FULL TIME VAN LIFE - How Much It Costs?

This video is kindly sponsored by Skillshare. Camera, action. Some of you guys may be wondering what life is like south of the border. Today we want to talk to you about how much it costs south of the border in Mexico, in Latin America. For those of you that are kind of curious how this lifestyle compares to your lifestyle, maybe some of you are also thinking about heading down there on an adventure yourselves. Those of you that are subscribed to the channel will know that I've talked about spending $10 a day through Mexico and Latin America. Now that was a budget that was made possible because I shared my van with people throughout the journey. In this video we're doing it a little differently. We're going to be talking about monthly budgets for two people traveling, because we think that is much more likely. A couple of you are interested in our daily budget. At the moment we don't have a daily budget because we are doing the van build. So when we start doing our trip through Europe and UK and beyond, we will give you more information about what that daily budget is. So this video is going to be about our past budgets in van life in Mexico and Latin America. Okay let's get into this. We are going to be breaking this down into the following categories because these are your main costs, living costs whilst you're on the road. Travel, accommodation, general bills, food and entertainment. I think most of you can relate to those costs. Let's start with the exciting one, travel. So we're going to start off with gas prices. With regards to travel costs when you're living on the road, obviously that's a massive part of your budget. Gas prices are pretty reasonable all the way through the Americas. They are more expensive than the US in various places. So let's talk about Mexico for example. We're basing this on our vehicle which was a 1992 Volkswagen Kombi called Capito which we gave away to one of our subscribers. Those of you that saw the last episode of that series, very sad moment. But that was our vehicle of choice for this video and we got around 10 kilometers per liter of fuel which is pretty average for a small van. If you're going to cross Mexico, the whole country, it takes about 4,000 kilometers. We did around 10,000 kilometers when we crossed Mexico mainly because you're driving back and forth, up and down roads. We looked for a lot of surf so we were going down very twisty roads to find those remote locations. So 10,000 kilometers over a period of six months. So we spent on average $5.61 per day to travel through Mexico on gasoline. That equates to $168 per month. So obviously, if you're tending to drive a lot more, you're going to be spending more on petrol. We tended to stay in one spot a little longer. So we'd stay in one place for a couple of weeks and that would reduce our cost and fuel obviously a lot more. Yeah, that's a really important point Delia mentions there. The best way to reduce your travel costs when you're living on the road is to just travel less. Try to stay in some really good places for a week or so or like around one town so you're not doing massive road trips all the time. So on average, we did 55 kilometers a day through Mexico but in reality, there were some days that we did no kilometers. We were just parked on a beach in paradise and then maybe we'd hit 100km all in one day to get to the next town. Also, we've put up a list of all the different countries' fuel prices at the moment so you can get an idea of how much it will cost in those countries. Yeah, so if you look at Argentina down the bottom of South America, a little bit more expensive compared to... I think the US is around $3 a gallon on average. But just to point out on this list, the Ecuador is super, super cheap so that's a really good place to go traveling by road. Obviously, you've got to get your vehicle there so that's expensive but it's only $2.25 for a gallon of petrol or gasoline down there. They do have road tolls so they make up for it there. And look at Venezuela, it's under $0.10 a gallon. Can you imagine gasoline that cheap? I personally wouldn't advise going to Venezuela right at this moment because there's a lot of unrest in the country so it's probably not the best time to visit them. But if you go anywhere near Venezuela, you will get really, really cheap gasoline like this insert picture of a small Colombian boy pouring gasoline out of a container. I think that whole jerry can of gas cost about $5 so very, very cheap close to the Venezuelan border. And the next one is tolls. We don't like tolls. We try to avoid tolls as much as possible and go on the free roads. They're usually the most exciting roads anyway. It's kind of boring going on the good, fast roads. Boring but definitely safer. Some of the non-toll roads can be in quite poor repair. A lot of effort goes into the toll infrastructure in Mexico and other countries. To encourage you to drive on those roads. But it does actually add up quite quickly. You can spend up to $200 a month on tolls driving through a country with tolls. So on the Pan American Highway, you're going to see tolls in Panama, Ecuador, Colombia and definitely in Mexico. But in most cases, like Leah says, it's avoidable and we tend to do it because we get to see the smaller towns and we can enjoy the kind of rural