Campsite costs

Just returned from 12 days at The Leopard near the Iron Bridge Gorge.

£14.00 a night including electric, nice site

Stayed there last year and agree with you.

Funnily enough we were looking at CL sites for a 1 night stop to break the journey on Thursday this week. Had a look at a prospective one and found that the price advertised was £14. Looked at the reviews and there was one from 2017 that said that the price had increased to £20!!! So imagine what the price is today yet the price quoted in the book and on the website is still £14!!! How can that be?

We have also noticed that fees creeping up and given the increase in utilities I can understand it.    A couple of our regulars have increased by a pound here and there and we're still happy to pay. 

However, looking to book for New Year at one of our regular sites, they plan to increase from £18 to £25 per night.    For this you get an unreliable 10amp electricity connection, and a very nice hard standing, but otherwise nothing special - in summer there are lovely views (not quite the same in Winter).      There is a toilet but it's a good walk up from the actual site and not something we'd use.  

Needless to say, we declined and have booked elsewhere at £17 per night.  

Additionally, we have definitely reduced our trips as by the time we've paid £30+ for the site, at least a tank of diesel £50 and maybe a lunch out, we're talking £80-£100 per week, not something we can currently justify.   We're restricting ourselves to only one/two trips per month and seeing how it goes.     Jobs around the house are taking priority.  

Having said that - this weekend, we're at Dyke Bottom Farm near Harrogate (£18pn all in) as we've got vouchers for an afternoon tea on the Skipton canal - looking forward to it.  

It’s a pitch sellers market at the moment, hence some CL pitch prices have risen greatly. I know cost of electricity has risen, but that is definitely not the only factor driving the increase in fees. 

There are a lot of CL’s like that with prices as much as 5 years out of date. If I am interested I either e-mail or phone for a price update, e-mail preferred as I have a record of the up to date price

If it’s a CL we haven’t used before, I am tending to get an email response on the price if I can. That way both parties are singing from the same hymn sheet. I can understand prices altering if a booking is made months in advance, but not a few days.  Have actually had a couple of CL owners say to me “thinking of putting it up by a pound next week”. 

Off-grid is one way to keep your costs down. If you must have "all singing and dancing", it's going to cost you.

There's that shrewd banking mind again CY

Have you ever worked out what it would cost an owner to go from mains power dependent to totally off grid & how many nights away would be needed to actually recoup the initial outlay CY, genuine question as I struggle to find any proof-‘Off grid is one way to keep your costs down’🤔

I agree Rocky, it certainly isn't that apparent to me when you take into consideration all the outlay there is to get to the stages of self sufficient off grid status talked about on this forum. I can understand the quest for the remote locations, but not the so called savings, it just doesn't add up.