Vagabondette

January 2022 FIRE Report

vagabondette — Tue, 08 Feb 2022 13:19:56 +0000

This month was pretty brutal for the market. Lots of ups and downs. Even with contributing almost $4500, my net worth still dropped. It’s annoying to watch, but better now than after I FIRE, and I’m looking at it as an opportunity to buy on sale. I may not be making progress now, but when the market reverts, the money I’m putting in now will give me a big chunk ahead. But months like this are why you plan for Sequence of Return Risk and build up a bond tent.

Quick Stats

Contributions:

$4,450

Dividends:

$127.33

PovertyFI:

7 Months

LeanFI:

31 Months

RegularFI:

52 Months

Note: For the purposes of my calculations, these are the definitions I use:

Poverty Fire – This is the lowest amount I could live on. It’s my current average spend.
Lean Fire – This is Poverty Fire + 50%.
Regular Fire – This is Poverty Fire x 2.

January 2022 Van Life Expenses – $1,116.86

vagabondette — Fri, 04 Feb 2022 15:22:40 +0000

Month two in the van was much more like I expected van life would be. I’ve started creating a google map of parkups with good internet and I spent some time going back to some of my favorite places. I moved a lot less, often spending 2-4 days per location, and I liked that pace a lot more. I’ve been floating around the area between Cartagena and Malaga because I’ve been waiting for some friends to arrive, so I’ve discovered quite a few great locations in the mean time and have gotten better at avoiding the messy hordes.

As anticipated, my expenses were lower this month. They were still higher than I would prefer, but I had several hundred in one-off van expenses, which inflated the number a good chunk. Without those, I’d have been well within my spending targets.

Countries Visited This Month

Spain

Spending Breakdown

Charity $127.84

My goal is to have about 10% of my monthly spend go to charity each month. I’m not religious so it’s not a tithe thing, it just seems like a reasonable number. All the money went to Bansko Street Dogs again. This month I did the Betty White challenge and donated $5 for her birthday and matched an additional $100 in donations that other people made.

Cooking Gas $0

As expected, my purchases from last month got me through January.

Gas & Fuel $171.08

This amount is MUCH better and much more in line with what I’d like it to be. Since I wasn’t doing huge long drives, it helped a ton.

Groceries $267.36

Again, this seems like a much better amount to have spent this month. Not sure if groceries are just cheaper here or what? I have been fasting more, so of course that helps.

Hotel $17.87

For various reasons, I spent one night in a hotel. I used one of my free nights on hotels.com so I just had to pay a little bit of the cost, which was nice. Honestly, the bed was SUPER comfortable (hello bamboo mattress, who knew?!), and the unlimited hot water was great, but otherwise, I really missed being in my van. I definitely missed the quiet of the van when I had to listen to people being loud in the hallways.

Misc Expenses $61.51

This month I pulled the van specific expenses out into their own category. I think that just makes more sense. This amount covered my netflix charge for the month as well as my laundry expenses and I still have a good chunk of cash left over.

Mobile Phone $22.73

The data bonus that Orange provides means I can get much smaller data plans, which is a great money saver.

Restaurants $108.82

Again, a much more reasonable number. Of course the biggest part of this was dinner at a single expensive restaurant that was nice and the food was good, but the portions were so small, I was still starving at the end. $35 and I had literally 10 bites of food. It was so not worth it. lol

Tolls $0

Yay for no toll roads!

Van Expenses $339.65

Without these expenses, my monthly spend would have been much more on target, but all of them were worth it. I bought the following:

A pressurized solar shower – Dumping bottles of water over my head was just not working to get the job done. I was frequently left with soap still in my hair, which is just gross. The one I got works great and helps a lot with staying clean.
A portable jump battery – The one I got is small. It fits in the palm of my hand, but it works great for a van my size. I’d already had to get a jump once and I didn’t want to risk it again, especially since I’m frequently in places with few people so getting help would be difficult. I’ve already had to use it and it worked immediately so it’s already paid for itself and it makes me feel a lot more comfortable about going remote.
Window film installation – I pretty regularly park in areas where others are walking buy. I really hated having my window shades up all the time or leaving them down and feeling like I was in a fish bowl. So, I had dark tint applied to my back and side door window. It makes a HUGE difference. I can be inside and not feel like everyone is looking in at me. I can use the bathroom without having to put my back shades up and down. It was well worth the money. I also had protective film installed on my front two windows. Smash and grabs are really common in southern europe and I’ve been paranoid about it since I have a lot of stuff in my van. This film will stop a casual thief as it would take a LOT of effort to get past the film and actually into my van. It was expensive but now I feel a lot more comfortable in my van and leaving it parked places to go explore the area.

So, I feel pretty good about this month. It’s still technically over what I’d like to spend, but without the van expenses, I would have been at $777 for the month, which I think is really reasonable and sustainable.

