How much money do I need to own a van?
How much money do I need to own a van?
How much money do I need to own a van?
How many of us asked ourselves “How much money will I need to own a van, to travel in a van, to live in a van?” “How much money will I need to convert a van?” “Is it worth it in the end or can I even afford that?”.
There are a few things that you need to take into consideration when the topic is converting, travelling or living in a van. Plus all the time that you might spend converting the van and the help that you also might need to build it. But at the end it resumes into one single word: (your) WILL.
Converting a van is a huge process that involves people’s effort, money, time and dedication. It can take a few weeks or a few months to have it done. In our case, 3 years after, we are still making some small updates which we found need to be done. The more we travel, the more we realize that some decisions that we made during the conversion process were not the best. But to be honest i think it happens with most of the people who decided to convert a van. We even know some people who have bought a van already converted and have decided to make some changes because they were fitting their needs better.
Resuming, you will always find a way to make small updates to your van. It’s a never ending job. But it will be worth it, trust me.
When the topic is numbers, it is really hard to specify because every case is different. It will depend on how much comfort or how much space you want to have, what kind of features you want to install and so on. It can vary from a few thousand bucks to almost the price of a house. It will depend on you, your needs and your budget.
One thing that i recommend is to work with a budget. If you have 3 thousand euros to spend on a conversion, try to stay strict to that, unless you really need to get over it. The more you save, the more you will have to hit the road and spend more time travelling.
But how much do you really need to own a van? What do I really need to start my own conversion?
Everything starts with the van choice. That will be your first step and goal: to find the van that will fit you the most. And of course I mean the comfort and the budget.
In our case we had a few things in mind that we were sure we wanted to have in our van: high ceiling to allow us to stand inside and it needed to have air conditioning. Our first experience with vanlife was in Australia and we rented a low ceiling and no air conditioning van. We enjoyed the experience at the fullest but after that we knew that if we ever converted a van, it would need to have those features. And trust me, you will need the air conditioning in summer, unless your plans are to not travel in warm countries.
You have 2 options: buy an already converted van and maybe make some minor updates, saving you hundreds of hours on the process (it might be more expensive at the end) or go full on to a self converted van, processing all the steps, choosing the details and materials and so on, having the experience of building it, making decisions in every moment and probably saving money all in one.
Expenses with the van conversion
Van Cost
So, depending on your needs the first step is to find the van you need. We have seen vans costing between 2000€ and 20.000€. It will always be related to how much you have to spend.
Ours cost 10.000€ but had all the features that we wanted, plus a few others that convinced us, like having not a lot of km, being a shorter van comparing with the majority. The fact that our van has sliding doors on both sides was also a plus for us. And of course the fact that we would have 2 years of warranty also made us decide to buy that specific one. At least we knew that we would be safe for a couple of years.
You need to go out, see it with your own eyes and even have test driving. You need to feel connected to the van you will buy. It needs to fit your needs, in at the end you need to do a great deal.
Insulation
If you decide to convert one yourself this step is probably the most important during the process because you will regret if you don’t do it properly. Insulate the van the best you can will avoid that you freeze in winter or burn out in summer while you are inside. If you ask me where you should invest enough money, I would easily say: the insulation. We have shared our insulation process in other article. Check it here.
So make a smart choice even if you need to spend a bit more and have a less fancy stove or fridge. Insulation is really an important step during the conversion.
The insulation of the van can cost 300€, 500€, 1000€ or more. It will always depend on which material you have decided to go with. Naturally, the better the material is, the more expensive it will be, but also the results are better.
We decide to use ARMAFLEX, which for us was a new kind of product. I have never heard of it until the moment we started to research about insulation. So, you might need to do a lot of research too and decide for yourself what to use and how much to spend.
Tools and materials
Another thing that you might need to spend money on are materials such as wood, electric cables, tape, screws and others, aswell as on some tools (if you don’t own them). In our case we had a lot of help from Leonie’s father as he owns a carpentry and so we could have access to all the tools we needed. Also, we could make the whole conversion in the parking of his company, as we don’t own a garage or a place where we could work on it. So this was free for us and we will be forever grateful for that. We could use any tools we wanted plus have access to wood that Leonie’s father didn’t need anymore. We tried to keep it really low cost.
