INTERVIEW & TOUR- SIMPLE LOW BUDGET VAN BUILD. BECOME A NOMAD AT ANY AGE!

yeah i uh i call them bungee cord friendships so you know you might be going around but you're still connected and you'll beat each other again hi everyone welcome back to my next video uh today we're here with becky and we're gonna talk to her and find out her story and uh and get a nice tour of her rig so welcome becky thank you for being here you're welcome bob nice to be here and uh tell us a little your story how did you end up living in a van well my um when my rv caught on fire i had a small car which was a mazda 3 and i came down here in 2018 and when i was headed back east and got to wilcox arizona my car blew up unfortunately i had to end up selling him the car and had to go back to tucson and rent a car from enterprise to get me back to illinois and i stayed with my oldest son in illinois for three months and he found the van for me i just had to work with it as i went along to get it to get everything inside to work for me small space that's a real small space and how long had you lived in the rv before then before it caught fire uh three years okay so you've been uh was that when you began become became a nomad in three years ago after the after the rv caught on fire yes oh but so the rv was in a uh a park an rv park it was in an rv park my daughter had bought it for me to live in and i was paying 400 a month lot rent on top of 250 rent on the rv which was 650 taken most of my money and even though i hated the fact that it caught on fire i was relieved to save all that money yeah so uh you're probably retired on social security i am so just not a not a whole lot of money coming in every month no about a thousand a month right which is pretty normal for a lot of people about a thousand a month and if you're paying 650 in well my insurance for the ban and uh well it was really for the car at the time insurance for the car and my cell phone and so that didn't leave me but about 200 or so a month to live on being that i was an ex-truck driver i love traveling the country anyway and didn't see a whole lot of it when i was driving a semi so i wanted to get back out here in nature and so how long have you been in this van then since 2018 i wished it was three or four feet longer right but i just got to work with what i've got for now right until i can get more money saved up to find something better that i actually want and so now uh are you able to save a little bit every month towards the new rig yes and uh save a little bit every month and although i still have to budget but i can still put back and save right a little bit every month but uh you've got a great home now and so and you're able to save a little money every month yes while you were living in the rv in the rv park you barely survived no money ever no i barely survived and it was really getting to me and i come down here and feel so much better yeah i find that just being out in nature i feel better yes and you being a truck driver you kind of have that nomadic heart anyway wanting to see things yeah travel traveling was still in my blood and so you um uh you spend your winters here in the quartzite area this is actually the first winter i've been here i got down here in october and i met up with these two ladies because i don't like being alone i've been alone too much since i've been traveling and i don't like being alone alone you know or staying in my van a lot because i'm a very social person and so has that actually you're having more friends now living in the van than you did in the rv park yes i do yes i do might not stay around each other very long but at least we know each other right yeah i uh i call them bungee cord friendships so you know you might be going around but you're still connected and you'll beat each other again and that's what i like is meeting new people is it okay if we take a look inside your van sure mom so tell us uh what is the model and year of your van it's a 95 chevy g20 conversion van and i bought it in 2018 and it had 96 000 miles on it that's good yeah really good and it's been pretty reliable for you yes that's good the bench seed i made out into a bed and i keep the blanket over the front to block the cold air from underneath the bed and i've got a four inch thick memory foam mattress on it got a lot of extra blankets flannel wool and the the rod the clothes rod the clothes rack in the back came with the van so i don't have to keep my clothes folded up in a in any totes or bins that's very nice so this is just the original back seat and uh original back seat original back seat and you have some uh things underneath it i'm assuming storage underneath yeah just coats and things yeah the normal stuff's alive my uh lysol disinfectant wipes my little pea bucket right and another little bucket yeah that's how we do things and uh i've got a small toe full of paperback books under there and a small tote of adult coloring books with pencils under there uh-huh and a tote of dvds under there for my laptop and i got this little table that's a good