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• Caravan - £unsure yet
• Insurance
• Storage - £300-400?
• Annual servicing

• Suitable Towcar
• Suitable driving licence
• Accessories (some essential, others are optional)
• Increased fuel consumption
• Extra pitch fees
• Using it more often

When you choose a caravan, there are two ways to look at it. One option is to go for a cheap one to see if you like it with the option of upgrading quickly or the other is to pay a bit more for the caravan you really want. Either way is a gamble.

If you get the cheap one you will end up spending money on it to keep it going.

If you spend the extra and decide caravanning is not for you, you stand to lose more if you want to sell it on.

Insurance really depends on the value of the caravan.

Storage you are not far away with, but it varies greatly depending on the area.

Annual servicing depending on the caravan and if any additional work needs doing you can reckon on around £150 plus.

Insurance is not essential, but is recomended. Most storage sites insist on it. Servicing, again is not a legal requirement but is highly recomended. Most insurance companies insist on it. So if you have to use a storage site, you will probably need both. I had my driveway concreted and bought a motor mover which paid for itself in two years by the saving on storage fees alone.

Then you get the other things. Will your car tow a caravan. Will your licence permit the weight of the outfit (if you passed your test before 1997, it's not an issue). Do you need a towbar or extra electrics connecting up?

The accessories also add up. An awning can cost from £100 up to £1000 depending on size and quality. Of course, you don't have to have an awning but there are other things you will need.

Aquaroll (or similar), Waste container, Hook-Up lead. There will be a lot of stuff you already have but you will be amazed the ammount of extra stuff you will want. Our first trip in our caravan was spent driving between the caravan and the local dealer buying more things that we didn't have.

That is before you even think about a reversing course or a motor mover...

I never said caravanning cannot be done on the cheap. What I meant was that our £2500 caravan has proven to be a false economy. Every time we use it I find another job that needs doing and more money needs spending on it. If you buy a caravan for a few hundred pounds, the chances are it will need tyres, servicing and probably have numerous faults that were not first apparent. The cost of repairing a few faults can quickly cause the cost to spiral, rendering your "cheap" caravan a very expensive one in a very short period, but still worth very little.

While there are good cheap caravans around, there are a lot of money pits around too.

Quote: Originally posted by saftlad on 02/5/2011

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Hi all,

Have just come back from a long weekend with family in a tent, where the wife was quite contentedly sitting in the sun and admiring many a pleasant van with a glass of wine in her hand.

Now before she goes getting any ideas, I'd like to get prepared and try to get some costs together for when she suggest we get ourselves something suitable.

All I know of is:

• Caravan - £unsure yet
• Insurance
• Storage - £300-400?
• Annual servicing

What else do I need to consider when getting my budget sorted?

We'd be looking at getting a 4-berth so that we can take the kids along (5yo & 10yo).

Thanks

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I like you am new to caravaning upgraded from a tent last june i bought a  cheep van for 1k and had it for 3 months, it was only 13ft  internally  but 5 berth an1992 model. lovely just what we needed to start. We decided we liked caravaning and upgraded in September to a 475 elddis advantage 2003 its only a few feet bigger but has hot water and again a 5 berth, we have a dorema awning and sleeping annex which doubles the size. Its a lovely van and would cost about 5k its a lightweight van and ideal as a starter van and a doddle to tow. Look on e bay there are good deals to be had. Take someone who has a caravan with you if you go and look at one and dont be affraid to look under the seats and behind curtains for damp, check the floor. check everything works. You tend to get what yopu pay for. You also tend to find they sell all the extras you need  complete with the van like,

pump approx £50, aqua roll £45, wasthog £45, electric hook up £30, alko stabiliser £300,battery step, awning,it all adds up to a few hundred for essentials

Insurance for my van cost £120 with the caravan club, they were by far the cheepest but you have to pay the  membership fee approx £35 pa   

If your new to towing and your going to spend 5k I think insurance is a must

I went away 8 or 9 times last year from june to nov, and will be away at least once a month this year. If your not going to get much use out of the van then dont buy one stick to camping. As a family of 5 we love it. I learn something new everytime we go but to be honest if we have a prob seasoned caravaners have helped and given us advice. l hope this has helped you good luck

I agree with UK Tech, I looked for over a year for my monza van, it was brilliant I found it just a few miles away and sold if for what I had paid for it  just what I needed to break me in.