Vanlife Mornings

vagabondette — Sun, 09 Jan 2022 13:53:00 +0000

So far, my morning routine is one of my favorite parts of van life. I generally wake up pretty early and that this time of year, that means it’s still dark. When I’m in a place that allows for it (ex: not in a parking lot in the middle of a city), when I wake I put my small table next to my passenger side sliding door out, and set up my small cooker. I then proceed to make cups of tea and watch the day unfold. Sipping a cup of tea and watching the sunrise develop is a great way to start the day. Occasionally I get to wish good morning to some people out walking their dogs, but usually it feels like I’m the only person awake in the world and the peace is great.

December 2021 FIRE Report

vagabondette — Fri, 07 Jan 2022 13:42:27 +0000

Quick Stats

Contributions:

$4,888

Dividends:

$714.85

PovertyFI:

7 Months

LeanFI:

31 Months

RegularFI:

52 Months

Note: For the purposes of my calculations, these are the definitions I use:

Poverty Fire – This is the lowest amount I could live on. It’s my current average spend.
Lean Fire – This is Poverty Fire + 50%.
Regular Fire – This is Poverty Fire x 2.

December 2021 Van Life Expenses – $1,854.86

vagabondette — Thu, 06 Jan 2022 18:00:06 +0000

December was my first full month doing van life. It was quite an adjustment and a bit of a different situation than I’ll normally be in, so my expenses were significantly higher than I normally would expect them to be. I moved a lot this month and was still getting everything set up, which contributed to the increased costs. I also ate out a lot because I didn’t have a camp stove for half the month. I expect that going forward my expenses will be lower.

Despite the flood of outgoing money, I really enjoyed my first month in the van. I spent a good chunk of it in Italy, and that was a learning experience. Mostly what I learned was that being in Italy in winter sucks. It was cold and wet most days so once I found out I wasn’t going to be house sitting in Switzerland for Christmas and New Year, I made a break for Spain to get to the warm and sun as soon as I could.

I stayed in a lot of different kinds of park-ups. I found quite a few on Park4Night, but some I found on my own. I expect I’ll get better at that as I get more used to things. I stayed mostly in places on the coast, but I did spend some time inland in the mountains, which was nice. Being able to go completely off grid on weekends was great. It’ll be amazing once Starlink goes mobile. Then I can really get away!

By the end of December I got pretty far south on the coast of Spain and the number of camper vans was just overwhelming. Row after row, generally in places they’re not supposed to be, doing things they’re not supposed to be doing, and leaving behind a mess. It was a bit depressing, to be honest. That’s not the kind of van life I want to live. So, I turned to the mountains around Granada and finished out the year there. I’m hoping that after the holidays the coasts will clear up a bit. If not, I may head back up the coast a bit to where it’s a bit cooler, but a lot quieter. I miss being the only person on the beach.

Countries Visited This Month

Italy
France
Spain

Spending Breakdown

Charity $210.16

I want to start giving more to charity. Some friends founded a dog rescue in Bansko called Bansko Street Dogs and they’re doing great work with very few resources. They will be the focus of my donations for a while. This amount included a donation made in my mom’s name for her Christmas present and some money given to give survival packs to homeless people.

Cooking Gas $63.89

This is abnormally high. I had to play some trial and error and I bought multiple cans. I expect this will last me most of January as well.

Gas & Fuel $396.95

As an American who hasn’t really filled up a gas tank in 20+ years, I find gas prices in Europe to be appalling. Italy seems to be especially expensive, though I know there are more expensive countries out there and they’ll make me cringe when I get to them. This is much higher than I hope it normally is. A combination of moving a lot, moving quickly, and being in Italy inflated the spend. It’ll be interesting to see what the average monthly spend ends up being.

Groceries $363.11

This also seems high to me, especially given how much I ate out this month. But, I don’t really shop sales and some of this included staples that I needed to get things set up in the van and stuff like laundry detergent, etc.

Hotel $69.16

I had one driving day that was just shit. It was a series of unfortunate events that turned a 4 hour driving day into an almost 8 hour one and included a detour through a snow storm. When I got to where I’d planned to spend the night, it was bucketing rain. I just couldn’t handle it so I decided to splash out on a night in a hotel. Ironically, I slept so much better in my van! But, it was nice to take an unlimited water hot shower and everyone needs an occasional splurge!

Laundry 21.57

Pretty self-explanatory. I found a great laundry place in France and spent the afternoon getting everything all fresh and clean.

Misc Expenses 350.98

The biggest part of this was spent on buying a two burner camp stove and a table so cooking outside was easier. This also includes my netflix bill and 1 month of Orange mobile and the rest was spent just on random stuff that I needed to use cash for.

