Minivan Converted Into Camper For Under $250 /Solo Female Prepares For Future

well i'm running into someone here who could this be katie hello hello katie how are you i'm good who is that here this is cookie hi cookie oh my goodness and cookie is a traveling companion yes he is he's my sidekick oh andy what kind of dog is he he is a german spitz he's a little bit larger than a palm okay and he's a wrestler oh how cool 12 years old oh my we're aging together gracefully oh you know what well i'm going to do a tour of your minivan that you built yourself well i did it's a no build but it really works well for the both of us okay well let's go over and let's come on and take it okay let's go let's go look at [Music] it more and more people are seeking alternatives to astronomical rents some by choice some out of necessity i'm going to introduce you today to a woman who is thinking ahead in anticipation of the possibility of future rent increases the best part of this conversion by katie from camping katie on youtube is that she did this conversion using mostly items she already had and at a cost of around two hundred dollars not including a power station but even the power station she got at a bargain so come on let's check this out and i hope you get plenty of ideas if you are someone who may be needing to become a nomad soon come on let's go and meet her i just really wanted to do a tour of your minivan it's say you're calling it a no build build and i'm just really loving it thank you now can you tell me something about yourself um i'm home based in colorado and cookie and i are just out we're exploring different places off the beaten path and luckily we just got to meet a lot of other like-minded people well we're going to go inside it's getting really windy and we'll get some more information about you inside okay now you are telling me that with your home base right now that you're in a situation where you have reasonable rent yes i am very very blessed but your landlord is much older yes and you're anticipating that should anything happen to your landlord the family would sell the property oh yeah yeah i foresee that um and that kind of like prompted me i've been watching videos about man life and that prompted me to get myself prepared right um i don't know what'll happen but if the situation comes up i will not work two jobs to pay rent and to have money in my pocket right i will check out i am ready huh so you got this ready in anticipation should something happen that you have some place to have a roof over your head oh yeah yeah and and i'm not even sad about it well why don't we look at uh why don't we take a little tour and see what you have here all right so you have your bed do you want to show us your bed and how you got that fixed up yeah absolutely so basically you're making your bed off of the back seat of the van that's correct yes let me look and see and this is going to give us we have a lot of open space the rest of the day oh okay when my bed is up okay so i'm backing up so we can see oh yeah it is a lot of space there yeah you could even have enough space for a table there yep and um cookie can stretch out i actually bathe there everything okay and we just don't feel so claustrophobic so now you have what is that underneath the is that a mattress underneath there or what is that this uh-huh these are just pillows to help kind of cushion it a bit blushes with oh okay okay um ottoman okay it's got my toilet stuff and everything in there and and you can fit across here yes you want me to show you yeah i would love for you to show us and i'm five five okay am i i use a travel pillow okay so so you're completely oh wow and this is what this is a honda odyssey yes an o6 and you're completely stretched out yeah oh my goodness and then you just you use a sleeping bag over you blankets what do you use over i use blankets a comforter or a little lighter blanket okay and you just that's your bed so and you still so you still have is it one or two seats that are seat belted back there just it's a double okay and i think it would only seat belt one maybe two i don't know okay so you can actually carry then at least two passengers yes yeah and not have to break down your your van yes well let's look and see what else you have so you have your little cooking space over here this is my little kitchen area that was important to me to have it accessible okay and i had this old table at home and i use a 20 pound propane tank oh you have a 20 pound in here oh okay oh i see it back can you pull that out so we can see it yeah now do you have it hooked up to anything oh yeah to my stove oh you have it hooked up to your stove i do okay but my stove it doesn't on the towel it doesn't yeah okay and all of this is tied up it's and my propane tank is tied up okay it is not going to fly across okay and i keep it turned off now i see you have water jugs there is that how you carry your water well i have some in jugs i've got more of the gallon jugs and then i have a six gallon up front okay now do you have running water or you use only the job no just the jugs okay and then now for your food where's your food stored okay so my coffee and quick things like that are in this basket along with my paper plates and towels and wipes and then back here in a plastic tub is all my canned goods well let's go back and we'll look back there from the back so basically you have a garage back here in the back yes okay let's look and see and i just keep my clothes in the suitcase oh my goodness i haven't seen anyone that keeps their clothes in their van in a suitcase that's very cool and i've got a couple of extra tubs so you've got a very deep well back here yes so you could even build something back here if you wanted to i could yeah my goal is to get a storage for the roof oh okay okay and even have more room okay and then over here as you were saying your kitchen stuff yes okay so this is just the the food the dry goods oh okay i just keep them in a tub now do you have any refrigeration no refrigeration okay so what do you mainly cook or eat then well i'll keep fresh fruit and tomatoes um i'll eat a lot of soup i love vegetables okay um when i'm in cooler climates i can keep my eggs butter and cheese okay and so you can make