A MAN who swapped life in a house for a static caravan said his savings are piling up and that he even gets free dinners.
Ivan and his partner moved into a static caravan in rural Lincolnshire after being served an eviction notice for the property he was renting.
He paid £8,000 for the caravan and is charged £3,000 a year to stay on the caravan site, which works out at £250 a month.
He now hosts a YouTube channel in which he promoted the benefits of life in a static home over suburbia.
In one of his latest clips he again listed the benefits, which even included a free Sunday carvery.
He said that his wife started working at a local pub to top up her income.
Ivan explained that on the odd Sunday he enjoys a free carvery at the pub.
He said that there was a lot of rumour and speculation surrounding caravans and that most of if was not true.
He said: “Now I just wanted to point out that although we’ve had quite a lot of people that are saying it’s not for them and you’ll get ripped off and lots of other things where we are it’s nothing like that
you just need to pick and choose and find the site that’s right for you.”
He also discussed how he enjoys living in the countryside away from crowds and busy roads. Ivan uses planters to grow his own food.
He said: “I bought all these planters and set them up myself.
It only took me around six weeks to start getting them filled up with produce and we’ve got peppers, beetroots, carrots, celery, rhubarb and cucumbers.”
Ivan explained that he also grows strawberry plants, cherry tomato plants, dwarf French beans, apples potato, blueberries, cauliflowers, radish, spring onions and carrots.
He revealed that his caravan came fully furnished with a brand new mattress and carpets.
“I thought that was a really good deal” he said, in a video posted to his YouTube channel, Caravan Life UK.
He added that the caravan has a surprising amount of storage space.
“They design these things really cleverly, so that even the smallest amount of space can be turned into a little cupboard”, he said.
“It’s a very comfortable living space, with plenty of room”.
Speaking on his YouTube channel, Ivan explained that the pair had been subject to a Section 21 notice, more commonly known as a “no fault eviction“, because their landlord wanted to sell the property.
As the name suggests, Section 21 allows a homeowner to end an agreement with their tenants without having to justify the decision based on something the occupant has done.
Such evictions were set to be banned by the previous government but did not make it through Parliament before the General Election.
He explained: “Caravan life wasn’t a thing that we chose.
“We were told we had eight weeks to leave because the landlord was selling.
“That puts you in a very scary situation.
“We cashed in our pension and we used that money to buy this van.
“If we hadn’t done that, we’d be homeless by now.”
However, Ivan said that he “hasn’t looked back since” as, despite all the upheaval caused by the move, he loves his van life just as much.
