Do you find fulltiming cheaper than living in stick built home?
tigercx1 said
05:53 AM Jun 8, 2014
I am sure this topic has been covered before but maybe some newbies can chime in. How many find full timing in an RV cheaper than living in a home? I realize there are a lot of variables so let's assume both RV and home are paid for and go with monthly expenses. This will not be the same for everyone as a lot would depend on amount of travel, dining out, entertainment ETC.
I am not a full timer but could be down the road. I am guessing full timing cost are slightly higher.
Mark
Dog Folks said
06:29 AM Jun 8, 2014
Our experience says an RV is cheaper.
I won't bore you with budgets and figures, but one that we find interesting: Our TOTAL maintenance, including tires and oil changes on the tow vehicle over the past 8 years= $102.60 per month. That is right about what it cost to maintain just our pool in the sticks and bricks!!
Simply put: Total dollar expenses monthly in a house=$4,000.00
In an RV= $2,000.00
Yep, cheaper in the RV.
tigercx1 said
06:32 AM Jun 8, 2014
Dog Folks wrote:
Our experience says an RV is cheaper.
I won't bore you with budgets and figures, but one that we find interesting: Our TOTAL maintenance, including tires and oil changes on the tow vehicle over the past 8 years= $102.60 per month. That is right about what it cost to maintain just our pool in the sticks and bricks!!
Simply put: Total dollar expenses monthly in a house=$4,000.00
In an RV= $2,000.00
Yep, cheaper in the RV.
Are you figuring in monthly cost of staying in campground?
igotjam said
08:39 AM Jun 8, 2014
In our case its more $ in an RV. That being said, we live well. We always stay in a nicer (read as more $) RV park, travel often and far, eat well, see the sites etc. We figure at least $1000 mo for site rental. $500-$1000 for fuel, $1000 for food, ? for sightseeing and entertainment, then there is depreciation, repairs, medical, insurance etc. I don't think we are typical and we certainly could live well for less. Everyone is different and there are many ways to fulltime.
MarkS said
08:56 AM Jun 8, 2014
Every RVer has a situation that dictates their budget. In my case, I can live in my RV comfortably for my mortgage payment including groceries and fuel. That is staying put a few weeks at a time and being somewhat frugal with the parks I stay in, no supersites for this poor ole boy. But I can still drink a somewhat top shelf cognac and craft beers and have a prime steak once in a while for less than it would cost to live in my house.
They say, you spend what you earn. I figure you will adjust your lifestyle in the RV according to what you bring in, adjusted for your priorities.
Technomadia said
10:47 AM Jun 8, 2014
For us it's a lot cheaper... but prior to hitting the road I had a beachside home, and Chris lived in a San Francisco penthouse apartment. Our combined monthly mortgage and rent was like $4-5k. And that's not even getting into maintenance, utilities, etc.
I won't bore you with budgets and figures, but one that we find interesting: Our TOTAL maintenance, including tires and oil changes on the tow vehicle over the past 8 years= $102.60 per month. That is right about what it cost to maintain just our pool in the sticks and bricks!!
Simply put: Total dollar expenses monthly in a house=$4,000.00
In an RV= $2,000.00
Yep, cheaper in the RV.
Are you figuring in monthly cost of staying in campground?
Yep. As I said, ALL expenses. Total of money spent.
We do not ever boon-dock. We do however do some volunteering and get a free site for 3 months.
-- Edited by Dog Folks on Sunday 8th of June 2014 12:56:07 PM
NWescapee said
12:58 PM Jun 9, 2014
For us it's cheaper. We already had an truck and TT so we had insurance/licensing costs for a house, TT, truck and car. With just the Truck and 5'ver, those costs have decreased.
Other items:
Our grocery costs have actually increased because we're buying in smaller quantities. Our costs for eating out are probably a little higher as we tend to dine out more often when we're traveling just to simplify things sometimes.
Our campground fees are about 25% less than the mortgage payment, however, our fuel costs are about double what we used to spend for 2 vehicles, but we're also traveling more. Utilities are much less, almost non-existent other than propane refills and the gas needed to run the generator.
Our connectivity cost is about the same, but we're both working from the road so we need the bandwidth.
Maintenance for us has actually been higher this first year in the RV vs. the house, but we don't expect that to continue at quite that same rate, we had some upgrade expenses that should not be recurring.
Our entertainment expenses have gone up because we have more free time so we're having more fun on weekends exploring whatever area we're in.
Overall it's less than the house and yes, we could economize if we needed to, but while we're both still working there are times when we choose to splurge.
BiggarView said
08:04 AM Jun 10, 2014
While we aren't on the road yet, I have done extensive research on what our RV budget will look like, based on "reasonable numbers". We are looking at the lifestyle we think we'll be doing and I calculate we'll be roughly 25% less than our S&B and that includes a "fudge factor" for unknown expenses. (it gets smaller the more I learn). We figure our "lifestyle" will include higher expenses in entertainment and leisure categories than we are now spending and if needed we could cut that significantly and still not sacrifice enough to impair our enjoyment. Cuts there and other budget items could get us about 33% less expensive than our S&B.
