The Real Costs Of Vanlife - My Monthly Vanlife Budget (2024)

How much does it cost to live in a campervan in Europe?This is a question I get a lot! So I thought it would be about time to share an overview of my costs of vanlife with you.

I think I’m on the higher end of spending for vanlifers in Europe, so keep that in mind while reading. Below is an overview of all my costs while living vanlife between 2017 – 2019. In addition to just the vanlife costs, I’ve also added my company costs so you know how much it can cost to travel and work online.

Monthly Vanlife Costs in Europe (Solo Vanlifer)

Total:€1346

• Gas:€100
• Dutch Road Tax:€83
• Van Insurance:€126
• Health Insurance:€120
• Food & Drinks:€250
• Eating out:€100
• Campsites & Facilities:€150
• Virtual Office:€120
• Accountant:€65
• Internet:€30
• Contracts:€45
• Other transport:€30
• Touristy things:€25
• Shopping:€25
• Other:€50

FAQ – Costs of Vanlife

If you are short on time, hereby a quick FAQ section 😉

How much do you spend in a month of Vanlife in Europe

Monthly vanlife costs are about €1300. This includes everything – gas, taxes, my company costs, touristy things and eating out frequently.

Is living in a van cheap?

Living in a van is considerably cheaper than living in a flat or even in an RV. By yourself, you should be able to get by between €500 and €1500 a month all-in in Europe. But that doesn’t mean that it’s cheap. You still need money to cover things as food and expenses, and have some savings for repairs and emergencies.

So if you don’t have a means of making money on the road, having an adventurous lifestyle may or may not be an improvement to living in a stable home.

How much money do you save by living in a van?

I save at least €1000 a month by living in a van compared to my living situation in Amsterdam. The rooms / flats I had back home cost at least €1000 a month including utilities, municipality taxes etc. As I was living by myself this was a lot of money. Now I spend about €450 on my van + facilities/campsites a month.

The rest of the savings come from my change in lifestyle. I eat out less and mostly cheaper because of the countries I travel too. I am from Amsterdam where a nice Gin-Tonic sets you back €9 easily

Please note that I also earn less. This is a choice in life – I like it when it’s more simple. Earn less, spend less, live simple

What do you spend most money on while living Vanlife?

I spend most money on food and eating out. That’s because my vehicle is quite fuel efficient. If you have an older van with bad mileage, a lot of money will go to fuel and repairs.

My vanlife costs – to consider

• I work online as adigital nomad.When on the road, I aim make about €1000 a month by working less than 8 hours a week. I work towards what I need. Most months, I made ends meet without diving too much into my savings.
• I like good food and alcoholic beveragesand I LOVE to eat out and discover local gastronomy
• When I started Vanlife, I was a bit intimidated by wild-camping. I would spend moremoney on campsites.
• These are my costs of living asa solo vanlifer. When I lived vanlife with Bas together, we’d spend more money on food, drinks and eating out. Costs in total would increase to about €1600 in total.
• My insurance is expensive because
  • my van is quite new
  • myDIY campervan conversionwas a luxury one so the value is high
  • I have never owned a car before (and thus no discount on the policy)
• The cost of vanlife depend largely on the speed with which you travel, the countries you visit and your general lifestyle. I would do about 1000km a month.
• Some of these costs are tax-deductible for my company (i.e. virtual office, internet and phone costs)
• I did not have any pets. Vanlife with dogs, cats or other pets will bring additional costs.

Gas: €100 a month

Gas is one of the largest vanlife costs. Gas usage and costs varies tremendously amongst vans of different sizes, brands and ages. My Renault Trafic from 2012 uses about 90 euro per 1000km (average of regular and mountain roads). There were few months where I’d do more than 1000 km.

Gas expenses can add up quickly! How much depends on a few factors.

How much do you drive

First of all, you will have way higher fuel costs if you move often. Driving more = higher costs. It seems obvious, but if you are a vanlifer for fun and you travel around a lot, it adds up. If you are on a tight budget, it may help to stick around in one place for a while. You can do this for example viaworkaway or other volunteering jobs.

When I was living vanlife in France, I didn’t move around too much. I’d drive about 200km a week and would stay at places a few days at a time. That’s a big comparison to ourroad trip through Moroccoin which we did about 3000 kilometres in 4 weeks!

Gas price

Another variable for your gas costs if the country you’re in. Driving a Diesel van, we got the cheapest diesel prices in Morocco and Gibraltar. Spain, Portugal and Luxembourg are alright, but France and the Netherlands are a true nightmare.

