet), the solar panels, the fridge, the heater, and the water/electrical system. The water and electrical system costs can be impacted though depending on how much you are running and how much you need for your build.
Once you have the build itself, you then have to factor in the expenses of the trips you are taking. You can find free places to park, and fill water, and little explorations you can go on. However, there are times where you may need to pay for an RV Park, or a charging station if you don’t have your inverter hooked up properly, or if you need a fully functioning bathroom and do not have one in the van. These things may not be huge expenses, or they could be stupidly expensive, but they will add up no matter what. Then you have the set expense of gas, which you have to pay for no matter what because it is quite literally the fuel for your house.
I found a post on Medium that was a gentleman, Coach Tony, who took a road trip where he lived in a van for 95 days, and documented and explained what he had done. Tony goes into extreme detail about his Van trip and has listed specifically where he stopped. For most of his journey, he slept in places where there was free parking, whether that be in a Walmart parking lot or friends’ driveways. He did spend a few nights in a hotel, which you have to account for. The fact is that this will likely happen at some point and you need to account for that expense.
Works Cited
Tony, C. (2019, March 18). Van Life by the Miles & Nights. Retrieved October 13, 2020, from Medium website: https://medium.com/@coachtony/van-life-by-the-miles-nights-fa9496e51268
8 Vandwellers Creatively Earning Remote Income. (2018, May 21). Retrieved October 13, 2020, from Divine On The road website: https://divineontheroad.com/vandwellers-remote-income/