Most people budget gas money like they’re still commuting to an office. They pick a number, usually something round like $200 a month, and hope it holds. It doesn’t. Fuel is the one van life expense that punishes flat budgeting more than any other, because it isn’t tied to time. It’s tied to distance, terrain, …
“How long until it stops feeling like camping and starts feeling like home?” That question comes up constantly from people about to leave for their first real stretch on the road. It’s the wrong question, honestly, but it’s the one everyone asks, so it’s worth answering before getting into the practical stuff. The short version: …
There’s a version of this story that plays out constantly. Someone builds a beautiful spreadsheet. Fuel, insurance, food, maybe a line for “misc.” They hit the road feeling prepared. By day five, they’re staring at a receipt for a $60 propane refill they didn’t plan for, wondering how a number that looked so solid on …
The first year I lived in the van, I turned down a freelance contract because I assumed nowhere I’d be parked would have reliable enough internet to do the work properly. I was wrong about that, and it cost me about $2,400 I didn’t need to lose. That mistake taught me more about van life …
Most people budgeting for van life get the big number right and the small numbers catastrophically wrong. They’ll spend three weeks comparing Sprinter versus Transit versus Promaster, build a spreadsheet with a fuel column and an insurance column, feel good about the total, and then get blindsided six months in by a $400 propane heater …
A friend of mine spent eleven thousand dollars in her first four months on the road. She had budgeted for three thousand, total, for the whole first year. Her van looked identical to the ones with the “$40 a month to live like this!” captions. The math simply never matched the pictures. That gap between …
By the Budget Van Journeys Team The number that gets thrown around most often is $1,500 a month. It’s not wrong, exactly, but it’s also not the number you’ll actually see on your bank statement in month three. Van life costs settle into a range, and where you land inside that range depends on choices …
I once tracked every dollar I spent for a full year of van life and the number that surprised me wasn’t the total. It was where it went. Fuel wasn’t the biggest line item. Neither was food. It was small, recurring charges I’d stopped noticing, a $9 app subscription here, a $14 laundromat visit there, …
There’s a number that gets repeated so often in van life circles that people stop questioning it: live in a van, save thousands a year. I believed it too, for about the first four months. Then I actually sat down with a spreadsheet, my bank statements, and a friend’s apartment lease, and the picture got …
Somebody wrote in to Budget Van Journeys last month with a quote that made no sense. Two vans, same make, same year, same rough mileage. One quote came in at $61 a month. The other at $210. Same driver. He wanted to know which company was ripping him off. Neither was, as it turned out. …