A 28-YEAR-OLD woman has opened about her decision to ditch her two-bedroom flat in favour of a caravan.
Chelsea Nicholls and her boyfriend of five years James have lived in the vehicle for over a year after moving out of their rented property.
And the pair hasn’t looked back, as Chelsea recently revealed that they’ve managed to save a whopping £7.5k since changing their lifestyle – but there’s one slightly embarrassing downside.
The couple moved into the caravan in July 2022, meaning they have lived there full-time for almost seventeen months and counting.
As documented in her YouTube channel, the caravan boasts a comfy sofa that can sit five people, a fixed bed and countless storage compartments – something Chelsea said their previous property didn’t offer so they had to buy additional wardrobes.
However, Chelsea did confess that there’s one thing she didn’t see coming.
She revealed: “[James’] mum does our washing for us.
“Unfortunately, Tourer caravans don’t come with a washing machine – they come with absolutely everything else – we’ve got an oven, fridge, freezer, toilet, shower etc.
“You can get a portable washing machine or go to the laundrette down the road, but his parents are also down the road and his mum is happy to do it.
“While she’s happy to, we’ll pay her to do it – it’s cheaper than paying for a laundrette, but also it makes me feel more comfortable that it’s someone in the family that is going through my underwear, and not the laundrette looking at my thongs.”
Since moving in, Chelsea has also calculated exactly how much their outgoings are now compared to previously – and it turns out her man’s mum washing her undies is a small price to pay for how much they’ve saved.
In a different video posted to her YouTube account, the young woman explained back in July: “I want to go over how much it costs to live in a Tourer caravan.
“And that is living in a caravan full-time, which me and my boyfriend James have been doing for one year now.
“This is going to be our experience because how much you pay probably depends on the site you’re living on.”
Chelsea then ran through their monthly costs, and what they worked out to a year, including what they spent in both instances on rent, gas, electricity, water and – crucially for them – council tax.
First up, she revealed their finances during the time that they lived in what she described as a two-bed maisonette.
She said: “For rent, we paid £795 a month. For council tax, we paid around £150 a month, but as we all know, council tax increases every year so that is just the number that has stuck into my head.
“Gas and electric, we paid combined £70 a month – £30 was for gas and £40 was for electric.
“And then for water we paid £40 a month.”
In a year, we save £7,552 – in a year
Chelsea Nicholls
Moving onto their outgoings today and how much they’ve managed to save, Chelsea continued: “The rent is not for the caravan – James actually bought the Tourer caravan, it’s his, he owns it.
“The rent is to pay the landowner for being on his land, so for the plot that our caravan is on.
“The rent includes water, so rent plus water is £77 a week, which we pay monthly, which is £334 a month.
“That’s less than half of what we paid in the maisonette.
“For council tax, we don’t pay anything – zero, zilch,” Chelsea said as she urged others to do their research as some plots require you to do so.
She went on to say: “For gas, we have a gas bottle, so we only turn our gas on when we need to heat up the water for a shower, which takes around 10-15 minutes.
“As soon as we’re finished in the shower, we turn off the gas. That means that our gas bottle lasts us six months.
“It costs us £70 for a bottle, but we only have to buy a new bottle every six months, so twice a year at £140.”
She then shared how their electricity runs through a metre with a card that is topped up. She said this means the price varies per month, depending on the temperature outside, but that it averages out to be around £80 a month.
And although that is slightly more expensive than when they were in the flat, the other cutbacks they’ve made – including no council tax – still results in an eye-watering saving.
Chelsea then let the figures do the talking for themselves, as she said changing where they sleep has saved them so much cash overall.
She concluded: “I’ve done the calculations and I’ve added up how much we used to pay in a month, and a year, when we were privately renting a two-bedroom flat, and how much we now pay.
“So when we lived in the maisonette, we paid £1055 a month. Now in a caravan, we only pay £414 a month – there are two months where we have to buy a new gas bottle, that is when we pay £484.
“Either way, it’s been £400 – £500 a month in the caravan compared to £1055 when we lived in a flat.
It’s hard to explain what it feels like when you wake up in the morning, open the door and it’s just fields and birds
Chelsea Nicholls
“So we are saving £641 a month by living in a caravan.”
And what does this do to the yearly figures? Chelsea said: “Yearly in the flat, we were paying £12,660 a year.
“Now in a caravan, we only pay £5,108 – and that’s including the gas bottles on two months and the extra electricity in the winter.
“So, in a year, we save £7,552 – in a year. Wow!”
Saying she couldn’t believe how much better off they were, Chelsea said of the maths: “That is absolutely bizarre isn’t it?! That is bonkers.
Chelsea – who has previously given her YouTube subscribers a glimpse into their caravan, which is a Sterling Searcher Elite – then said that she imagined her video would have made everyone think they should be following in her footsteps.
And in a previous video tour, Chelsea – who is saving to pay off her debts – said they loved every minute of their new caravan life and wouldn’t change it for the world.
She said: “I thought it would take me a lot longer to adapt to this lifestyle, but it’s hard to explain what it feels like when you wake up in the morning, open the door and it’s just fields and birds.”
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