parts of the countries that we're traveling through. We've got $15 a month because we do spend a little bit on tolls when we can't avoid them or when we're in a rush. Visas is another thing that we would spend on a monthly basis. Again, depending on how long you stay at a country, if you're not traveling too much, you're not going to be spending money on visas every month. So for us, this monthly budget is based on paying for a visa to get into Mexico. It also depends where you're from. If Leah and I, she's on an Australian passport, I'm on a British passport, for the most part, it's quite good. So we don't often have to pay, but usually it can be about, you know, just under $5 to get into a country for a month or three months or something. For Mexico, it's $25 to visit. You also, I should mention that you have to pay a $200 deposit if you're bringing your vehicle in, but you will get it back when you leave providing you exit via a border that has the same bank that you left the deposit with. Otherwise, you won't get your money back and you'll have to go hunt and re-enter the country and hunt around for that bank to get your money back. So keep that in mind, okay? Yeah, so for visas for us, it's $14, $4.15 per month. Yeah, on average. Okay, second major expense for van travel is accommodation. But you'll be pleased to know it's pretty cheap when you're living in a van, isn't it? Or free. We didn't spend any money on accommodation or camping fees when we were in Mexico, but the campsites that are there are usually about $5, so they're quite affordable if you're wanting to do that. Yeah, they're not very frequent though. Often, like you might find them in some touristic places, but for the most part, the Mexicans haven't really got on to providing that kind of service for travellers. You see a few in Baja and a few spread out around the country, but for the most part, you're going to be wild camping in Mexico and further south. Yeah, there's lots of wild camping spots. So we usually try to camp next to big bodies of water, mainly the beach, so Ben could go surfing every single day. That was nice. And they're all free, so it is very easy to find free camp spots south of the US border. Of course, sometimes we did just end up spending nights on the side of the road. We don't want to say that every single night was just stunning million dollar views from our van, although it did happen quite often. Yeah, there was one night we were driving quite late at night and we were going to find those spots just off the side of the road, but the spot off the side of the road was actually paradise. Literally paradise. We woke up in the morning to the best campspot we have ever had. This is our own private beach that we have all to ourselves. It's been paradise. Yeah, I think we're never going to forget how beautiful that place was and we didn't leave for way too long. At that point, we were actually on our way to give away our van to Grant's, like one of our subs, that we promised we'd give away our van. And we were just like, oh, this is so nice, we're going to leave. Why are we giving the van away? It was like a gift from God, I swear. Like just, you know, having those last days with our van. Yeah. It was amazing. Actually, there we did a Capito van tour as well while we were camping there. So that is on Patreon as well. So if you guys haven't seen that on Patreon, go check that out. It's a really cool tour. Yeah, Combi Crew members, 27 minute video, gives you an intimate view of how we lived in the Combi with lots of footage that we haven't used anywhere else. So go check that out. Yeah. It's definitely worth watching. Yes. So our combination costs were zero for Mexico, but there was a time in between giving away our bus to Grant that we were living in an apartment to working because we had nowhere else to live, or we were in between giving our bus away. So for those of you that are interested in wanting to rent an apartment, it is quite cheap. We spent $350 a month to rent out a nice apartment in Mexico. And if you want to check out more about that, we did a video, a separate video. I'll link it down below in the description. And it shows you what an apartment looks like in Mexico for $350. It's pretty cool. Pretty cheap. Yeah, I want to go back there. No, it was really nice. Hostels and hotels, do you want to talk about that? Because you didn't really... Yeah, I didn't stay in hotels, but I did want to mention that if you're traveling by vehicle, it can be a little lonely. Like, you know, not usually if you're with somebody, but sometimes you want to be a bit more social. And that is how I got my social life, that was featured in all the videos. Basically, I just rocked up to hostels and joined in with other tourists that were there and, you know, basically met people to go and explore the town with or go for a surf with. So popping into some hostels, even if you're not going to be staying, is a great way to meet other travelers. And you can also use their facilities. If you give them a few bucks, you can have a shower or something or like camp in the car park and have a cheaper rate than the kind of full room rate. So that's something to bear in mind. Yeah. Okay, so accommodation, zero. Maintenance though, what's the expense? Yeah, I was just thinking accommodation, zero. Love van life and then you