We live in a van with our dog – gas and electricity are only £5 and water is free

More and more people are traveling by van.

A couple have revealed how much it costs them to living in a van per month – and it’s less than a thousand dollars.

3

3

3

Laura and Luke Ridgway-Grace, from Essex and East Sussex respectively, share their monthly spending via @thetravelingtrio on TikTok.

The couple, who live together with their dog Luna, say they try to stay within their budget.

“Fuel and tolls are definitely our biggest expense and this month it cost us £396,” Laura, 27, explained in a video uploaded in early April with a cost overview for March.

Their groceries cost them £210 and she added that they try to eat in their car as much as possible, rather than eating out.

“We have an LPG system on the bus and that costs us about £5 a month,” says Laura.

A Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) system is used in vehicles as a fuel for the internal workings. For the creators of TikTok, these are aspects such as the boiler and the oven.

However, Luna’s insurance and food cost Laura and Luke, 32, £40 a month.

To wash their clothes they pay £30 a month at a launderette.

The couple pays no water or waste charges at all, and they say that’s thanks to local governments’ support of the RV community.

Cleaning itself also costs them nothing, because they use a solar shower.

Laura and Luke, who have been together for nine years, also pay nothing for electricity

They have a DC-to-DC charger and, like the shower, they use solar panels.

Their phones and subscriptions to services like Netflix cost £110.

In total it cost them £811.

In the comments, people were grateful for their transparency.

“Thanks for sharing [star eyes emoji]“I’m planning to buy a van this year to travel around Europe,” someone wrote.

Another said: “This is super handy – we start our trip in two weeks!”

Someone else said: “£811 for two people is amazing!”

Laura, who met Luke at university, told Fabulous: “We’ve been married for three years now.

“We met in our first year of university, when we lived in London.”

She said they no longer wanted to work 40 hours a week and were tired of not having enough free time, apart from weekends.

“We have been living in our van full-time since August 2023, after realizing that working 40 hours a week and only having time to enjoy the weekend was not for us.

“Luna, our Vizsla, has been with us since our wedding 3 years ago. She loves adventure and so we all thought vanlife would be a good idea.”