A pair of travel mad parents have moved into a one bedroom caravan with their three kids, who will soon drop out of full time education to travel around the world.
The Binedell family moved into their mobile home in St Albans, Hertfordshire, in October last year after giving up their large three bedroom home in Portugal.
Now, after returning to the UK just five months ago, the family are planning to pack their bags this August for the third time and travel the world.
Alongside selling all of their possessions, Karen, 36, and Warren, 45 – who pay £420 per month for their caravan, which is £2,000 less than their previous costs – are now frantically saving for their trip of a lifetime.
Their three children, 14-year-old Sebastian Aiden, 13 and Ella, 11, will all be taken out of full time education to ensure they don’t miss out on the fun.
Karen said: ‘We love travelling, and it’s worth cutting down on everything we own to be able to leave on this epic adventure.
‘At the moment we have no luxuries, we sold anything that couldn’t fit into the tiny caravan – we’ve only kept my wedding dress, a few sentimental bits and some of the children’s artwork which a friend is storing for us.
‘Whilst travelling we’ll be moving from one volunteer project to the next – we want to meet and help different people from different backgrounds and experience their lives first hand.
‘And although we’re taking the children out of school, we hope that they will learn invaluable lessons from this experience.’
Alongside the family, their two cats, Stuey and Tilly, and their dog, Alfie, have also been given passports ready for the travels. ‘They won’t be missing out either!’ said Karen.
Karen, a former teaching assistant, said that the caravan itself cost the family £4000 to buy – and is ‘absolutely tiny’.
She said: ‘It has to fit in my two teenage sons, my 11-year-old daughter, myself, my husband, two cats and our dog – so it’s a tight squeeze.
‘Having to live in such a small space makes life very restricted and our life is very stripped back and basic now.
‘We have to fill up our water tank in the caravan before each shower, so we find ourselves re-filling it six times a night so we can all shower.’
Karen says getting the kids ready for school in the morning is ‘a nightmare’ because there’s hardly any room, however, they just get on with it and enjoy caravan life regardless.
Karen added: ‘We all have a tiny plastic box that we keep our clothes and possessions in and that’s all we can fit – so we rarely buy anything new.’
The family are currently saving to buy a tow car, so that they can take their caravan on their trips around the world.
Due to living on a tight budget, and being stripped of any luxuries, the family hope that they will be able to start their travels in just six months.
Karen said: ‘We’re going to start out travelling around the UK, and then we’ve already got volunteering offers in Poland, Amsterdam, Hungary, Iceland, Thailand and Germany.
‘We hope to take the caravan throughout the UK and through to Europe, but we might have to abandon it before we go to Thailand due to the flights.
‘I’m going to try and find a way to earn money online so that I can continue to receive an income on the road.
More: Travel
At the minute, my husband, Warren, has been working six days a week full time in a warehouse to save up for us to leave.
‘The children currently attend school full time and will continue to do so until we leave.
‘At times we wonder whether we’re being irresponsible taking them out of school, but we believe this is the right thing for our family.’
According to Karen, her children will continue to study on the road via distance learning, and, when the time comes, they will do their GCSEs.
For now, the family are just focusing on embarking on a trip of a lifetime – and having fun preparing for it in the process.
MORE: We need child-free travel for those who hate screaming kids on flights
MORE: Disney is searching for people to work on its cruise ship
[contf] [contfnew] 
METRO
[contfnewc] [contfnewc]
