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  "path": "/2026/05/07/we-ditched-uk-rent-sold-everything-travel-world-30-a-day-28270198/",
  "publishedAt": "2026-05-07T12:03:42.000Z",
  "site": "https://metro.co.uk",
  "tags": [
    "Lifestyle",
    "Travel",
    "Real Life",
    "Relationships",
    "Travel Inspiration",
    "Europe",
    "Scotland",
    "Montenegro",
    "Cardiff",
    "Vanavigation",
    "Metro Deals",
    "Get deal now",
    "Wales",
    "mortgage",
    "North Macedonia",
    "Man who lives on a cruise ship has spent 24 years at sea",
    "We quit our jobs to ‘live like kings’ in a caravan — and save £2,000 per month",
    "‘I travelled the world as a digital nomad – it’s a miserable lie’",
    "‘Work wasn’t for me’: Gen Z travellers ditch the 9-5 for permanent holidays",
    "Add Metro as a Preferred Source on Google\nAdd as preferred source"
  ],
  "textContent": "Kath and partner Stuart in Albania, after ditching rent to travel on £30 a day (Picture: Vanavigation UK / SWNS)\n\nA mum-of-two sold all her possessions to live in a campervan and travel the world – for just £30 a day.\n\nKath Cross, 49, has now travelled over 25,000 miles on epic adventures through the Sahara desert, Europe and Scotland.\n\nAlong with her partner, Stuart Hall, 48, she’ll have toured 20 countries in just four years by the time they get back from their current trip to Montenegro.\n\nThough their spending plan varies slightly depending on which country they’re in, the pair say on average they spend around £900 to £1,200 a month – cheaper than Kath’s old rental in Cardiff.\n\nKath already has a successful copywriting and freelance business, and is able to work remotely, while Stuart, a truck driver, works on their short return trips back to the UK, to top up their income. The pair share their adventures on their Vanavigation Instagram page.\n\nThey budget around £30 to £40 a day for their lifestyle – with half spent on fuel.\n\n##  Best of Metro Deals\n\nGet exclusive discounts with Metro Deals – save on getaways and spa days. Powered by Wowcher\n\n**Bannatyne Spa** : Spa day for two with treatments, lunch & prosecco — save up to 57% off.\n\n Get deal now\n\n**Mystery Escape** : Hotel stay with return flights from as low as £92pp — save on worldwide holiday packages.\n\nGet deal now\n\n**Beach Retreat (Lanzarote)** : 4* Lanzarote beach holiday with flights — save up to 58%.\n\nGet deal now\n\nKath stopped renting in Cardiff four years ago, and sold everything to go travelling in a van (Picture: Vanavigation UK / SWNS)\n\n## ‘It was a choice’\n\nKath and Stuart met back in 2021 in a South Wales walking group, when they bonded over their shared love of nature and the outdoors. They hiked over 105 peaks in the UK during their first year of dating.\n\nThen, when her daughters left home in 2022, Kath felt like it was the right time to achieve her ‘lifelong dream’ of visiting Africa.\n\n‘I’d had an idea that when my kids left home I wanted to drive to the Sahara,’ Kath, from Cardiff, shares.\n\nStu already owned a 7.5m Mercedes Sprinter campervan, which the pair had enjoyed a holiday to Scotland in.\n\n‘We didn’t kill each other and got on very well!’ Kath laughs.\n\nKath and Stuart in Greece, on one of their trips (Picture: Vanavigation UK / SWNS)\n\nSo that winter, Kath says she decided to ‘downsize my life’.\n\nShe continues: ‘My kids had left home, my four-bed rental was too much for me and I just didn’t want it anymore.\n\n‘It was taking every penny that I earned just to keep the rental going, but we knew we could live cheaper on the road.\n\n‘The more of my stuff I sold the more free I felt. When you have a mortgage, a car payment, you are owned by society, fixed because you have to stay where you are and pay your bills.\n\n‘A lot of people are scared of the big adventure, but Stu was up for the idea and so we drove to the edge of the Sahara desert and haven’t looked back!\n\n‘It was a choice we made between one life and another – and we don’t regret a second of it.’