omelettes or oh yeah pancakes or whatever okay sandwiches okay grilled cheese and tomato all right i love stuff like that okay one of the things that i was really interested in was your power system and how economical it is can you share that i'd be happy to um yeah these are off brands okay and i bought them about a year ago off of ebay okay what brands are they can you show us all right you're going to show us you said the brand so this is an eagen star and how many what's it watts yes it's 350 or 360 watts and how much did it cost it was like 160 or a hundred and seventy get out of here and you've had it for almost a year you were telling me yeah yeah and it's working like a charm it is and where did you get it off of ebay it was brand new wow and then you don't know the brand but this was off ebay 2 of your 100 watt solar panel yeah it was 80. so for under 250 you have 100 watt um of solar very nicely and you have over 300 and about 350 you said 50 or 360. and this was for 250 for the entire thing and i thought i didn't have anything to lose wow instead of investing in one of the name brands i wanted to try one of these and at that price i mean as much as i've used them i'm i'm satisfied so now i'm looking over here and maybe we can figure it out it has a v or something on this e and let me turn it around vvi r i don't know what oh looks like v-i-v-i uh-huh okay well i wish i could give more information but i don't have that but for under 250 a portable solar panel and three over 350 watts of solar that's amazing it is and it runs everything what do you run on it on my laptop my phone a fan a hair straightener oh my goodness um and you were telling me also you can just put your phone right on top and it charges on top yeah and the handles flush and flat wow and lay your phone here and it'll automatically charge it well you know this meetup i've learned so much about new gadgets and devices too so well thank you your garage so much carol and it looks like basically you your build really didn't cost anything i bought i have spent money on things that i needed to take with me like yours you know your solar power and stuff but as far as the build you just built it into the van the way it was this final one i've spent money doing two different beds but it just took too much room and there was no negative space so the what worked was the no-cost bed so i'm looking so the only thing i can see that you really spent money other than your power system was on the little thing that the little shelf that holds your um butane stove no i had that oh you had i'm trying to find something that you spend some money on my shower thing oh okay i want to show the shower can you bring the shower out before we go on to looking at the shower i'm coming back around here because you have a little bit of carpet here and then you do have some wood that you put down and stapled some carpet on in order to cover up where you took the seats out yes and you said that all together cost about seventy dollars just about it's well it's very under a hundred so that really from what i've seen is all that you spent on the build yeah that's it so you have there is no major investment so you have a build and a home for under a hundred dollars the build part and then the other money is just spent on the components like the stove the propane the mattress but but as far as um those items a lot of people don't might use just a butane so they just have maybe two or three dollars per can if you paint oh my goodness i know it doesn't take a lot it really does and then when you're out you know this is my third time being out so i've been you know removing what i don't want getting and accumulating what i don't want that'll make our life a little easier but it doesn't you don't have to spend three to five thousand dollars no building out your building number one you're not going to like it down the road because you're not going to have room to move and you're going to change it several times anyhow yes show me the shower i love this idea it really works if i wouldn't have done this i don't think i could use it it wouldn't have been usable for me because you know we have to really watch our water okay so you just drop that down to the water pump usb charge okay get that wet of course and then you have your shower head that works great but this thing was pumping quickly so i went to i cut it in half okay and went to ace hardware and the man there put this valve together for me so i can adjust the water flow so you can also turn it completely off oh yeah yeah so you have a valve on your you just cut it on either side and then put the valve in between that's it that's brilliant that is great now it's usable it would not have been usable before because i wouldn't have been able to keep enough water because this thing pumps quickly you could have even you could even put that up hang it up somewhere and turn that valve on and off yep it comes with a little thing if i a little suction cup thing that wow you can use that with that crazy shower that i tried to get tim to make [Laughter] now what is the brand on this this is a carol found it yesterday oh there we go so it's a er erpro you are pro yes and about how much was the shower it was um 20 something okay yeah wow just add a valve and you've got oh my goodness it works great i love it it is wonderful for doing my hair well thank you so much katie and what's your channel again camping with katie camping with a k okay all right well we will see you on the road and you're out here practicing for what may come hey i'm gonna be ready all right well thank you so much thank you for coming to the meetup and we will see you down the road thank you bye-bye

Channel: Glorious Life On Wheels

Views: 267,525

Keywords: glorious life on wheels, rv living, van life, solo female van life, senior van life, budget living, budget van conversions, minivan conversions, cheap van builds, budget travel, single van life, travel, single travel, black rv life, African Americans who rv, female nomads, solo female travelers, traveling on a budget, black you tubers, living on less, rising rent in U.S., living in a car, tiny houses, living in a tiny house

Id: eLanS24nWow

Length: 15min 46sec (946 seconds)

Published: Sat Feb 19 2022