Full Timing

Drifter

Help ! Here I am in the office, the auditors keep asking me silly questions, the girls keep winging, I'm stressed, I've got a hangover from over indulgence last night, got my council tax bill this morning, and the only thing keeping me sane is having this site on my PC browser. Does anyone else access this site from the office ?

At least i can look forward to the weekend and taking my m/h down to Wales for some peace, quite, relaxation and fishing. I'm seriously thinking of jacking in all this rat-race stuff and taking a year out full timing in my motorhome. Anyone else feel like this or done it ?

Drifter

nukeadmin · Site Admin

we are starting to get some full timers on this site Difter, and myself and my wife are heading off tmrw to pick up our mh to start the lifestyle Wink

bsb2000 · NE Rally Co-ordinator

Hi Drifter,

Yes I access this site whilst at work, and agree it helps see the light towards the weekend. As for full timing, looking forward to giving it a go, but alas think I've got a while to wait yet. Only joined beginning of Feb but looks like this is the place to answer all those questions before we take the plunge.

Ian

Anonymous

Hi Drifter,
I found this site at work when we were still part of the rat-race, just over four months later and we are living full time on our new van. We starting planning about two years ago having not even spent one night on a motorhome! We spent ages agonising over how we were going to make living etc. But when we found the right van we just decided to take the plunge and quit our jobs straight away. Ben moved onto the van as soon as we collected it (I wasn't old enough to drive it then so he took it to his place) and I moved on after Christmas. We finally cut our ties just after New Year and headed off to the Shepton Mallet show as our first trip. We managed to find work before it became an issue (we have set up a web design agency and are starting an ebay shop -

Anonymous

benandlizzie - you're doing a great job!

I'm still in my twenties (just) and the missus is mid-30s and to be honest we'd love to do what you're doing. You're both very brave and evidently headstrong which in this situation is a good thing.

That van of yours is a pretty big investment, no?

How did you get it all off the ground? I'd be interested to find out how you funded yourselves in the first place, where you've been since you started, where you're hoping to get to and so on.

Impressive stuff indeed. Well done!

Sam_Chris

We decided a few months ago that we would take up the challenge of full-timing. It came about through a lot of things really, so we decided that we would go for it, sell the house and take the risk.

Our house has now been sold, we're just awaiting a date for exchange of contracts and then completion then we'll be on our way.

We still have no idea of which motorhome we want to buy though and are frantically looking at all kinds of models (our budget limited to a max of £15k, mainly as we want to keep some of the house proceeds to live on before we have to find work)

We've also been considering the use of a lap top for the internet on our travels, (as a way of keeping in touch, but also to continue with our E-Bay shop), we have seen the vodaphone card that you can just slot into the laptop but this requires a 12 month contract and, with no fixed abode, we obviously can't get credit for this or anything else. One option we were thinking of is using a data cable to connect the laptop with our mobile phone but presume that this will run the credit on a PAYG phone down quickly.. anyone any other ideas?

All in all it's quite an adventure as neither of us has been in a motorhome before now (I have only caravanned before)

And I can agree on the amount of crap we seem to have accumulated in our house, we've had one car boot sale which got rid of some of it, and the rest has been sent to various charity shops around town - but there's still mounds of it, I think it keeps breeding!

Anyway, we'll keep you posted on the motorhome we eventually settle for! and hopefully keep in touch on the 'net somehow!

Anonymous

I guess we have three further pieces of advice.

Firstly, HIRE BEFORE YOU BUY - we found this invaluable. Just go for something vaguely similar to what you're thinking about. Elite Motorhomes in Banbury were good to us (tell them we sent you!)

Secondly, on finance, we have the vehicle on a private interest-only loan at 5% (which costs us £24 per week each)

With regards to the internet. Turn images off in your browser, and consider a GPRS connection for UK use. We haven't got a solution for European use yet, anyone?

Sorry to be a bit brief, we'll write more soon

Ben and Lizzie

Anonymous

General Packet Radio Service, not that that clears things up at all!

Basically the cellular network provider acts as your Internet Service Provider. You need a GPRS mobile phone, or a PC with a GPRS card in it. You also need a GPRS account with the network.

They charge you by the megabyte, rather than for the time you're online. It's about as fast as a modem when in good reception.

We found O2's Data Max package the best value for us, but their customer service stinks!

Or, pay £7000 then £100 per month for satellite broadband? Thought not!

Sam_Chris

Ahh, so we would have to have a "tied in" contract with a network provider, rather than just have a PAYG phone connection in that case?

How do you get 'round not having a permanent address or not being on the voters roll for the credit check?

Sam_Chris

Just found out that our phone is GPRS Class 8
We are on Virgin PAYG

Any use?