In our How I Manage My Money series, we aim to find out how people in the UK are spending, saving and investing money to meet their costs and achieve their goals.
This week we speak to great-grandmother Lyn Pearman, 67, from Margate, Kent. Lyn lives in a van after her landlord increased her rent to a level beyond what she could afford. Lyn was evicted from her flat via a non-fault Section 21 notice. She sold nearly all her possessions from her old flat and relies on the state pension for income. Lyn is charting her van-life journey on TikTok and has more than 55,000 followers.
Monthly Budget
Income: I receive £756 in state pension a month. I am also using some of the GoFundMe funds I receive to live off and keep me on the road.
Outgoings: Van fuel, £200; groceries and sundry items, £200; van insurance, £45; diesel heater, £120; lock up for remaining possessions, £180.
I grew up in Essex but moved to Broadstairs when I was nine. Over the years my parents owned a sweet shop and a pet shop. We lived in a nice, detached house and had a comfortable life.
I had my first child when I was 18 and another at 21. I brought up both of my children on my own. In the 1990s I had a shop in Margate, which brought in about £700 a day. I mortgaged my house to purchase the £20,000 lease and later mortgaged my parents’ house to expand. The business collapsed and I lost my house, and my parents lost their house. Since then, I’ve been a personal trainer on minimum wage, a full-time carer for my mother, and completed a degree in photography when I was 62.
For the last few years, I was renting a flat in Ramsgate, paying £433 a month in rent. However, the block of flats was sold to new landlords last year. Initially, they promised the rent would not be increased. But six months later they announced plans to increase the rent to £700 a month. I informed them l was seeking advice but two months later in November 2022 I was served with a Section 21 no-fault eviction notice and had two months to leave the flat. I simply could not afford to pay the higher rent. My Housing Benefit covered the £433 rental cost and I knew this wouldn’t be increased.
It was very difficult to find an alternative affordable flat to live in. Even rooms in flats can cost £600 a month. The council offered me temporary accommodation, but I didn’t want to move to a different part of Kent. They have kept me on the housing list. My old neighbour downstairs had to take up the offer of temporary accommodation miles away from his home and loved ones.
Left with little choice, I sold most of my possessions from my flat for £4,000 and borrowed £2,000 from a friend. Using this money, I purchased a converted airport transfer van for £6,000 to live and travel around in. The new tenants in my old flat are now paying £750 a month in rent.
It’s good that I can save a lot of money by living in a van, but with the cost of living so high I also know that I cannot really afford to live anywhere else. The housing market in this country is a mess and there are not enough council houses to go round.
When I first started living in the van, I joined a gym for £16 a month to have a workout and take a shower. Fortunately, one of my friends is now letting me use the shower at her house. In the evenings, I usually park up on side roads in Margate, but hope to travel around the British coastline in the van at some point.
On the first night of living in my van I joined TikTok. The first van-life video I made went viral in a week and I now have more than 55,000 followers. I’m very new to TikTok and don’t really know what I am doing, but people seem to enjoy my videos and want to know what I’m getting up to. Hopefully I can get more sponsored TikTok posts to help boost my income. One of my sons also set up a GoFundMe page for me, to help keep me living comfortably in my van. I’m very grateful to everyone who has donated to date.
Money isn’t really important to me. I just want to survive and be happy. I have no savings and no workplace pensions. My only income is the state pension, which is £756 a month.
For the moment I’m pretty happy living in a van as I’m not lining other people’s pockets while getting on with my daily life. It’s rather liberating, and I’ve come to a point where I wouldn’t want to purchase a house right now. At night it can, however, be frightening with drunks walking by and worrying about whether someone is going to break in. If I can afford it, I would like to perhaps purchase a motorhome at some point, but these can cost anything from £30,000 to buy.
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