Couple living in van - reflections after 4 months [S1-E34]

So for those of you that don't know us, my name is Chris, and I'm Marianne, and we are a couple from the UK, who decided to sell all of our belongings to travel the world, in either Trudy the tread van, or with a rucksack, and we're going to attempt to step foot in every country in the world, before we die, or die trying! So in this video, we want to share with you our experiences after living in Trudy our camper van for the past four months. We've done a huge tour around the whole coastal road of Ireland, and I know so many of you have sent us questions about our travels, and getting used to van life. That we wanted to share our experiences and thoughts, and answer all those questions that you've asked us. In fact we're still asking ourselves some of those questions! Absolutely! Why did we do this? Why did we do this? So without further ado. So one of the first questions, and something that loads of people have asked us, is did you actually have any kind of van experience? Or was this something that just came out of the blue? Christopher? Christopher, I have no van life experience whatsoever. I have done a bit of camping in the past, in a tent, and before we set off, really before we moved into it full time, we'd only done I think two weekends in the van. So to answer your question, no I had absolutely no van life experience whatsoever. Well my parents did lots of van life holidays, but no real van life living. So I was very lucky to have family holidays in big campers, Contiki campers, with six berths, and then we moved down to a smaller van, and by the time we all left home, my parents actually had a van almost the same as this one. So I knew the model of the van, the Fiat Ducato, the Adria Twin, that's something I knew, but I hadn't actually had the opportunity to go off myself, and just spend time in it. So van life, a little bit experience of van life, but not van life living. It was something new and exciting for me too. Cool, so the next question that you've asked, is how did we get used to van life, and living in a van? Well something that we learnt very quickly, is the space in the middle of the van is quite small, so any moving area, and where you cross paths in the van is quite small. So we've created a Trudy Shuffle. Yeah, so rather than saying excuse me, or would you mind, or get out of the way, now we just say Trudy Shuffle, and Trudy Shuffle is just a polite way of saying, get out of the way. So yes it's actually worked out really nicely, we just say Trudy Shuffle, and you just instantly know, step out the way, someone's coming through. How about you? Well for me, being six foot three, I am taller than the roof of the van, and the first week, I thought I was going to end up like a professional boxer, after a very long career, and I kept hitting my head on everything. I would sit down in the in the passenger seat, in the front, bang! I would sit up in bed, get up, bang! Do the cooking, bang! Open the cupboard doors, leave the cupboard doors closed. I've hit my head on every single cupboard door in Trudy. So yeah, very helpful hinges, that as you open the door, and it holds it open for you, Chris would then forget, turn around and knock. And they're sharp, the corners are like really sharp. Actually the skylights as well, yeah the round the skylights, because my head's higher than the skylight, it's really sharp, the side of the plastic when it hits you on the forehead. But I'm doing it a lot less, you'll be pleased to know, I'm not covered in cuts anymore on the top of my head. There was talk of buying a crash helmet to wear in the van, but yeah, some sponge and duct tape, that was also another suggestion. But I think yeah, I think you just have to, as a couple, you just have to respect that the space is small, and just to respect each other's personal space. Yeah, we've always been very good and respectful to each other, and yeah, it's worked out okay actually, we've managed really well I think. So another part of getting used to living in the van, is the cycle that you go through, the routine that you go through. And we've found that there's there's a bit of a cycle, isn't there, there's a constant cycle. It works out that you need water, and then once you've used that water, you need to get rid of that water. So be it the vent at the bottom, that you have to find a graveled area, or somewhere that you can dispose of your washing up water, shower water, or an area that accepts grey water. If not, it's emptying the toilet as well. So that was a big thing, and also getting food, and then getting rid of all the packaging. And although we've really trained ourselves well with packaging, sometimes it is completely unavoidable. In fact, at one point, we found that we were going to a supermarket that we'd bought the shopping from, dropping off the waste in their bin, going into the supermarket, buying stuff, and getting rid of the packaging in the supermarket, before we even took it to the van. And the packaging, particularly when we were going around Ireland, the waste, the rubbish, was more of a bigger problem, because there is no rubbish bins. There aren't any rubbish bins in Ireland, well very few, because there's a tax in Ireland, and so the councils removed most of the rubbish bins, the public bins, and so finding somewhere to throw your rubbish was quite a challenge. And we tended to find that the supermarkets was the best place to get rid of your rubbish. So yeah, finding the rubbish, so it was that cycle of finding water, getting rid of rubbish, emptying the toilet, emptying the grey water, and it was a constant cycle. And that's an ongoing thing with van life, but I think different countries will be easier or harder for different elements of that. So yes, going from our old life to our new life, there was no way it was ever going to be the same kind of life, and our life choices have now have completely