\n\n## ‘Life is a lot cheaper’\n\nThe couple create content about travelling in a van for social media (Picture: Vanavigation UK / SWNS)\n\nTheir fully-equipped campervan boasts a shower, toilet, king-size bed, sink, and a fully working kitchen with an oven, gas burner.\n\nSo far, they’ve driven 3,000 miles to Denmark and back, 7,000 miles around Spain and Portugal, 2,000 miles to Scotland and 8,000 miles to the Sahara.\n\nThey are currently in Montenegro, a journey which saw them drive through France, Italy, Albania, Greece, North Macedonia and Kosovo.\n\nTheir next stops are Serbia, Bosnia, Croatia, Slovenia and France.\n\nBut visiting so many countries isn’t as expensive as you might think,\n\nKath says that as fuel prices go up, they’ll just slow down a bit (Picture: Vanavigation UK / SWNS)\n\nKath explains: ‘Life really is a lot cheaper in the van – you don’t need two wages.\n\n‘We were away for 101 days and our average spend was £1000 a month. This is less than my rent used to be in Cardiff.’\n\nHowever, the pair say they don’t live like they are on holiday – and mostly cook in the van, only paying for a few activities a month.\n\n‘As fuel prices have gone up we have just slowed down,’ she explains. ‘We just drive a bit slower and make a few less stops, which means we extend the trip really.\n\n‘When you’re in North Macedonia and paying 130 a litre for diesel, there is no point rushing back to pay whatever horrifying price it is in the UK at the moment.’\n\n##  Read more from Metro\n\n  * Man who lives on a cruise ship has spent 24 years at sea\n  * We quit our jobs to ‘live like kings’ in a caravan — and save £2,000 per month\n  * ‘I travelled the world as a digital nomad – it’s a miserable lie’\n  * ‘Work wasn’t for me’: Gen Z travellers ditch the 9-5 for permanent holidays\n\n\n\nThey’re currently in driving through Europe (Picture: Vanavigation UK / SWNS)\n\n## ‘You can’t dream yourself into this life’\n\nKath and Stu’s Sahara trip has been one of their many highlights, which also included their visit to the Atlas mountains in Morocco, Kosovo and Denmark.\n\nStuart, from Southampton, says: ‘We drove to the edge of the sand dunes and were drinking coffee out of own mugs from home.\n\n‘Then we opened up the curtains and there were 40 camels outside. It was totally surreal.\n\nThe couple’s van in Morocco (Picture: Vanavigation UK / SWNS)\n\n‘I had only ever been on package holidays before.’\n\nKath said they also loved their visit to the Atlas mountains because of the scenery and people they met during their trip and volunteering.\n\n‘There are communities there that have nothing, and they just want to help you,’ Kath says.\n\n‘We helped a guy stuck in the snow and he wanted to take us to his village, which had 66 houses and a mosque. His family made us food and drinks and the kids in the village came to meet us and it was only a few months after the earthquake.\n\n‘It was so special connecting with the local communities.’\n\nStuart says he’d only ‘ever been on package holidays’ before starting their travels (Picture: Vanavigation UK / SWNS)\n\nThe pair are strong advocates for following your dreams and travelling the world in a mindful and sustainable way.\n\nStuart says: ‘We choose to step lighter on this earth. My big diesel van has much less of a carbon footprint than a three-bed house where people leave the lights on!\n\n‘We don’t buy new stuff, we wear clothes until we can’t wear them anymore and we live light on plastics. We love this life and we learn so much about people.’\n\nKath says: ‘You can’t dream yourself into this life, you have to make intentional decisions to get here. You have to let go of other things to get here.\n\n‘We left the rat race, and we’re really glad about it.’\n\n**Do you have a story to share?**\n\n**Get in touch by emailingMetroLifestyleTeam@Metro.co.uk.**\n\nComment now Comments \nAdd Metro as a Preferred Source on Google\nAdd as preferred source\n",
  "title": "‘We ditched UK rent and sold everything to travel the world on £30 a day’"
}