It is definitely a rich man’s world.
Firstly, I will apologise, as these blogs will not be in chronological order. We have been travelling for 22 months, and have learnt so much already. One of the things we learnt very quickly is that van life is not cheap. It seems like a dream: no mortgage / rent; no council tax; no utilities. However, the costs soon add up. When we started planning this lifestyle, Neil spent hours carefully completing spreadsheets, putting costs against everything, from staying on sites when needed, to building up a pot for clothes and glasses. (Not the kind for drinking wine and gin from, although we have broken a few of them!) All this was balanced against the rental income from our property, and his pensions. The sums added up, so we purchased the van and went ahead with the build. Then everything went up in price. The sensible thing to do would have been to regroup, replan, and save – but at 66 Neil (EDIT: even my age went up, I’m only 63 now, 61 at the time) didn’t want to keep putting it off, so here we are.
I felt uneasy about giving up work. Not just the regular monthly income, but I was concerned about my pension contributions, and I loved my job. It seemed counterintuitive to resign from the job I had enjoyed the most in my whole career – Insurance Officer for a police force, and give up the security, for the dream of travelling. However, after much debate, I decided to go ahead. I did consider asking for a leave of absence, but felt that it would be too easy to go back to work, the first time something went wrong. If we were going to do this thing, we were going to properly commit to it. I did work for the first three months we were travelling. My employers kindly let me work three days a week for this period, so I had time to adjust, and time to save some money.
Working from the van is never a problem, We have a great wifi set up, and the seating is comfortable, so for three months I enjoyed the best of both worlds. Three days making sure I left everything at work in order, earning money and having contact with my colleagues and friends. Then four days of travelling and spending time with family, away from the comfort zone of staying in our home area. It worked really well because, whereas I think I would have struggled just to finish, seeing Neil have so much freedom, while I still had work commitments, was difficult By the end of the three months, I was ready to stop. We also went straight over to Ireland, and spent three months exploring the Wild Atlantic Way – posts to follow!
I did, however, dream that I could make money while on the move. This is not as easy as Etsy and Pintrest would have you believe. I have always been a crafter, but only for myself and as gifts. “Everyone always loves their gifts,” I thought, “so I can sell them.” I decided that macrame was the way forward. I knit and cross-stitch as well, but macrame takes the least time to get a finished article, so it seemed the one that would be financially viable. I checked Etsy and Facebook sellers, and there were plenty around, as well as in craft shops, so off I went. I invested in cord, beads, hooks, rings, – the list is endless. I had a logo made, with stickers and business cards, and then I made things. I decided that I needed to tie in the travel with the craft, so I spent hours collecting shells from numerous Irish beaches, using them to complete many of the things I made. Then I tried to set up my Etsy shop. Having been scammed out of £300 (long story), and getting no help from Etsy, I gave up, and tried Facebook.
So I had stock, lovely wrapping, professional stickers and cards, and no buyers. I never sold anything. I even found a shop near Bude who wanted to stock all my things. This was last March. They have sold one thing and closed down. When I pick my stock up later this year, it will go on Vinted, in the hopes I can get my money back, at least. And friends and family can probably guess what they’ll be getting as gifts this year 🙂
Not so much a money making idea, but I did also write a book. I have always loved writing, and wrote two and half books more than 25 years ago. They were bever published, although I did try. Back then, in the 90’s, I hand wrote the manuscripts, and my wonderful sister, the only person who could read my handwriting, typed it up for me on a word processor. Those manuscripts are sadly tucked away in storage, but when we started exploring the Wild Atlantic Way, an idea for a children’s fantasy book came to mind, and I wrote it as a gift for my grandchildren. I am proud of Sleeping Giants, and very grateful to the friends and family who proofread it and my godson, for his drawings. The cover illustration by https://www.paulinavait.com/ is great, and my grandchildren loved it. (Although the twins were not impressed when they read about hugging each other – apparently 10 year old boys do not hug!)
Thanks to a laptop and Kindle Direct Publishing, this book was published, by me, and is available to buy. I sent copies to various tourist centres in Ireland and popped one into the local independent bookshop, and would love to say it was an instant success and I made my fortune, but none of them were interested. However, I made about £15 and six happy children. I’ll settle for that.
This year I made finding a remote, part time job one of my resolutions. I have applied for numerous roles, but in the end, a job found me. I was approached by a recruiter from Linked In, interviewed for the job one Monday and started on the Wednesday. I now have a full time three month contract working in the Insurance team for a housing association. It’s not perfect, and I still need to look for a permanent part time role, but it will be money in the bank and the team I am working with are lovely. It is exhausting though. I am clearly out of practice at looking at a screen and having to use my brain for seven hours a day. However, it pays properly, which is more than can be said for crafting or my attempt to be the next JK Rowling. And if I can find the elusive part time permanent role, we can keep travelling for longer than we originally planned, so keep your fingers crossed for me.
Postscript: the job was great, but I have now been offered my old job back on a temporary basis. I feel bad having let the housing association down, even more so because they have been lovely about it. I am, however, excited to go back to what I know for the summer and the team hasn’t changed, so it will be great to see everyone 😀
