Cost of Van Life: SAVE $35,000 A YEAR!! 

Even 900 dollar a month for food seems quite expensive to me. I can do with 70 dollar per week easily on my own. I do think your comparison is a bit off, as you do not seem to consider the write off of the car per week, you also seem quite low on the insurance part (have you taken into account health insurance, occupants insurance of the car or is this purely the most basic car insurance you have) Also i am wondering why you think the internet suddenly is free on the road. It seems you have put that as part of your food budget now. Internet on the road usually is twice or more expensive when traveling. Also campgrounds and such you haven't yet taken into account.

We don't have mobile internet! We just use Wi-Fi when we have it. We havent paid for a single campsite yet, only the free ones - which are much better. For food, while we are being somewhat frugal, we arent trying to save every $ possible. We like eating good!

Starbucks, Chik-fil-a, McDonald's, Hooters, etc = all free internet.

Very cool video guys, I'm just wondering, how do you support yourselves? That's the question for every full timer...

JORDAN & KAYLEE HOW DO YOU BECOME IN THE NOMADIC MOVEMENT, (CALL ME MARIE 1909-461-5737) OR (1909-331-O734)

Yep, you need a wind deflector!

bik2survive you're right moving it to the back would just create more holes and more issues

& use liquid nail as a lock tight.

A wind deflector might indeed work well, but as a mechanical engineer i would highly recommend using bison lock bond or similar to keep your screws from being loosened up from driving vibrations (there are thousands of small and larger vibrations influencing the screws, for those to stay put, this special adhesive really locks them into place. You will need quite some more force once it sets to remove the screws, even tough that still can be hand loosened after application of lock bond, but it will require quite some strength. Also screws should be covered in sealant afterwards on the top of your vehicle. But it needs to be a high quality sealant, as it has to deal with cold, heat, large amount of UV radiation, lots of vibration and lots of water, dirt and so on. Cleaning the area where the sealant will be put on with acetone or cleaning acid (and let that evaporate first before applying the sealing) really means it sticks on better. Better clean it twice and know it is very clean then to have a dirty surface making the sealing not stick at all. Also check the sealant and all other rooftop items at least every two months to see how it holds. Furthermore i would apply dampeners (small rubber rings for instance) under the places where the solar panels are bolted down. The panels are not intended for high vibration places and need to get some help to reduce vibration as much as possible to keep them from cracking/ breaking/ falling apart. You might want to reconsider moving your panels to the back. Having the weight distribution in the van between the wheels is much better, certainly at a high point in the van. Best of luck.

All good ideas that would help the problem, but after thinking about the situation, Ive decided that what I'm going to do with my installation is to reinforce the areas where the brackets mount with a patch of sheet metal welded in place and then weld the brackets to this patch. Prime , paint and this should eliminate the chance of a leak. Since this is on the roof aesthetics are not as important. DePvdM, I will be using your suggestion of vibration isolation between the bracket and solar panel. Good luck guys, hope you get it fixed. It would really suck to have a solar panel become a wing and take off at 60 mph.

You nailed it. Thank you so much

Yeah, that seems very unlikely. My husband and I have a combined grocery bill of $400/month, which includes eating paleo and buying lots of organic! We also live in an expensive country where average grocery cost is higher than the USA!

God bless you bro.

Thanks for the comment. We are trying to fix it ASAP! $15 a day is very comfortable and manageable for us.