Your vehicle

Your fuel expenses during your vanlife time also depend largely on how fuel efficient your vehicle is. MyRenault Trafic 2012 van conversionhas great mileage for a van. On a full tank (€80-€90), I would do 1000 kilometres. If I’d drive proper roads without mountains, this would even get to 1200 kilometres.

When you are buying a campervan, it’s good to keep this in mind! Ask the owner/dealer for records of mileage so you can calculate how much you will spend each month. This WILL have a huge impact on your vanlife budget, so put some effort in this.

Road Tax: €83 per month

My road taxes are €169 per quarter, so €83 per month. In the Netherlands you apply for a special tariff if your campervan conversion is approved by the road and tax authorities. Otherwise it would be 3x as high!

Insurances:€250 a month

Insurance – some people go without but I definitely make sure my most valuable property and myself are well insured🙂

Van insurance

I have a full-coverage insurance for my van withAveco Verzekeringenin the Netherlands. Because of different circ*mstances (i.e. the van is my only car), this insurance was one of the few options I could go with.

I choose full coverage of my campervan because it’s worth a lot, and the first 5 years it keeps the value it was initially recorded at.This insurance also includes my travel insurance(365 days a year), unlimited days away with your campervan (so not just 90 days in a row) and roadside assistance in Europe and Morocco (big plus!).

In the Netherlands car insurances work in a way that you get a discount if you have driven without any damage for a certain amount of years. Because the van was the first car I’ve ever owned, I had not accumulated these years. That’s why my insurance started at about €140 a month. After year one you get 10% discount, after year 2 20% discount etc, until a maximum of 70% discount. That’s why my insurance is currently at €126, a major cost in my monthly vanlife budget.

I don’t really count insurance as a vanlife safety measure, but I wouldn’t travel without either!

Health insurance

If you are a Dutch citizen, health insurance is mandatory. I have a pretty extensive coverage, including health care abroad. That’s why the fee is about €120 a month. Again a major part of my vanlife costs, but I do take this very seriously as I have had health issues abroad before.

Food & Drinks: €250 a month

Daily groceries can be a big expenditure, depending on what/how you eat and in which country you are.I think this is a category in which vanlife costs vary widely. Some vanlifers will spend close to none, others will spend a lot.

I like good food and alcoholic drinks like beer, wine and an occasional gin-tonic. This comes with a price tagI spend between €50 and €75 per week on groceries while on the road by myself. When Bas joined me, this almost doubled because yeah, a glass of wine with two people is simply better than alone.

Grocery shopping

It also made a huge difference in what country I was. Travelling through France, the supermarkets were quite expensive. But when I was in Morocco with Bas, the grocies at the market were quite cheap (although getting ripped off was daily practice).

Vegetarian

When I just started travelling I was not vegetarian yet. Buying meat and fish is usually more expensive than just vegetables. Also I would spend some money on nice ham and sausages as when I turned vegetarian, this was not the case anymore.

I have a lactose intolerance and therefore I buy soy/almond milkes and only older cheeses because I do not react to them. All more expensive than the regular stuff.

I also tend to buy softdrinks once in a while, especially in summer I cannot hold myself back from a cold co*ke. Add some wines and beers, and the grocery bill adds up!

It adds up

I think as a vanlifer that lives very sober, you can get away with about €30 a week in groceries for bread, vegetables, pasta’s and rice etc. I ended up spending about €50-€75 a week with all the extra’s included.

Eating out: €100 a month

I love to sample local cuisine. While travelling by campervan trough France, Portugal, Spain and Morocco I’d go out for dinner at least once a week. When Bas joined me, this was almost twice a week as he loves food even more than I do!

Although I wouldn’t call myself a “foodie”, I love to discover new places through food. A good meal can really make or break the experience you have of a certain place. Even though eating out is about 10% of my monthly vanlife costs, I wouldn’t do it any other way. I do try not to go too crazy and really keep it at €100 a month.

In some countries it’s hard to find budget options.When I travelled with my campervan through the Jura region in France,the bill always ended up more expensive than I hoped! In Spain eating out cheap is a lot easier because you can have amazing menu del día’s for €10 including wine and you don’t need to eat the rest of the day

If you want to decrease your monthly vanlife budget, I’d say cutting out this category would be a good place to start.

Campsites + Facilities: €150 a month

When I started travelling by myself in 2017, I was unsure about a lot of things. My campervan was brand new, I could barely drive, wild-camping, what is that? I was a bit insecure, so the first few weeks I spent mostly on campsites. Then I tried out free campervan areas in France and this worked out well! I did that more and more and eventually tried just wild-camping. It really took me some time before getting used to it

Campsites

I love wild-camping, but sometimes I just want a hot shower and good facilities! I usually try to stay at 1 or 2 star campsites and avoid the bigger ones. That would be approximately 10-15 euro a night all included. In summer, campsites were more expensive. The most (and worst day ever) I paid was €32 for a night at a 4 star campsite. But there was literally no where else to go in that area.

