July 2016 Week Three

OMG...just ....omg....for those of you not in the UK we've just had a mini heatwave....Stealth Van Man and Stan the Van are not used to this sort of thing.....

So temptetures hit 30 or so and the nights were damn hot. So how did we get along? It was'nt as bad as I thought it would be sleeping in a metal container thats slowly being cooked! Looks like the insulation works sort of both ways...whilst it was hot it was no hotter than my bedroom in my old house during the same heat wave.

I pushed a bit harder at the Gym on the 7.00pm until 8.00pm session to purposely tire myself out a bit more. After a Sauna and Jacuzzi session I was so relaxed I could actually have slept most places. I have a bathrobe on the van that I normally lounge about in before bedtime and I just laid on top of the bed with that on.

Did learn a few things though...

Paranoid about opening the Van windows...just do it...get some sort of air circulation going.

DO NOT RUN THE ENGINE TO RUN THE AC...learnt the hard way when loads of water came out of the radiator due to it overheating...all topped up again and luckliy Stan is fine.

I powered up the fridge and left the door open...weirdly it cooled the van fairly quickly....

12V Fans are useless

Battery Fans are useless

Its made me think about winter a bit more but I reckon double duvets is the way forward!

So the routine is carrying on and it seems to be working. I've slowed down in the gym a bit and since I started this I've now lost around 18lbs....if I lose another 12-14 I would be REALLY happy....

Food is back as an issue...its become a chore rather than a enjoyment so looking at other things to eat as well. Snacks seem to be the main issue...sometimes I just want a cookie....

oping next months pay will give me a boost in morale, just feeling a bit down again this week. Thinking about taking up walking or another hobby...think I need a bit more variance in life.

Anyway, weekend was great, got 70 percent of STAN T-Cut and looking good. Redid all the paintwork in the cab area and it looks great. Someone asked me why I was doing so much work to a place I am just using to sleep in....pride I guess....and also, STAN is an investment...as I said I paid only £2000 for him and I reckon he'll be worth £3000 when I come to sell him. I'm not spending vast amounts on him, just mainly car boot £1 stuff but he does look far better than the day I picked him up

Time is going fast and when I look back over these blogs its seems I've been doing this for far longer!

July 2016 Week Two Part Two

Good news :) Arms feeling much better. Few things have happened. I could not get access to the gym one morning due them being closed for emergency repairs. Damn. Quick trip down to the local supermarket to sort a few things out, but also made me realise I needed to plan a bit more for this type of stuff!

So heres what I did...Lucklily I now have the new stoorage and wardobe space in the Van, I'll post some piccys later of how it works. I've moved a few things to it so if I have an issue accessing the Gym I'll be prepared next time.

Spare shoes, Two shirts, couple of ties, spare trousers now in the Van as well and easily available.
Spare Razer, toothbrush, toothpaste and smelly stuff as well.

I also got a voucher for a free days Gym pass at another local Gym...worst case scenario is I can print a couple of those! (Thaks steve for that heads up, would never have thought of that)

Weathers still crap but getting used to it. STAN needs a outside clean but I really want to save the cash until I can T-Cut him as well.

What Else?

Oh, yeah...remember the guys I met in Whitby, travelling round Europe in a van? They gave me a heads up to a way to have fresh coffee every morning so I've installed the bean to Cup coffee machine and WOOP! Fresh coffee at 6.00am. Its a bit of extra work but worth it for hot brewed coffee first thing.

If itssunny this weekend plans are to T-Cut the rest of STAN, I also need to paint the wardrobe and touch up some of the interior stuff paint wise, was a bit of a rush getting things ready when I planned this.

Probably one of the things to remember if your thinking of doing this, its weird but little things will irratate you about living in the van...figure out what they are and FIX them.

I'll upload some piccys of Whitby in a bit too. If anyone has any ideas of some places cool to go just let me know

July 2016 Week Two Part One

Bad week down on Bad week Farm. Things started out fairly okay...usual weekend routine. Weather was fairly bad so ended up spemding more time at the gym than normal on Saturday afternoon.

