Accommodation
If are not receiving housing benefit paying for accommodation is probably your main expense. There are other related disbursements too: council tax, television licence and utility bills. If you share the accommodation you may have little control over some issues such as when the heating is on and whether you should contribute to a stupid sky subscription that you may have no interest in.
There are alternatives. I live in a motorhome and know people who live a canal boat, leisure boat, van, vardo (Romany caravan) and an allotment shed. Yes an allotment shed!
Consider what you actually need to live somewhere. A bed, a chair, insulation, space heating, shower area, some hot water, cooking facilities, lighting, fresh water, waste water, sewerage, enough electricity to run a portable TV / DVD player / radio and most important to charge a mobile phone.
If like me you hope to return to the suited professions when possible you will need somewhere to store your office uniforms (suits), glorified lunchbox (brief case) and your important documents .
Motorhomes
The prices of motorhomes have diversified immensely since the start of the recessions. Smaller ones have risen sharply because they can be used instead of a car and for cheaper UK based family holidays. Big old gas guzzlers (like mine) are worth practically nothing. This is because of the price of fuel and insurance.
Some of these are fully loaded with generators air conditioning and LPG powered fridge-freeze, space heaters and water heaters. Make sure you can get a reasonable insurance quote before you buy.
Motorhomes and caravans are designed with a number of berths and seating in mind. The problem is that its quantity not quality. There are loads of places to sleep but none very comfortable. If you design your own living space you can choose a proper bed and a nice arm chair.
A pre 1973 model is an historic vehicle and is road tax exempt. You still need the paper disk in the windscreen but it is free. There are very few on the road now. Most common are the Bedford Debonair/Romany/Dormobile models.
There are a lot of motorhomes based on a transit or Bedford truck chassis. They are mostly 15 foot 6 inches. Some have showers some don’t. These are the absolute minimum you can live in.
If you sleep in your motorhome after drinking that can be a problem. If the police want to make trouble for you drunk driving would be their easiest way. Have your door key an ignition keys on different rings and hide the ignition key. Give a friend a spare ignition key and if the police ask they have the ignition key.
Parking motorhomes
A nice little bit of private land is the best option. Failing that park and rides, council car parks and industrial estates are OK. Park and rides are generally free because they assume you are going to take the bus. Most conurbations have an industrial park and these have roads to factories that were never built or are disused. At some point the police will turn up and give you the once over. They will have already checked that you have an MOT, road tax and insurance and your criminal record. When you open the door a drugs dog might run in and sniff about for a few seconds. If the police don’t understand your life style they assume you are a drugs dealer.
Canal boats
These are now quite expensive for what they are. You also have to pay mooring fees, pump out fees etc. At the very least you will need a long term licence. That’s £488.89 a year for a boat less than 18’. The table of charges is:
www.canalrivertrust.org.uk/media/library/2673.pdf.
I think you still have to move the boat every two weeks if you have not got a mooring though.
I have several friends who live a good life living on canal boats. Most have solid fuel stoves one has that pinnacle of middle aged aspiration, an AGA.
Boats on rivers have usually had to pay fees too. Unless they are the seaward side of a weir in which case mooring is usually free. You may have trouble getting to your boat depending on the tide though. This needs careful consideration.
Leisure boats
Conversely these are now fantastically cheap. People simply cannot afford their hobbies any more. Some can be changed to a liveable configuration by the installation of a bed and shower. The other costs will be the same as canal boat.
Vans
Converting a van to live in is more work but you have the advantage of anonymity. Nobody notices a white van. They are cheap too thanks to the recessions/depression. If you get a job where you have to live away from home you won’t have to pay for four/five nights a week in an hotel. If you really want to be below the radar you will need a method of heating that is silent and smokeless. You can get theses from scrapped caravans. They run on gas and have a small 12v fan. Solar panels and roof lights can be fitted on the roof disguised by 50mm perimeter.
Most central car parks have a height barrier of 2.1 meters. This limits the head height. Can you hack being stooped over all the time, or is it better to have a van with standing height and park outside of the town centre?
Who knows what’s going on inside the van ?
Vardo
They look beautiful but even the people who have been brought up in vardos have chosen alternatives. There are simply too many complications not forgetting the lack of security and keeping a horse. My friend was leading his horse down a difficult bend when it bolted. The vardo mounted a verge and fell on him. He nearly died, and now lives very well in a huge Mercedes removal lorry and it is very comfortable.
Apologies for the stock photograph .
Someone else's loft
Yes this is possible but you will probably be outside the insulation envelope. The temperature will be too hot when the sun is up and drop like a stone after dark. At some time you will need the toilet in the night and you will have to negotiate the ladder in the dark. Lash up a urinal and an electric socket and you maybe alright through a summer.
Allotment shed
I can’t believe my friend is getting away with this one. His shed is made of wood reclaimed from pallets and standing on paviors. It is insulated with 2 inch polystyrene and has a double glazed PVC front door. At 10 by 8 feet it’s not even the biggest shed there. Everyone has to leave at 8PM. He just goes down the pub and comes back later. Heating is by an old paraffin stove, lighting buy a hurricane lamp. He charges his mobile at the library. Whilst using the internet he uses the USB connection.
Even if you don’t want to live in a shed it’s free to put your name on the council list for an allotment. While waiting you can do some research and decide whether you have the time and energy to justify having one. No one will complain if you divide an allotment between you and a friend who knows what they are doing allotment wise. A standard allotment can provide enough vegetables and fruit for and adult for a year. There are varieties of vegetables that keep for several months. Fruit mostly has to be preserved in some way .
It seems that anything goes on an allotment. Very large sheds, roof terraces, ponds, children's playgrounds, chicken shacks. I haven’t seen a pig pen yet.
Caravan
It’s a bit unimaginative this one. People do live in caravans in other peoples back gardens, driveways and caravan sites. Make sure you are not paying too much in site fees otherwise you could be putting yourself through a lot of myther and not saving much money. A caravan left on the highway will be towed away for being "abandoned" BTW. If you have the skills you could build your own caravan. See www.tumbleweedhouses.com for inspiration.
Other
If you can hack it it’s still legal to squat commercial (not private anymore) accommodation. My nephew lives above a shop. Life has more dramas in a squat. What with dodgy people coming and going. Frankly I’ve got too much hobby related stuff and am too old.
If you manage to have exclusive use of a property for 12 years without paying for it you can write to the land registry explaining matters and it becomes yours. There are areas of the country where no one cares what you do. I am thinking of Powys (in central Wales) and the upper half of Scotland. Occupy an abandoned premises or put down some foundations and build an old looking building in the woods. It is an option. Not sure I want to be a hermit though.
Perhaps a better option is to buy a piece of land near where you want to live and disguise your building inside something else. Putting down some foundations and take loads of photographs. Courts like Polaroids as opposed to electronic data. Receipts are good too. After five years you can remove the disguise and the building is legitimate. This may sound too far fetched but who notices a shipping container being somewhere for five years?
Private allotments are on the rise due to the waiting lists for council allotments. If you can afford some land on the edge of town. Divide it up into allotments. Discretely live in yours and rent the rest out. After five years you have a small house with a garden of your choice.
What is an acre? It is a chain by a furlong. If you don’t know what that is its 22 yards by 220 yards. 4840 square yards. Which is only a smidgeon less than 70 yards square. A metric equivalent would be 4000 square meters. A hectare is way bigger at 10,000 square meters or 100 meters square. Divide a hectare by 2.47 to get an acre.
Traditionally there are 16 allotments to an acre. So an allotment is about 250 square meters but some council ones are way smaller.