FWIW
sdman said
08:38 AM Jun 10, 2014
I think a lot is going to depend on where your S&B was located. If you are coming from either the North East (NYC/NJ/East PA) area or the West Coast (CA area) then FT RV could be easily less expensive. We are from the NJ area and had a modest house there. Our camping fees averaged $700/mo for the past 2 years which is a third of our S&B mortgage with property taxes. We are actually driving less milage but spending more for it due to the lower MPG and cost of Diesel for the big truck. Yes, our food cost is a little higher and so is our entertainment cost. However, we are getting a whole lot more bang out our entertainment than we did in the S&B. We are spreading the entertainment cost around more by being in different places, seeing more and doing a wider variety of things. Insurance for the RV and truck is a little less than we were paying for just one car in NJ (we had 2 at the time).
The bottom line for us is that we are spending about the same but enjoying it more. We could cut back and still enjoy more than if we were in the S&B.
Mark
cejones4210 said
08:43 AM Jun 10, 2014
We have been fulltiming since January. We are finding we are spending approximately $2500 less in the Airstream then with a house. We spend quite a bit more on gas for the vehicles, but much less on utilities and no house payment. We stay at a "nice" park once in a while but camp at state parks and COE frequently. We prefer the COE and state parks as usually the scenery is more enjoyable :) and the sites are more spacious. We have no payments for the Airstream or vehicles as they are paid in full. Eating out a couple times a week is something we like to do as exploring local cuisines is part of our entertainment.
All this said, we will only be fulltiming for this year as I cannot convince Hubby to NOT have a house. We are building closer to our children, so will have a house again by end of year.
I could be quite happy fulltiming but will settle for 2-6 months of the year as a compromise; that is what it is all about, finding the best fit that works for both of you. We are fortunate that we can afford both a S&B and to travel. We will see what the future holds, life throws all of us changes and we just roll with it and adjust as best we can.
The Junkman said
09:23 AM Jun 10, 2014
I'm not on the road yet.. but from what I've seen , and the budget I am attempting to set in place.
I think it will be more expensive in the RV. The entertainment , and travel expenses put it over the top for me.
If I sat in a rv park in AZ or florida for the winter , then moved north for the summer.. It would cheaper.
I think it comes down to how much you move and how much you spent on entertainment, eating out, shopping etc.
I've seen rv parks at $400 / mo... and nice ones at 1300/ mo or less.. exotics are much more. And while I may stay on the beach a few times here and there.. I think mostly we will be in the second row..
As someone stated.. you spend what you earn.I believe that. If I earned enough, I would just fly( or drive ) to the places I want to go to.. stay a while, at a hotel and rent a escalade, and fly to the next one, and so on.. lol
cejones4210 said
09:55 AM Jun 10, 2014
For us I know that if we did not have a house (or building one as is our case), we would without a doubt save money living fulltime in our RV. EVEN traveling every couple weeks, eating out and seeing sights in each location we have lived way cheaper in the Airstream. Utilities/site fees are cheaper than a house payment, insurance is much less, though gas for vehicles is more than if we stayed put.
If you have the mindset to fulltime you can make it work on any budget.
For example:
Share meals when eating out
Find entertainment and activities in new local that are free or minimal
Research area campgrounds to find the best deal for your needs
Stay in one location for a while, less driving = less gas
Relax at campsite, enjoy the views = less gas
I made a budget as Howard recommends, and try to stay on it or close.
It all depends on your needs and desires.
Good luck!
Bobc said
10:53 AM Jun 10, 2014
Not on the road for another 18 months and have been driving myself crazy with budgets.
Just too many moving targets at this time.
the big one is the cost of health insurance and this is a item that i do not want to risk going cheap.
site fees are another one that is hard to get a handle on depending on lenth of stay and location
we are from the Northeast so 50-65 a day are the average for full hook ups. we hear of others who find 30-35 around the country and think that is high.( Sounds like a bargin to me) so when doing a budget it becomes very hard.
so what i have decided to do is pick a monthly number we can afford in retirement 5-6K per month for everything ( debt free to start) this would be 25% lower than our yearly average per month.
we hope to be less than the 5K but also want to enjoy our time on the road if we get to 6K we have to look at making adjustments.
Trying to use the KISS system
The Junkman said
10:58 AM Jun 10, 2014
cejones4210 wrote:
We are finding we are spending approximately $2500 less in the Airstream then with a house.
Just Curious.. Is that per month? If so , what is your monthly budget?
There are so many varibles.. I mean a mortgage could be $700 to $5000 / mo.. or more. I can sure live pretty good in a RV at 5k a month..
