How Much Does Vanlife Cost

May 20, 2024

Photo credit @sebsantabarbara

If you’ve read a lot of my blogs for Lippert, then you’ll already know that while living in a van for 5 years, I spent 15 months of that time continuously traveling around Europe and visited 14 countries. From two 3 weeks in Germany to three months in Sardinia, I spent my time writing in picturesque locations and soaking up sun, culture, and speaking to locals along the way. It was the perfect place to kickstart writing my books, and depending on how far I travelled, my costs changed from month to month.

I wild camped throughout my entire van life experience, only paying for one campsite in that entire time. Obviously, if you’re travelling with a family or want the security of campsites if you’re a new time vanlifer, then your costs may be different to mine below. It’s important to know that this is just a snapshot of the costs that I calculated while on my travels and not an exact guide as to how much you will definitely spend along the way.

Photo credit @sebsantabarbara

1. Keeping Hunger At Bay

I come from an Italian background, so of course I’m going to start talking about food first. I would rather forgo seeing a dozen attractions than giving up on a home-cooked meal. Having said that, cooking fresh and buying local ingredients from the places you travel through is one of the best ways to keep costs down, and you can eat as much as you want when you want it too. Check out my blog post on tasty vanlife recipes for some ideas! Don’t go shopping while you’re hungry, and always make a list that you can stick to. Double check how much can fit in your van and fridge too, so you avoid wasting both food and money. I spent around £30 (€35) on food every seven to ten days, and that stocked up my drawers with dried goods, beans, chocolate, crisps, fruit, and filled the fridge to the brim! Alcohol is pretty expensive to buy too. I don’t drink alcohol anymore, but I would buy a few beers from time to time while living in the van. I ate mostly vegetables and fish on the road, but I would never say no to some pork or lovely cheeses. As I said, just be mindful of how much your fridge can store.

Average monthly food total: £120 (€140)

Photo credit @sebsantabarbara

2. Fuelling Up Your Home

When your house is on wheels, you’re going to need to fill it up in order to get anywhere. Obviously, if you’re planning on staying in one place for longer, then you will save on fuel compared to if you’re living in a different place every day. I lived and worked in the same city for over a year before heading out on my travels, but even when in Sardinia, I would spend a week at a time in one place. Even with a diesel heater running on the lowest setting, it hardly made a dint in the fuel. Something I like to quote a lot is a line from Treebeard in Lord of the Rings - “don’t be hasty.” If you can afford to spend more time in one place rather than another and enjoy the ride then do; obviously that’s not something everyone can have the luxury of if you don’t work from home and only have specific holiday patterns, but if you are self-employed, then my best advice is to slow down and fully enjoy the journey.

Average monthly fuel total: £150 (€173)

3. Tolls Really Take Their Toll

Honestly, the best piece of equipment I had (and this isn’t an ad) was my TomTom Go Camper. It had an option for avoiding tolls and taking the scenic route, meaning I saved money on roads that would get me to places ‘a little bit quicker’. I would never have found the amazing Douro River Trail in Portugal without it! I once spent €140 in one day on tolls in France when I was getting back to the Ferry from Sardinia, and I vowed to never let that happen ever again! Sometimes it’s unavoidable depending on where you are, but if you have time to plan your route, and again to not be hasty, then go you can really save by just staying off toll-paying motorways.

Average toll costs: £20 (€23)

4. Paying Bills (Sorry, You’ll Still Have Bills)

Even if you live in a van, there are still bills to pay. I know that’s not something that you want to think about while you’re on your adventures, but there are some things that you’ll need to consider that you use every day. If you have solar panels, then you won’t need to pay electricity bills, and propane or butane gas bottles are incredibly cheap. Still, you’ll have things like your phone bill to take into consideration for internet if you’re working on the go. I’m still with the same provider I used while travelling; VOXI gives users bags and bags of data with free social media use, meaning you can use WhatsApp, X, Facebook etc to your heart’s content. It was great for downloading movies (which uses less data than streaming them) and playing games online on my phone with friends back home. I paid for my recovery/breakdown service yearly, so taking that, my phone bill, and the odd gas canister into account as well as road tax, the average cost worked out at £44 (€51).