changed. Our priorities are completely different. We are so lucky as a couple to, in fact we've just celebrated our 22nd wedding anniversary. We have, yeah. We have, we made it, we've been together 23 years, because we'd only been together a year and a week when we realised that actually we should just get married because this is a forever thing. So we are very fortunate to both have the same life journey expectations, because that would be really tricky. So yes, our life has changed, our priorities have changed, but it's worked out for us. And I think when you look at our life before we decided to live in a van, before we both had good jobs, regular money coming in, so we'd go shopping, we wouldn't really worry too much about what we what we spent in the supermarket, or our sort of daily budget, because we were financially stable. And now money is obviously much tighter, because we're not working anymore, we're just living off the rental of our house. And I know that a lot of you have asked us, so I'll answer the question now, a lot of us, a lot of you have asked us, how do we cope financially? Well obviously, so we're renting our house out, as most of you know, we have a budget, a maximum budget of £37 a day, but we try and aim towards a budget of £23 a day, which allows us to save some money for those emergency breakdowns, or flights, or shipping, or insurances, and etc etc. After going around Ireland, we are slightly overspent to the minimum budget, but we are pretty well on par with the maximum budget. It was thrown slightly out when we had to spend £400 on new tyres, but yeah that is that is quite tricky, and you you find that you know if you overspend, just don't travel, don't use the petrol, stay still for a day, and you soon recoup recoup your your sort of overspend. But we keep tracks, and we'll do a separate video on the details of exactly how much we spent in Ireland, or for future future trips that we do. But you can't you can't live your old lifestyle in a van, because you're not working, and I think I think we tend to when we shop, we tend to buy what's on special, what's the deal of the day, what's in season, rather than before I think it was what you fancy. Yeah that that's exactly it, before we were almost oblivious to what we bought, how much I I honestly, this probably sounds dreadful, but I honestly couldn't have told you my weekly bill. I would go to the shop, put it all on the trolley, take it to the the checkout area, hand over my credit card, put my pin in, and I would walk away thinking this is what I need, where now I I actually think what do I need? You do you what we are a lot more careful, because we have space issues as well, so it's just having what you need. Absolutely, one of one of the key things about doing what we're doing, a lot of people say to us, but what if, what if you get a flat tire, what if you can't get into that country, what happens if you spend all your money, what happens if you overspend, what what what what what, and if you go through life thinking about, oh I can't do that because maybe that will happen, you won't actually do anything, and I think to to really experience the best in whatever you do, don't worry about the what if, worry about it when it happens. Yeah absolutely, there are so many situations in life, even if you're not doing what we're doing, we're saying no, no, no, instead of saying yes, yes, yes, so every opportunity that has presented itself, even the slightly scary ones, like jumping off bridges and periods for me, I've just said yes, because what's the worst that's going to happen? I wouldn't have gone diving with sharks 10 years ago, after seeing Jaws, but now I love diving with sharks, and it's one of the most beautiful experiences, but it takes you to go beyond that point of fear, to realise how much fun sometimes these things are. So don't say no, or what if. So another question you guys have asked us, is did we have everything that we needed? Well, I think that we were probably as prepared as we could be. Yeah, what we did find is there were gadgets and things that made things easier, so we bought a along the way, but yeah, generally I think we had everything. Yeah, I think we did. I actually find, I know now from the clothes, because obviously going from a wardrobe to a small area in the wardrobe, I actually had in the reggie bed area, a rucksack with spare clothes for both of us, because I thought, well we've got this little bit of extra space, maybe we should pack some more clothes, and I can honestly say, apart from one item coming out of the duffel bag, I didn't need anything else. I think it's probably like when you go backpacking, or you go on holiday, there's always some clothes you don't wear, and I would probably say that if you take everything in the van, we probably have a little bit too much stuff. Yeah, we've have said that we're going to thin out. Yeah, we are going to thin out. Everything that we didn't use is going. Yeah, because it's a weight issue, and people, the fuel will actually just get used for carrying stuff that we may not need. Absolutely. Yeah, we're very happy with our choices. We are. Okay, so another question that has come up as well, is what is your favourite item? What is your favourite item? Well, I think for me, the most, the best item or gadget that we have in the van, has to be the wi-fi system. Okay, that's because you do? Because I'm uploading videos, and I'm doing social media, and etc, etc. So we have a low-profile wi-fi system, aerial on the roof, that comes down into the van. We have a small little box, that we plug our sim card in, and it creates a network. So we've been able to stay online, and in touch with everybody, and do our YouTube videos and everything on the road. So for me, that's been the best thing. Yeah, that wasn't an issue in Ireland, but we'll talk about that when we do the Ireland thing. Yeah, for me, well I think, it's a double aspect thing