totally fed up with making other people rich ie:- paying councils rip off council tax, stupid rents that will only get more stupid. gas electric and water bills that are going up faster and faster ENOUGH! surely theres gotta be a better way? you see a poor pikey? who are the idiots us paying these bills coz the government says so or them guys not putting up with that crap. my council tax has gone up 500% since i moved in here, have my wages gone up 500%? er nooooooooooooooooo. anyway just thought i'd get a few opinions ideas, i'm sure there'll be a few lol. Gareth

  Hi Gareth   It depends if you mean a static van, you have to replace those every few years, or at least you used to have to some years ago when my eldest sis was thinking about buying one.   I assume there will be a charge for having electric directed to the van, same for water?   A motor home/van, one that you move around, will have other restrictions as to WHERE you can park / site it etc, plus the cost of either direct electric / water supply or having to go without electric and getting the water yourself.   Depending on what type of van you have you could be living in a cold place, even with the luxury of an electric heater. (Just spent a weekend in a van (in Lincolnshire) and it was still cold even with the heater.) Heaven knows how cold it will be in winter. However, we stayed in a van last year (Devon) and the year before (Cornwall), for a week at a time, and those were warm.    Most static vans are sited near or at the coast, or in some cases, on farms. Thereby restricting where you can live. If you have a job then it will be more restrictive as you will need to be near work or suffer a long commute.   Not having lived in a van I can't say what the benefits are. Hopefully someone else can.   I know how frustrating it is to keep on paying out as bills keep rising, being unemployed my government allowance does not go up in line with my costs, but we have to pay no matter where we live.                                                                                                                                                                               

From the practical side of living in a caravan we spent six months one winter living in one while girlfriend was working for a hotel.   It was a 10 year old static caravan with little or no insulation. Luckily we were tapped into the hotel for our electricity and didn't have to pay for it otherwise we would probably have been paying the equivalent of renting a Central London flat on heating costs alone! We seemed to have a fan heater and/or oil filled heater on in each room constantly, plus the gas fire in the living room.   If damp gets in then it can be a real bugger as the previous tenant had let the place get damp and the cupboards and floorboards were suffering. We got round this by using those vacuum storage bags which helped keep the mildew off the clothes.   Apart from that, it was really no different from living in a small flat and was very comfortable.   Another option would be a mobile home or motorcaravan. I once met a man in his 70s who had converted an old mobile library into a camper and just lived in various remote places in the Scottish Highlands. His wife had died a few years earlier so he just upped and leftt and never looked back. When I met him he was renting a cottage in Lower Diabeg in the Torridons while his van was getting some mechanical repairs. He took me in and over coffee explained that he was an ex-Hotpoint engineer (as well as having been a medic in Hiroshima and having patented the sealing mechanism on food packages such as crisps and sweets!!) and when he needed money he just offered to repair peoples electrical equipment. I have to say that he was one of the most contented people I have ever met and I think this was mostly down to his choice of way of life...   If you are thinking of going down this route then I would recommend getting hold of a copy of How to Live Off-Grid by Nick Rosen. It documents some people who live off-grid and also gives some technical info to get you started.   I have some other book titles which I can pass on later (I am in the middle of moving at the moment so lots of books in boxes at the moment) covering the technical aspects of micro-generation of electricity but will post them later if you think they may be useful.   Hope the above waffle is of some use to you.... good luck!!                                                                                                                                                                                 

  It's not waffle T C, I think it's very informative, I may take a read of the book you mention.                                                                                                                                                                              

Thanks Sandi - it's something I have been interested in for years and we are working on making our house in Poland totally self-sufficient.   I hope you enjoy the book! It has been a few years since I read it but I remember I found it quite amusing... :D                                                                                                                                                                             

Gareth,
was out with 2 friends yesterday, both live in statics.  We were talking about this very subject.  They pay £280 per month rent and utilities on top.  Pretty sure they have to pay council tax too.
Lost thier water for a few days at a time last winter as it froze and had problems with the gas too.
Plus points, it's a lovely quiet spot where they are.