Our walls and ceiling were also free. We decided to recycle some boards that a neighbor company was throwing to the garbage. These boards are made by recycled plastic bottles and they use it to insulate rooms. It was perfect for us. If you want to know more about the material, check their website: ECHO JAZZ.
In the two last topics we saved a lot of money. So, to be honest I don’t have a clue about how much money you will need for these steps, but for sure something between 500 and 1000€, minimum. If you don’t have super high standards and you are flexible, I’m sure that you will find a way to recycle some materials. Be creative, be smart here.
Electronics and other features
Here I’m talking about stove, fridge, solar panel, batteries and other electronic devices. You have plenty of choices, and here your taste / needs will dictate the amount of money you will need. Be aware that using a solar panel will let you have power in the van and you might need it to have a fridge or even to use electronics that need 220v, in case you have an inverter. Personally, we just use the inverter to charge our laptops, cameras or to use other small kitchen electronics. So maybe you should consider it.
Everything in our van is powered by the solar panel as we just need 12v, including the fridge. Also our ceiling lights, tv and sink tap work with 12v, and it is really practical. The consumption is really low and it lasts hours (depending on how much your battery could get from the solar panel). Lately we did a small update that has been helping us a lot, which was the installation of a “relais”. That makes the leisure battery (the one that powers our living space), also being charged while we are driving the van. We didn’t do it during the conversion because we thought that we would be okay just with the solar panel, but we were wrong. Especially because we started to travel more in winter, and living in Switzerland the amount of sunny days is really low, so we already ran out of battery a few times. But the “relais” mostly solves the problem, because it can charge the battery even on rainy or cloudy days. It is not depending on the solar panel. A “game changer”, I can tell you.
Other features as shower or water tanks will also cost you money, but here you can relax. The prices are very accessible and you can get both for a few bucks.
In total we might have spent around 1400€ on these products:
- Solar panel, battery, solar charge controller and electric cables;
- Fridge 12v/220v
- Stove 2 Burner
- Sink, tap, trap siphon and water tanks
- Tv 12v and wall holder
- Shower 12v and water tank
- Portable Toilet (Porta Potti) and liquids
- Switch Panel socket 12v
- Led 12v lights (ceiling)
Project
In some countries you need to have an approved project from the entities if you want to convert a van into a campervan. In our case we didn’t need to do it. Switzerland is pretty chilled on that topic. But in Portugal, for example, people need to make a project and send it to IMT and wait to see if their project is approved or not. If it is, they can make the conversion, otherwise they need to make another project.
You can check out our friends Travel Inspire PT website. They wrote a book about the whole process, including the project, and that will definitely help you. And if you use the code BTE5 at the checkout, you will have a discount.
How much money do you need to live in a van?
Well this question is also very individual and will vary from person to person. It can go from a few hundred euros per month to maybe thousand, depending on the months and the expenses you can have with the van. Maybe you need to take the van to a mechanic if something is wrong with it, or because it is time to pay the ensurance and the taxes. So the range can be huge.
As is written in the last blog post, the young people are the ones who are bringing up vanlife and making the community grow that much every year. The fact that you live in a van also means that you will own less stuff, less clothes, less time using eletricity which will make you save a looooot of money.
Also it depends where you decide to travel. If you are travelling in cheap or more expensive countries. Travelling in Switzerland is not the same as travelling in Portugal. Or travelling in USA is not the same as travelling in Mexico. It’s really up to you to decide where you want to be, being aware of the pros and cons of each country.