In the beginning campsites did contribute a lot to my monthly vanlife costs, but when I started wildcamping more this went a lot better!

Working online as a digital nomad

I also travel on the road as a digital nomad. This means I do have to charge my laptop. It turned out my solar panel / battery combination was too small to keep up with my usage if I would use my inverter for several hours. Therefore, in times when I had a lot of work (think daily conference calls + 4/6 hours working a day) I would usually go to a campsite. I wouldn’t have to worry where I’d sleep that night, and if I would have enough electricity and water etc. It just made sense!

Gyms

I know that in the USA a lot of people take gym contracts to shower there, which is a great solution to decrease this cost category! In Europe I have not found such a thing, only local gyms. But then again only with yearly contracts.

Virtual Office: €120 a month

During my vanlife, I was alsoworking as a digital nomad from my campervan.During my travels I was still subscribed at my parents in the Netherlands. But I didn’t want to subscribe my company there as well because then they would become party liable if something would happen with the company.

Therefore, I chose a virtual office. With this address I could also register my company with the chamber of commerce. It is a bit pricey, but there are 4 co-working days at any of the worldwide offices included. Almost every month on my trip I’ve used the business lounge that’s included in the virtual office package.

If I had big files to upload or an important conference call for which I needed good Wifi, I would look up one of the offices and go there to work for the day.

These costs are also tax-deductible for my company result, so in the end they are not a major setback. They are also not specific vanlife costs, but company costs.

Accountant: €65 a month

Because I have quite some foreign transactions (foreign clients, online services) I make use of an accountant to make sure that all my tax topics are in order.

With this accountant I can simply upload my receipts via an app, and they get processed automatically. I also use their invoicing system so everything gets booked in properly. Just another worry off my plate 🙂

Internet: €30 a month

When I just started vanlife, I would get internet from my phone all the time. But I quickly found out that may battery was running out so often and I was also reaching my data limit all the time. That’s when webought a MIFI router.

With this mini router we could buy local SIM cards and get data-only contracts, and then recharge viarecharge.com. In most countries, I would use about €30 a month of internet for working online, watching movies on Netflix and listening to music on Spotify and Youtube.

Contracts: €45 a month

Before I left on my vanlife adventure, I took a good look at my bank statements. I looked for monthly recurring payments like gym memberships, magazine memberships, charities, phone bills etc. I made sure to cancel everything that I could until there was a minimum amount left. Now all I have is a phone bill of about €30 a month (unlimited European phone calls) and Netflix. When Bas joined, we combined a few accounts and his phone bill and Spotify was added to the mix.

I think these kind of monthly recurring payments can put a lot of pressure on your vanlife budget. I can really recommend to bring this down as much as possible and cancel all commitments that you don’t need if you are considering vanlife.

Other transport: €30 a month

Think about parking, buses into town, toll roads, ferries and maybe even the ocassional fine!

I usually park a bit outside of the city centre (for example with farmers in France via France Passíon) and take buses or ride my bicycle into town. Also when visiting big cities, they are usually too big to walk so I buy a daily bus pass. Parking in cities can also add up!

The total amount may seem high but includes ferries, for examplethe ferry from Spain to Morocco for €200.Otherwise, this counts buses, subway’s, and the occasional toll road.

In most countries I avoid toll roads. But for example during our4-week trip through Moroccowe did take some toll roads because we had such a big distance to cover and the non-toll roads could be really bad!

Also we have taken a ferry once or twice. Mind you, if you travel to Scandinavia with your campervan ferries may become a substantial part of your vanlife budget!

And yes, let’s not mention the finesSo far so good, only one in 2 years. Still painful and a waste of money!Based on above, I averaged this on about €30 a month.

Touristy things: €25 a month

I combine living vanlife with travelling and therefore like to explore places. I like going to a museum now and again and often castles and archeological sites costs a few bucks.

Especially with bad weather, I frequent castles, museums and other landmarks 🙂

Shopping: €25 a month

Sometimes you simply need some new clothes, something for the van or a nice sun hat🙂

Other: €50 a month

This category varies, sometimes it’s nothing other months is more. This can include van repairs (I have a pretty new van, so few repairs), doctor bills abroad, a birthday present sent by post and whatever you can think off.

Total Costs of Vanlife – Plan Ahead!

As you can see, living vanlife can be cheap and it can be not-so-cheap. It depends on your lifestyle, how long you are travelling for, if you are on holiday or really living in your van etc. I hope this blogpost helps you in planning for your adventure 🙂