So this thread is useless without applying the real numbers to it... my .02
Bobc said
11:12 AM Jun 10, 2014
I am hoping that a budget of 5-6K per month will get it done comfortably for us.
The Junkman said
12:36 PM Jun 10, 2014
Bobc wrote:
I am hoping that a budget of 5-6K per month will get it done comfortably for us.
Assuming no debt or payments.. That seems like alot to me. I'm at a estimated 3k / mo.. If you don't mind me asking.. what are you planning to spend the bulk of it on? maybe I am missing something big..
Bobc said
12:49 PM Jun 10, 2014
if you take a average site fee of 45.00 a day that alone would be 16,000 plus
health insurance about 10,000 per year
food 6,000.
just that comes to 32,000 per year thats 2666.00 that does not leave much for anything else
Gas
Taxes ( Truck,RV etc)
other insurance ( Life, truck, RV
entertainment
cell phone
WiFi
TV
etc. it all adds up fast
dont think i could come close to 3K a month unless we got a lot of very cheap sites ( not really interested in Walmart camping)
The Junkman said
02:03 PM Jun 10, 2014
i see some major differences which explains the cost... i plan to pay monthly mostly.. alot cheaper, it seems.. i've seen some nice places for under 1k / mo.. which is my avg budget. Join a couple discount places too..Also seen owners of sites renting very high end spots.. fore pretty cheap.. when they are not there.
i don't have heathcare.. should have it when i hit FL, and turn 50.
Subtracting out those differences alone is 14k / yr.. 1200/ mo.. that's alot closer..
Thanks for sharing...
Lucky Mike said
03:46 PM Jun 10, 2014
It can be a whole lot cheaper........or just as expensive , it depends on the neighborhood you choose to live in!!
Sushidog said
09:56 PM Jun 10, 2014
There are lots of places out west and in the south (TX, NM, AZ, NV, TN etc.) in the $300-350/mo range including a pool, rec room, free cable, free wi-fi, etc. (w/metered electricity). Some offer good fishing too, if that's your thing. Some remote places with fewer amenities but beautiful scenery are less than $200/mo, with seasonal rates even lower. It all depends on how much you want to spend and what location and amenities you desire.
Chip
DEWhit said
01:36 AM Jun 11, 2014
I may need to run my numbers again for the umpteenth time.
I did not budget health or supplement insurance into the road fund since I considered that a fixed cost no matter how you lived or where.
Maybe I am missing something, but there seems to be a lot of electronic and wifi/entertainment expenses.
I guess if we became nudists we could save on the laundry and clothes expense also. Maybe do the toga thing year round ?
I notice more travel expenses on this site than on some other sites. Must be the neighborhood.
Maybe I could run a small still and turn a couple bucks on the road.
WestWardHo said
05:01 AM Jun 11, 2014
For us it's definitely higher. But that's because of our choices plus unanticipated maintenance and upgrades. I don't keep a close budget, it's kinda loose as I'm sort of chasing it after the fact more for our own understanding than requirements.
As Lucky Mike indicates you can do it on almost any budget but because of CHOICES we made, we're more like MarkS suggested, we're spending what we earn. We have loan payments on our car, truck and our Trilogy and that's not been a problem. We certainly could do it on less but we've done it our way.
We've attended grandaughter's graduations in both Washington state and Massachusetts, another's beach volleyball tournament in Seaside, OR, took a helicopter ride in the Mt. St. Helens volcano, toured San Antonio, etc. visited friends & family in WA, AZ, CA, TX, IL, OH, and now NH. We attended a funeral in AZ. We enjoy good beer and nice wines, dining out in nice local restaurants and occasionally picking up the check for friends and family. We have created memories that we cherish and had we flown and done the hotel/car rental thing to do much of that our expenses would have been the same or higher.
Fuel and campground costs are much higher here in the Northeast where we currently are. Food is higher because we're buying in smaller quantity as Ruth mentioned.
We're loving this life, cramming in lots of fun and experiences and living it as fully as we can.
We could have done it for much less and Brian, I think you're right on with your planning.
Had we continued to workamp as originally planned our expenses would be much less. To repeat, much is about choices we each choose to make.
Sherry
Bobc said
05:59 AM Jun 11, 2014
DeWhit/ I like your thinking
Sherry it sounds like you are having a Blast. I will most likely be chasing the Budget as you do Sherry.