But let’s put this into „numbers“ (if it is even possible):
Accommodation:
is mostly free if you don’t use camping sites, so here you save a ton of money. It can happen that from times to times you decide to pay to be on a camping, especially in countries where it is not so safe to sleep overnight in the middle of nowhere. Also be aware that there are a lot of countries which don’t allow you to sleep overnight out of camping sites, and unfortunately i think that more countries will join this chess movement. As they prohibit vanlifers to sleep overnight in places which are not designated for that, they left us with no choice than to stay in paying places, and of course they get more money from people who chose to have a cheaper lifestyle;
Gas:
depending on how much you want to drive this amount can vary a lot. If you are a person who doesn’t mind to stay a few days in a place, probably you will need less money comparing to the people who drives from spot to spot everyday or every two days;
Insurance and taxes:
these expenses can be a pain in the ass. Although they are kind of “fix“ expenses, and you know exactly how much you will need and when, they are a huge heavy stone on your way. And that also depends on which van you have, and where you come from (or where you have the van registered). It can be from a few hundred to thousands. For example our expenses with the van every year are quite a lot as we live in Switzerland and as you might know, it is not cheap here;
Mechanic:
this is kind of an extra expense if you need to. And it can happen anytime, you never know. Of course you need to take your van to regular check-ups which also cost money but can prevent major damages, but it can happen to anyone whenever you are not expecting it;
Food suppliers:
This is an essential and no matter if you eat more or less, you can count on this. One thing that we have learnt is that it can be really really cheap to have our meals cooked in the van. Yes, we go from times to times to a restaurant, but the major rule is that we cook in the van. This can save you a lot of money too.
Water:
The water is mostly free. You can refill your tanks pretty much anywhere as long as you respect the locals and the places. We have been using water from fountains, service stations and rivers. You just need to be sure if it is drinkable water or not. Sometimes it is not and in our case we use it to wash the dishes mainly. Whenever we can’t find free drinkable water we buy in the supermarket.
Propane / Butane:
Depending on how many devices you have working with gas (propane / butane) it will dictate how much you will need for your needs. We just use gas in the stove and we are okay with it. A canister costs 4 or 5 bucks and it lasts at least 10 – 15 days. This is really affordable. But we know some other people who consumes much more propane or butane canisters than us, and we have heard of some crazy consumption as they also use it for the heating system. Luckily we don’t need that because our heating works with diesel (it is connected to the main van gas tank) and this has been the best investment that we did so far in the van.
Does living in a van save money?
Yes, yes and YEEEEEEES! And it is not just that. Your footprint is much smaller than if you live in a house. People are not aware of this and they mostly think that the fact that we are travelling/living in a van is prejudicial for the environment. What they don’t know is that living in a house, our footprint is way bigger than living in a van. We can’t deny that there is an impact of travelling with a van (or any other motor vehicle). We wish for a world where the reality of travelling has no impact at all, but this is just an illusion. Maybe in the further future it will happen, but now it is nearly impossible.
Your expenses like electricity bill, water and gas bill will be much lower. Your garbage waste will be less. You also buy less stuff (because you just can’t load the van with things as you do at home). So, naturally you can save a ton of money in the van. Mostly because you live more simple.
Even with all the expenses you have daily/weekly/annually with the van, at the end you will save money.
Just think how much money you pay monthly in a house rent. 500€ ? 1000€ ? Imagine how many days you can travel with that money, how many new experiences you will get.
If your monthly income is 1000€, and just half goes directly to the rent or mortgage, imagine what you could do with these 500€ more a month on your bank account.
And if you are a couple living in the van and both having an income (working remotely or not), your savings can easily double.
So all in one we can say that you can’t just count on the money that you will need to have to afford a van. Because in the long term you will collect moments, experiences, meet new people, and at the end of the day you will save a lot of money in accommodation, food, bills, allied to reducing your footprint on this world.
Maybe some of you were looking for exact amounts in this article, but as I said a few times on this post, it will vary from people to people. It will depend on which materials you will use and how much comfort you want to have. Also how fast you want to travel and which part of the world you will travel or live.
No matter what, the freedom of travelling/living in a van is priceless.
Let us know what your thoughts about the topic are and if you have any questions just feel free to contact us, either in the comments section or in our social media accounts.
Peace and love,
João and Leonie