bring up maintenance. Ah, I hate van life. So van maintenance, obviously you need to put money aside to maintain your vehicle. Yeah, of course. I mean, you're living in it, you're traveling in it every day. It's going to take more wear than your average car when you're not living in it. So yes, maintenance is a big factor. And those of you that have followed our travel series and have been subscribed to this channel for a while, will know that I had more than my fair share of maintenance issues, wouldn't you say? Yep. So my costs for maintenance were about $250 per month. I would say that's slightly on the high side. I was driving a classic vehicle on some of the dodgiest roads that I've ever driven on in my life. And more than anything, I overloaded that vehicle with lots of people. So I think my maintenance costs were a little higher than yours might be. A while back, guys, I asked our patrons to vote on whether we make a video about how I blew up 10 engines in one road trip. And everyone was like, yes, we want to see. Like, what did you do? Please provide more details. It will be a more technical video. And I've got to say that I'm working on it, and it will be out in the next few months. So if you're interested to see how I managed to blow up 10 engines in one road trip, stay tuned to the channel. It will be coming soon. Another monthly expense was bills. We're going to go through some of the bills that we have monthly. One of them is propane. So we have a propane. We had a propane gas cooker. And we would spend $4 a month, roughly, on filling up that gas tank. It was yay big. I think it was around £10, a £10 bottle. It lasted for over three months. It was about three months it would last. Cooking every day and sometimes multiple times a day. Yeah. Insurance. We're going to talk about insurance. Yeah, unfortunately, it's necessary. In some cases, by law, you are legally required to have insurance. Often when you're traveling through the Americas, you can get travel insurance for that particular country at the border. And you can't really arrange it beforehand. Or if you do, it's very expensive. In some cases, it would be around $10 to get a month or so's insurance at the border. I think in the case of Mexico, it's about $2 a day. So let's say a $60 a month budget if you're traveling through Mexico. But on average, it's much less than that. So the next bill is phone and internet. You don't really have a phone. No. And I didn't have a phone or an internet device when I first crossed Mexico. But these days, we work online a lot more. Previously, how I did it was just to go for a long lunch, buy a couple of extra drinks whilst I was uploading videos to the YouTube channel, the early episodes of our Asta Alaska series. But these days, we do have various devices that we use. But we're actually experimenting between a few different options. And we don't really feel comfortable recommending any one of them to you at the moment. So when we find a solution that we like, we will let you know what it is. What would you say our monthly expense was for that then? For the most part, I did it for free without having any kind of device or anything. But if you did want to get a plan in Mexico, I think six and a half gigs is about $25, just over $25. So that would be what you were budgeting for internet access. A gym membership. We don't have a gym. We didn't have a gym membership in Mexico. We would exercise free. Yes, life-size. Life-size. So we'd go surfing, go to the beach, go snorkeling, hiking. So that would give us our exercise. So we wouldn't need anything like that. Yeah, I was going to say, guys, you don't really need a gym membership. And I don't think you would want one unless you're a gym nut. A lot of vanlifers in the US and Canada will talk about having gym membership because it's a great way to access facilities. That doesn't really exist south of the border. There's no benefit in having a gym membership. Our food is one of the biggest expenses too. So how much do we spend on food a month? In Mexico, we worked out that we spend roughly $100 a week for the two of us. Which is pretty good, eating three meals a day. Not bad at all. We generally eat out once a day for street food. And then we all eat in twice, in the bus twice a day. Yeah, because sometimes the street food was cheaper sometimes. Like for lunch, you'd go get a dollar taco and that one taco would fill me up. Four would probably fill up then. Four? So $3 for our lunch was pretty reasonable, I think, rather than going out and buying all the ingredients to make something like that. So that is about $450 for two people for a month of eating. Yes. So it's a large part of your budget when you're traveling. But you know, why not go out and sample the foods of the culture that you're in? That's one of the best things about travel. All that amazing food. Yeah, that expense is also including water. Yeah, it's pretty cheap. It works out like 50 cents for one of those massive five-gallon, 20-litre garrafons. Yes. The next one is entertainment. We wouldn't usually spend money on entertainment anywhere we go, actually. But especially in Mexico, there was so much to do there that we wouldn't really need to spend money on entertaining ourselves. But we did drink beer. Yeah, we did drink a little bit of beer. But not a great deal. I mean, like, you