For us the main purpose of the budget is to try and plan how much money to pull out of our retirement account for the first couple years. After selling the house we will buy a new truck and trailer, have no debt and have a nice safety account if needed
I guess i should stop worrying about it and just go with the flow for the first year. The more i research the unknows i find. the first year will just be a huge learning curve no matter how much i research. But my wife tells me i live for the Hunt ( Thats half the fun) and i just love hearing about everybodys storey
I look forward to the Camp fires in the future with fellow RV-Dreams
Barbaraok said
07:46 AM Jun 11, 2014
Bobc wrote:
if you take a average site fee of 45.00 a day that alone would be 16,000 plus
health insurance about 10,000 per year food 6,000.
just that comes to 32,000 per year thats 2666.00 that does not leave much for anything else
Gas Taxes ( Truck,RV etc) other insurance ( Life, truck, RV entertainment cell phone WiFi TV etc. it all adds up fast
dont think i could come close to 3K a month unless we got a lot of very cheap sites ( not really interested in Walmart camping)
Bob, where did you get the idea that site fee would be $45/night on average? While there are a few places that charge that much (Lake Pleasant in Bothell, WA, which is close to downtown Seattle) that is usually only for a big metro area or a MAJOR tourist area (like Washington, DC). We've just spent 12 nights at Birch Bay, WA (just south of the Canadian border) - our cost per night = $0. We budget $600/month ($7200) a year and that includes our annual dues for our membership parks. You need to do a little more research on what is possible in the way of nightly fees. I take it you are not on Medicare yet since your health insurance costs are quite a bit more than we experience.
Barb
Bobc said
08:13 AM Jun 11, 2014
all most all the Camping we have done in the past has been in the northeast and the average around here is 50-65 for full hook-ups.
So i am just guessing. Hope i am wrong
I plan on are stays to be anywhere from 1-weeks at most stops for the first few years
we plan to break the country into 4 zones and spend a year in each zone Starting on the east coat year 1, year 2 will be the west coast and the midlle 3 and 4
after that we will spend most of our time in the zone we liked best and our stays will be longer ( Maybe)
always keeping in mind that we want to stay very flexable
hard for me to belive we will be able to average 600.00 per month or 20.00 per day. unless we stay for long periods of time.
Just me, again hope i am wrong!!!!
The Junkman said
08:56 AM Jun 11, 2014
I've camped alot in Upstate NY, Vt, and Ma. I don't recall those kind of numbers.. However, we don't stay in the village of lake george either as example, when we go. We had always tried to stay away from the tourist spots.. which are pricey. There are 5 places within 15 min of there , at a third of the price.
I think the " knowing" where to camp is going to be hardest for us.
In NY and NE, We even had yearly rentals at a rate of about 1000-1200 / year ( 7 mo ).. But that was maybe 10 years ago..
We plan to roll in .. rent by the day 1 or 2 .. if we like it.. pay for a month.. if we don't .. Just move on to the next place.
The parking location will be the deciding factor.. I hate being boxed in.
Bobc said
09:16 AM Jun 11, 2014
I guess there is always some thing cheaper, we do not stay at high end parks, but i would say that we tend to stay at above average Parks
we have also camped in the Lake Goerge area, stayed about 15 miles north and paid close to 50.00 per night for a full hook up.
I think it was a KOA and that was a few years ago now
we like clean well taken care of areas.
we have been in some cheap parks in NH and Maine. would never go back. almost distroyed our 36' motor home getting in and out. deep pot holes and tree branchs that almost took the roof off, weak electrial, no thank you.
we are now seasonal camper on Cape Cod ( this Park is very expensive but nice and doable for us right now) Paved roads, 2 beachs on a lake, pool, rec area, 10 minutes from the Ocean. ( i think the daily fee here in season is around 65.00 per night)
and the biggest Plus and the real reason we are there, our grand kids are 5 minutes away and we get to spend all most every weekend with them during the summer
dewwood said
09:27 AM Jun 11, 2014
We are not fulltime but we take extended trips. We have found travelling west from Indiana we drive a bit over twice the miles we do when we travel east. Even though fuel is normally our largest expense we find we spend about the same amount in total even though we drive twice the miles going west. Camping going west is much less expensive for us than when we travel east. That is just our experience based on trips of a couple of months duration.
BiggarView said
10:36 AM Jun 11, 2014
Sherry, thanks for the vote of confidence. That helo tour reminded us to add, to our 20 year anniversary return trip to Hawaii, a tour from the air of Kilauea (a bucket list item for us). Thanks.
Bobc, you threw me for a loop with your medical estimate since we haven't delved into that area yet. Hoping we can do that for less than 833/mth, at least untill Medicare kicks in.
We are looking at Campground fees around 15/night average or 460/month(inflation adjusted) when we hit the road but that includes P/A and a club membership too good to pass up that has been offered to us by a family member. Add in an "America the Beautiful" pass when we turn 65 and the camp fees go even lower. We do not plan on being in FHU sites for extended periods(without the mentioned discounts) unless we are either workamping(not high probability or priority but possible depending on circumstances) or we have a need to stay put for a while. Short term FHU will always be an occasional necessity. We also expect that our early costs will be a fair bit higher due to our "Newb" status so we have factored in a sizable fudge factor to cover our $$$es. YMMV as they say.