Mobile Phone $51.08

Again, self-explanatory but I had to get 2 plans as, for whatever reason, my Italian plan randomly stopped working earlier than it should have.

Restaurants $215.12

Another expense that was higher than I anticipate it will normally be. I didn’t have a way to cook for half the month, so all of my meals were eaten out. Then, when I arrived in Spain, I had to treat myself to some tapas and wine. This should go down in future months.

Tolls 112.84

Once it was established that I could leave Italy, I wanted to move as quickly as I could to get to the warm weather. This meant a lot of toll roads. This should be pretty much non-existent going forward unless I have to do another big relocation.

All-in-all, it’s a lot higher than I would like or plan for, but I think it’s an anomaly and costs will drop pretty drastically in coming months. After a couple months I’ll start to post averages.

13 Years Of Nomading

vagabondette — Sat, 11 Dec 2021 14:04:00 +0000

By November 2008 I had finally admitted to myself that the “American Dream” lifestyle was not for me. I started trying to figure out how to make money online so I could work while traveling. Digital Nomading wasn’t even a phrase back then. By early December, I was consistently making $600/month in passive income from Adsense and Affiliate programs. I’d calculated that I could live off of that amount while backpacking in Latin America, so I pulled the trigger and hit the road for a 1 year backpacking trip through Central and South America. Nothing went as I planned and 13 years later, I don’t regret it a bit.

While my travel lifestyle has changed a lot, particularly moving into a van this year, I can’t ever imagine spending the rest of my life in one place. I’m not sure what the next 13 years will bring, but I am certain it’ll be interesting.

November 2021 FIRE Report

vagabondette — Tue, 07 Dec 2021 12:58:00 +0000

Quick Stats

Contributions:

$4,513

Dividends:

$164.02

PovertyFI:

9 Months

LeanFI:

33 Months

RegularFI:

54 Months

Note: For the purposes of my calculations, these are the definitions I use:

Poverty Fire – This is the lowest amount I could live on. It’s my current average spend.
Lean Fire – This is Poverty Fire + 50%.
Regular Fire – This is Poverty Fire x 2.

Pretty sure italy has more roundabouts than anywhere else on the planet

vagabondette — Wed, 01 Dec 2021 08:10:49 +0000

Things I learned in my first week of vanlife

vagabondette — Sun, 28 Nov 2021 08:08:00 +0000

Running pipe insulation around the rim of my poop pot helps with comfort a LOT. I’m still constructing a stool situation vs sitting directly on the pot, but the current setup works fine. Using a metal pot this time to avoid any absorbed odors.
My plastic juice jug continues to work perfectly for a pee bottle as a woman. It requires less upkeep than a she wee and is easier to use with less chance of messing up.
Using decorative pillow covers for my extra blankets works great. I use them to lean against while working/relaxing, they look nice, and it reduces storage space needed.
A waterproof mattress cover is a must. Thursday I set a bag on my bed and chicken juice seeped through to my mattress. That was gross.
The mattress pad I got at ikea is actually not bad to sleep on. I don’t feel the bed slats, just a sense of “hard”. unfortunately my back has had problems since I got into the van and I think it’s lack of support while sleeping, so I got a new mattress yesterday. It’s definitely going to require some additional modifications to fit the space correctly.
Buying a van with the passenger seat removed already was amazing. I saved a ton of time and opened up an huge amount of storage space. I have no idea why people with micro campers who are solo leave in their 2nd seat.
I’m regretting bringing my folding ebike. It takes up a lot of space and doesn’t easily fit anywhere. It’s such a pain to get in and out that using it is not enticing.
My ecoflow delta is working well but solar is definitely not enough juice this time of year to keep it fully loaded so I had to rearrange things to have it reach the 12v charger up front to charge while I’m driving.
Fuzzy blankets rule the world. last night was my first really chilly night and i still only needed one fuzzy blanket to keep me comfortable.
The modular sofa/bed conversion plan is out the window. I did it for 2 nights before I was well over it. Full time bed it is. Now I just have to build a full time solution vs the rigged situation I have now.

#vanlife Has Begun

vagabondette — Sun, 21 Nov 2021 07:47:00 +0000

Yep! I got a van. In fact, I’ve had it for a couple months. But between procrastination and crap weather, I was making minimal progress in actually moving into van life full time. I think part of me was internally freaked out. In the end, I decided to make plans to visit with some friends in Split to light a fire under my butt and get me onto the road. I spent my first night parked in an abandoned camp ground on the shore looking across at Korcula. Seemed a fitting way to end a month on the island and a great way to start van life.

The plan I hoped to follow has always been to park up, go for a walk, chill/work at night, crash, go for a walk in the morning, then head out. That’s exactly what happened, and it felt great. I still have a good chunk of work to do before things are running smoothly, but I’m happy with the start.