Monday 22 August 2011

Will we be Gypsies?


If all goes to plan we could be living the dream in 10 weeks and looking at the dates Sunday 30th September is when British Summer Time Ends, what better day to start our new life! When you say it like that 10 weeks doesn’t seem very far away at all. We still have a house full of ‘stuff’ we want to sell and not even £400 in the Van fund. I know we can do it, but there still seems like there is so much to organise. We are ‘Car Booting’ this weekend and we are hoping that this is going to boost the fund.

I’ve been thinking about the legalities of living in a van and I’m pretty sure it is not legal! We’re probably going to go to campsites and caravan parks at the weekends when they are open (March-November) and I’m sure that is fine and above board as it is just like any other camping weekend and we will be paying to be on someone’s land. However most of the other time we are going to park up somewhere private and out of the way – we will be based in the countryside so there are plenty of places where we will not be disturbing people.

We are going to be good citizens and we will leave no trace of being there. My other half is going to dispose of any waste water at work (such as washing up water) and I’ve been looking into biodegradable cleaning products such as washing up liquid and toothpaste. The last thing we want to do is make a mess of the beautiful countryside we both love.

The reason we want to live in a van is to save up for our wedding and we hope to do this by not paying rent on a house or all the usual bills. This also means we will not be paying council tax as we will have no permanent address. Does this make us Gypsies/Travellers? Will people hate us for it? We will both still be in full time employment so it is not as if we are sponging off the government and living off benefits. I have been chatting to a journalist who is interested in our story and she has told me to get in touch with Shelter (the charity) who may know about the legalities, so this is my next port of call. I also need to find out how much notice we need to give to move out of our rented house – I think that will make it very real when we have a move our date!

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