LogFAQs > #959331353

Mead posted...

More and more people are doing RV or van living, and I think theyre pretty smart for it honestly

I can think of a worse life than living out of a van near a shore

I strongly considered it, and may still do it eventually. Even leasing a van etc, the payments are less than rent. If you buy one outright, you spend almost nothing per month (just gas, but you don't need to drive much).

I had a van for traveling and van life but my friend really needed it. I got a great deal on it and wasn't using it so I gave it to him instead. Now the same van is like $6000 though.

Van life has it's advantages and it's disadvantages. If you live in one area and don't travel to much, you can get a 5 by 5 storage space for about $50 a month, and you can do either Planet Fitness for $10/month (to have easy access to a shower, TV's, and well, fitness equipment), or YMCA for 30$ (as long as you show you make less then X amount of money per month you can get a membership for half price and it works at any YMCA).

I personally think the YMCA is the better deal since you can use it anywhere, and they have pools, hot tubs etc. Planet fitness also offers a black card membership that works anywhere, but it's $30 as well....so kinda silly to get that instead of the YMCA (guess it doesn't matter if you don't like to swim or want a hot tub though).

Power is actually pretty easy to handle with the new batteries they have out there, but especially if you get one of the $300 generators (holds 2 gallons of gas, have another 2 gallon container in your van, and you can run it, and charge the batter + laptops etc for about 50-80 hours of use before needing to refill). That lets you have power to play games/watch shows etc. Since you can now get unlimited internet on cell phones and use that for your computer etc, just having a cell phone plan gives you all the internet you need for casual stuff, and you can just use free wifi somewhere if you want to download a big file or something. I pay $25 a month for my verizon service which comes with 5gig of internet (that I use when I bring my laptop with me, but have never even used half of it in a month). You can buy more if you want, but unless you stream A TON of movies/tv shows etc, or download files (games etc) with it, it's all you will need per month.

Bathrooms are a pain, but there are tons of places you can park with 24 hour bathrooms around. You can also buy a portable toilet which has a plastic bag inside (for when you poop). You can pull it closed and dispose of it easily, and they are not expensive.

Biggest thing is you can easily live in places like the Bay Area CA which are very expensive (even renting a room there is generally $700 or more...though you can still get lucky). You can also travel easily if you ever want to etc. You can always "live" near work as well, so no commuting etc.

If you did van life you could live anywhere and just work through people ready or any other contracting type job only a few days a month, just getting enough money for food/gas/cell phone/car insurance etc.

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Tacobot 3000 "Saving the world from not having tacos."
Friends don't make their friends die Hanz. Psychopathic friends do.