Photo credit @sebsantabarbara

5. Keeping Clean

Just because you live in a van doesn’t mean you have to smell. I washed my clothes with water taken from hot springs in Sardina (just like the locals) and washed both my body and my clothes from water taken from free taps all over Europe. Using a solar shower or boiling water from a kettle on your stove is incredibly easy, and items like the Scrubba Wash Bag make cleaning everything from underwear to T-shirts on the go a breeze. Still, spending £20 (€25) a month at the laundromat to wash and dry larger items isn’t going to break the bank. It saves having a bedsheet hanging in your van drying while you’re trying to cook a curry (which will soak up the smells of your cooking anyway!

Average monthly washing total: £20 (€25)

Photo credit @sebsantabarbara

6. Cooking On Gas - Propane/Butane/LPG

The saying ‘Cooking on Gas’ in England means ’to really be making progress with a situation’, but in a van when you are literally cooking on gas and making amazing breads, cakes, and stews with your Omnia Oven, then you’ll need to know how much Gas costs. A 15KG gas bottle would last me about 6 months and cost me around £45. It’s a good idea to buy a regulator set for the different bottles you might have to buy on the road or to take two gas canisters for the same regulator with you when you set off if you have the space and are planning on a long stint off grid.

Average monthly gas total: £7.50 (€8.70) (Yearly cost of £90 ($104))

Photo credit @sebsantabarbara

7. Staying Social and Visiting Attractions

Living the van life lends itself to being sociable and hanging out with other likeminded individuals. You’ll make new friends wherever you go and head to see local attractions nearby with them. I’ve made some of my best friends while out on the road and still stay in touch with them now that I’m back in the UK. Buying groceries and cooking joint meals together helps to keep costs down; no one can resist a BBQ while the sun is setting, right? It’s a good idea to look for group admission prices for attractions too as certain places charge less on certain days, so try to plan your trips around when ticket prices are cheaper. I don’t tend to do many tourist attractions; I find the outside of places to be more beautiful than the inside in most cases anyway. The gardens of the palace of Sintra in Portugal were much more amazing than the actual palace itself, for example. Still, if you’re heading to California then you’re not going to miss out on a trip into Yosemite, and you’re definitely going to visit a castle every now and again while travelling around Europe or the UK (you’re only human!). Use apps like Park4Nite to find cheap places to park outside of cities and utilize public transport to get into the centre. For two weeks I travelled into by train, and it cost me around £20 for two week-long tickets.

Average monthly social life & attractions expenditure total: £40 (€46)

Photo credit @sebsantabarbara

8. Things You Don’t Need But Still Want

Polaroid pictures, fairy lights, AA batteries, portable fans – they’re all stuff you don’t specifically need but might want to make your vanlife experience cosier and more comfortable. They’re the little things that you can’t really account for every month but that you pick up as and when you need them, and I’m going to give a monthly total of around £5/€5 for them. Let’s Add up The Costs My average costs while living in a van came to around £400 (€464) a month, and that’s travelling full time and not just a package holiday for one week to the Maldives. It’s an incredibly affordable way to live and see the world, especially if you’re working and funding your travels while on the road too. If you’re planning on just living in one place and not traveling around, then your costs will almost halve, making this an incredibly affordable way of life for those wanting to save up for travel or even buying their first house!

About the Author

Lippert guest blogger, Sebastian Antonio Santabarbara, is a thirty-two-year-old writer from Yorkshire, UK. His first breakthrough role came as the Head of Written Content for Van Clan, an online media brand documenting the van life movement with a weekly reach of over 5 million readers. This role has led to Sebastian being head-hunted to write several inspirational non-fiction books on alternative living (to be published by Frances Lincoln 2022/23) and Van Life for Dummies (published by John Wiley & Sons Sept 2022). He is also the Editor in Chief for Retro Dodo, a media/news company with a monthly reach of 1 million people. Follow his travels on Instagram!