A family-of-six says they've saved £100,000 after swapping their permanent home for holiday lets across the globe.
Daniel Prince, 46, and his wife, Clair, 46, both originally from Essex, moved abroad to Singapore for Daniel’s work in 1999.
But by 2014, struggles seemed to rise meaning Daniel was constantly tied to his desk while Clair juggled four young children at home.
The couple realised a significant shift was required.
They gambled everything, selling their family house and the majority of their possessions - and traded their vacation home in Thailand for glamorous homes in the United States, Canada, Australia, and Europe.
The family now travel around the world and during their adventure have lived in 80 properties - before settling in France for a few years.
Their four children, Kaitlyn, now 17, Sophia, 14, and twins Lauren and Samuel, 11, are all home-schooled.
Raring to travel again through house-swapping, Clair said: “Eight years ago, we thought, this can’t be what life is meant to be.
"Daniel was constantly working and I was here, there and everywhere looking after four children.”
She added: “We just thought, life has to be more fun than this. And we have done exactly that – we made life fun.
"We could never have travelled the world like this with such a big family without house swapping, which has saved us so much money and allowed us to travel in a luxurious way without compromise. It has been amazing – and it doesn’t need to stop yet.”
The couple enjoyed travelling around Asia in 1999 for Daniel’s work in foreign exchange, but they found themselves stuck in a frustrating cycle.
Clair said: “The cost of childcare was so expensive that it was cheaper for me to look after the kids.”
She added: “I was at home with the four kids, trying to keep up with the Joneses, while travelling here, there and everywhere for the kids’ ballet and music and school.
"Meanwhile, Daniel was working 24/7 to get food on the table but we would never see him.”
Holidays were also a rarity because of the cost.
Clair said: “We would need two hotel rooms, which would be £150 a night, plus lunch and dinners every day, which could be £500 a day. It just wasn’t affordable.”
“It sounded amazing and we immediately thought, should we do this?” she said. The pair debated their choice for months before deciding to proceed in early 2014."
Clair said the couple decided to sell pretty much all of their belongings to give them something to live off.
She said: "We stopped in Sydney, Perth, Melbourne, and ended our year of travels in New Zealand for three months, which was incredible. We couldn’t believe how amazing it was – we thought, why isn’t everyone doing this?”
Daniel and Clair were able to live simply by renting out their Thailand property to house swap guests while they weren't staying there themselves and paying just £120 for their lovehomeswap.com annual membership.
“When you swap your home, you pay for the electricity in your own home but the rental money we made would offset any bills we accrued,” she said.
She added: “All of the homes were so peaceful and comfortable and we were able to live on a reasonable budget.
"Some days we would have zero-dollar days, where we wouldn’t spend anything and go explore and take a picnic or find a free activity to do.”
Clair admitted, however, that it took some time to settle in to their new way of life.
The mum added: “With home-schooling we kept it very flexible, depending on where we were – so for example, when we were in Rome, it was a history lesson wherever we walked.
"Whereas in New Zealand, we had time to chill outside the house and sit and do schoolwork.
“Of all the places, Croatia was probably our favourite place because it was stunningly beautiful and had such a lovely community feel among the village we stayed in.
“There were so many moments that blew our minds – like horse riding along the beach in New Zealand or sailing on a yacht out of the port of Marbella or having a picnic at Sydney Opera House on Christmas Eve.”
After two years of travelling they headed back to Europe to visit the UK and Italy - and Daniel and Clair then decided to slow down their travels.
She said: “We had been travelling for two and a half years which was incredible but we wanted our kids to learn another language and the best way to do that is to be completely immersed into it.
“So we house swapped around France until we were offered to rent one of the properties out and we ended up staying for the next two years.
She added: “We still did a bit of house-swapping for holidays while we were in France in 2018 – including a ski house swap in the French Alps. We borrowed clothes so we only had to hire the ski boots and ski passes.”
Their stay was extended by a few years due to the pandemic and Daniel started working as an internet consultant before launching the financial podcast Once Bitten with daughter Lauren! a podcast on bitcoin.
Daniel and Clair are eager to start travelling again now that the borders are open.
Daniel will now combine house-swapping with work as he is now getting requests to speak at conferences about his show.
“It’s hard to put a finger on how much we must have saved, but it could well be £100,000 – all we have ever had to pay for is the travel to get to each place,” she said.
"The difference it has made to the kids’ lives is amazing – they have such an incredible outlook on life and acceptance of different people regardless of wherever we are in the world.
“For the twins especially, who were three when we started this, this is the life they have only ever known. They are all so independent, adventurous and confident.
"We’ve probably made it harder for us as parents in the future though, because they all have plans to live in different corners of the world.”