No worries!! It was wonderful meeting you guys. We're heading west now but wish you guys happy travels

oh... I forgot. I live in a conversion van and spending over a year n half going to the beach nearly everyday freaking rust developed in no time on the top part they added. I also noticed the lamination on fiber glass areas turned to looking pretty bad. living in California for so long my cars didn't rot this quickly... holy crap. so be careful if you decide to beach it. from my experience in Florida I have several leaks now and top area where TV is and cabinets smell like white mold. ever since I treated the rust with a can of spray the leaks have stopped. sometime very soon I'm going to see if I can treat the mold. I can only smell it if I open those doors. it hasn't grown.

and PS if anyone curious why I haven't looked into the mold issue. I've shined flashlights and no sign of it nor anything wet. I had to solve the leak issues first. there weren't any rust signs and took a long time to figure out where and cause of leaks. then rust formed .. rust spray ironically stopped the leaks. I have no idea what I'm doing... I have lights and power controls to unscrew plus I don't know how to get the ceiling off. I don't want to fuck things up. so next I'm going to go into cabinets and try to remove back area to be able to clean... get a better picture. it isn't a health issue with closed... can barely smell it with cabs open. everything stored up there like DVDs etc are in air tight bags etc. I've heard conversion vans and RVs are very well known to leak. I just hands down know that the Atlantic salt air is at fault for this. things I'm unable to resolved is a super long road trip for me... my #1 mechanic and is very cheap.

Gypsy Jasmyne I really hope us being open and honest about the cost of our van life doesn't hurt this initiative as they are independent from one another. We're big believers in good food and the health benefits of eating local & organic as much as we possibly can. We don't talk much about it because our intention isn't to be pushing animal or environmental rights on people but for us $15 each a day is what we budget because we feel good about the sourcing of food we eat. We wish you all the best with your conversion & really appreciate you taking the time to check out our channel and give us some input :)

The Nomadic Movement I can absolutely get the eating local and fresh! And absolutly understand why your budget in Boston was so ungodly high! (As said I'm a new Englander myself) and I'm all for healthy choices! Hell I'll admit Kaylee has been an inspiration to me with her recipes and excersize routines! Perhaps this initiative will become so great that y'all will get sponsering farms wherever you travel? Wouldn't that be grand!! Thx for your time in responding and your well wishes! Keep rockin it! In love and light,

$2,000 a month is making $24,000 a year. For 2 people. Please be productive enough to do this.

NJO Why thank you, I'm just too lazy to do all that simple math.... I was saying seems because it's an observation based on my own experiences. No need for you to be rude and snarky about it.

NJO is clearly living in his rich parents' guest house ( I would say mom's basement, but he sounds snarky (as you put it) enough to possibly be a rich kid... he doesn't understand poverty, nor why people enter into poverty, including medical reasons, psychological reasons, and just sheer bad luck.. Also, he must not be well educated, at least didn't pay attention in economics class, or he would have learned that in some parts of the country, $2000 a month for full time work is relatively hard to come by without a degree, and as these 2 are working part time jobs that don't require a degree, with youtube on the side, making 20-100 a video, 2 times a week, it would be reasonable to group them as one person's income for the sake of KingTomato's question.

We actually are able to urban camp (stealth camp) quite a bit. The size it just small enough to fit in a parking spot. Other than that, we camp for free in public land, rest stops, casinos, and free campsites! Freecampsites.org is a fantastic reference for finding free spots!

We use final cut pro!!

excellent!! thank you!! -Cheers

woohooO!! good luck :)

James McCarthy lol Im always watching at his girl Lol

You are totally correct. $900 a month for food is way out of line based upon the way the show what they are eating. 900 is like eating out every day.

The front panel is made out of fiberglass and the weight of the solar panel is making an indent from the weight allowing water to pool. Moving to the back will prevent this from happening

The Nomadic Movement double check with an rv center. they've given me free estimates. with no knowledge on the topic it does make sense to put on the back but I've seen others putting in middle and front areas of van.

I'm laughing my ass off over this food bill. I don't know how they managed to spend more on food than my husband and I spend on our entire combined cost of living! I also have several friends in the Boston area who report living frugally yet comfortably on under $30K a year. I'm just like??? It wasn't possible to donwsize your life in MA???? Really???

Jordan was a marketing manager for a restaurant chain and Kaylee was an esthetician

Plant based 90% of the time! It's a transition ;)

I'm just givin ya shit :) When I was "vegan" for a year the only animal food I didn't give up was egg whites and fish. I had no dairy or meat. I still havent eaten red meat in almost 10yrs! It's tough to go good luck!