Bobc said
10:51 AM Jun 11, 2014
Health insurance/ when we start we will be 64 and 63 so we will not be able to take advantage of Medicare yet and because we wiil be traveling outside of the Ma. Area we will need a IPO plan to start and we have seen cost between 950-1350 per month for the 2 of us. I am sure every state will be different. we don't plan to change our home state untill we get out there figure out what we really want to do.
Campground fees, I have not figured in any membership groups, even thou we are life time good sam members. i will have to check to see what groups work best for each zone we will be traveling as there seem to be some big saving here.
being from the Northeast i just can not wrap my head around 15.00 site fee's unless it is in a parking lot somewhere.
Joel Buchan said
12:23 PM Jun 11, 2014
You can control your monthly expenses as a full timer by staying longer in one spot. My monthly expenses can very from $1,000.00 to $3,500.00 a month. All is based on travel and my toys. Eating out can add up fast, RV parks as well. I don't go from park to park as most do as I don't really need a RV park for a place to park. Give that some thought. Keep in mind that you are self contained. If you have good solar and follow the climates RV parks are not needed. Find water and dumping is not a big problem. You will learn to adapt.
BiggarView said
12:35 PM Jun 11, 2014
Bobc wrote:
being from the Northeast i just can not wrap my head around 15.00 site fee's unless it is in a parking lot somewhere.
Some will higher, some lower or none at all. 15/night is just an average that will include some boondocking...0/night(not just walmart though it it may happen on ocasion while moving to a distant next location) lower early in the week(with P/A discount), weekends higher unless in a location for more than a few days, club parks are very reasonable with the membership(30 nights a year is roughly 17/night, 100 nights cuts to roughly 5/night)... We're not shooting for 15/night every night. Sure we'll probably end up some nights at 40, 50 or even 60/night as needed but not every night... Ouch!!
-- Edited by biggaRView on Wednesday 11th of June 2014 12:36:20 PM
Bobc said
12:53 PM Jun 11, 2014
what is P/A ?
Lucky Mike said
02:12 PM Jun 11, 2014
Passport America Club......P/A.......if you search it or if you go to the main page you can click on it.....there is a special running right now and if you look for howards recent post you will get bonus months added on for free using howards code in his post...or just PM Howard for info
Bobc said
02:20 PM Jun 11, 2014
Thank You I did see that, it just didn't click
It will be a little while before i would use it.
But i will check it out
Neil and Connie said
03:53 PM Jun 30, 2014
Much cheaper. Even with averaging about 900 bucks a month for campground fees and going out to the pub more than when we lived in the house. We had no mortgage on the house and have none on the rig either but even if we did the rig one would be less than our house mortgage was, but that obviously depends on where your house is/was.
H&L live on about 36K a year IIRC. We're above that…but then we don't boondock, don't park without hookups and like our wine and beer. Overall we're averaging about 12000-15000 a year less than living in the DC suburbs.
Neil and Connie said
03:57 PM Jun 30, 2014
Easy peasy on that much…but could do it for 3K if you tried to and/or needed to. I've even known folks that full timed on about 12K a year…but then that was all they had and they lived pretty frugally in cheap parks that we personally wouldn't stay in.
Budget expands to what you ca afford…in our case with a USN pension, my wife's pension and her part time job with a local VA college while on the road we haven't touched a dime of our "retirement money" even after 2 years on the road and we don't want for anything.
NWescapee said
10:56 PM Jun 30, 2014
Not sure if this will help, when we went on the road I decided to keep really detailed records for the first year to help us with budgeting future years. Some of you will laugh at the following stats or label me as OCD, but hopefully at least someone will find this useful. I'm a spreadsheet junkie, former financial analyst, type A personality who loves details. While I've learned a lot about flexibility and have managed to achieve a much better attitude of "rolling with the punches" as life throws unexpected changes our way, I still revel in knowing the details and being able to track things at a minute level of detail.
Not sure I'll have this level of detail going forward, but after almost a year on the road I just looked back at the records I've been keeping, over the last 11.5 months we've averaged $671/mo in campground fees. We spent 2 weeks in Quartzsite last winter, so that was our longest boon docking experience, we've had 10 nights of enroute Wally docking nights, almost a week at a Casino, 142 nights at state/county/ city parks, 65 nights at commercial RV parks (13 of those were at a special "friends and family rate" due to knowing other workcampers for $10/night), 82 at membership parks (Passport America, Good Sam's, places we get discounts, etc.), 23 at Fairgrounds where we can usually find cheaper rates and 13 with free parking at art shows that we do. Mentally we budgeted $750/mo for campground fees, obviously we're under that number slightly, our highest month was $820, lowest was $430, average was $671. We've camped in WA /ID / MT / SD / WY / CO/ UT / CA / NV / AZ / OR / TX / OK / NM over the past year. Wow, just realized we've hit 14 states in a year, hadn't added those numbers up before Haven't gotten any further east than TX and not sure we really want to, but that's another discussion, let's just say we enjoy the more wide open, less populated areas of the West.
