WITH the cost of living crisis wreaking havoc across the country, one savvy family of six made the bold decision to trade in their house for a double-decker bus.
Conrad Kirk, 31, and Nicole McCarthy, 30, are parents to four children, Phoebe, eight, Poppy and Summer, both six, and Luna, four. They’re also proud owners of two dogs.
The doting parents, from Rotherham, were spending around £1,350 a month on rent and bills before changing their lifestyle in April 2021 after buying a second-hand bus.
Now, they’ve managed to cut their costs down to just £6 a day in the summer. They spend a little more, £10, in the winter months due to the generator.
The couple bought the double decker bus for just £2,000 and spent an additional £8,000 on renovating it.
“We’ve paid month by month and used a lot of recycled materials to try and save money,” Conrad told the Mirror.
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While it started off as a project for them to go on holiday together without staying in two separate rooms, it soon turned into their home after they realised how much they could save in the long run.
“Now the bus costs us £10 a day in the winter, when we’re running the generator for one hour a day and there’s not enough solar energy, or £6 a day in the summer,” he continued.
With the help of the local community and handy YouTube videos, Conrad said he ripped everything out of the bus and built it from the “roof downwards”.
And it’s not just Conrad who put in the hard work as he said his children “grafted as much as I did”.
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His daughter Phoebe can cut wood and use a tape measure while Poppy “knows the different wires in an electric cable”.
The bus has a double bed for the parents, four bunk beds, a working bathroom with a shower, bath and toilet, and a large kitchen at the top front section.
Conrad, who is able to save around £1,000 a month thanks to his bus lifestyle, said: “I think we’ll live in it for a couple of years while we save money to buy some land and build somewhere new.”
The plan, according to Conrad, is to renovate container units in the future as he can’t see them living in a house again.
While their family and friends are supportive of the change in their home situation, it hasn’t come without any backlash as many have questioned where the family do their laundry and ask how much they spend on gas – which is about “12 miles per gallon”.
It appears these comments haven’t had much of an impact on them though as they’ve continued to share all about their bus life on TikTok.
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