I lived in a static caravan at the top of Boxhill in Surrey on a residential site and you still pay ground rent, council tax, bills etc. and do have the problems with cold and water pipes etc.   I also lived in a static caravan on a holiday park in Brean, Somerset for a year but for those sites, as well as huge annual fees, bills etc., you also have to move out for 2-3 months per year and provide an alternative residential address to prove you are not "living" there.  The fees for that alternative accommodation for one year cost me the loss of a classic car which meant a great deal to me but I had to pay the bills.   If you want any more info, happy for you to PM me.                                                                                                                                                                             

thanks for all the input guys, most informative, have not been put of the idea yet lol. as a starting point as i'm single i'd likely be living in my modernish touring caravan (shower full size cooker n fridge hot n cold etc) probably be using the camping and caravaning clubs certificated sights usually between £5 and £12 a night including fresh water. these sights are limited to 5 caravans at a time so not crowded i also have 2 petrol generators one super silent so thats the electric sorted plus i'm a big fan of solar power panels. modern tech you dont need a landline these days and plenty of mobile internet options available. hey ho time will tell Gareth

 Yes cheers to all for the info, something Im thinking of too and the info provided will sure come in handy. Thankyou Sandi, TeeCee, Clarkee and BossMom oh and good luck to you oldbiker54
                                                                                                                                                                             

Another option I've been consideringi is a live-on narrow boat. Running the engine charges up battery banks to power your electrical goodies when your not cruising, most come equiped with wood burning stoves and you have some mobility. You do have to pay mooring fees if you settle for a residential mooring and an annual licence to be on the canal in the first place but you can avoid council tax if you keep on the move. Its defenitly the rout I'd go rather than a static caravan.                                                                                                                                                                             

yea might be an option i like the wood burning stove idea but it would be unlikely i'd be in a static but more likely a large touring caravan. have 2 petrol generators and at the moment one large new leisure battery. would also likely invest in a decent size solar panel

ah ye bunch of gypo's lol ;-)                                                                                                                                                                             

yeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa lol, you ever seen a gypo in a 15/20 year old car? lol                                                                                                                                                                              

ive also been looking into the costs of living on a narrowboat and been to look at a few....teh only thing ive foudn it by the time you pay all the fees etc im not sure its much cheaper than a house - a boat also needs an mot style cert every few years, a river licence, and like you say centurian residential moorings if you want a permanent base...   are you gonna be selling a house to go live in your touring caravan Oldbiker?                                                                                                                                                                               

no sadly, i will have to still maintain an income                                                                                                                                                                               

i did live in a large tourer for about 12 months - stayed on certified sites at around 3 quid a night (ok so it was 20 yrs ago) no council tax as its not a static, no utility bills as ur not connected and no hassle - i loved it. my son was 9 months old when we moved into it and it was great fun as i just moved around a lot. ....lived all over from Co Durham/yorks/lancs just upt and went wherever and whenever....might be a bit more difficult if you have a job!   the only downside was having to move every (think it was ) 21 days....or whatever the max time allowed is per site.   i also lived in a static for a while.....extortion racket as you're at the mercy of the site owners who can change anything they damn well like for connecting utilities, service charges and ground rent and you CAN get stung for council tax.                                                                                                                                                                             

i spent around 18 years living in caravans trucks a bowtop wagon and yurts,and all three of our children born in various living abodes,we lived totally off grid and mainly moved around doing farm work in england ,and up on the west coast of scotland doing treeplanting and picking winkles on the coast,We managed to find springwater nearly everywhere we lived and just relyd in the truck battery to run a few electrical gadgets and a woodburner for heating and cooking...we didnt need much money to survive and just spent money on important things that we needed,not too much stress.I moved into a house about ten years back to expand my business .but ten years on the amount of dosh ive put into this place on rent and bills i could ave bought my own bit of land!So i dont blame anyone wanting to live in a caravan ,you can be totally organised and selfsufficient with power etc ,and there are sites about where you pay rent ,a lot of caravan sites will let you stay there, i think caravans are band A for council tax.I still kept all my on the road stuff so when the shit hits the fan ,im back out there !!!  

thanks kwakgirl and damsel, all sounds pretty good n positive to me, think in some ways with modern tech it certainly would'nt be any harder ie:- generators, mobile phones and such like. i would certainly be looking to make a fair amount of use of the certificated sites

I've lived in a Narrowboat for 10 yrs now, I think I would have to be dragged back into a house..!! keep moving is my motto, meet different people and see different places..... cosy in front of the log burner in winter, can be a bit hot when returning after a day out in the summer with the sun on it all day.. keep it simple and there is not a lot to go wrong.
Like all properties maintenance is required, but I don't need ladders or scaffolding..!!, just a good mop and bucket and a regular blacking of the hull.
There are some photos on my profile.

dont think i'd be for the boat option thats just me,then again never say never but it looks a great lifestyle to me mate,log burner sounds brill, my first choice would be a big tourer maybe towed by a transit or similar which then could double as a garage/workshop/storage for bike(s)