So, I know that average monthly camp fee is more than $1200 less than the total of our mortgage, utilities, property taxes, home owners insurance, etc. We have slightly higher fuel / insurance costs than before, but we're still coming out 1K/mo less than when we had the house.
We are still working so probably spend a bit more on "conveniences" than we need to, but honestly, sometimes I'd rather pay someone to do the maintenance work on the rig that we could do, but would take away from our free time. For us it's a tradeoff, we have more expendable funds to enjoy doing activities we didn't use to have time for, we have funds available for charitable giving in excess of what we ever had before, we're still saving for retirement at an accelerated rate but enjoying life more than we did when we had a house. So from that perspective we've achieved our goals and have a satisfaction with life that we didn't even know was possible.
BiggarView said
09:19 AM Jul 1, 2014
Ruth, sounds like your recipe is working out great for you and Dale... congratulations.
Trabuco said
09:49 AM Jul 1, 2014
Our first year out we averaged about $5500 per month. A large budget item for us was entertainment. Since we are from the west coast we wanted to see the sites on the east coast and we did. About 4 days each week we were paying entrance fees to attractions. We wanted to see all the history we could take in.
We bought into Thousand Trails zone pass program and it worked well for us. We spent approximately 120 nights at $3.00 per night. All of it on the east coast. For us, during the first year it was more about what we wanted to see and not necessarily about the campgrounds.
We budgeted $750 per month for camping and $500 for diesel fuel. Camping was under budget thanks to TT and diesel fuel was slightly over based on the 15k miles we drove.
It was a busy year but it turned out to be just what we wanted for the first year.
In addition to the 15k on the MH we put about 12k on the toad. In all we covered 32 states.
We have since slowed down and have been back on the west coast since Nov 2013.
The Junkman said
03:03 PM Jul 1, 2014
Trabuco wrote:
Our first year out we averaged about $5500 per month.
I'm screwed..
We get out in Aug.. this year.
You sound exactly like what we want to do.. Same camping budgets, fuel ect..
I knew I was light on my entertainment budget.. but I'm way off.. I think.. Will have no payments on anything.. and are at 1/2 of yours..
How much are you averaging now? And have you found it more expensive on the east coast?
Bobc said
03:19 PM Jul 1, 2014
I have another 18 months before we start our new adventure. But I am planning on starting also with a budget of around 6k per month. Heath insurance alone is going to be over 1,000 per month, 500. For food,500. For fuel, misc. taxes and fees 1,000, site fees 1,000 per month. Already at 4,000 with out the intertanment and what ever else. The 6k still goes fast. I do see it getting cheaper after year 2.
By maybe 1k.
I would must rather plan on a large budget to start and then maybe cut back from there.
We want to make sure we can do all the stuff we want to do and do much parking lot camping. Which does not excite us at all,unless it it just a one night hold over while going from A to B.
The Junkman said
04:00 PM Jul 1, 2014
So I need about $330,000 for 5 years.. $66,000 a year, after taxes ? Most people don't make that much working at home..lol
Plus the RV, Tow rig.. etc.. about 1/2 million should do it?
Maybe I should just buy a beach house???
-- Edited by The Junkman on Tuesday 1st of July 2014 04:02:20 PM
Bobc said
04:23 PM Jul 1, 2014
Can,t move the beach house !!
I am sure it can be done cheaper. But for us.
I think we can enjoy our selves and not be to concerned about having to seek out cheap campgrounds that will take our planed trailer size (41').
Again I would rather plan for the higher number and then cut back if needed.
We will be on a 5 year plan. We will remain flexible. As the only thing you can be sure of is that thing will change.
The Junkman said
05:07 PM Jul 1, 2014
Bobc wrote:
Can,t move the beach house !! I am sure it can be done cheaper. But for us. I think we can enjoy our selves and not be to concerned about having to seek out cheap campgrounds that will take our planed trailer size (41'). Again I would rather plan for the higher number and then cut back if needed. We will be on a 5 year plan. We will remain flexible. As the only thing you can be sure of is that thing will change.
for 1/2 mil.. I can fly in , and stay at the beach front hotel.. lol ALOT of places.. for a long time..
Maybe I need to rethink this?
Lucky Mike said
05:32 PM Jul 1, 2014
I do it for 30 k or under total per year....(actually alot less than 30k) its all in your needs and lifestyle
Bobc said
06:09 PM Jul 1, 2014
I agree with you Mike. I think are expense will be the highest the first couple years as we will be trying to see as much as we can before we really adjust into a slower life style. There is a lot to see out there and as long as we are healthy we will want to take advantage of that. Everybody has different wants and need. We just want to be realistic about what it will take to live on the road and still enjoy our selves.
cherylbrv said
06:47 PM Jul 1, 2014
I don't know how it's going to turn out for me, as I only just started out this week. But as the first of the month just rolled around, this is the first time I have NO MORTGAGE PAYMENT!!! It will also be nice this month not having to pay the electric, gas, water, landline phone/internet and sanitation bills.