Definitely. There are plenty of people who have figured out how to live a life more frugally than these two without moving into a van/bus. My husband and I live very comfortably and happily on well under $3k in a regular month (though of course, we do get hit with a surprise bill now and again, but we always have the money to cover it). We both work an average of 20 hrs/week as freelancers and bring in way more than enough to cover our bills. We still rent, but at the rate of saving, should be able to get a property pretty soon, which will only give us more financial leverage in the future. We also have regular access to hot, running water, plenty of kitchen space for cooking. I prefer it to van life!

Not true at all!

chas hastings Not true.

Yup city life is expensive. When you're forced to work 50-60 hours per week cooking is the last thing you want to do.

$45 a day ? You guys couldn't get breakfast at McDonald's for $5 jeeeze :p love your channel btw

I would have accepted like 10 bucks to make, portion out food with plentiful of leftovers if given 1 meal out if it. I happen to be a great cook. I don't know what your jobs were... but I use to work sometimes 80 hours a week and I still found time to cook because no time for a long lunch or eat out. plus most grocery foods suck. one job where 80 hours a week/ 7 days... my transmission went out. I had a cab driver for 3 weeks and made me get up an extra hour early plus a friend in Italy calling me for wake ups. I still fucking cooked for next day... I slept while showering ( once) and in cab until I got a coffee. thank god I got fired from that job. my dog had an emergency and plant manager found out I am gay who hitter up on me... fucking fired me. that's what led me to live in van and take off. but I fucking did it . I'm on beers right now. I'll stop posting.

I had an exhausting physical job. it was no sit down relaxed job. on top of it mental exhausting.... I had like barely any juices left out of me. plus a few bitches ( both sexes) to deal with and sine guy who wore the most god awful Cologne that I was very allergic to.

I eat a lot, bike upwards of 200 miles per week (so I burn a lot of calories), and eat out a few times per month and that has averaged out to $220 spent on food per month this year. Even doubling that for two people, you’re spending twice as much on food as myself. That’s crazy. And I eat about 95% vegetarian/vegan.

You get that money back when you sell? You need to re-read your mortgage, that's not how it works. Mortgages are front loaded. You pay majority interest (not principle) in the early years. This means you build equity much more slowly vs a level payment loan. At the end of a 30 year mortgage (which is standard, but maybe you have a 15 yr or an adjustable, it doesn't matter because it still works the same way) the math comes out the same, but who actually stays in their home for 30 years? With that said, I have a feeling these 2 weren't actually paying a "mortgage" in boston. They probably were paying rent. But I'm basing that on nothing and I could easily be wrong. Haha

The house is a liability not an asset learn this and don't be another sheep ....

We eat mostly plant based but not 100%. It's a transition ;)

$7 for food per day? That's just not possible for us. We're doing 15 per day and think that's pretty cheap ($5 per meal per person).

I feed a family of 3 on 100/week and we eat a lot of food and very healthy. Meal prepping is your friend, eggs are your friend, buying meat only *if* on sale, avoiding expensive produce (avocados), protein powder is 1.25 a meal, beans are cheap af, pasta is cheap af, ramen is incredibly versatile, and we only drink water and milk. Walmart for non-produce items and where we live, "Kroger" for produce items. My average meal cost about $1.50

Oh, also, we go to a laundry mat once a month and it cost us $20, so idk what you guys are doing wrong there but 60 is wtf... & we have way more clothes than you because our son is a dirt magnet.

Lol thank you! I think your question is actually part of a much bigger discussion. Healthy food is more expensive!!

Ha. I get it. The truth is, I spend almost $1,000/month on myself and RARELY eat out. I work out 6-9 times a week (25 full programs via beach body) and very, very health conscious (someone called me "Friday Night Pizza" the other day because I looked good...hahaha...never been called Friday Night Pizza). Keep up the good work.