After buying our caravan Sept, I'm now wondering if we made a mistake?
Don't get me wrong it is lovely and a lot more comfy than our past camping outfits (tents, freedom caravan, small folding camper)
But have worked out the cost of it - insurance, servicing and cost of buying it, it comes to approx £50 per week, but we will only camp for maybe 4 weeks of the year, due to me working every weekend, restricted to school hols, and now work have told me I can only book 3 weeks hols between April - September!!!! Grrrrr We don't really like camping in the winter!
Caravans and towcars are very expensive things - motorhomes even more so. They do need to be used quite a lot to justify the expenditure. Especially if buying new.
We are fortunate that we can use our caravan a lot but I see a many sat on the drive month after month. They don't do a lot of good there.
Fortunately if you decide to sell I think prices reflect a strong demand - especially in the spring.
If you can afford it, ok, but what I think you mean is whats cost effective? Over the yrs I've had campervans, caravans & tents. Nowadays I'm just a fairweather camper, I stick to a tent & use the money I save from no longer having a caravan to get as far south down into France that I can to do me camping in hot weather.
You sound as bad as us and swapping the cars around, Winter touring isn't all bad you know, the vans cosy up warm very quickly and it can be quite fun. But I can see your point, Although you feel this way because of not being out in the van at the moment.
I know how much you agonised over getting the van, perhaps if you get out and have a weekend away (or even just a night) that may get rid of doubts, ???
------------- Never take life seriously. Nobody gets out alive anyway.
Thats the thing we can't do weekends, I work every Saturday (Sainsburys bakery) Holidays are on a first come first served basis, have to book the whole year in advance in December, and as I say now they are saying we can only book 3 weeks from easter to Sept!
Not interested in renting it out, Hubby said to keep it this year then decide (he is very stubborn) but I'm thinking whats the point when its just going to sit there most of the year?
We did try and weigh it all up before we brought it, I was vering towards a bigger FC, maybe should taken more time, but I always rush in when excited!
I have never thought caravanning as a particularly cheap option - in fact probably the opposite, especially if you add the necessity for a larger car and the cost of fuel etc. I suppose we don't use ours as often as we ought, but when we do, we enjoy it. That's why we do it.
I look upon it as being a hobby, probably our main hobby and a huge source of enjoyment. We're both retired and are only restricted by cost and the caravan still sits on the drive for most of the year. It's not cost effective and I'm sure that all those people who abandoned holidays abroad in the last couple of years in favour of buying a caravan are going to shortly find out.
We pick our new van up tomorrow. Hadn't really worked out the costs before but if we keep it for 5 years, get £5k back when we trade in & get 28 nights per year in it then with buying it, storage, insurance, servicing/repairs & site fees it'll cost us an average of £75 per month.
For a family of 4 (sometimes 5 if eldest graces us with his presence!) it's well worth it for us.
We have just spent a lot of money buying an 07 Shogun but TBH the van was just a good excuse, not the real reason for buying it. If we didn't have the van OH would have found other 'good' reasons why he needed such a monster!
We've bought both using his inheritance from his Mum who died last year so we don't owe anything on them & the van is being named after her.
We weighed it up against the amount of money we have spent on overseas holidays. We like to go away a lot and we are intending on going away for 4 weeks and loads of weekends this year. We mainly did it because we love holidaying like this, but didn't like the hassle of tents or folding campers. In fact our FC would sit in the garage and would hardly ever be used for weekends away.
we have our caravan as it means we can go away at the drop of a hat and dont have to worry about hotels, and cant really afford to go away,plus i dont think the dog would stay in disguise on the plane.
Amazing family weekend with old steam engines, classic car displays, market stalls, and full catering and bar. And camping on site - Save £25 by booking in advance.
Topic: Worth it?
We don't really like camping in the winter!
