Friday, 12 October 2018

Owning A Caravan - Part 2 - the end of the season

12th October 2018

Well it seems there are lots of you who have read the first blog post I wrote about owning a Caravan, over 7000 of you and I've been asked to write a follow up post.

This a link to Part 1 here
https://solstice-days.blogspot.com/2018/07/a-fleet-van-or-spend-spend-spend.html

It is now the end of the caravan season and it is when the bills come in, site fees, gas/electric etc and lots of you are realising that you can't afford it, or the children are grown up, there are many reasons why you don't want to own a caravan anymore...

At the end of the season last year, even though we had let out all season and only stayed just one week in our own caravan, there was still a shortfall of £1,571, which we had to pay off at £314 month from October to April, it was a struggle...that was as well as the finance each month....

Yes, we could have let private but hubby's job included working weekends and we did not want the hassle of private lets / keycodes / finding a trustworthy cleaner etc.

In January this year, I did a budget like Martin Lewis suggests and with household bills and caravan bills to pay for, we were left with just 10p a month, so something had to be done and we decided that at the end of the season that it was going to be sold back to the company we bought from.

But after we went on holiday, we had had enough paying out just for other people to enjoy our caravan so in July we sold the van back to the company, even though we were just 20 months into an 84 months agreement and the finance was paid off, so there is nothing left from the sale of the caravan, yes you lose out moneywise, but get peace of mind that you don't owe anything towards the halfway point and are no longer tied to a finance deal for the next seven years.

After writing the blogpost I joined a facebook page, which has grown so much it is now an Action Group, as there are so many horror stories at what is happening on holidays parks, which I can't name for obvious reasons.

Useful links:
Thinking of buying a caravan? Already own a caravan? There are people in the same situation who will understand, then please get in touch with the Action group, a facebook page with lots of useful info