Close Menu
    Eastern Europe

    How We Live on $500 a Month Travelling Full-Time | Van Life on a Budget



    How We Live on $500 a Month Travelling Full-Time | Van Life on a Budget

    In this video we spill the beans on how we afford to travel Europe full time in our van on just $500 a month each! We break down where our money goes, how we keep costs low, and the hacks that make van life surprisingly affordable for us!

    If you love slow travel, off-grid living, and the folklore hidden in Europe’s landscapes, make sure to subscribe and join us on the journey! 🧡

    ╰ watch our van life adventures in Europe:

    ╰ support us on Patreon and enjoy extra content!
    https://www.patreon.com/JessicaKleczka

    ╰ if Patreon is not for you, we offer the same benefits to channel members:
    https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-ntOdSNDZ7rt4CAoy4N6Vg/join
    ╰ if subscriptions are not for you, you can leave us a super thanks to help us create more videos (via the three dots under the video) 💕

    —

    🚌 products showed or mentioned in this video (affiliate links):
    ╰ our travel wash bag for laundry: https://bit.ly/3PIuNAM
    ╰ royalty free music (get 7 days free): https://share.epidemicsound.com/ki5bsy
    ╰ dehancer film emulation – get 10% off with WILDROOTS10: https://www.dehancer.com/shop

    🌿 let’s stay in touch!
    ╰ Instagram: https://instagram.com/jessicakleczka/
    ╰ Channel playlist on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/41sUQeM7vVgcnqeSpGszUd?si=5qwie2O8QM-vILzsLYx-SA&pi=5Qsxql5CQ5SQ3

    —

    Chapters:
    00:00 Intro: Our Travel Budget & Context
    01:29 What We Spend Money On
    04:14 How We Keep Our Spending Low
    16:45 How We Make Money
    18:43 Remote & Seasonal Work
    21:06 Final Thoughts

    __

    🤝 THE 7 LEAVE NO TRACE PRINCIPLES

    1. plan ahead: familiarise yourself with regulations and pack to minimise waste
    2. travel & camp lightly: stick to trails and camp on durable surfaces
    3. dispose of waste properly or take it back home with you
    4. leave what you find to preserve nature and cultural features
    5. minimise campfires by using stoves or fire rings
    6. respect wildlife and observe from a distance
    7. be considerate of others by respecting people’s space and avoiding noise

    #VanLifeEurope #FullTimeTravel #BudgetTravel #SimpleLife #MinimalistTravel

    Share.

    35 Comments

    1. @oanagrigore6830 on

      Hello beautiful souls 🤗 thank you for sharing all this information with us 🙏🏻
      The insurance though is sooooo expensive … omg 😮
      Another excelent episode ☀️🫶🏻

    2. @jessicakleczka on

      Thank you so much for watching! 🧡 Were you surprised by any of these expenses, and how much did you expect full-time van life to cost in Europe? 🚌🌿

    3. @hopeugetherpes on

      Thank you so much for being. Watching your videos and following your adventures carefully for now still trapped in a big european city for work, you're so inspiring and gave me the will to get my license for maybe one day do the same as you and find freedom and appeasment

    4. @shelby1188 on

      The SmartCar parked in the garage! I’ve seen that, wanted that, realized how big THAT really was, and 🙅‍♀️I vetoed myself back to reality! 😂

    5. @stinakoski7825 on

      I thought it would cost more with food and fuel. But the ensurance was much. Is it because its made for living in or just for its a van.
      Thank you for sharing. It looks so cosy where you are camping. Heidi is so cute❤

    8. @MoneyCannotBuyHappiness on

      I love these videos but $500 will not work I've been living in a van for 6 years straight basically homeless and no one's going to survive especially two people for $500 a month don't be tricked

      I still love these channels they're awesome so I'm not talking s*** I'm just saying be more realistic

      I just watched more of the video and it says 500 per person still very impossible I figured it was per person but trust me that is not enough no way

    9. @RisiCheshire on

      I really loved sharing our experiences with you all. I appreciate we didn't have time to go into too much detail on a lot of points, but feel free to give us your questions and I'm sure we will answer them either in the comments or in another video!

    10. @meri2604 on

      Hello, you two. I love your videos and the way you travel. I think slow travel is great. I want to travel the same way once I get my motorhome. Stay in one place for a long time and really enjoy the place.
      ❤🍀🌈
      I have a question about your videos: What kind of camera do you use and what editing program do you work with?

    11. @GK49245 on

      Lovely advice and experience in this episode. Somewhat surprised that your expenses are so low. We average one US public campground per week (usually 3 to 4 nights in a row) to get shower, refuse, laundry, and other services. Otherwise, we too prefer wild camping, our boondocking, or staying with a friend or relative, moochdocking. We have been working 100% remotely since 1999 with our own electrical engineering firm, and glad y’all are finding your remote working connections. What do you spend on Internet connectivity (mobiles, StarLink, etc.)? What is your continuing van maintenance budget? Thanks for sharing, and we look forward to your next episode.