Of course, we probably just spent double that on repairs and lots of odds & ends we needed.
Trabuco said
08:44 PM Jul 1, 2014
Junkman,
We had a $300 per month car payment we decided to pay off and $200 in storage fees that stopped. So there's $500 right off the top. I don't have the numbers in front of me but we probably spent $500 to $600 per month on entertainment. Then there was a lot of eating out while we out spending $600 on entertainment.
Bottom line we are now closer to 4k - 4.5k per month. We could reduce off of that if need be. So far we haven't needed too!
I am sure this topic has been covered before but maybe some newbies can chime in. How many find full timing in an RV cheaper than living in a home? I realize there are a lot of variables so let's assume both RV and home are paid for and go with monthly expenses. This will not be the same for everyone as a lot would depend on amount of travel, dining out, entertainment ETC.
I am not a full timer but could be down the road. I am guessing full timing cost are slightly higher.
Mark
I won't bore you with budgets and figures, but one that we find interesting: Our TOTAL maintenance, including tires and oil changes on the tow vehicle over the past 8 years= $102.60 per month. That is right about what it cost to maintain just our pool in the sticks and bricks!!
Simply put: Total dollar expenses monthly in a house=$4,000.00
In an RV= $2,000.00
Yep, cheaper in the RV.
Are you figuring in monthly cost of staying in campground?
They say, you spend what you earn. I figure you will adjust your lifestyle in the RV according to what you bring in, adjusted for your priorities.
It's all about perspective.
We break it all down, and keep a monthly cost log at: www.technomadia.com/costlog
- Cherie
Yep. As I said, ALL expenses. Total of money spent.
We do not ever boon-dock. We do however do some volunteering and get a free site for 3 months.
-- Edited by Dog Folks on Sunday 8th of June 2014 12:56:07 PM
Other items:
Our grocery costs have actually increased because we're buying in smaller quantities. Our costs for eating out are probably a little higher as we tend to dine out more often when we're traveling just to simplify things sometimes.
Our campground fees are about 25% less than the mortgage payment, however, our fuel costs are about double what we used to spend for 2 vehicles, but we're also traveling more. Utilities are much less, almost non-existent other than propane refills and the gas needed to run the generator.
Our connectivity cost is about the same, but we're both working from the road so we need the bandwidth.
Maintenance for us has actually been higher this first year in the RV vs. the house, but we don't expect that to continue at quite that same rate, we had some upgrade expenses that should not be recurring.
Our entertainment expenses have gone up because we have more free time so we're having more fun on weekends exploring whatever area we're in.
Overall it's less than the house and yes, we could economize if we needed to, but while we're both still working there are times when we choose to splurge.
While we aren't on the road yet, I have done extensive research on what our RV budget will look like, based on "reasonable numbers". We are looking at the lifestyle we think we'll be doing and I calculate we'll be roughly 25% less than our S&B and that includes a "fudge factor" for unknown expenses. (it gets smaller the more I learn). We figure our "lifestyle" will include higher expenses in entertainment and leisure categories than we are now spending and if needed we could cut that significantly and still not sacrifice enough to impair our enjoyment. Cuts there and other budget items could get us about 33% less expensive than our S&B.
FWIW
I think a lot is going to depend on where your S&B was located. If you are coming from either the North East (NYC/NJ/East PA) area or the West Coast (CA area) then FT RV could be easily less expensive. We are from the NJ area and had a modest house there. Our camping fees averaged $700/mo for the past 2 years which is a third of our S&B mortgage with property taxes. We are actually driving less milage but spending more for it due to the lower MPG and cost of Diesel for the big truck. Yes, our food cost is a little higher and so is our entertainment cost. However, we are getting a whole lot more bang out our entertainment than we did in the S&B. We are spreading the entertainment cost around more by being in different places, seeing more and doing a wider variety of things. Insurance for the RV and truck is a little less than we were paying for just one car in NJ (we had 2 at the time).
The bottom line for us is that we are spending about the same but enjoying it more. We could cut back and still enjoy more than if we were in the S&B.
Mark
All this said, we will only be fulltiming for this year as I cannot convince Hubby to NOT have a house. We are building closer to our children, so will have a house again by end of year.
I could be quite happy fulltiming but will settle for 2-6 months of the year as a compromise; that is what it is all about, finding the best fit that works for both of you. We are fortunate that we can afford both a S&B and to travel. We will see what the future holds, life throws all of us changes and we just roll with it and adjust as best we can.
I think it will be more expensive in the RV. The entertainment , and travel expenses put it over the top for me.
If I sat in a rv park in AZ or florida for the winter , then moved north for the summer.. It would cheaper.
I think it comes down to how much you move and how much you spent on entertainment, eating out, shopping etc.
