Build a Van on a Budget
So you want to do a van conversion on a budget? Here are all of the ways to save money on a van build. They’re ordered generally from highest to lowest savings potential. Using these methods, we saved almost $4,000 on our van build!
Not only will most of these methods save you money, but they’ll also be better for the environment. You often need to be resourceful and creative if you’re looking to do a budget van build. And if you’re willing to ask some other people if they have things they could donate or to keep an eye out for free/cheap items you need, you can convert a van on the cheap.
No matter where you buy, always compare prices between multiple sources. If we’re buying used, we’ll search what the new price is. If we’re looking at something on a manufacturer’s website, we’ll check the Amazon price.
Also, keep in mind that a lot of cheap ways to do things may require more time or work. Your time is valuable as well, so you need to decide how much free time vs free money you have to spend on the build. Plus, make sure you’re not cutting corners just to cut costs. We don’t recommend sacrificing quality just to save a couple of bucks. In the end, if you don’t end up getting some of the things that you really want, you may not be happy with your van build so saving the money wouldn’t be worth it anyway.
Free
Something You Own
Do you already own something that would get the job done? Can you reuse or re-purpose an item you’ve already paid for?
We already owned a lot of tools, so that is something we luckily didn’t have to buy.
Additionally, the van we bought had interior paneling, flooring, and shelves. We removed the interior paneling and saved it to use in the future. When we demolished the shelves, we were careful to salvage what we could and ended up saving about $35 in 2x4s that we will use later in the build.
Also, ask yourself if you need to upgrade to something new just because you’re working on a new project. Do you really need new boots or new tools? Often, what you have will work just fine!
Family and Friends
Do you have family or friends with something fitting that they would be willing to donate or lend?
For example, we got a free 100V dorm mini-fridge from our in-laws. It was Austin’s old mini-fridge from college, and it was just hanging out in the basement and not being used. So we asked if we could have it and they said yes!
Be sure to give back when you can. My dad is always on the lookout for useful van build items in the trash and at garage sales and thrift stores. He’ll call me or send me a link to a craigslist listing if he sees something we might need. Our van came with a rail system for tying down cargo, and my dad was looking for rails like the ones we had in our van. We weren’t planning to use or keep them, so instead of selling them, we gave them to him for free.
My in-laws are being so kind and letting us keep our van at their house and build it out in their driveway. Austin’s dad is always helping us find tools, clean up, and do work on the van. We had a set of chocks that we custom-made for the teardrop trailer, and he thought they were cool. So we gave them to him to keep. Even little things like this are ways we can give back and show appreciation to the people who are helping us out with this project. Plus, when we’re done building we’ve offered to let them take the van out on trips!
Trash is Treasure
Other people’s trash can be your treasure. Here are a few places to look through the stuff other people were going to throw out.
Craigslist Free Stuff
I make it a point to look through Craigslist’s For Sale, Free Stuff category every 2 or 3 days. You never know when you’re going to find an amazing deal. However, you have to be careful to not spend time picking up things you don’t need just because they’re free. Usually, if we find something we might want and it’s more than a 30-minute drive away, we decide we don’t really want it that bad even if it is free. So that’s a helpful mental exercise to go through to make sure you’re not just picking up something because it’s free. Ask yourself how far you’d drive to go get it, even if you had to pay for it.
Facebook Buy Nothing Groups
Facebook “Buy Nothing” groups are for local people who are trading items they don’t want or need anymore. If you’re looking to give something away, you can post it here for free. If you need something, you can post a request that you’re looking for something, or respond to someone else’s listing if they have an item you need. Search Facebook to find a group in your local area.
Items left on the curb for trash pickup
We always slow down to look through bulk items put out on the curb for trash pickup. We got about $20 worth of plywood from a neighbor’s trash, which will be perfect to reuse during our build. This takes hardly any time and usually has a great payoff!
Used
Junkyard
If you need a cosmetic part for your van, call around to local junkyards and see if they have a similar model. While our local junkyard didn’t have a Sprinter van, we went over to check it out to see if we could pull some windows or fan out of a junked RV. We ended up pulling our windows out of an old step truck and paid $25 for each after a few hours of removal in the junkyard. The Sprinter-specific windows we were looking at cost over $500 each (so that’s $950 in savings)!
You have to be careful to get items that will fit your van. The original RV windows we wanted to pull from an old Dodge Ram conversion van were too curved for our Sprinter, which was something we found out after leaving empty-handed the first day from the junkyard.
Additionally, some things are not worth getting. All of the vent fans were pulled from the RVs when we got there on the first day. On the second day, we saw an RV that we hadn’t seen before, with the roof vent intact. Unfortunately, the RV was full of tires and swarming with bees. When we glanced inside, the mesh cover on the fan was nearly blocked with dead bugs. I wanted a cheap fan, but not that bad.
