How Much Does Van Life Cost?
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- Опубліковано 17 лип 2024
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We spill the secrets of our monthly spending while we've been on the road...and it might not be what you expect. It certainly wasn't what we expected.
2:42 Most expensive month of van life
4:09 Our monthly average expense
5:39 Fuel consumption
9:59 Full breakdown of monthly expenses
13:19 Van life vs. house life
16:10 How do van lifers fund their lives?
19:13 How much does living in Mexico cost?
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Our truck is a 2009 GMC Savana G3500 cut-away with a 12 ft box. We converted it into our tiny home on wheels and moved in May 2021 to travel North America for rock climbing, hiking, and outdoor adventures.
Blog: road-to-pitches.com
Instagram: / road.to.pitches
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Any tips on how to save money, in general, or while living van life?
Reevaluate where you are spending your money, and if it's really worth it. Sometimes small budget cuts in certain areas make a whole world of difference overall.
Expenses in some ways def go up *cough cough gas and maintenance* but it's definitely easier to save money on the road. At least for us, coming from an expensive metro area.
Your monthly budget is waaaay cheaper than what I spend monthly in my sticks & bricks 🤦🏾♀️ You get to travel with your budget. I start my journey in May 2022!!! I'll be on the road for 60 days. I'm excited and can't wait!! Thanks for this video. Continue to create great content!
We wish you a great time! With summer coming it's gonna be really nice.
You can change your fuel mileage by changing the gear the gear ratio in your rear end. There should be a tag on your rear end usally bolted to rear end cover write down that number or take the tag off (replace bolt after taking off tag) go to dealership with that tag and vin number of truck, they should be able to tell you the ratio. any number in low threes are good 3.53,3.73 if in the four range 4.10,4.56 your going to get pour gas millage on highway and your engine is screaming. you can get an idea of this by lifting back of truck up turn the right rear wheel slowly 360 degrees and count how many times the drive shaft turns will give good idea google that method put a line on drive shaft and count how many times it comes around a taller tire will also help check owner manual or talk to tire installer hope this helps
Enjoy your videos. Keep up the good work. 👍
This was really informative.
Very informative, thank you for sharing. :)
Congrats on yr increase in subscribers!
This was a great and much appreciated video! I'm praying through it and I'm ready to go vanlife if it works out.
thank you very much for this informative realistic video. intermittent retirement is a good idea. at least you're not doing CPA work that you hate. the food you had on your last video after the climb looked deilcious
Hi from California thank you I really enjoy watching yall very cool much love 😎✌
Greetings to California!👋
Great information and a really good video.
I retired from Bayer, I wish I had of done things the way you are doing life.
Loved the hair flips😁.
Always a thumbs up 👍
Thank you! We are very lucky that our jobs offer this kind of flexibility. That was a big help in deciding to get on van life (like that we have the option to return into our profession and not have to fear being jobless after).
Thank you for posting this video !
CPA very interesting 🤔 …. I currently work in finance
I just starting my build on my Skoolie northern Ontario and then ones it completed I’m going live in my bus full time and try my best to work full time remotely or work 8 months of the year lol
That is surprisingly more affordable than I was expecting when you consider what you are gaining in experiences. You are both smart cookies and I know you will figure out how to keep the ride going long term to keep living your best lives full of adventure to fill a lifetime of stories.
Keep it up, sincerely jelly in cold Canada :(
Great video as always! Liked how you broke down the numbers, as most people are afraid to put it out there. We spend about the same as y'all when we're traveling. However, because of our production company and contracts we have, it allows us to stay in one area for awhile. That always helps us save a little. You mentioned before that y'all will go back to work in Canada and in this video, that it's recommended to take time off every 10 years. Please tell us that y'all aren't thinking about stopping what you're doing, to return to non-traveling jobs. Y'all are a lot of fun and great people and we would hate to wait 10 years again to have the chance to meet up and maybe collaborate. Either way Phebe and I send y'all positive vibes and much love! 🙏❤🤘
Number are ONLY numbers...,
until you analyze them.
And I'm thinking you will benefit to continue analyzing. Team together as a couple to evaluate. Because (as you mentioned in the middle of the vid), you could save lots by staying in one place and maybe a smaller van.
You already realized that if you chose to do your channel and the same travel via boat, bus, train, plane... Holy cow you'd be waaaayyyy over your current spending.