for me. I think our solar panels have been absolutely brilliant, because they've kept us charged up. We have not plugged in at all, not once, in 15 weeks of being in a van. Yeah, we have not plugged in, and it has been sunny, but yeah it has been sunny, the last week's been cloudy, where we are here in the UK, and it hasn't been a problem. Yeah, it hasn't been a problem, we've really liked that. But I think, that obviously is the main thing, but the other little thing, is we've got a little lantern that USB charges, and so we put it on charge in the day, and then we've got electric, a nice romantic lantern. But it's nice, because you could put it outside, when we're sat on the table and stuff, and it just gives a little bit of low light. So yeah, so that lantern is very cool. I love solar, I really love solar. Yeah, solar is great. So another question that you guys have asked, is in our BBC interview, we said that if we overspend, we'll end up eating beans for a week. We've been close to eating beans actually, a couple of times. And I don't like beans, I really do not like beans. But yeah, we've talked, we've talked about our budget, and we've talked a little bit that we are overspent at the moment, to our minimum budget, and it's the big things, like the tyres, the ferries, we've booked our ferry over to Europe, which we'll talk about later, or in another announcement video about our future plans. So yeah, so we haven't ended up eating beans, but I think we do eat what we have in the van, as opposed to going out and getting, we don't go out and get takeaways and things like things like that. Yeah, van life is not always as romantic as it's sold. You do have to be careful, absolutely, you do just have to be really aware of what you're using, and how you're using it. But no, we haven't had to eat beans. I think probably our biggest expense was obviously petrol. We've done I think 5,000 miles since we originally left, and because we wanted to do the whole coastal road of Ireland, and we didn't want to stay there for a year, because obviously, you know, we're trying to visit every country in the world, we can't spend a year in each one. So there is time limits, although there's not time limits, if that makes sense. So yeah, because we set ourselves the challenge of doing the whole coastal road, I think petrol was probably the biggest expense. If we'd stayed for an extra month, then the cost would have been reduced. Yeah, we booked a one-way ticket, because we wanted to have that freedom and flexibility, but then we actually ended up, because it was one of our son's birthday, we actually booked a return ticket in time, to get back in time for that. So yes, we were able to really immerse and absorb the culture and the experience in Ireland. We fell totally in love with Ireland. We did, it was an absolutely amazing place, beautiful people. So, have you had to pay for any campsites, or did you wild camp? That's a good question. That is a very good question, because of our lack of experience of the van life etiquette and lifestyle, we were a little bit unsure. So when we had our big leaving due in May, and we took off all excited, and like raring to go for our new free life. We were all excited, but actually it suddenly hit us, that where are we going to park? Where are we going to stay? What are we going to do? Are we going to have enough electric? So we, it's quite frightening, it's quite a frightening initial thing, if you haven't done it before. Yeah, it suddenly hit us, because we'd always been staying on our friends drives, or my dad's driveway, and living in the van. But so we took off, and we'd actually subscribed to Britstops, which is a book and a club, it's a membership club. And it's really good, it's a really good system, where you can go and stay in a pub, in a bar, in a vineyard, in a farm shop's car park for free. But the feeling is, is that you have to sort of buy something when you're there, which is really good. It's a really, really good system, especially if you're a single woman, or a lone traveller, you get to meet people, so that's great. But on a small budget of 23 pounds, we found that our first night that we booked into a, we turned up in a pub in Yorkshire, and we went in, and we ordered our pint, and we said, oh we're stopping here, and they said that's lovely, and we ordered our drinks, and they, basically said, are you only drinking? So we sort of felt a little bit pressurised, didn't we? So we ordered our meal, and then as we were eating our meal, which was lovely, we realised that this is not something that is going to fit in with us. No, I think yeah, and I think that that first night, first night the security, we slept in a pub, and then after that, in fact it was actually really funny, because after that first night, we found somewhere really quiet in Scotland, and then we were getting the ferry over to Belfast, and I was on Google Maps, and the Wi-Fi on the ship was intermittent, and Marianne was like, what are you doing? And I was like, we're free spirited, but I'm looking at Google Maps, because our ferry didn't get in until, I think it was like one in the morning or something, into Belfast, and I said I'm just trying to find somewhere out of town, where we could possibly park up for the night on Google Maps, and I'm a bit airy fairy, and I'm like no, let's just ride into the darkness, we'll just, it will be fine, you need to stop being so organised Chris. So I did, so I did, we got off the ferry in Belfast, which is obviously a big city, and we're driving out, and it's like where are we going to park? I don't know, just head into the darkness, just head in, there's no light pollution over there, let's just drive over there, and we didn't find anywhere till half past three in the morning, and when we woke up, we realised we were outside somebody's house, and quite near a junk, a big busy junction, not quite outside the house, but yeah, we could, we could