Travelling well
Leaving money troubles behind,
Living the ‘‘van life’’ has made 2017 one of the greatest years of Jackie Norman’s life.
Norman earned her keep as the frugal living columnist ‘‘Penny Wise’’ for the Simple Savings online thrift club, but late last year she got off the mortgage treadmill, sold her Whangamata home, and has spent almost a year travelling the length of the country.
In a modified Mazda Bongo Brawny, she bid goodbye to heavy monthly mortgage payments and having to utilise her frugal living skills to the maximum to make her way from bill to bill.
Instead she set off with fiance Gareth Scurr on a journey that’s taken them from Northland to Gore. Initially, the idea was to find a plot of land on which to build a ‘‘tiny’’ home, but now neither of them want their van life to end, and the search for land is on hold.
Norman sold her possessions, and headed out onto the road in a lifestyle change so dramatic she recalls her own disbelief as the couple pulled away from outside her old home.
‘‘I thought, what the hell am I doing?’’
But she also revelled in the freedom from the constant struggle to pay a mortgage on one salary, and found there were many others living mobile lives. like the one she’d chosen.
‘‘There were heaps of people just like us, who had sold their home and everything they owned in exchange for a life on the road. People from all ages, from all walks of life.
‘‘Some had been doing it just a few weeks; others for decades, but not a single one had any fears or regrets,’’ she says.
‘‘Nobody missed living in a regular house, or any of the stuff they had gotten rid of. Also like us, after living so freely, none of them wanted to ever go back to paying high rents or mortgages, or power bills again.’’
‘‘I don’t miss rates at all.’’ Norman has given up her thrift writing, but not her thrifty lifestyle. ‘‘I’m living it more than ever now,’’ she says.
There’s no temptation to buy stuff as there is nowhere to keep it.
Just like the tiny home movement, van living has become something of a counter-culture around the world, with individuals who have opted not to currently own or rent a house sharing their stories on social media.
It’s more often a lifestyle of people in their 20s, or for retirees, though they tend to go for motorhomes, not vans. Many, however, have sold up their homes, and are true ladies and gentlemen of the road.
It’s very much a user pays lifestyle, Norman says. Van livers pay only for what they use, and buy only what they need. The rolling stone gathers little moss. Other than the unwillingly homeless, there would be few people who own less than they do.
In a curious parallel to the housing market, many fellow travellers assume the couple will trade up, and swap their Mazda for something bigger, and better, like a full-blown motorhome.
‘‘We started small because we were saving our money to buy land,’’ Norman says. ‘‘Now we are used to it. We don’t see the point in anything bigger.’’
There are also sometimes the false assumptions that plague house-dwellers, though mostly they come not for fellow travellers.
‘‘People think you must have no money, or be unemployed to live this way,’’ she says.
Norman continues to earn her living from writing, and is a regular columnist for Motorhomes, Caravans and Destinations magazine.
The urge to put down roots, and to be salting aside wealth for retirement, have faded.
‘‘I stressed about it for a little while. As humans we feel like we need a base somewhere to call home.’’
The best things about her year of van living are freedom, simplicity, time, the places she visits, and the people she meets.
The worst: rain, condensation (before they solved the problem with a dehumidifier), masses of tourists swamping some spots, and just sometimes, the people she meets.
Currently they are in Gore and Norman says they love Southland and its people. The winter didn’t prove a challenge at all once they’d dealt to the damp from sleeping in a small space with just the two of them, and their dog Minnie.
‘‘It’s easier to warm a van than it ever was to warm a house,’’ she says.
ROAD TRIP ON REWIND
Excerpts from Jackie Norman’s blog, showing the highs and lows of life on the road.
OCTOBER 2017: ‘‘We’re coming up to 11 months in our little home on wheels and are happier than ever. As you may have gathered by now, we meet a LOT of people and that’s one of the things that you need to be prepared to do when undertaking this lifestyle.’’
AUGUST: ‘‘After almost 300 days in a van we’re starting to feel a wee bit feral. I think our families would probably disown us if they saw us at the moment! At the very least, they probably wouldn’t want to stand too close!’’
JULY: ‘‘We’ve learned a heck of a lot these past nine months. It makes us laugh now, to think how green we were at the start! We carted around way too much stuff and poor Gareth would have to climb onto the roof and unload a heap of things every time we arrived at a new place, then heave it all back up there again when it was time to leave.’’
MAY: ‘‘Cold is actually not a problem, we don’t mind the cold because we’re prepared for it and it’s beautiful when the sun shines. It’s rain which makes things the most challenging. It really, really sucks when everything is wet – you’re wet, everything you’re wearing is wet, every towel you own is wet, you’re trying not to get the bedding wet and you don’t have any way of getting anything dry.’’
APRIL: ‘‘I feel a sense of peace these days that I have never felt before. It’s like - if I were to kick the bucket tomorrow, at least I feel like I have really done something with my life.’’
MARCH: ‘‘I saw some photos of our old house at the weekend. It looked so huge and the garden enormous! Do I miss it? Nope, not for a second. You miss people, not things. Most houses are filled with stuff you just don’t need. More garden to weed, more space to clean. Who on earth would miss that?
FEBRUARY: ‘‘When I cast my mind back over the past few years and all the loneliness, all the unhappiness, all the desperation, I can hardly believe this is me, that this is my life.’’
JANUARY: ‘‘When the roads are this enjoyable to drive and the scenery this spectacular, I can just keep going all day! We saw so, so many beautiful places, in the end Gareth was jokingly begging for mercy. ‘Please, no more views! I need a break from taking photos!’ By the end of last night he had tallied over 300 photos, just in one day!’’
DECEMBER/NOVEMBER 2016: ‘‘Leaving was never going to be easy. And (yet) 24 hours later I was no longer a woman hopelessly drowning in debt and endless bills, whose card had been declined $18 for fish and chips the day before. I was debt free!’’