Broke the cardinal rule of Gym and instead of sticking to my routine thought lets push things a bit and tried to do the routine and weights I had planned for next month. Given the fact I had only upgrade my personal best targets by 5KG on the 1st I was basically adding 10KG to what I was working out with 9 days ago....ummmmmm.....

You guessed it...did something to my forearm muscle...feels like someone is driving daggers into it...

This made me realise three things :
1. If I get ill or injured the routine I have gets blown out of the water....and psychologically that was hard...I'm getting through this through following a routine and any disruption to it seems to make me irratable...never like this before...only since Stealth Van Life....
2. My arm hurts so much I struggle to drive...and STAN the van is'nt the easiest thing to steer. I have to be more careful, not being abale to drive would cause me all sorts of problems
3. I need more medicines in the Van :)

So arms wrapped in deep heat and took some Van advice from a fellow Stealth man (Thanks Rob)
Cut the bottom off a sock and use it as a wrap...works great!

So although that was bad worse was to come....had to open my big mouth and say that I had no issues parking up in STAN at night....well Sunday night there was a loud Bang Bang on the van side....Mr PoliceMan come to visit.....

Luckily I opened up the passenger door dressed in a big Fluffy white robe...not what the local police were expecting I guess...

I'd thought about this scenario for a while and decieded on the story I would give out a while ago....so here goes....

Police :" Evening...could you let us know what your doing...you've been spooted by our patrols a number of times in this location"

and then comes the story....

I decieded to go down the route of a preparing for a 2 year camper van trip abroad. I explained to the policeman that one of the things I'd read up on was that people who did long road trips were not prepared for living in a van...so I was spending a few nights a week in the van for the next year or so to get used to it.

TBH...I don't think he was really bothered...he checked the insurance, tax, MOT etc of both the car and Van and seemed happy enough.

Think I'll miss that spot out for a few months...luckily I found another place recently that I have permission to use (local Business I spoke to happy for me to park behind there building blocking the warehouse doors. Owner was happy as he'd had a couple break ins, and having someone block the doors he thought was great...the fact I'm there from 10.00pm til 6.00am causes him no issues and he gets a free security guard) He even gave me the wi-fi password for free internet browsing :) Something to think about if yoyr looking for somewhere to park up....worse they can say is no....

I'll update in a few days on arm, etc and plans for the weekend.

July 2016 Week One

So the scores on the debt doors....my total debt was 43K 3 moths ago...as well as making minimum payemnts I have paid an additional £1000 off my debts plus a £1000 contigency fund....today I paid off a Credit card completely and closed it!!!!! WOOP! £1231 paid off and card closed. That adds another £55 to the snowball for next month meaning I can pay at least an additional £95 per month including the £45 from the previous month

Taking some feedback I've also started a MOT/Service fund for the Van...I've put £75 aside this month. But given the fact the van does less than 300 miles a month unless I go away then hopeflly I should'nt have any issues. I bought it with 12 months MOT so thats fine for a year

What else? finding more and more different foods that fit in with camper van life...Aldi is like camper van heaven.

So we are over 2 months in now, and to be honest, its not half as bad as I thought it would be

Guess I miss the social aspect of a house the most, however the rest has actually been of great benefit to me. I doubt I would have had the motivation to do 10 percent of what I've done had this not happened....

Its not all plain sailing though...I still get those days when I think what has my life come too...but they are getting less.

Already starting think about winter and planning for it....

Really enjoying the cinema thing, wish I'd done it ages ago...do I miss TV? Not really....

Think I may try a weekend away again this month, I'll let you all know!

June 2016 Week Four

Don't know where the weeks gone....time seems to be going much faster in the Van! So a few email question have come in, let me see if I can answer them...

What do I do about post?
I mainly switched all my accounts to paperless statements and online, but theres still the issue of new cards, etc

Luckily I have a friend who agreed to recive all my post and I pick it up once a week or so. Anything I have delievered from ebay, etc I send to work address...same as Amazon, etc....most of them allow postage to a work address

I've not really had any issues with post upto now, hope that answers the question

Whats the worst bit?
Ummm....I guess the knowledge that I live in a van. I did'nt expect to be like this at my age...sometimes I think I should have just gone bankrupt like a million other people. I'm sorta proud I did'nt though.