Garage Sales & Estate Sales
Austin picked up our huge stainless steel sink for just $5 at a garage sale. It was later in the day on a Monday, so the garage sale must have been going on all weekend. When we peeled off the price sticker, we found it was originally priced at $15! Pro-tip: shop at garage sales towards the end of the day or the end of the sale if it is for multiple days. We have even had luck in the past finding items on the curb after the garage sale was over, and could get them for completely free.
Secondhand Stores
Thrift Stores like Goodwill are great for items you will use in your van. Habitat for Humanity ReStores are amazing for furniture and household items. Our local restore has a section specifically for cabinets and sinks. This is the section we make a bee-line to every time we go in. Be sure to check in often – most thrift stores get one or two trucks a day full of new donations, so there are always new items in the store. We stop by every time we pass it just to check for 5 minutes. One day, we stopped in and picked up a two-person inflatable kayak for just $39!
Online Marketplaces
Craigslist
We look on craigslist for everything. It takes some patience, but eventually, we usually find what we’re looking for. Right now, we’re looking for RV windows, and I’ve reached out to a few people to see if they have the size we are looking for. Then I confirm the price and sometimes ask for pictures if there are none on the listing. If we’re happy with the price and apparent condition, we will usually travel pretty far (1-1.5 hours) to go pick something up. Also, don’t be afraid to negotiate on the price to get an even better deal (but be polite!).
OfferUp
LetGo and OfferUp just combined in September 2020. Besides being a great place to sell stuff to make money for your van build, OfferUp is a great place to find good deals on all sorts of items. I got a great stainless steel tripod for $5 on LetGo (before it became OfferUp). I use this tripod every day to film our Van Build Video series.
Facebook Marketplace
You can search your local Facebook marketplace, or go to specific buy/sell groups for things like RV parts.
eBay
eBay sells a lot of new items, but there is a good amount of used items as well. Just be sure to check the price against other sources, as used items can sometimes be listed even higher than the new price elsewhere.
Refurbished Items
Usually, you can purchase refurbished items from the manufacturer or Amazon. These usually come with a warranty or guarantee that they will work for a certain period of time. For example, I plan to buy a nice camera refurbished from Canon. It will come with a 12-month warranty and will work like new, but I’ll save several hundred dollars. We’ll talk more about this below, but I am waiting because I know that they will have a pretty big sale on refurbished items on Black Friday. I don’t mind waiting 2 months if it will save me a hundred dollars or more!
Open Box Items
Amazon has something called Amazon Warehouse
Discounts
Sales
There are often sales over holidays. Everyone knows about Black Friday, but have you thought about shopping on Labor Day or Memorial Day? We were able to save $100 on our Renogy solar products because we shopped during their labor day sales, and compared the prices between the Renogy online store and Amazon to make sure we were getting a great deal. Don’t forget about smaller holidays like Mother’s Day or Valentine’s Day too. We saved a total of $400 by taking advantage of sales.
Coupon Codes
We almost always shop online and pick up in-store – even for stores that are near us. Why? Because there are usually better discounts online. You can use online codes and take advantage of immediate cash-back offers.
Pep Boys is a great example of this. They send codes to your email, send coupons to your house which can be used online, and have exclusive savings on the website. You can order online in the parking lot outside the store, and spend a lot less than if you walked in and rung up at the register. We find this is the same with most auto-parts stores including Advance Auto Parts and AutoZone.
We saved $180 using coupon codes!
Email signup
Do you know those annoying popups that you get on every website when you go to close the tab or press the back button? They usually offer you 5% or 10% off if you give them your email address. I’d suggest that you make a separate email address just for this purpose, so your regular email doesn’t get swamped with sales catalogs from the sites you’ve visited. Then provide this email to get your coupon code! Easy.
Retail Me Not
I really like Retail Me Not for doing a quick search of coupon codes. Their coupon codes almost always work, which is great. This is where I found a 10% off code for Renogy that saved me over $100!
Browser Extensions for Codes
There are plenty of browser extensions that will automatically try discount codes before checkout, including Honey and Smarty. Pick your favorite, download it, and forget about it. Your browser will automatically try to find you a coupon!
Free Shipping
Sometimes, free shipping coupons can be more valuable than 5% or 10% off coupons. I always go to the checkout page to see my estimated shipping before deciding whether to look for a free shipping coupon or a discount code.
Buying Coupons
I know this sounds a little counterintuitive, but you can actually buy coupons! Several sites sell coupons for places like Home Depot and Lowes, and you can even find them on eBay. To make sure you’re getting a good deal, do the math to see how much you’d have to spend to save enough to cover the cost of the coupon (and make it worth your time). Also, be sure to check the coupon’s expiration dates. I usually waited until right before checkout to order online Lowe’s coupons that were immediately sent to my email, because some coupons expired the next day.
We saved $165 (after the cost of coupons) by buying “$20 off $100” coupons every time we had a large order at Lowe’s. We’d even split up our transactions to make two $100+ transactions so we could use 2 coupons. I’d usually order two coupons at a time because it was only $1 more to add a second coupon. If we couldn’t reach a second $100 order (with items we needed), I’d keep it for later if it didn’t expire for a week or two. This was the main reason we bought most of our supplies at Lowe’s. 15% off (after cost of coupon) on every purchase is a big savings!
