“MISSOULA, Mont. — ‘Van life’ or ‘van living’ is a term that is becoming more popular around the country. People packing up their lives, moving into a mobile unit and exploring the states.
According to Yahoo Finance, the number of American van lifers has increased by 63% over the last couple of years, going from 1.9 million in 2020, to 3.1 million in 2022.
Jadyn Turnipseed is a young woman who decided she’d rather hit the open road than being tied down to one area.
She has been traveling by van and bus for over a year now. She tells NBC Montana that she fell in love with the lifestyle so much, she bought a bus from Facebook Marketplace and turned it into a permanent home.
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Jadyn’s journeys take her all over. And if she likes the location, she’ll settle down for a couple of months, getting serving jobs to make ends meet.
On average, Jadyn says she barely spends any money compared to living in an apartment. Her only expenses are gas, groceries, laundry, and a gym membership that she pays for to have access to showers.
Jaydyn says this is just an adventure for her, and she is enjoying her freedom.
‘It started out just taking a break from college, and I am just figuring out what I want to do now. I started out doing neuroscience and I really liked it but obviously there are other things I want to try out first,’ said Turnipseed. ‘So, I am just kind of getting into photography and starting to go on social media a bit and it is so much fun, so I am hoping I can go further with that.’
Although Jadyn can choose this lifestyle, that is not the case for everyone.
‘I chose to put my house on the market before the bank chose for me, so that way I knew I would at least make a little something,’ said Michelle Rose.
Three and a half years ago, at the beginning of the pandemic, Michelle Rose was about to lose her Montana home, was having issues with her job, lost her mother, and put everything she owned into a van to live in it permanently.
‘I was like let’s just do this, let’s just sell the house and get on the road and we will figure out things as we go. It has sort of been a by the seat of my pants kind of life,’ said Rose.
Michelle says that finances are the hardest part of van life for her, it is a constant worry and finding work is also challenging.
‘You give up the security of knowing where you are going to sleep every night, having a job, knowing that ‘hey if I want to go out to dinner, I can afford to.’ You give up a lot of those freedoms to get other freedoms. So, it is a what is more important to you kind of deal,’ said Rose.”
-Gibson, K. (2023, August 20). Van life on the rise: Exploring the freedom and challenges of mobile living in America. NBC Montana. https://nbcmontana.com/news/local/van-life-on-the-rise-exploring-the-freedom-and-challenges-of-mobile-living-in-america
I have a complicated relationship with the concept of van life. On one hand, it’s a great way for people to break away from the mold of a normative life, connect to nature, and attempt to lessen their bills. On the other hand, it shows just how expensive it has become for people to live. It’s a seller’s housing market, prices being too high for young people to buy homes on the average income and rent prices are skyrocketing as well. My mom is 56 years old and lives in a duplex that she struggles to afford at 1500 dollars a month. I don’t think she’ll ever be able to retire. But even van lifers run into the problems of the astronomically high cost of living and rising inflation. Gas prices are still over 3 dollars per gallon, car maintenance is expensive, and the cost of converting a van to be more comfortable takes a good amount of green. My dad and my step mom are very outdoorsy people and are interested in selling their house and doing van life one day after they retire. For them, I think this life style would work, as they love to be in nature, travel, and hike. They also have enough money to sustain this lifestyle and my dad is handy enough to convert a van himself. But many people simply can’t afford rent and hope van life is the way out.
I’m not sure yet how this relates to my project directly, but I know it’s important to understand this relationship people have with their car as a home and as a means of traveling and connecting with nature.