What happens if you get ill?
Same as anyone else...the vans like a bedroom....I have a plan though should I get sick...I have a £1000 contigency fund and a local hotel does rooms at £40 a night, so I'd just bite the bullet and book in til I was well

Strangly I feel far better physically and mentally than I ever have...I usually get a summer sniffle...not this year.

I alsi gave up smoking after 30 years...and I don't miss it at all....and no Vape either or nicotine patches. I was too busy sorting life that I missed cold turkey I guess :)

I think the saunas and workouts at the Gym are doing me a world of good, alongside the food, etc

Weird thing is I keep imaging going back to a House and starting thinking really? Do I want that again.....


What about Girls?
Yeah...so we are a few months on from the breakup and I'm not the ugliest person in the world and the gym and food, etc has made people notice....I did have a few dates but then I sort of thought at some time I'm going to have to explain my life, and tbh I don't think I could....so I've sort of decided that the relationship thing goes on hold until this is over. Unless Claudia Schieffer turns up.....

Where do you park up at night and don't you worry about safety?

I'm lucky I've found 4 places to park that I've had no issues with...because I'm only there once every 5 days no ones really noticed me....the van sort of blends in...I have no issues with noise or anything. Weekend parking works out well as I have access to a secure carpark for the weekend as no one is there, so yeah...Guess I've been fairly lucky!

What do you miss most?

Weirdly, I miss reading a book. I thought I would have a load of time and have over 100 books on the shelfs in the van...makes it look cool...but just don't have the time to read them!

June 2016 Week Three

Well into te routine now and feeling like I've been doing this forever. Don't know if thats a good or bad thing...

So had another one of those "The Vans driving me round the bend" days yesterday...not literally....and did the same again, sat down and figured out what was wrong. Finally got down to the fact that the back doors of the van were insulated but looked ugly and kep catching my eye...so time for some creative thinking again.

I figured I don't really open the back doors unless I'm away for the weekend and thats only happened once. Off to the Car Boot I went looking for ideas...

Took me a couple of hours but finally came up with a solution...

Found a nice large red rug and a really nice picture, now time to do some interior designing :)

Cut the rug to fit the back doors, luckily its fluffy enough to hide the seams so looks like a solid rug...used so very strong double sided tape worked great. The picture was really cool...and hanging it central on the doors fairly easy...and hey presto....I have a back wall and picture....makes a world of difference to the van!

Opening the back doors is still easy....picture down and open them :)

So, update on the first weekend away. Decided to take STAN...I had to name him I guess...so he's STAN the Stealth Van upto Whitby for the weekend. Its a 2.8ltr diesel and drives really well. I was a bit worried with all the additions I'd made that there would be crashes and bangs from the back as it all fell to bits...

No Issues ar all, even on the sharp corners and uphill :)

Cruised up at 70-80 with no issues,,,,only thing I did do was renew my Breakdown cover to cover me as driver of any vechile...cost me £12 a month for cars and Van but well worth it I guess. So parked up in Whitby in a top part of town car park...its on silver street should anyone want it...£6.50 for 14 hours and its fairly secluded,,,perfect for stealth van man.....

Parked up and no issues and off into Whitby for the day...

Woke up the next morning after more than a few beers in town to hear loud voices outside the van...ummm...

Okays...lets see whats up....snuck a quick look outside to find another couple of vans parked up with some people from France and Italy...time to go say Bonjour I guess

They were travelling around Europe living full time in thier vans...lotta respect for these guys...got some good tips from them :)

Finally got back around 11.00pm Sunday night feeling like I'd been on holiday...lotsa downsides to living in a van but quite a few upsides too....

June 2016 Week Two

Rain Rain Rain....figured out the restless sleep thing when the rain hits...earplugs....downside was it stopped me hearing my alarm clock...solution was in front of me all the time...I'd got a Microsoft Band 2...figured out it had a sleep monitor and vibrate wake up thing...WOOP! Sleepness nights gone and wake up refreshed!

Few people have asked about how I sleep...I guess they want more details than I close my eyes and it sorta happens.

Okays, the bed was a standard campervan bed, basically two seats acoss each side of the van then you run slats down the middle and drop the cushions down. Now, I changed this a bit as I reaslised this was a home, not a campervan...and I did'nt feel like construcing and deconstructing a bed every day...

