I’ve watched a lot of YouTube vanlife content in my time and one thing I don’t really hear people mention are the boring costs. I’m talking about van insurance (wooo!), breakdown cover (yippeee!) and travel insurance (hell yeah!).

Vanlife is a very cheap way to live. We get our electricity from our solar panels, our water from mostly free water points (otherwise it’s a few pounds to fill up), and our gas is about £7 a month. Our biggest monthly outgoings are probably food and diesel. So all in all, it can be very cheap month on month!

Below are a few of our annual costs that people don’t tend to shout about.

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Van Insurance

Our van insurance is £1,100 a year. Considering we have 10+ years of no claims and 0 points on our license, it does seem pretty pricey but we also don’t pay for home insurance anymore and only have one vehicle.

This was one of the hardest ones to get down in price. We have a lot of modifications on the van like alloy wheels, off road tyres and air suspension retrofitted. This meant that a lot of insurance companies either wouldn’t go with us, or were ridiculous prices like £3000+. We also have the added complication of the van not being registered as a campervan, which can help bring the price down. Luckily we got the above price from the Motorhome and Caravan Club over the phone. Although they wouldn’t accept our no claims due to us not having gone through them previously, we still felt the price was reasonable. Here’s to hoping the price drops next year!

Travel insurance

Our travel insurance is £290 per year which includes extreme sports like surfing and skiing and also accounts for us being in Europe for 90 days at a time. After lots of research, Just Travel Cover suited us best.

Pet insurance

It was our pet insurance that shocked me the most! We pay £612 per year for Bruce’s pet insurance with Agria. It was so hard to find one that covered him for 90 days outside of the UK but we found one and there is definitely a premium price for it. We have claimed on his insurance for a broken toe, cannabis poisoning (not ours!), and chocolate poisoning and it was a breeze. He definitely keeps us on our toes, no pun intended. If you want to know more about vanlife with a dog, I’ve got another article all about it.

Breakdown cover

Our breakdown cover is £220 a year with RAC. Again, this is a premium price because of the number of days we are able to be outside of the UK. I know breakdown cover isn’t a necessity, but I would always rather be on the safe side.

So that’s brings the total hidden costs per year to £2,222. What a number! Hope this helps someone out there!