Renting in cities and owning houses continues to be expensive in the United States, so this is the story of one couple who decided to ditch a sedentary life for one with more freedom and opportunities to travel.
Josh and Emily Scherrer are married in their late 20s. They both work as engineers, and it happened that in 2020 they transitioned entirely to remote work.
Originally bonding over their love of travel and shared ambition to do more of it, they took the plunge and bought a school bus in January 2021 with the intention of turning it into a mobile home. School buses are cheaper than actual mobile homes, and provided more space for the couple who each needed their own office.
Working on the weekends and evenings, it took 18 months to transform the old bus into their “skoolie”—a modern term rapidly infiltrating the American zeitgeist that refers to a school bus that’s been renovated into something new, like this fellow who turned it into a hostel, or this fellow who turned it into an Airbnb.
Now called “Aurora the Adventure Bus” on Instagram the skoolie is equipped with maple wood ceilings, shower, full-service kitchen, solar panels, and satellite internet. The conversion ended up costing $80,000, which the Scherrers admitted to Business Insider is well on the higher end for typical skoolie conversions.
“We don’t have to pay for plane tickets or hotels, so we can experience more for our money,” Emily Scherrer told BI. “Our expenses depend on where we park and the amenities we find.”
The southwestern US has a lot of land available for public use… we like to use that kind of land versus going to campgrounds, which saves us a lot of money,” she said.
It’s a good thing too because “skoolie life” isn’t as cheap as they thought it would be. Diesel costs around $300 per month depending on how often they fill up, while insuring their mobile home for a year is around two grand. The satellite internet is also a hefty fee of $150. Emptying the bus’ septic tank also comes with a fee and must be done around twice a month.
So far, the Scherrers have taken their skoolie to Alaska, New Mexico, Texas, and Colorado, and even though the up-front and monthly expenses of their bus were higher than they imagined, they were able to find money in the budget to buy a piece of land in Idaho where they plan to eventually settle down.
The experience of traveling in their 20s has been richly rewarding, and by the time they’re ready to build a house on their land, they both know they’ve got the perfect vacation tool—their skoolie—which isn’t going anywhere anytime soon.
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