The idea I had solved a few problems I had...I packed all my cloths into 3 large bacgs labled SPRING, SUMMER, AUTUMN, WINTER. As I posted before I now have storage space with draws and a wardrobe. I simply migrate all the cloths for each season to the draws and wardrobe...the rest of the large bags go under the bed supporting the slats alot better.....

I also measured up the dimensions of the bed area and figured out it matched a small double matteress size....I nearly went out and bought one figuring it was worth the investment when I read a blog from another van man that probably saved me money and hassle....

He'd done the same as me and regretted it...what he finally settled on was a full size double MEMORY foam mattress...because it was much more flexible....and he was right....

Fitted the Memory foam 5" thick it bends at the top creating a sort of headbaord that pillows squish upt quite nicely....

I then follows his advice and added a opened sleeping bag as another layer....he's right...it keeps all the heat in...then a fitted sheet. Throw on top a double quilt and its like sleeping in a hotel

I'm 5ft 10 and have no issues stretching out at all, its weird but I sleep better in this bed than most others

Threw some Cushions at the back of the bed on the back doors and it looks great!

Bit pushed for time today...I'll update on the big trip next week I guess :)

June 2016 Week One

Finally some sunshine! Going to take the Stealth Van on a mission this weekend, first time actually taking it away.....

Weeks been good....Real progress in the Gym, I feel so much better mentally and physically...I know this is horrible to say but in some ways I'm grateful this happened...I don''t think I would ever have had the motivation to lose the weight or get as fit as I now am if this had not happened....I guess there are silver linings to every cloud!

So lets talk about the money :)

Month One I managed to pay off an additional £500 of debt on top of the minimum payments as I put aside £500 for emergencys. I've topped the emergency fund up to £1000 with another £500 this month...that should be enough of a buffer for me.

Sooooooooooooooooooooooooooo...what was I able to pay off this month? Food bill came in less than expected, I got a few good deals up at the car boot market on stuff.

I also sold the last few items from the house I had knocking about.

So debt this month on top of minimum payments was £780...on those figures next month I should be able to make a massive repayment of £1200 and still have a £1000 emergency fund....OMG...I might actually do this!

I've decided to put a little away every month towards a holiday at Christmas, don't fancy living in the van over the festive season....looked online and I can get a holiday in Egypt all inclusive for 10 days for around £650....I can sit in the sun for 10 days :)

Made a gym planner as well, figured out routine and targets are central to getting through this...

I'll update on the big adventure away next week and let you know how it goes...

May 2016 Week 4

Feeling alot better this week. Don't know what was up last week, guess I was just feeling sorry for myself.

So updates this week...routines going fine and I'm still doing alot of gym stuff. Food seems to have sorted itself out taste wise, constantly looking around supermarkets for things I can eat in camper van Land! Going to take the Van away for the weekend and try some wild camping, maybe upto Yorkshire.

Been asked a few times about power for the van, etc so heres how I work it out...

All the lights are 12v so run off a Leisure battery with no issues. I charge my laptop for internet and watching downloaded shows and movies at work, same as the mobile phone. Got a couple of mobile USB battery chargers for the phone, really suprised how well they work. From depleted to fully charged phone in 40 minutes or so.

I thought about fitting a TV screen to the van, then realised I watch most things on catch up and my laptop does fine for that

The fridge is a 3 way 240/12/gas fridge, but as I said I switched it off a few weeks ago and I have'nt missed it at all. I did get a 12v Fan, works great...I also converted the power supply on the 4G dongle to a cigarette type fitting so it works great too.

Although the Leisure battery has a meter on it to show power left I run the engine when I move the van in the morning end evening for 15 minutes and its kept it fully charged....I do have a solar panel for it but I've not had to get it out at all.

I figured out another mistake too...I should have paid for blacked out Windows....you still need curtains though...If I can save enough I'll probably get it done.

I've tidyed up the cabin area abit with some paint etc and it looks much better. Best thing I ever bought was the wardrobe childs unit!

Plan to paint it to match the interior over the next few weeks

Anyways...off to the Gym time...catch you all in a few days!

