A young Nottinghamshire family say they feel "liberated" after selling their home in order to live in a campervan whilst travelling Europe. Lauren and Jamie Selby, along with their three children, made the drastic change last year after finding themselves in a "dark place".
The family, from Keyworth, had turned to the help of a charity after both parents lost their jobs and a death in the family. Recalling one of their lowest moments, Mrs Selby said: "My husband's sat there with his head in his hands and I'm crying, thinking we can't do this anymore, it's not the life we signed up for.
"I was really poorly when I had the third baby which is why we got help from Home-Start. We thought 'what if we break-down? Who's going to have the kids?' We were at a point where if we'd got divorced we would be better off and been able to afford to keep the house."
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The 35 year old, who was made redundant from her job as a scientist, said they decided to sell everything after adding up their day-to-day costs. "We looked at our finances, we were getting paid for our jobs but not enough to pay for childcare and bills. We said 'there's got to be more to life than this'.
"We were starting to lose our mindset and we were in a dark place. We decided to sell everything that was holding us back and causing us stress and start what we call 'our journey to the ultimate life'.
"Putting my kids in childcare would cost £3,000 a month so we thought what else could we do? We looked at how much we were paying for each thing and put a cross through it.
"We sold the house and the house that we're in now, Trevor the transit van we call him, cost £13,000. The house we sold was £300,000." Mr Selby, 38, added: "A lot of people have a car on finance that costs more than the campervan."
The family travelled to the south of England after they sold their house in April last year. They eventually purchased the campervan and set off to France in November to start a European trip that was only supposed to last two months.
But the family are still travelling the continent, passing through around 15 countries ranging from Spain and France to Albania and Turkey. "We feel like we're free of societal expectations, we don't have mortgages hanging over us, we don't have to worry about childcare," said Mrs Selby, who is home-schooling her three children, Tobias (7), Jaxon (3) and Alara (2).
"The stresses in life are not the normal stresses in life, having to go to work and pay for bills. It's eye-opening, liberating, breath-taking, I feel so free.
"We've turned it around, we've had a lot of rifts with family members who have basically said 'you're a load of idiots'. Because they didn't get how bad a place we were in.
"We kind of make it up as we go. Our biggest worry at the minute is where we empty the toilet."
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