WHEN Paul Jackman’s marriage ended six years ago, the prospect of getting a mortgage on his own looked bleak.
So the factory worker, 51, from Lincolnshire, decided to ditch traditional bricks and mortar living in favour of a new home on wheels.
He now resides full-time in ‘Milly’ – a £6,000 military truck that cost him £50,000 to transform into a “state of the art home”.
He made the daring decision after seeing ever-rising energy bills and not wanting to “spend the rest of my life in debt with a mortgage”.
Thanks to his nomadic lifestyle, the father-of-two says he saves half of his wages, rather than it all going on bills, and sleeps in laybys where he parks for free.
Paul’s not alone – he’s part of a community of ‘between 80,000 and 120,000’ in the UK who call themselves ‘van lifers’, and are the focus of tonight’s episode of Ben Fogle: New Lives In The Wild on Channel 5.
Paul tells The Sun: “Half of my wages is basically spending money.
“Before when I lived in a house, it cost me over £1,000 a month just to pay the bills and that was five or six years ago. God knows what it would cost now.
“I used to pay £90 for gas and electric alone back then. I’d be struggling with the prices now.
“With my vehicle, I pay no council tax, electric or water bills, my insurance is fairly cheap, tax is £165, so then it’s just fuel, maintenance and living essentials.
“Basically, my vehicle is the same as a house – I have a washing machine, air fryer, a toaster, induction and gas hobs, central heating, tellies, WiFi, a fridge freezer and a king-size bed.”
Before moving into Milly – a 30-year-old military truck nearly eight metres long and eight feet wide – in March 2020, Paul spent time in both a campervan and a narrowboat.
While some would turn their noses up at his unusual way of life, Paul says it’s “calming”, grants him freedom and is essentially “a moveable house” with top-end features.
He told the documentary that the decision to move into a van was due to getting divorced but for others, the decision is due to financial difficulties.
“There are a lot of people who are forced into it because they can’t afford a house,” Paul said.
There are a lot of people who are forced into van living because they can’t afford a house
Paul Jackman
“Rents are just obscene money now, you’re paying a thousand-pound minimum for rent nowadays.
“I knew that when I got divorced, I looked at the prices of the mortgage again, the bills – and that was when they were cheap – and there was no way I could afford one on my own with child maintenance and everything else on top for a single guy.
“I was lucky I had a camper already to move into.”
Millie can sleep four people thanks to its king-sized bed at the back and a kitchen table and seating that converts into a 6×4 ft bed.
Paul told the doc he could be “self-sufficient” for a month due to having three solar panels on top of his vehicle and tops-up the electricity with a generator that’s powered up when he drives around.
An additional bonus is that cooking in the evening warms up his vehicle, meaning he can cut down on what he spends on heating.
He told The Sun: “It’s always been the goal to be totally off-grid. Seeing what the prices of bills are now it’s crazy, so I’m saving money wherever I can.”
It’s always been the goal to be totally off-grid. Seeing what the prices of bills are now it’s crazy, so I’m saving money wherever I can
Paul Jackman
While many would think it would be claustrophobic to live there, he says it’s similar to “living in a static caravan” and has all the amenities he needs.
Before each trip, Paul has to remove wall hangings and breakables – the rest are secured to workspaces with velcro strips, but he’s had a couple of disasters along the way.
He explains: “It literally takes a couple of minutes, you make sure all of the cupboards are shut and locked because you don’t want everything to fall out when you go around a corner. That’s happened a couple of times.”
Paul says he often chooses to “pull up in laybys to sleep for the night” and for other locations he avoids staying longer than two days to avoid “upsetting locals”.
He tells us: “You park up and a lot of people have a rule of two days max in one spot and then move. Ideally, one night and travel, if you’re doing wild camping where you park on laybys and beauty spots so it doesn’t upset any of the locals.”
While there are options for those living in trucks to stay on camping sites, Paul explains they cost up to £30 per night and some charge extra to use electricity.
Instead, he pays between £5 and £10 to use the site’s facilities – allowing him to dispose of waste, fill up his water tanks and empty rubbish.
Among Paul’s bigger expenditures is fuel; he pays around £300 to fill his 200-litre tank and believes he gets 15 miles to the gallon.
“That may sound thirsty but it’s the same as someone with a Range Rover. Supercars get less than I do,” he explains.
“You have to think ahead but I don’t worry about it too much, we call it ‘smiles to the gallon’ because you’re driving your home and so you’ve got everything with you.”
While Paul finds it “calming” to live the van life, he says some members of the community “get abuse” from the public – often because they are confused for travellers.
He tells us: “There are loads of cases of people banging on your van, shouting abuse and some people have had their vans sprayed up.
“Back in the early days of van life people didn’t understand and used to think van lifers were travellers, and you know how much stick travellers get.
There are loads of cases of people banging on your van, shouting abuse and some people have had their vans sprayed up
Paul Jackman
“I know dog walkers hate me and I’ve seen posts online but we let that blow over and ignore it.
“Once I was staying in a free car park with no restrictions and a woman rang the police, she tried to get me into trouble.
“My vehicle is tested so I can park anywhere legally so long as there’s no double yellow lines, but the councils and government are trying to crack down on it.”
Instead of getting hassle, Paul says it’s more common for people to knock on his door to ask questions about his alternative lifestyle and his voluntary job in emergency rescue.
Paul says: “We do things like search and rescue, helping with missing people, and when there were the storms I towed trees off the roads and helped with the floods.
“I think people see me doing all of that so that’s why I don’t get as many issues as other people.”
Paul believes there are “thousands” across the UK who have opted to live in converted vans and trucks – and they even have community pages online and regular meet-ups.
He says: “Everyday van life is everywhere, it’s from one end of the country to the other, to the middle of nowhere in Scotland. It gives you freedom and that’s the beauty of it.”
During the documentary, presenter Ben Fogle is introduced to several others from the community, including retirees John and Jackie, who converted a van after spending five years touring around in a caravan.
Jackie tells the doc: “We’ve got 1,300 watts of solar power and 100litres of LPG (liquid petroleum gas) so we can live off-grid completely for at least a month.”
There’s also former army veteran Mark, who converted a police riot bus into a travelling home and says he finally feels settled since living the nomadic lifestyle.
“I was in the military for 24 years and after I couldn’t settle,” he says. “When I moved into a van it was like putting on a comfortable pair of boots. I didn’t have to be anywhere.
“I don’t live on the grid – I use the internet, the roads, the diesel, but I drift to the edge.”
Mark says that for a lot of people he has met, transitioning to van life “wasn’t their first choice” but the “best one” they could make from “very limited choices”.
He adds: “If they get through their first winter, they normally start to enjoy it.”
As for Paul, he has no intention of quitting van life any time soon and hopes to continue living this way until his later years.
He says: “Health will be one thing, can I jump in and out of a lorry. Then you’ll need to see about your licences, and can I get out to drive?
“For now, I live day to day and enjoy the moment. It’s just me and the kids, I enjoy bumbling around. If I can keep going, I think van life is a good way of life.”
Ben Fogle: New Lives In The Wild airs at 9pm tonight on Channel 5. Follow Paul Jackman’s adventures and tips for ‘van life’ on Off Grid Nomad on Facebook and YouTube.