May 2016 Week Three

Bit of a bad week, routine is all well and fine but routine also gets a bit boring some days....

Gym has become a requirement, not an enjoyment. Having to get up and go just to shower has taken some of the shine off it. Its been raining most of the week fairly hard...although I sound proofed the van really well its still audible when sleeping...got a feeling thats why I'm a bit down.

Took the plunge and bought a Microsoft Band 2 for the Gym...think its a worthwhile investment given the amount of time I'm there :) Decieded to cut down on the evening Gym sessions a bit more, my body just feels tired.

Going to look at the food situation again and try to rotate the meals each week on a 2-4 week cycle, also maybe not be so strict on the diet thing, got a feeling a lack of carbs (I eat non really apart from some pasta once a week or so) may be contributing to it too.

Been out a couple of times this week with friends and that helped, but it also made me realise how much I missed haveing people around at home I guess.

Week Three Update :

Okays...the depression thing seems to have gone, guess I was just a bit down. Living as a stealth van man means you don't really have anyone to talk to about why your down :)

Maybe thats why people who live in vans full time have pets....maybe I should get a hamster or something :)

Finally managed to T-Cut the front panels and doors of the van...wow...what a difference it made

Motivated to do the rest....just need to get some sunshine.

The routines working well....I think it might be time to think about a weekend out in the van wild camping!

May 2016 Week Two

So a week without the Cooker and Fridge switched on....and not missed them at all. I decieded to sit down and figure out what was making me irritable about the van and it came down to the space thing...so I decieded to do something about it :)

Now...building an extension to the van was not an option...so it meant some rearrangemnt inside the van...

I figured out my biggest waste of space was leaving the space in front of the front sliding door free to get in and out of the van...then I realised I did'nt actually use this at all...I simply used the main driver and passenger doors for entry and access...so tape measure out time....

I had all sorts of grand idea's of MDF, frames , etc and building some storage...and then whilst at a friends house they were showing me around the newly redocorated house and then I saw it...the answer to my prayers...I did'nt even think they made them....a miniture wardrobe and draw combi set....

Designed for a childs bedroom I was already mentally measuring it....and it looked perfect...Hanging room large enought for coats and jackets easily...8 draws...off to ebay I went....

Found one...and its solid wood...great...no having to bolt this in...took two if us to lift it....

So...fitted in...all my cloths and nick knacks in draws....and I hardly notice the space its taken...

Its not too tall so I've neen able to put some storage on top as well....its a life saver...I'm actually really happy now its in...I feel like I've finally unpacked...

Gym is really starting to pay off health and body wise...I've lost nearly as stone now and I can actually see muscles :) more motivation!

May 2016 Week One

So Month Ones over....after sitting down and working everything out my savings this month to pay down the debts are £1152....I've put £500 aside immediatly for emrgencys and happily rang one of the creditors and settled the account in full...thats another £43 I won't have to pay next month and it goes towrds paying off more debts :)

I'm using the snowball solution to pay off my debts...as I pay off one debt in full I put that towards the next debt, etc....

I did this to have a target to aim for...and a a sense of achie=vement...I could have paid £20/30 of every debt I have...but the feeling of paying off a complete debt all at once was far better....you might decide differently I guess...its what works for me though

So May Week one and I'm running into more of those problems I didn't think through...

Using my laptop in the evening for downloading the series I like to watch off Discovery, etc works well...Battery life was an issue though...so now I leave it downloading overnight in the van and charge it up during the day at work...nobody really notices an extra laptop plugged in....

Back to the food issue...someone asked me again why I did'nt use the cooking facilitys in the van....let me explain...go into your bathroom...close the door....cook a meal...thats what its like in a van....I like my way of sorting food...it works for me..

So much so I've decided to unplug the fridge...all it had in was water....I can chill water at the gym or work...and take a 2 litre bottle with me back to the van each night...its actually far far easier. Someone also asked me about washing the plates, etc I eat my crackers and stuff of....I simply wipe them down with a wet wipe and every couple days put them in my backpack...into work...wash them all....no one even bats an eyelid....

And thats something else...I was WAY too paranoid about worrying about what other people would think...in a way sort of like a criminal, constantly watching people in case they were watching me...Guess what? People don't even see? or care about what I'm doing....At work the only comment I've had is I look far better and healthier than in yearsand that I'm eating healthy food now?...really...if only they knew....

