The flipside to that is, if I - and I suspect a lot of people - waited til I picked up the necessary know-how to convert a van, it would put off the lifestyle change for years.
We could all learn how to build our own vans from scratch, couldn't we? Where do you want to stop - smelting your own metal?
Now to me £5,000 for a S-H VW T4 would not be extravagant or a waste, given that I don't own a car full-stop and never have done.