Flavia Catavitello and Luke Norris, both aged 23 and from Crawley, West Sussex, have made the decision to move out of their rental apartment and into a camper van. The couple aims to save money for a house and have invested £13,000 in a former roofer’s van turned mobile home. Ms Catavitello says that rent was costing them one salary for a “lovely home,” but they did not save anything for the future, so they decided to opt for the alternative. They can now save money on rent and still take vacations with the rest of their earnings.
The couple spent £6,000 to purchase the van and an additional £7,000 to transform it into a living space. They had managed to fit air cookers, showers, and beds into the mobile home and made it livable in 14 weeks. The van is now parked at Mr Norris’s family home. His father, being a mechanic, helped the couple convert the van, saving them the cost of tools.
In August, the couple set out on a round trip journey of 2,500 miles from Crawley to Pescara in Italy, traveling through six different countries and making an overnight stop in Switzerland. The pair parked their van by a lake and paid just two Euros as an overnight parking fee instead of staying in a hotel.
The option of downsizing and living in a camper van is becoming increasingly popular in the UK, particularly among young people who are facing excessive housing costs. Despite the challenges of limited living space and uncertainty about where to park, instances like this illustrate how minimizing living costs can result in a greater quality of life, which in the case of Flavia and Luke means owning a home in the future
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