So the problems....

SPACE

Not the stuff in the Sky...inside the van...

Ummm...I have too much crap and the issue is cloths. I've sorted out the work cloths and Gym stuff with the lockers at the gym...however under the bed in the Van are three very large bags...

Its really getting to me pulling a bag from under the bed every day and night, But I think I've come up with a solution...fill you in next week.

April 2016 Week Four

Routine Routine Routine....Rinse and repeat should be carved on my Headstone.....

Figured out that whats going to get me through this is a routine...strangly the weird thing is I've not enough time in the day to do everything I want....sounds crazy....

So what happens on weekends? I wish I knew what happened to the time.....

When I chatted to my friend who knew my situation he was like..."you must be so bored sitting in the van all day on a wekend" and then I figured out he was comparing my life to his at home....Saturday he sat around the house and watched some TV, etc...generally bored....

So heres' my weekend....

Saturdays Great...usually crashed out on a Friday night at 11.00pm or so....remember I've been up since 6.30....Sleep in until 8.00am YAH!!!!

Follow the week day routine, slightly different though...

Pop to the gym and have a quick sauna, jacuzzi and shower but no workout. Shower, shave, etc

Usually gets me to around 9.30 or so...

Off to the local Car wash to give the Stealth Van a Wash and clean....This is quite important....a dirty stealth van attracts attention...mines a 2002 Ducato and looks great when washed and clean....who would know its a house on wheels.....

Car wash takes me to about 10.15 or so...now to do a complete clean inside. First few tiimes I did this I was worried about people seeing the inside...then I thought...what the hell...its taxed, clean and insured...do I really care that they see inside? so doors wide open...do the cab interior...do the back inside...when you see the photos it will be much clearer how I have it set up :)

Good polish with anti-bacterial spray all around...shake the quilt covers, etc...good clean all around takes me 30 minutes or so even with the hoovering...

Only time I was approached was ny a guy who was interested in making a camper van himself...he liked how I'd set it out...when I told him I lived in it full time he was fairly shocked...

So nice clean camper van...and its midday....off to the pub for lunch...see previous post....

Finish up around 1.30 in the pub...relaxing meal watching TV and chilling....

2.00pm....okays...fun time....I've looked at the Odeon schedule and its off to the cinema....timing it right I see a movie at around 2.30, then one at 5.30 and one at 8.30 taking me to around 10.30....

Its fairly cool tbh... the Odeon Unlimited card for £17 a month is a life saver...

So bed and back up and awake...its Sunday....

This always depends on the weather...so lets do a dry day...

Up at 8.00am....Pop to the gym and have a quick sauna, jacuzzi and shower but no workout. Shower, shave, etc

9.30am...off to the local car boot for anything that might find useful....takes me to around 11.30 or so....

Back to the van...into Gym gear and go workout until 2.00pm....

Shower, etc...off to the pub for dinner until 4.30....

Off to the cinema until 9.00pm...no late movie...work in the morning.

The only time I change this is if its a hot sunny day....sometimes just laying in the sun is cool and reading a book....also, I've beentidying up the outside of the van...T-Cutting it, etc...starting to look far better...got a buffer for Aldi for £23 and you can plug it in at the car wash...I just asked the guy...

As I said...weird ting is  I tend to run out of time at the weekends....

So what if its raining over the weekend.....it really only affects my sunday....

No Car boot so its off to the Gym at 11.00am until 1.00pm...then some lunch...then movies at the Odeon....

I'll chat more about big travel adventures later :)

April 2016 Week Three

So the next big issue...what do I do about food......

The vans fairly well setup...as I said I did most of it myself and I thought I thought of everything....

Major screw up....

I pictured this idealic life with me sat in the van with hot food cooking happily on the gas hob I'd put in...the fridge full of chilled food fresh ready to cook....forget it....it just does'nt work...

First of all this is'nt a weekend camper...its your home. Cooking in a van is a nightmare, the smell lingers and you have issues with dirty pots and pans....within 2 days I realsied I needed a better solution.

Simple, I changed my diet....

