Vanlife by Cookie Taylor
coming soon
MY STORY
VAN LIFE
VAN HOME?
VAN TYPE?
FULL TIME?
My Van Life Story
We’ve been living in our van for over two years. We love the simplicity of a small home and never get bored of moving on. In fact, being able to change our view every day is just one of the many perks!
Unlike the majority of people who decide to try van life, our transition into a home on wheels was born out of necessity. Here’s our story in brief.
We’d been living a ‘normal’ lifestyle together for a decade; Dave was in I.T and I ran a wedding photography business. We had all the trappings of a ‘successful’ life: apartment overlooking the sea, retirement home on a sunny island, sports car in the garage and money in the bank.
Things started to go wrong (or right, depending on your outlook!) after the 2008 recession, when the wedding industry plummeted. As people lost their incomes, many grabbed their cameras to set up as cheap wedding photographers. Competition exploded and couples became consumed with getting more for less. We clung on for a few years but it was no longer enjoyable. At the same time, Dave was losing the will, managing an office where politically correct nonsense was rapidly taking hold.
The bills were getting harder to pay, our savings were dwindling and our stress levels were rising.
We held on for a few more years but when our money eventually ran out we handed back the keys to our retirement home, moved out of our apartment and found ourselves living in a tent on my parents’ land. Living in a tent wasn’t an issue but living at my parents was. We were broke – it was time to think outside the box.
“I’ve never been afraid to start over – I’ve done it many times before. But losing everything I had was a unique opportunity to wipe the slate clean and rebuild in a far more interesting, minimalistic and alternative way.”
I began to look for cheap or free ways to live. From living on a camp site to converting a shipping container, there were lots of ideas but most were more than we could afford. Thankfully I discovered the world of house sitting and, as luck would have it, found a 6-month assignment that was to start the following week.
We moved in and immediately realised we’d never again waste money on rent. We enjoyed moving on every few weeks, having less ties, minimal outgoings and being able to explore parts of the UK we’d never usually visit.
My photography business was ticking over, Dave took on I.T temping work and our low overheads meant life got easier financially. But when Dave got diagnosed with cancer in 2016, I let my business slide completely. I didn’t care about anything but him. And, understandably stressed, he was finding work increasingly intolerable too.
I sat him down one evening and asked him what he’d prefer: money or happiness, material things or freedom. He chose happiness and freedom. I told him to jack in his job and focus on his health – we’d work out the details later.
I successfully kept a free roof above our heads for 8 years, for on average 11.5 months a year. In the meantime we worked on creating a passive income by designing websites, so that we could spend all of our time together.
When the plandemic hit and all of our house sits were forced to cancel, we had to move back into our tent. A few months later Dave’s aunt died and left enough money for us to buy a van, convert it and make it our home. It changed everything for us – it meant we didn’t have to rely on house sits anymore and we had more free time to explore.
We began to charge for house sitting and carried on for a couple of years but each time we were in a house, no matter how luxurious, our yearning grew to be in the van. So, we made the decision recently to give up house sitting altogether.
Dave got busy qualifying as a Class 1 HGV driver, I launched my life coaching business and YouTube channels. We’re now on the road full time, going where the work is, trucking, building websites and making videos as we go.