see them, it wasn't a good spot to park, but anyway, but we did, and the van was like that, and we hadn't put the chocks, it was really funny, it was, so that was our, that was our first, but to answer the question, we haven't paid for one campsite, the only place we, we stayed in the pub was for the first night, and the rest of it has all been wild camping. Yes, and it hasn't been outside anyone's house, and it hasn't been like that, we have got it down, yeah, we've, we've really worked it out, by arriving early, looking around, from about lunchtime, we already have somewhere sorted, we're starting to think about where we're going to go, Chris will check on Google Maps, I've got an app on my phone, and we find somewhere, and we are usually in situ, by two, three o'clock at the latest, so that we can actually chill out in the afternoon, and film, and relax, and set ourselves up. I think yeah, Google Maps is great for that, and it also helps you to check, if you do the street view, you can see whether they've built any barriers and things, but we did come unstuck, unstuck a couple of times with the barriers, where they weren't on Google Maps, but when we got there, they had them. Yeah, but yeah, we haven't been moved on once, whilst wild camping, nobody's, nobody's said anything negative, it's been absolutely brilliant. Everybody, everybody's been really, really cool. In fact, coming on to the being moved on, one of the questions has been, how has it worked out with the van being branded, and I think that's actually worked in our favour, because ultimately, people have seen the branding, and known that we're not setting up camp, moving in, and just taking over. We are very good at van life etiquette, we don't leave our rubbish, yeah, we tend to do litter picking when we're there, so we've got it down, we turn up, we put ourselves in a good spot, we are very respectful, and the branding, people tend to come up and say, is it true? So yeah, I think that the branding on the van has worked out really, really well, we've met some lovely people, who we wouldn't have spoken to, unless they'd come up and the branding on the van, and sort of said, is that true? The guys Barbara and Kevin we met in, and ended up having a blast with, just south of Belfast, that was only because Barbara came up to the van, and she said, is that really true what it says on your van? Yeah, and it's been, yeah, it's been absolutely brilliant, and I think it shows people that who we are, so it's not, doesn't look like a suspicious van, we are not covert at all, at all, a white van covered in YouTube and Facebook signs, but and we did it for those two reasons, the first reason was we wanted to try and inspire people, and get people to consider getting out of their comfort zone, and forgetting those fears, and the other reason was we didn't want to be covert, because I know from experience, we got a lovely home in a rural location, and when you see a white van, park up, down the lane, somewhere that isn't slightly off the beaten track, you would consider what are they doing there? Neighbourhood watch kicks in, and in fact in Ireland, and the Republic of Ireland, they've actually got a very good system of texting, yeah text alert, which is a very good system, and yeah, I would consider doing texting, if I thought that a coat, you know there's a covert white van at the end of the road, but people actually would come along, check us out, walk by with their dog, just to check us out, and then end up coming in for coffee, and ultimately inviting us in for water, showers, dinner, they did, the best breakfast, we've, we have, we have had dinner and we've been out on people's boats, and everything, it's just been absolutely fabulous. So another question, is how is Marianne's dad doing? So for those of you, you may well have seen a previous episode, we were in Ireland, we'd only been there for a week, when Marianne's dad, aged 87, decided to come off his motorbike, and he actually hit a brick wall, and he broke all his ribs, and his shoulder, and had a bleed on his head. His first motorbike accident in 87 years, not bad going, and if you're gonna do it, I've always been brought up, you should do it properly, so that's obviously where I get it from. So no, he is fit and fabulous, he, thank you so much everybody for all your kind wishes, texts, messages, cards, he is doing really well, it's been a little bit slow at times, but he's totally fabulous now, obviously, and Lydia, who helps and supports him, at the moment, whilst he's just getting back to full health, it's been fabulous, she's been so good and helpful, and she's a family, she's part of our family, so that's lovely. So yeah, he's doing really well, and we're hoping that he actually joins us on future trips, yeah he may watch this space, he may come with us for a week or so, when he's better, he'll fly out and meet us somewhere, so that's really good, but thank you again, that's been lovely. So we hope that's answered some of your questions, we're always open to questions, so if you have any more questions that you would like us to answer, pop them in the comments below, and we will do our best to answer them, and we have some exciting plans coming up, there's lots of stuff in the pipeline, so we're just finalising a few things, and then we'll do a little short announcement on the plans for Tread the Globe over the next year or so, and yeah, thanks for watching, plenty more travels coming up, and before you finish up my lovely, one big thing as well, is a lot of people have asked about doing another van tour, and showing Trudy, and where we are now, so that will be coming fairly soon, yeah we're going to get rid of everything that we don't need, and then that way you'll get an absolute up-to-date view of Trudy, of what we've got in her, what we do have, what we use, and how she's looking now, but she's ace! We love our Trudy! Thanks for watching, and see you next time.