This is now what I east and the costs of it....

Breakfast...Cereal Bar and Banana...I get the Cereal bars from the local Car Boot guy at 3 boxes of 8 for a £1...so that covers about a month....

I pop to Aldi and get Granola, greek yougurt that I have for breakfast at work....luckily we have a fride I can use...

I get salad stuff to have for luch...Lettuce , Ham , Tomatoes, deli meats...I buy enough for a week and just stick them in the works fridge...nobodys even noticed....

Likewise...Microswave Rice...some tinned Tuna...

Also Pasta.. those fresh packs for a £1...great...Jug of Hot water in and throw half a packet in with some ham, etc...

I'm able to cook all this fairly easily at work without anyone asking anything apart from "on a diet then Fatty?"

My shopping bill for the week is around £15.00...

I buy peanuts and crackers for the van for the evening, cheese as well, loving cottage cheese with black pepper crackers...yummm...

So I have a good Breakfast, a good brunch....a healthly lunch then around 5.00 I have the pasta or Rice and Tuna before I goto the gym.

After the Gym I sit down with the laptop in the van, movie time (see the 4G EE dongle I bought) eat some cheese and crackers...some chutneys sometimes, maybe some pate...small ones from the supermarket that you eat in one session...

I've never felt hungry...I'm eating well and I now weigh 5lbs less after a few weeks...

Anyways...man cannot live on that alone... :)

For treats I bought 75 percent dark chocolate...

Peanuts as well

Treat time : The local pubs usually have some sort of deal on over the weekend...my Local Hungry Horse has a satuday deal of any meal for £4.99 with a drink....Large Mix Grill here I come....

Same with Sunday...£6.00 Sunday Lunch with a drink for a £5....

So my food bill for week usyally runs at between £20-25...some weeks I miss the pub out on a sunday...I reckon I'm spending £85.00 a moth on food...more money to pay those debts off! and I'm hardly starving to death...

Only thing I did was bulk buy some multi vitamins from the car boot...still in date for 2 years...enough to last a year for £2....

TBH...I feel better health and food wise than any time in my life....

April 2016 Week Two

The unmentionables....

So here we are...Week two and we are bumping into a few unforeseen problems...well, I knew it would'nt be easy to here are the list of issues...

What do you do about going to the toilet........

Answer : It was just not practical to have chemical toilet in the stealth Van...so had to come up with another solution...from 6.30am until 8.00pm was not an issue...Gym and Work solved those issues...

This is where I figured out siting of the stealth Van was so important...I'll be dealing with stealth parking a bit later....

I managed to find 4 locations (I'll describe them later) close to a 24 Hours MCDonalds, a 24 Hour Garage and a pub :)

The pub saved me up until 11.30pm and so...I actually spoke to the manager and explained life and he was great about it....thought I was cool...lol....

TBH...I never had a problem...I never once in the first 2 weeks had to use the garage or the McDonalds but knowing they were there was a mind settling thing....

Getting up at 6.00am and being in the Gym at 6.30 made toilet time fairly easy :)

Likewise...if I went to the cinema 8-10.30pm I always used the cinema toilet or stopped into the pub...this might change but at the moment I seem to need the toilet far less...maybe the gym is helping!

This may not work for everyone, but it works for me :)

April 2016 Week One....

So here we are....House has been emptied, Car boot sales all done and first week in the van.
I'd tried in my mind to figure out how to run my life so that I could actually do this, and I'd hit the first issue of where do I shower, etc? Luckily I had a fair straight forward solution and went to a Gym that was only 400 yards from where I worked and did a deal with them. I managed to get a full membership and rental of two locekers for £30 a month for 18 months....the two lockers became quite important in future weeks :)

So, lets go through day one...slept in the van...I'll post some piccys later of how I kitted it out. For those of you thinking I spent like 15K on a super Duper modern Van, I did'nt have that type of money. I paid less than £2000 and did some prep work on the interior while I still had the house...was a busy two weeks.

