The honest answer
There is no one number we can give you. Vanlife costs vary wildly depending on where you travel, how often you move, what season you are travelling in, and the kind of lifestyle you want to live on the road. A couple wildcamping through Portugal in the summer will spend a fraction of what someone paying for UK campsites in peak season will. That is just the reality of it.
The figures in this calculator come from our real world experience of living full time in a Peugeot Boxer and touring both the UK and mainland Europe. We have tracked our spending across different countries, seasons, and travel styles, and these default values reflect what we actually spend rather than guesswork or averages pulled from the internet.
As a rough guide, most UK vanlifers we know spend between £800 and £1,600 per month for two people. That range is broad because it has to be. Someone who barely moves and cooks every meal in the van will sit at the lower end. Someone who drives every day, eats out regularly, and uses paid campsites most nights will be closer to the top.
The calculator above is designed to give you a personalised estimate based on your own plans and habits. It is not a guarantee and it will not predict surprise costs, but it should give you a much clearer picture than a random number from a forum post.
Vehicle running costs
If there is one thing we would tell anyone getting into vanlife, it is to build a repairs fund and never touch it unless you need to. Older vans break down. Parts for large panel vans are not cheap, and labour costs at specialist garages can be eye watering. We budget a set amount every month specifically for repairs, whether we use it or not. When something goes wrong, and it will, that fund takes the sting out of it.
Insurance is another cost worth researching properly. Specialist campervan insurers often work out cheaper than going through mainstream providers, because they understand the difference between a campervan and a standard commercial vehicle. It is worth getting quotes from both specialist and mainstream insurers and comparing. Your premium will depend on the value of your conversion, your driving history, and whether you are classed as a motorhome or a campervan.
MOT is straightforward for most campervans, but worth noting that vans over 3,500kg have different testing requirements and may need to go to a dedicated testing station. Road tax for most campervans falls into the higher band, so factor that in. We blend our annual tax cost into our monthly budget to keep things predictable.
Breakdown cover is one of those things that feels like a waste of money right up until the moment you need it. If you plan to travel in Europe, make sure your policy covers you there. European breakdown cover costs more than UK only, but being stuck on the hard shoulder in rural France with no recovery is not a situation you want to be in.
Day to day living costs
Fuel is almost always the biggest variable cost in vanlife. Diesel prices vary significantly between countries and even between regions within the same country. The single most effective way to reduce your fuel spend is simply to move less often. When we were travelling through Europe, staying put for a few days at a time rather than driving every day made a noticeable difference to our monthly total. In the UK, supermarket fuel stations tend to be cheapest, while motorway services should be avoided unless you have no other option.
Accommodation ranges from completely free to surprisingly expensive. Wildcamping in Scotland is legal and costs nothing. European Aires and designated motorhome areas are often free or just a few euros per night. On the other end, UK campsites in peak season can easily cost £30 or more per night, which adds up fast if you are using them regularly. We tend to mix wildcamping with the occasional paid site when we want a shower or need to fill up with water and empty the waste.
Fresh water is rarely a significant cost. Service points at campsites, petrol stations, and supermarkets usually provide water for free or a very small fee. Laundry is another regular expense that people underestimate. We use laundrettes every week or two and typically pay around £5 to £8 per load for wash and dry. It is not a huge cost individually, but over a year it adds up.
Gas is mainly used for cooking. We have an onboard LPG tank so we fill up at petrol stations, which is cheap and convenient across Europe. Our heating runs on diesel through a Truma Combi system, which is why our gas costs are so low. If your van uses gas for heating as well, especially in winter, you will want to budget more here.
Staying connected on the road
For most vanlifers, a good UK SIM with EU roaming will cover the basics. Your phone works the same in Spain as it does in Scotland, and for general browsing, social media, and video calls that is more than enough. Be aware that a lot of UK providers now have roaming restrictions or data caps when abroad, so check the terms of your plan before you go.
If you work from the road or need a more reliable connection, a separate data SIM and a mobile router are worth considering. We personally use ConnectPls for data, EE for our phone contracts, and Starlink for satellite internet. That combination gives us redundancy so if one goes down we can switch to another without missing a beat. There are various options out there and the right one depends on where you spend most of your time. We have written in detail about our internet setup if you want the full breakdown.
Starlink has been a game changer for vanlifers who need internet in genuinely remote locations where 4G and 5G simply do not reach. The hardware is not cheap, and it draws a fair amount of power from your electrical system, but if your work depends on a reliable connection no matter where you are parked, it is hard to argue against it. That said, it is far from essential. We have spent years working from the van without it.
The honest reality is that most vanlifers who work remotely manage perfectly well with 4G or 5G in populated areas. Unless you are regularly parked in the middle of nowhere with deadlines to meet, you probably do not need Starlink on day one. Start with a mobile setup and see how you get on.
Food and lifestyle
Food is usually the biggest personal expense in vanlife, and it varies a lot depending on where you are. Grocery costs in Portugal, Spain, and Greece are noticeably cheaper than the UK for fresh food, while Scandinavia is at the other end of the scale entirely. We budget around £100 a week for groceries for the two of us, though that shifts depending on which country we are in.
That said, it is worth being honest about eating out. Coffees, meals, and the occasional takeaway all add up more than you expect. We have had months where our eating out spend crept up without us really noticing. If you are budgeting tightly, this is one of the easiest categories to let slip, so it is worth keeping an eye on.
Subscriptions are one of those costs that creep up without you noticing. Between streaming services, cloud storage, apps, and various memberships, we spend around £100 a month. It is worth auditing what you actually use from time to time and cutting anything you do not. If you have pets, factor in food, vet bills, and treatments as well. For us with two dogs, that adds another £110 a month.
When it comes to activities, the reality is that the best parts of vanlife are often free. Hiking, coastal walks, exploring new villages, swimming in rivers, watching sunsets from your van. None of that costs anything. We do budget for the occasional paid activity or attraction, but the bulk of what we enjoy on the road does not come with a price tag.
What about the costs people forget?
The calculator above focuses on monthly running costs, which is the number most people want to know before they take the plunge. But there are several significant costs that sit outside that monthly figure, and it is worth being aware of them before you commit.
The van itself is the obvious one. Purchase price varies enormously depending on whether you buy a base vehicle and convert it yourself, commission a professional build, or buy a ready made campervan. Conversion costs can range from a few thousand pounds for a basic self build to well over £50,000 for a professional conversion with all the extras. These are excluded from the calculator because they are one off costs, not recurring monthly expenses.
Vehicle depreciation is another cost that people rarely think about until they come to sell. Vans do lose value, although a well maintained campervan with a quality conversion tends to hold its value better than a standard vehicle. If you plan to sell eventually, this is worth factoring into your overall financial picture.
Storage is a cost that catches people out. If you are keeping a storage unit for belongings you cannot fit in the van, that is a monthly expense sitting alongside your vanlife budget. Some people also keep paying rent on a flat or room as a safety net, which obviously changes the economics considerably. Travel insurance is essential if you are heading to Europe, and pet costs including vet visits, food, and pet passports are another line item that vanlifers with dogs or cats need to account for.
We have left all of these out of the calculator deliberately. The tool is designed to answer one question clearly: how much will it cost to live and travel in a van each month? The one off and setup costs are a separate conversation, and mixing them in would make the monthly figure less useful.
