Live in a RV and Travel with 3 Kids

Some 208 million people in the United States plan on taking a road trip this summer. If you ask me to draw you a picture of people who live and travel around the country in RV, my first thoughts would always be of young friends or couples. They are free and independent. I could never imaging myself brave enough to live in a RV and travel around a country with young kids. Lynette, a mother and a traveler, wants to share her travel life with 3 young kids and the story follows.

“We are not completely new to van life. In the past, we have spent short periods of time in various vans whist being between properties. This time we hope it will be a permanent lifestyle decision.” – Lynette

Related Reading:

• 10 Fun Outdoor Activities in the Rain for Kids
• 21 Best Kids Camping Toys
• 50 Outdoor Activity Gifts for Kids in 2022

The Reasons of Live and Travel in RV

Freedom and keep kids away from screen

I am a mother of three adventurous children who love to explore, run around, and ask a lot of questions. Many kids are stuck indoors in front of the TV, or sitting on their tablets not communicating with each other. I appreciate being able to chill out together in front of a magical movie or interesting documentary. Moreover, I want them to be outside living their lives.

Experiencing nature

Everything is new and exciting for them when they are toddlers. I want to feed their imaginations and let them have fun, let them be little.

I would love to one day travel the world with them. Taking appropriate baby steps we are starting with where we live – The United Kingdom. England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales.

Economic situation

It has always been a welcome relief to get back to a house for warm meals and hot bath. However, it is becoming unaffordable to run a house any longer realistically. The war in Ukraine has sent energy prices to astronomical levels. According to BBC, an average annual bill could go up to as much as £3,554. this is 2.5 times what people paid on average in October 2021. When the temperature begins to drop in the autumn, we won’t be able to afford to heat our home or our water.

Paying our energy bills at the moment comes at the expense of putting food on the table, and like many families at this time we have had to rely on food banks and charity handouts simply to survive. When your gas, electric and water bills add up to the same as your monthly rent or mortgage payment then something has to give.

Running cost of live and travel in RV

So, what are the running costs of a van in comparison to a house?

• Water – at the moment if you can find places willing to let you top up your water container then this is FREE.
• Electric – if you use solar charged batteries this is FREE.
• Rent – if you can find places that allow overnight parking then this is FREE.

The main expense is the same as if you already run a car – tax, mot, insurance and fuel. With the energy crisis affecting fuel costs we will be limiting the number of miles we do each day to stay within budget. This suits me as it means we have the time to really stop and smell the roses and listen to the sound of the sea, after all it is not a race nor is there a destination, it is simply a journey and we will be living in each moment, which is the only place life exists.

The great outdoors

My eldest daughter loves cliffs and the sea. What better way to feed her passion than by climbing a mountain and following the source of water down waterfalls, along meandering rivers and out to the sea. She loves art too, so she can sketch dandelions and paint stones, use chalk she finds on the beach and photograph animals. She can press flowers and collect seeds for planting in window boxes in our van.

My middle son loves cars, construction vehicles, emergency vehicles – you get the idea. He will happily play with them in soil, sand, water, he never bores of it. Oh and playgrounds – he’d live in one if he could.

My youngest daughter is a cheeky little madam, climbing the furniture and jumping off everything. She loves being outdoors in the fresh air chasing her brother and sister around.

Education

Today’s fast paced lives tend to follow a pattern of repetitive school runs and commutes to work, if we do what society expects of us. I see that as a lot of expended energy and misery for the benefit of none. We like to wake up early without the need for an alarm to bright sunlight and the sound of birds or waves crashing on the shore, and to exercise on foot or by bicycle in the fresh air, spending time together, not separated all day in separate institutions.

We meet people, we socialize, we play, we smile, we laugh, we live.

Preparation for the Travel

Our Van – A modification

Campervans are essentially homes on wheels, but they come with a hefty price tag even when bought second hand.
When you have several children you need a couple of rows of seats with seatbelts. Unfortunately the older camper vans that cost less only have 2 or 3 seatbelts as there was no law back when they were built for there to be seatbelts in the back.
It is possible to add seats and seatbelts but this should be done by a professional as they need to be bolted to a part of the chassis that can withstand a large impact in the case of an accident.
I have found the easiest way to have enough seats and seatbelts is to buy a van with more seats than you need and remove the excess ones -the minibus conversion.
Once you have done this you will need to advise the DVLA and subsequently your insurance company how many seats your vehicle now has.
The cheapest way to insure your minibus is on a campervan conversion policy which gives you 3 or 12 months to complete the conversion whilst benefiting from the cheaper campervan insurance from day one. It is also worth noting that they expect your campervan to not be the only vehicle in your household.

So for now a 3.5 tonne minibus with some seats removed, but what to add?