So back to day one...hit the gym at 6.30am....the day before I'd sorted out the following

10 Ironed shirts
2 pairs of trousers
10 Black socks
5 ties
Black Work shoes

I'd stored all of them in Locker one...basically everything I needed to go to work in :)

Locker two had the following

Toiletries Bag (Shaver, Foam, Shower Gel, Razor, Tooth Paste, Tooth Brush)
Small Gym Towel
Large Shower Towel

I'd got up that morning at 6.00am, dressed in Gym gear and hit the Gym.
Finished up in the Gym at 8.00am, shower time, change into work cloths, store Gym gear in Locker one...off we go to work...

I quite liked this system as it forced me to go to the Gym most days...but it alsoi caught me out sometimes...more on that later....

Finished up at work...Off to the Gym...shower....and finish for the day. Now, these are the mistakes I made....

Too much gear...thats right...the nice days of having fresh socks and T-Shirts and Tracksuit bottoms and fresh dry towels are GONE. I figured out fairly quickly what needed to be done and latered things around.

Gym T-Shirt...you need to wear it both in the morning AND at night gym session...so it smells abit...live with it

Same with Socks

Same with Tracksuit Bottoms

Towels were the nightmare...damp towels are damp towels whatever you do....I finally figured out a solution.....most gyms have a sauna, I'd hang my towel up in the locker overnight and it dried a bit...but after a few days it was smelly and very wet whatever I did....I took it back to the van one night to try and dry but it just does'nt work and just smells up the van....

I simply put the towel in the sauna when I went for my Gym session and hey presto...an hour later it was nice and dry :)

so it worked out a T-Shirt per day, One white socks per day, a Towel a week and a set of tracksuit bottoms a week. I was washing at a laundrette on a two week rotation as I found that the best system....

Stored all the dirty washing in TWO black bags inside each other...throw a car smelly fragrance thing in one of the bags...I had no issues storing it all in the boot of my car (I had a car as well as the Van, needed for work)

So that sorts out the shower and work issue...lets deal with the unmentionables.....

Welcome to Blog about stealth Van life. To give you some background you need to understand how I got here, this was'nt a "lifestyle" want to be free choice. This was a take responsibility, live upto your mistakes and sort out your life choice.

Why would I choose to live in a stealth van? I did'nt, I'm not unemployed, poorly paid or going through a mid life crisis. I actually have a fairly good job, nice car, and lots of friends. So why this blog?

Like most middle aged couples after being together for a number of years the kids hit 18 and suddenly we realised we had very little in common. Bring on the breakup, fairly amicable so no real issues.

The real issues started when I looked at the finances. Two incomes we had lived very confortably for a number of years, no real problems paying bills, etc....holidays 2 or 3 times a year...you get the picture.

Then I realised that everything was in my name, and suddenly my ex partner decieded she quite liked having lots of money and no debts.....

Luckliy we had no mortgage due to the nature of my job we had to move fairly often.

So here we are...April 2016....and I've just figured out that my debts total £43000...like...wow....this is debt built up over 10 years, not a crazy spending spree....

So the options I have are
1. Go Bankrupt    Not possible due to the nature of my job
2. Go IVA            Possible but would not go down favourably with my employer
3. Pay my Debts off

The Ex had moved out and I now had a house to support, even if I got a Lodger there was no way I could service this level of debt. After spending MANY hours looking at options it suddenly hit me what the answer was....My biggest expense was was the box I was living in....

1. Rent     £800
2. Council Tax  £150
3. Gas\Electric   £90
4. Water  £40
5. Sky   £40
6. Broadband £30

Thats £1000 a month...then I looked at what I did in my life.

6.30am Off to the Gym
8.00am Work
6.00pm  Gym Class 1 hour
7.30pm  Home, food, watch TV
10.30pm Sleep

Ummm....so £1000 or so a month to have somewhere to basically sleep...extend the evening Gym by a bit....

So thats what I did....I used the last of my savings to by my Stealth Van! I added a few extras to my monthly costs

1. Van Tax   £22
2. Van Insurance   £15.00
3. 4G EE 12v Dongle  £20
4. Laundrette   £20
5. Odeon Unlimited Move Pass £17
6. Gym Pass and Locker Rental £30.00

Even so I was over £1000 a month better off....Time to start paying off those debts!

I think it will take me around 30 months or so to clear everything...this will be my blog about life as a Stealth Van Man...the good and the bad...and hopefully not the ugly