one at one of the tents the other day and it's good for storage that's a very good thing and all of my buckets was gave to me i keep food in this one food in the back one uh toilet tissue and paper towels in one and i put together a little medicine cabinet in one and i've got one empty bucket back there for other stuff this is my thousand horse claws this is my uh mouthwash uh tooth paste and stuff like that i got a 21 inch tv right here with everything to go with it my antenna is right here this is my little table oh what a good idea that is i usually just set this on top of the buckets and use that for my single burner butane stove uh-huh to heat my van up for the morning and that and you cook on the stove and and use it for some warmth that's exactly what i do so you haven't done um any kind of uh a build i mean you there's you didn't spend a thing on this except the plastic totes were giving you i just had the two metal seats taken out i took all of the seat belts out to get them out of my way and here just a couple of weeks ago i had brand new interior lights put in probably leds [Music] yeah so you fade you know and i put this shower rod up for my uh blackout curtains very good gotta have privacy and these little uh storage pockets here i made out of a shoe organizer that i bought at walmart i keep my socks and two of them i keep my medicine in one and i've got some pockets made on the doors that uh i made of a shoe organizer right so just all the little things in life you need you got right here and actually i've got extra pockets like this but i haven't decided where i'm gonna put them yet well you made a fantastic little home out of this van yeah with such small space yeah and i figured out that as i went along that when i first started out in 2018 as i went along i just had to figure out better as i went right right sure now that's the way it works we all we all make adjustments find better ways yeah sure yeah and so becky uh you're using buckets for a bathroom yes and how are you showering well uh i usually bathe in the van i i do oh and i also pull a utility trailer bob oh you do okay it's a six by eight utility trailer and i have it full of other totes big totes medium totes i have extra clothes in one of the totes extra food in one of the totes and um just on stuff that i may need throughout the winter or summer and because i when i first started out i run out of room so i resorted to buying a trailer and it came in real handy so i just being that i travel full-time i just keep a lot of stuff with me and there's my two of my camping lights so you don't have any solar you just uh charge things off the battery when you drive yeah i do not have solar on my van or about any backup batteries um i'm trying to stay as simple as possible okay well uh becky you did a fantastic job here i really appreciate your showing sharing your home with us and everything is in still good condition for the year yeah very much so for the year of the van yeah and the curtains came with the van that clothes rod came with the van so mainly the only thing i had to do was take out the two middle seats well becky thank you so much for sharing your home with us it's amazing you know you took what could have been a tragedy and turn it into a wonderful amazing life yes yeah that's right and i feel so much better being out here the air quality is so much better for my health my breathing and my doctor had changed my uh inhaler to a different inhaler before i left arkansas but being uh being i had been down here since october and have hardly needed to use my inhaler the air quality is so much better that's great okay well becky thank you so much i appreciate your sharing your home with us it's very it's wonderful it's amazing what you've done with it thank you thank you bob so folks if you got anything out of this video like us on youtube subscribe to the channel hit that thumbs up button and we'll talk to you later thanks becky you're welcome bye-bye bye today's sponsor is me i'm the sponsor of this video and what i want to tell you about real quickly is i'm offering a course on both skillshare.com and udemy.com that gives will tell you everything you need to find out and know if you're brand new to the road so if you're looking for one spot where every question will be answered of the basics of living on the road i have it for you it's five and a half hours of content spread out over 19 courses uh it's going to help you get on the road and give you a great head start so to go to find me there just go to udemy.com or skillshare.com and search on bob wells cheap rv living and you'll find me or of course i'll have links down in the description below you

Channel: CheapRVliving

Views: 52,092

Rating: 4.9637971 out of 5

Keywords: live, living, car, van, RV, Full-time, nomad, gypsy, camper, camp, boondock, travel, snowbird, caravan, tiny, house, tribe, RTR, adventure, Bob Wells, Nomadland, CheapRVLiving, Cheap RV Living, vanlife, van life, how to live in a van

Id: TgLq6h1rEfw

Length: 14min 13sec (853 seconds)

Published: Fri Jun 11 2021