It's probably also quite reasonable to consider first year could be the most expensive. You guys also save money because you're willing to tackle the maintenance and repair (nice having a trained Engineer :-) ) So I think I'd definitely save a cash bucket to save my sticker-shock during breakdowns, accidents, vandalism (yuck). Probably also stock-up on UA-cam trainings like the skill share and others that help get perspective how you can address maintenance and repairs - video training is wonderfully cheap.
Where in Mexico have you currently landed? Are you staying at an rv park? Thanks for all the great content!!
I cook 99% makes a big difference. 🐾👣✌️🖖 spent my 1st winter in mtn’s of BC with had an easy time of it .
If you’s like to make $ picking fruit this spring/ summer . BC fruit pickers are always needed
Yeah cooking yourself is a big saver! Sometimes we wish we had a freezer, then we could prep bigger portions and keep them for a while.
Imagine hate watching van videos 🙃 "back in my day we worked until we died! Damn lazy kids with their realistic expectations and work life balance! 😡" 🤣🤣🤣
Great vid thanks! 😀
Oh man, revisiting our finances from when we did van life, we spent about double of y’all 😬
Do you remember what your big expenses were? Was gas also one of the major expenses? We still think it would be great if we got a little better gas milage... who knows maybe we can get an electric upgrade to be a hybrid camper van😂 (I've heard they actually sell electric front axles for certain Ford vans, so you can retrofit it to become a hybrid--that would save a lot of gas in city traffic).
T-mobile gives 50gig for $50/month.
Thanks for adding the fuel economy comparison between the box truck and a Dodge Promaster. That has been a question that has been on my mind ever since I've started watching van life videos. For 60% more fuel, you get way more than 60% extra space I'm guessing. Am I right on that count? Any regrets?
Could you get a sim card and a US or Mexico pay as you go plan for you phones? It may end up being cheaper than the expensive Canadian plans that we have up here.
Enjoy being too hot. It's snowing and damp here near Kitchener, ON. It was -10 degrees Celsius last night. I would trade with you anyday!
Are you guys going to go further south? Honduras was beautiful when I was there. I didn't drive while I was there however.
Costa Rica is also very nice.... there are lots of pot holes there though when you get off of the main routes.
Hasta la vista,
Steve
Thanks for your comment. We do get a bit more space but as we have just a 12ft box the difference is not that big. With a 14 or 16 ft box you'd get significantly more space with the same fuel economy though.
Would you go for a 14ft or the16 ft box truck? That’s assuming that you could buy it for the same price. I’m just thinking about parking etc.
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Have you thought of "pausing" your phone/internet plan in Canada and switching to a Mexico sim/plan? There are even plans that work in the US and Canada. It seems like a major expense.
For Mexico we have paused our plans and are just using the WiFi of the place we're staying at the moment. For the states we didn't find a big difference, about 40 $ cheaper which is definitely worth if we stayed longer. One issue these days with all the 2FA in you online banking and elsewhere is that we still need to receive text messages on our Canadian numbers. Of course you can work around that, but we decided we just gonna eat the cost for now.
@@RoadtoPitches I connect all my banking to my Google voice account. But I don't know if Canadian banks would allow that. Luckily many of my banks use 2fa apps which avoids the sms problem.
I wasn't aware The CPA hairflip was a thing .
Yeah the entire industry does it😂
I totally want to see the lifestyle this couple will be living at age 40.
❤️😎📽🍿
Mexico? You all forgot me 😆
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You’re saving on utilities. Travel and dine out less.
I like your channel but really don't consider you "van lifers". You are more like tourists and tourists always pay a premium. I have traveled all over this country in a VW van, had incredible adventures and barely paid more than the cost of gas. Maybe you need to check out Bob Wells and HOWA.
Do you think living cheap (don't want to call it dirt bagging because of the negative connotation) is a requirement for van life?
@@RoadtoPitches I’m not judging you and admire your life style and like your channel. I have been a subscriber ever since Foresty Forest introduced you. And perhaps using the term “tourist” did have an unintended negative connotation so forgive me. But times have changed since I did my dirt bagging so it may be a generational thing. Traveling slow and living simple was part of the allure of my van life. Not always rushing across the country to the next scenic destination. But your channel is called Road to Pitches so you got to travel to get to those pitches. I’ll continue watching and cringing while you make those steep ascents. Take care.
Traveling slow was actually one of our take aways about half a year in. We found it more and more exhausting if we visited too many places in too short amount of time. On the other hand tough we also didn't want to become stagnant and the channel actually helped us leaving the van at least once a week, even if it was raining or cold. It would be sad to be in all these nice areas and not explore.
In any case thanks for following us here, we're happy you enjoy our climbing adventures.