We’ve saved £30k a year by switching up our three-bed for a tiny caravan – anyone can do it and the kids love it too
WHEN Nikki Collinson-Phenix, 46, left the UK to travel the globe in a caravan with her husband and their two children, she had no idea what lay ahead.
Nearly two years on, Nikki reveals how their outgoings are now just £400 a month – and they have no plans to return home any time soon.
Looking at the dazzling firework display over the harbour, my family and I were in awe.
It was New Year’s Eve 2021, and my husband Ian, 49, and children Laanii, then nine, and Raif, four, were three months into our new life, travelling around the world in a six-berth caravan called Suzy, having left our three-bed semi-detached home on the Isle of Wight.
Growing up in a single-parent family, I never went on holiday, and didn’t go abroad until my 20s.
But then, after backpacking through Asia, Africa, Australia and New Zealand, I caught the travel bug and vowed I’d give any future kids the childhood I never had.
Ian and I met in 2013 when my daughter Laanii was 18 months old, and almost immediately I told him my plan to see the world, though he thought I was mad.
But I felt like a hamster on a wheel in my job as a chiropractor, with no way out until retirement.
So, after our son Raif was born in May 2017, I started to work on our exit strategy.
I had a good career, but as I couldn’t do my job on the road, in February 2019, I set myself up as an online business mentor in health and wellness.
Ian had a successful carpentry business, but around the same time, he decided he wanted a career change.
Suddenly, he was asking when we could go off on our adventures!
An avid runner, he realised he could earn money by doing running coaching online while we were on the move.
Our parents were very supportive when we told them our plans, though some people said we were crazy to uproot the children, but I knew travelling would give them the kind of education they wouldn’t get from school.
We pledged to keep travelling as long as the kids were happy.
Setting a date for April 2021, we focused on creating our new jobs. Everything was going well until the pandemic hit.
But in a break between lockdowns, in September 2021, we took the opportunity to set off in our new caravan, which we’d bought for £14,000 after selling our old one for £10,000.
We rented out our house, which covered the mortgage and maintenance, but not much more.
We felt content knowing it would be there for us if we decided to come home.
Laanii was full of excitement for our adventure, but Raif was too young to really understand.
We had no plan, other than to work and school the children in the mornings, so we could all explore in the afternoons.
Straight away, we knew we’d done the right thing.
Within days, we’d visited the Normandy landings beaches and seen the Bayeux Tapestry, experiencing things we’d only read about or seen in films.
Our freedom gave us the life we’d always dreamed of, filling our kids with wonder.
Though, of course, there were challenges, too.
Laanii and I are vegetarians, so we had to learn to cook using new ingredients wherever we were that week.
Staying in our caravan, with brief spells in Airbnbs and some longer stints house-sitting, we connected with some amazing communities.
We travelled down through France to Spain.
We spent time in Croatia, then it was over to Portugal, back through Spain, France, Italy and into Slovenia.
We couldn’t stay more than 90 days in some European countries because of the post-Brexit visa restrictions.
But they don’t apply in Balkan countries, so we slowed right down there and really absorbed the culture.
In April and May we were in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Montenegro, Serbia and Bulgaria, then June and July featured Hungary, Austria and Germany.
We travelled back to France, Belgium, Luxembourg, the Czech Republic and Slovakia, and on to Romania for three months, rounding off 2022 with two wonderful months in Turkey.
This year, so far we’ve been to Greece, Macedonia, Kosovo and North Macedonia, and now we’re back in Bulgaria, where we plan to stay for several months.
But it’s not just a list of 24 countries or clocking up miles for the sake of it – it’s the experiences we’ve had on the way.
Highlights have been seeing wild bears in Romania, listening to jackals at night in Bulgaria, fulfilling Laanii’s dream of visiting the Spanish Riding School in Vienna and travelling through Greece, as she loves Greek mythology.
And we will never forget being in Turkey after the devastating earthquake earlier this year, which killed more than 50,000 people.
We helped the aid mission, and were even presented with a special award by the mayor of Fethiye.
Our life now costs a fraction of what it did in the UK.
When you live in a caravan, you realise time and experiences are more important than material items.
With the ongoing cost of living crisis, it’s been perfect.
We’ve got solar panels on our caravan, so there are no electricity bills, and we have an LPG gas system for heating and cooking, which we can fill up for very little at petrol stations.
Currently, we’re staying at a beautiful campsite for free, as Ian works as a site warden 16 hours a week on a “workaway” agreement, trading his time for our accommodation and utilities, which also means there aren’t issues with work visas.
Income-wise, we initially took around a 50% cut to go travelling, but our online businesses are doing brilliantly now, so we’re pretty much earning what we did before, and I’m not shelling out £1,000 a month for the business rent and insurance I had at home.
Our monthly outgoings now are around £400, compared to £3,000 in the UK.
We’ve learned to live better, richer lives for much less.
We’ve also got three online shops on Etsy and Amazon selling stationery, and we get the children involved so they can develop their entrepreneurial skills, which is something they wouldn’t have done back home.
The kids have missed their friends, but they stay connected to them online, and they have made loads of new friends who have a similar lifestyle.
Laanii does online lessons with a school based in Edinburgh, but I realised quite early that she was missing her Cub Scout group.
So I created Global Trailblazing, a social network where children from all over the world get together via Google Meet video three times a week to share anything from gymnastics to first aid.
My mum and stepdad have been out to visit, as has Ian’s dad, and they immediately understood why we’re doing this.
As a couple, we’re happier. We might have to get creative with intimacy, but travelling has made us less stressed and more of a team.
September will mark two years being on the road, and we have no plans to go home.
I’m so glad I made my dream become reality, it’s the best thing we’ve ever done.