• Beds – luckily, small children means small beds, and triple toddler bunk beds are perfect. For myself a bed that converts into a seating area in the day is the perfect utilisation on limited space.
• A table that folds up or can lay flat on the floor is a must, as is overhead storage compartments to keep dangerous items away from little hands and stop things rolling around when the vehicle is in motion.
• For a kitchen I like to keep things as simple as possible, kettle, pizza oven and air fryer.
• For a bathroom a portaloo and solar shower does the job.
• Running water with on board water and waste tanks keep us clean and fresh.
• Privacy really comes down to window coverings, blinds and curtains or sticky stealth shields work wonders and make it very cosy once the sun goes down.

Back to the basics

One of the biggest challenges when embarking on van life is downsizing. As much as I desire the minimalist lifestyle, I have a lot of clutter. Moreover, the kids have a lot of toys. This week we are doing the painful work of “letting go” of things. Liberating yes, but mentally and physically exhausting. They are all napping now – one blessing.
All we really need are essentials, such as cooking appliance, bedding, all-weather clothing and footwear, books, oh and we have pets – 2 Guinea Pigs and a kitten.

Related Reading:

• 14 Toy Organization and Storage Ideas for Kid’s Room
• Top 10 Camping Essentials for Family
• The Most Complete Fun and Interactive Hand Games For Kids
• 10 Reasons for Kids to Have Pet
• 25 Fun Family Games To Play Together with Kids

Our Future

For now we’re hitting the road, live and travel in RV, at least for the next 365 days. In the future, we hope to find some land that can site our van and to call our own. Homeschooling is our long term plan, but for now, we just getting back to the nature and improving our physical and mental health.

Being “Southerners”, we plan to start our journey in the unknown North East of England. Following the coastline around Scotland, Wales, Ireland, down South where we know it well. Cornwall, Devon, Hampshire, Sussex, Kent, Essex and then up past Suffolk and Yorkshire back to our starting point.
As part of income source, I will uploading our journey and videos regularly.

Additional Questions from Lin

Have you had any supporters in your lifestyle choice?

I would love to say that friends and family have always been understanding and supportive. But unfortunately that is not the case. Some say we’re crazy to live and travel in RV and that they could never do this lifestyle. However they accept it works for us and still stay in touch and meet up. Others haven’t even seen our van, but they make hurtful comments because they are picturing a van with no windows and no home comforts. I would love to show them how great our life is but when they don’t ask questions or stay in touch, I have learned it is best for my sanity to leave them in ignorance.

Related Reading:

• What to Do When Family Members Hurt You
• 10 Signs of Toxic Parenting and How to Deal with It
• 9 Pragmatic Ways to Be More Patient with Your Spouse

What if some family member is sick on the way?

We have had times where one of us has needed medical attention. Luckily in England we are able to visit a GP as a temporary resident around the country.

May I ask what is your income source and approximately how much?

We only have a few hundred pounds coming in and going out each month, including £200 from the Child benefit. Spending wise, we keep a safety net of funds for van maintenance and the rest goes on fuel plus food and drink from cheap supermarkets. Moreover, we tend to buy food that has been reduced due to a short shelf life and eat it the same day. We only buy small quantities of food as we do not have the space to store a “big shop” so we have very little food wastage, if any. The kids love to feed stale bread to the ducks and birds we encounter. My dream is to earn more money from writing so that we can invest in a large American RV.

What are the difficult moments during travel, and how did you solve them?

We have been known to get stuck in the mud when the fields are wet in the winter. Thank goodness for Tractors!

Do you plan to continue homeschooling when they are older?

The kids are constantly learning, we read a lot together and I am developing my own curriculum to teach them things that really matter. They will be home schooled but I will teach them well enough so that they can sit exams if they wish.

Do you like the UK schooling system?

I used to think schooling in the UK was okay, I loved learning but was in a constant state of social anxiety. I now see how forced and outdated it is. Children are being spoon fed false histories and propaganda and parents are allowing it. It’s not that parents don’t want the best for their kids, of course they do, but they are stuck in a workplace and dropping their kids at school is little more than free childcare unfortunately. The government supports schools because it enables the parents to make money and pay taxes. I am more interested in the wellbeing of parents and children. Life is short, and they aren’t children for long.

Are you sick of traveling sometimes?

Sometimes the driving can be tiring and sometimes the kids can get restless in their car chairs. However, as soon as we park up we are out in nature and 100% happy and free.

Final Thoughts from Pragmatic Lifestyle

Lynette’s journey is an eye opener for me, and I will tie this up with a message. Do not limit yourself. If you think nature and exploring are good for your kids, why not try live and travel in RV with your little ones?

About me

Hi, there. I am Lin. Together with my husband and two kids, we live in the beautiful Netherlands in Europe. I am dedicated to self-development, creating quality time for the whole family, and fully supporting kids with their potentials and possibilities with all I have learned from engineering, MBA, and 10+ years of working experience in the energy sector.