Not sure if it's just me or if I am actually seeing this. It seems as if there are people who expect to spend some money on buying a caravan and then have FREE holidays for ever more. Ahem, that'll be a resounding "No" then.
Breaking news just in. Caravan holidays cost money!! Would you believe it ??? In the same way as hotels don't give away free rooms, airlines don't give away free flights and the one you must all have noticed, the oil companies don't give away fuel for free, well caravan sites aren't free, servicing isn't free, storage, fuel, yadda yadda.
It's about choices. We all choose what we do and base this on a number of things such as available budget, personal preferences etc. As we've seen in this thread, some people enjoy narrowboat holidays and good for them. Doesn't matter if you do or you don't, they still aren't free. Neither are package hellidays, ahem, I mean Holidays.
But, as with package tours, if you've got a small budget you end up in the Med (or Bognor Regis) at a cheap hotel whereas if you can spend more you can go to more exotic places. Doesn't really matter as long as it's where you want to go and you enjoy it. Same deal with vanning. New 26 footer or 30 year old Sprite. Does it matter as long as it does what you need to have a good time? Of course not.
I actually know a chap who makes fuel economy one of the highlights of his caravan holiday. He's not hard up, in fact quite well off but he enjoys seeing how good he can get his fuel economy on his holidays. Drives his wife mad I should point out but HE enjoys doing that, it's like a part of his holiday. Yet for work etc he doesn't care. Some might call that weird. I just thing it's part of what makes us all different.
Reducing costs is one thing but choosing to give up caravanning will ultimately only shift that cost to other forms of holidays. Just about everyone I've ever met needs a holiday from time to time. It's about breaking up the routine and even retired people need to break the routines they have even though those routines don't include employment. That's human nature.
Dom.