We quit our jobs to live in £13k van and travel the world – renting out our house helps us to cash-in and hit the road
A COUPLE has quitted their jobs to live in a £13,000 van and travel the world – while renting out their house has helped them to cash in and hit the road.
Sammy and Chris Hoar, both 30, bought their Ford Transit in May 2021 – and have visited around 12 countries in the last five months.
The pair fell in love with van life after renting a camper when they went on holiday to New Zealand in 2018.
After buying their first van in October 2018, the couple knew it was the life for them and bought their now permanent home-on-wheels two years ago.
The adventurous pair didn’t skimp on spending, forking out £10k on installing a heating system, solar panels, a shower and a lounge area to make their van feel more like a home.
Sammy, a former business owner turned content creator from Plymouth, Devon, said: “Chris came from work and said we’d found a van that we had been working for.
“He told me to have an open mind, and we drove five hours there and back to Bradford, West Yorkshire, to collect it.
“We have always loved to travel, and we love adventure.
“We had our own house, Chris was an engineer, I was a business owner, and we were very established.
“To give all that up was a shock to some people, but we longed for adventure.
Sammy stopped running her business in December 2021, and Chris quit his job as an engineer and on-call fireman in March 2023.
But, they moved into their van in January 2022 after renting their house.
Chris, a former engineer turned content creator from Plymouth, Devon, said: “It is so freeing waking up in a different location.
“The feasibility of moving on if you don’t like somewhere is great.
“It is freedom, and it makes you live so much more in the present day.
“When you are at home doing 9-5, you are constantly thinking about the next hour, the next day and life is so fast-paced.
“When we come back to visit friends and family, we get overwhelmed very quickly.”
The couple said they have no plans to settle down soon and are already planning their next big adventure with their cocker spaniel, Fletcher, four, by their side.
Sammy continued: “It is a completely open-ended book for us. We don’t plan far ahead nowadays.
“With van life, things can change quite quickly, and because we have so much freedom and options, it is hard to have a direct plan.
“We have completely and utterly fallen in love with this life. We are not ready to change this lifestyle anytime soon,
“We are content with it and want to stay in it as soon as possible.
“We have our next big adventure pending, where we will be travelling up Scandinavia, visiting Norway, Sweden, Finland and the Arctic Circle.
“At the moment, we are in the phase of getting back home and getting things organised as it is such a big trip, we need to get the van prepared.”