know, a can or something at night. Or watch the sunset. Yes, it's nice to have a beer every now and again. A beer is under a dollar a can. So I don't know, what do you reckon? $20 a month on beer? Yeah, I think we worked out $20 per month for two people. Yeah, drinking. So when you're going out, there is some things that you're going to have to spend, like, entertainment budget on. You are going to want to spend some money, like, getting into some facilities. Like, for example, when I went to Palenque, there was an entrance fee to get into the national park and into the archaeological site. So that was just under $5, which is pretty reasonable. So sometimes you are going to want to have to pay. But often there are a lot of free alternatives. All around the Yucatan Peninsula, there are cenotes that you can go into and pay a fee. But if you just have your own vehicle, you can go and actually hunt out your own cenotes. And in some cases, you can actually sleep in these underground cenotes. It's absolutely incredible. And it's off the beaten track. It's, you know, far away from a tourist place. And there's no charge for you to go and do it. So I totally encourage you to get inventive and find your own free entertainment, because that is where the adventure lies. Yeah, so I guess overall, we worked out for entertainment $20 per month for two people. Now, hands up, who spends $20 a month on entertainment? Well, when you're living outside, it's free. Yeah, there's so much entertainment in nature and just outside. So that's one of the great advantages of living in a vehicle. So living the van life in Mexico was pretty cheap, as you can see from the total budget. Not bad for a month, eh? It's really, really good. And obviously, that changes a lot per country. So we are going to be doing another video about our van life budget in the USA. And you'll be able to see the difference. And we'll talk through what the expenses are for that coming next week, hopefully. Yeah, just generally, I want to give you guys this takeaway, though, that traveling by vehicle is the most economical way to travel. It's a way for you to have your life on the road. And you can have all the comforts, almost all of the comforts of home. So it's actually a very appealing way to live for a period of your life. And I totally encourage some of you guys to try it if you're interested in it. We also have a book if you want to see that, about how you can learn how to live the van life if you're interested in that. And also a bunch of free resources on our website. So go check that out. Also, guys, those of you that ordered Combi Life t-shirts, thanks very much. We haven't even announced them yet, you cheeky devils. But they are on their way to you. So thank you for checking out our new merch. So earlier in the video, we mentioned that Skillshare was kindly sponsoring this video. We've actually got something really cool to speak to you about that. But for those of you that don't know, Skillshare is an online community of over 25,000 different creative courses that you can learn online. They offer a premium membership, which gives you unlimited access to all the classes and the communities that have a range from anything to do with business or arts or anything that you're interested in. And they've got a pretty cheap membership for about under $10 a month for an annual membership. Yeah, we've actually been spending quite a bit of time on this site because it's a little bit addictive. I love learning and growing and just like learning new skills. Just recently, we've been looking at the Complete Lifestyle Design and Digital Nomad course, Achieve Ultimate Freedom. Sounds pretty catchy, right? It covers all sorts of things. Like one of them is how you can earn passive income whilst you're traveling and living on the road. So this is what we want to talk to you about, guys, because there is an opportunity. Aside from this sponsorship, we don't get paid any additional money for you signing up. But for the first 500 of you, you get two months free trial of this service. And I totally encourage you to take advantage of that offer. It's worth trying out for free and seeing if you like any of the classes and seeing how many classes there are. So you can learn for yourself how to live this lifestyle and learn how to work on the road or whatever you want to learn. Yeah, you only really need to dedicate an hour or two, like less than the time you spend watching a movie per week, learning a new skill, be whatever that is, something completely different from your current career or something that aids in your current career. Or if you want to be like us and you want to learn something which will allow you to live a digital nomad lifestyle, you can do that too. So go check it out at the link below. Yeah, we encourage you to do so and let us know what you guys are studying and what you'd like to learn too and see if it helped you. We want to have feedback from you guys, so let us know. Yeah. So guys, if you want to be inspired to live the van life, check out our adventures from Mexico, which is up here. If you want to learn about van life, our videos on our playlist is up here. And for those of you that are in the Combi Crew and you want to see the bonus exclusive intimate Capito van tour, go check it out over here as well as 150 other bonus videos.