    12. @lawenyddsyml2 on

      This lifestyle is honestly so inspiring. It proves you don’t need loads of money to live beautifully. Would love to see a monthly budget breakdown per country in a future video!

    13. @earth-ling-i1k on

      Thanks so much! Love your van & your lifestyle… from Canada 🇨🇦❤️ …my absolute fave is the branches that curve around your door, like you’re walking into nature. Did you find curved branches like that? Or have to soak & bend them? Silly question 😂 but I love how it looks! 😍

    15. @BethandJamarl on

      We’ve been loving following your journey guys 🙂 thanks for sharing! We are currently working on our van so maybe we’ll catch you on the road some day! B & J x

    17. @jessapuff on

      This actually was reassuring, thank you. I live in the U.S., so I’m not sure if it would be a lot more expensive. This video did inspire me to believe it may be possible so thank you!

    18. @hollyexley on

      Do you pay pet insurance for your dog? We have two old doggies and their insurance is so much! But I feel like it’s worth it, I want to make sure I can always pay for their medical needs. We spend about £600 per person for our van life.

    21. @amylee6038 on

      Hi Folks. This was very interesting. I am surprised that you can find many places in Europe to do "wild camping". We have a homestead in rural Alaska and even the Western USA is way too crowded for us. The East Coast of the USA is out of the question, just choking with people (by our standard) and that is a lower population density than Europe.

      It took 14 years for my husband to see another person out back of our place. A hunter. I have lived with him 17 years and I have seen one person, one time. Our closest neighbor. My husband made the trails out back himself because there weren't any. It is legal to do here. And if we don't maintain them, they disappear. We skid logs home for firewood. You can skid a quarter ton log home for about a quart of fuel with a small snowmachine. You just need a guy built like a gorilla to wrestle them around in the deep snow.

      If you have a million dollars in land, house, fully equipped shop, heavy equipment, boat, airplane, ATVs, snowmobiles, tracked vehicle & etc. then you can live on surprisingly little monthly cost and have spectacular adventures. And it raises the point about "monthly expenses" vs the actual accounting costs of a lifestyle.

      In accounting we use depreciation schedules. If you have a $50k rig with 10 year useful life then that's $5k a year straight line depreciation, or $416 per month. You put that much into a "replacement and major repair" fund. Otherwise you end up like the girl who is right now stranded in a dead van with blown motor, broke and desperate. There is still regular maintenance on top of that. If we just looked at our "monthly costs" without factoring depreciation on all those vehicles and equipment… it looks cheap. It can take six hours on the bulldozer to clear the equipment yard and road after a big dump of snow, but it only uses a ten gallons of fuel. Just using the fuel cost is a wild understatement of what this lifestyle costs us.

      Back to the original comment – I do know the "Spaghetti Westerns" were filmed in Italy by guys like Sergio Leone and Enzo Barboni. Greatest movies of all time. So there are open spaces for sure, but I am still surprised because generally we hear it is tough to find places that are both free and have lots of elbow room. Good luck to you two.

    26. @lukebravin on

      As a delivery driver, i dont think i can do remote work haha might have to dust off the old video editing skills, they might come in handy! Great video, thanks to you both 😁

    27. @Robin-ps9wq on

      I will have to do more research on rural areas in canada where I can park and stay! I would love to live like this but im not in Europe. usually its expensive to camp in canada and gas is pretty pricy as well. im also going to be a new driver when I get into this so im glad to hear im not alone on that. I work remotely already though, I make about 3.5k CAD a month which should be more than enough to cover van life

    29. @cadence9055 on

      It’s dishonest and misleading to say that you (two people) only spend $500 when you spend $1,000! That’s not a mistake or oversight. Why did you choose that as your title rather than the truth which you later reveal in your video? 🤔

    30. @TomBedlammusic on

      We also live on a similar budget here in the UK… Until the Van needs an MOT and £2000 worth of work… But SHHHHHH we don't talk about that 😂

    32. @lulumoon9 on

      Lovely throughout. Thank you for sharing your tips. My socializing needs are also very low, so being in nature for the majority of time sounds like heaven.

    33. @EvaServais on

      Great video and happy to have found you here,
      If you are close to Alicante, I can tell you a few amazing spots in the hills close to Jijona where you can be all alone with incredible views and hikes. I have land there where you can be safe
      Great van too, I have the same one 🌻

    35. @MrQuickFlash on

      I would looove to see a video on how you find places to stay/park ect. Perhaps just your route planning or something along those lines? It is one of the things that sort of.. I wouldn't say scares me, but gives me some worry. Thanks for the tip about park4night!

      I found your channel, and this video, and I am now subscribed, haha. Amazing lifestyle, can't wait to get into it myself.
      Lovely regards from Denmark! o/

    Leave A Reply