Here we are! 12.02.2022. We bought a van and here is what we learnt. 

41 weeks and 14 days. 289 days. 6936 hours. 416,160 minutes. 24,969,600 seconds (ish) after we first met. From the day we met, we talked about adventures, we chatted about dreams and mused over a new life we wanted to create together. 

If I were to choose a photo that represented us, it would be this one. They say a photo tells a thousand words and when I look at this photo it could tell a thousand and one. 

We bought a van. Should I have driven it? No. Did I drive it several miles from purchase to its final landing spot? Yes! Why? Because when we got home we found out it had a dud MOT! Did we spend hours cleaning it? Yes. Did we search the city for one mechanic that would take a look at it? Yes. Did we scrap it within a couple of months of buying it? Yes! And we’re glad we did. 

We were already 4 months out of work, one of the best decisions we made. I quit my teacher training and Theo left his job. We took this time as an opportunity to really think about how we wanted our life to look. The plan was to buy the van, build the van, create a home for ourselves and get on the road. We had already set up a baking business where we were travelling to a market town an hour away to sell our bits. The next steps were to use the van as a travelling coffee hut. One that we could live in too. And that’s how we could make money on the road. 

Once we had decided we wanted to do this, way before the van came along, we started to sell a lot of our clothes and belongings, because when two people come together, we already have twice as much stuff and our lives at that current time would not fit in a van. So we started selling; eBay, Vinted, DePop. It started to build traction as the baking business started to decline, all the while we were trying to find someone who would MOT our van and replace the bodywork to make sure we weren’t at risk of falling through the floor. It turned out that finding someone was a lot harder than we had anticipated but we remained hopeful. We were happy to pay for the repairs until we weren’t. We got a trusted mechanic to look at the van, we left it with him to give it a once over and hoped that when we went to pick it up, that it was fixed and we could start this adventure together we had so excitedly talked about. The call came, and it wasn’t good news. He told us that no one was likely going to touch it. The MOT was a dud and it wasn’t worth fixing as the cost would far out way it’s value. So, we scrapped it. Recouped a small fraction of the cost we paid for it and came away with a valuable experience. One that we had shared and one that we both admit would never have experienced without the support of eachother. 

So whilst the dream of a travelling coffee van came to a temporary holt, we shifted our energy from one business to another. Selling our belongings became a business of buying to sell and it was a business we ran for 2 years. A business that I will credit another time as it deserves its own space on the blog. 

So what did we learn

• Firstly, if you’re not happy in your jobs and you’re in a position financially to leave, then do so. We would make the same decision again. We had so much fun! 
• When you meet the person you’ve been looking for, throw your whole self in to it. Take risks, enjoy every moment together and trust one another implicitly. 
• We are not a risk adverse household. We love taking risks and we have grown so much. We love growth and we welcome change. 
• Admittedly, we both know that without eachother, we wouldn’t have taken these risks. We had both had ideas to start a business before we met and we achieved it together.