Buying Discounted Gift Cards
You can also buy discounted gift cards to get a percentage off your purchase. For example, if you bought a $100 gift card for $90, you’re getting 10% off whatever you’re buying. Just make sure you’ll use the whole gift card. Additionally, this can get tricky if you’re trying to get cashback or rewards points as discussed below.
Cash Back/Rewards
Shopping Portals
Hotels & Airlines & Credit Cards
Many hotels, airlines, and credit cards have shopping portals that you can click through to get additional points or miles on a purchase you were planning to make anyway. They have to have the merchant listed, so you probably won’t be able to buy niche stuff through a shopping portal, but you can get more rewards on home improvement and home goods stores. I find the most valuable shopping portal to be the Chase Ultimate Rewards because I can redeem Ultimate Rewards points for hotels, airlines, or even cash. That makes it flexible. Whereas if you shop through say American Airline’s portal, you only get miles good for use on American Airlines. Here’s an intro to shopping through shopping portals.
Cash Back Websites
Rakuten is my favorite cashback site because it’s so easy to use. You can log into the site and search for where you want to purchase and it will tell you how much cashback you’ll get. Or, you can download their browser extension which will notify you whenever cashback is available on a site you’re shopping on. I love the browser extension because it’s so easy to activate cashback.
If you sign up for Rakuten using my link and spend $25, you’ll get a $10 credit!
Other cashback sites I like are TopCashback and Swagbucks.
Cash Back & Rewards Credit Cards
Sign Up Bonuses
Cash back and reward credit cards frequently offer sign up bonuses. You will need to spend a certain amount of money in the first few months of owning the card to get the bonus. For rewards credit cards, these bonuses are in the form of points or miles. But for cash back credit cards, these bonuses are often a statement credit or gift card worth hundreds of dollars!
We knew we’d be buying a lot of our supplies on Amazon, so we both applied for the Amazon Prime Rewards credit card and earned a $100 Amazon gift card each upon approval. There wasn’t even any spending requirement, and we got $200 for free! This credit card also offers spending bonuses of 5% cash back on Amazon Prime purchases, which we’ll discuss next.
Spending Bonuses
I use AwardWallet‘s Merchant Category Lookup Tool to see which of my credit cards would get me the most cash back or rewards on certain types of purchases. It is also helpful for finding out what category a certain merchant will show up on your credit card as. For example, I plugged in Renogy and found out that they show up on your credit card statement as Home Improvement. If I had a 5% cash back card for the Home Improvement category, I would choose to use that one to save the most.
By the way, I recommend you sign up for AwardWallet if you plan to get into travel hacking or if you want to use rewards and cash back credit cards as part of your money-saving strategy. It helps you stay organized and see all of your rewards in one simple place.
If you’re looking for rewards credit card recommendations, check mine out here.
Cash Back Offers on Credit Cards
Plenty of credit cards have an “offers” section, where you can activate rewards for shopping at different stores. This allows you to double or triple-dip by using a discount such as a coupon, shopping a sale, and paying with a credit card with an offer. We found offers for automotive stores, home improvement stores, and big box stores that we shopped at often during the van build.
Be sure to check this for all of your cards, keep a note of what the maximum reward is, and when the offer expires. And remember that you have to activate the offer to be eligible to receive it. New offers will show up once or twice a month, so check back often. We saved over $150 by activating cashback offers on our credit cards.
Promotional Credits
In our experience, Amazon is the place to get promotional credits. For example, they’ll offer $10 for adding a new payment method to your account. I added a Mastercard to our Amazon account and immediately got a $10 credit, which I used to save money on our Maxxair fan. I’ve also earned a $10 credit for buying a $50 Amazon Gift Card. Then I just spent the gift card and the credit on my amazon order, which was $10 of savings.
I usually check Doctor of Credit to find out whether there are new promotional credits. In total, we saved $140 by taking advantage of promotional credits.
Stacking
You can double, triple or quadruple dip when it comes to combining these ways to save. For example, on our Renogy solar order, we took advantage of a sale ($50 off each $500) to save $100, then a 10% coupon code to save $106, then we paid with our Discover card through PayPal to get 5% cashback (because PayPal was a participating category). If we were shopping at a more common retailer, like Lowe’s, we would have shopped through a shopping portal, used a coupon code (although sometimes this is not allowed), and paid with a rewards credit card.
How much we saved on our van build
We did our van build on a budget of just $8,000 and actually managed to come in under budget at $7,800 using these money-saving tricks. In total, we saved $3,900 on items used in the van build. We got $780 worth of items for free and we saved $1,900 by buying items used or secondhand. Our discount savings from sales and coupons totaled $880. Plus, we were able to save $360 via sign up bonuses and cash back on rewards credit cards.
What do you think?
Did I miss any ways to save money on your van build? Let me know in the comments!
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