I've seen rv parks at $400 / mo... and nice ones at 1300/ mo or less.. exotics are much more. And while I may stay on the beach a few times here and there.. I think mostly we will be in the second row..
As someone stated.. you spend what you earn.I believe that. If I earned enough, I would just fly( or drive ) to the places I want to go to.. stay a while, at a hotel and rent a escalade, and fly to the next one, and so on.. lol
If you have the mindset to fulltime you can make it work on any budget.
For example:
Share meals when eating out
Find entertainment and activities in new local that are free or minimal
Research area campgrounds to find the best deal for your needs
Stay in one location for a while, less driving = less gas
Relax at campsite, enjoy the views = less gas
I made a budget as Howard recommends, and try to stay on it or close.
It all depends on your needs and desires.
Good luck!
Just too many moving targets at this time.
the big one is the cost of health insurance and this is a item that i do not want to risk going cheap.
site fees are another one that is hard to get a handle on depending on lenth of stay and location
we are from the Northeast so 50-65 a day are the average for full hook ups. we hear of others who find 30-35 around the country and think that is high.( Sounds like a bargin to me) so when doing a budget it becomes very hard.
so what i have decided to do is pick a monthly number we can afford in retirement 5-6K per month for everything ( debt free to start) this would be 25% lower than our yearly average per month.
we hope to be less than the 5K but also want to enjoy our time on the road if we get to 6K we have to look at making adjustments.
Trying to use the KISS system
Just Curious.. Is that per month? If so , what is your monthly budget?
There are so many varibles.. I mean a mortgage could be $700 to $5000 / mo.. or more. I can sure live pretty good in a RV at 5k a month..
So this thread is useless without applying the real numbers to it... my .02
Assuming no debt or payments.. That seems like alot to me. I'm at a estimated 3k / mo.. If you don't mind me asking.. what are you planning to spend the bulk of it on? maybe I am missing something big..
health insurance about 10,000 per year
food 6,000.
just that comes to 32,000 per year thats 2666.00 that does not leave much for anything else
Gas
Taxes ( Truck,RV etc)
other insurance ( Life, truck, RV
entertainment
cell phone
WiFi
TV
etc. it all adds up fast
dont think i could come close to 3K a month unless we got a lot of very cheap sites ( not really interested in Walmart camping)
i don't have heathcare.. should have it when i hit FL, and turn 50.
Subtracting out those differences alone is 14k / yr.. 1200/ mo.. that's alot closer..
Thanks for sharing...
Chip
I may need to run my numbers again for the umpteenth time.
I did not budget health or supplement insurance into the road fund since I considered that a fixed cost no matter how you lived or where.
Maybe I am missing something, but there seems to be a lot of electronic and wifi/entertainment expenses.
I guess if we became nudists we could save on the laundry and clothes expense also. Maybe do the toga thing year round ?
I notice more travel expenses on this site than on some other sites. Must be the neighborhood.
Maybe I could run a small still and turn a couple bucks on the road.
As Lucky Mike indicates you can do it on almost any budget but because of CHOICES we made, we're more like MarkS suggested, we're spending what we earn. We have loan payments on our car, truck and our Trilogy and that's not been a problem. We certainly could do it on less but we've done it our way.
We've attended grandaughter's graduations in both Washington state and Massachusetts, another's beach volleyball tournament in Seaside, OR, took a helicopter ride in the Mt. St. Helens volcano, toured San Antonio, etc. visited friends & family in WA, AZ, CA, TX, IL, OH, and now NH. We attended a funeral in AZ. We enjoy good beer and nice wines, dining out in nice local restaurants and occasionally picking up the check for friends and family. We have created memories that we cherish and had we flown and done the hotel/car rental thing to do much of that our expenses would have been the same or higher.
Fuel and campground costs are much higher here in the Northeast where we currently are. Food is higher because we're buying in smaller quantity as Ruth mentioned.
We're loving this life, cramming in lots of fun and experiences and living it as fully as we can.
We could have done it for much less and Brian, I think you're right on with your planning.
Had we continued to workamp as originally planned our expenses would be much less. To repeat, much is about choices we each choose to make.
Sherry
Sherry it sounds like you are having a Blast. I will most likely be chasing the Budget as you do Sherry.
For us the main purpose of the budget is to try and plan how much money to pull out of our retirement account for the first couple years. After selling the house we will buy a new truck and trailer, have no debt and have a nice safety account if needed
I guess i should stop worrying about it and just go with the flow for the first year. The more i research the unknows i find. the first year will just be a huge learning curve no matter how much i research. But my wife tells me i live for the Hunt ( Thats half the fun) and i just love hearing about everybodys storey
I look forward to the Camp fires in the future with fellow RV-Dreams
Bob, where did you get the idea that site fee would be $45/night on average? While there are a few places that charge that much (Lake Pleasant in Bothell, WA, which is close to downtown Seattle) that is usually only for a big metro area or a MAJOR tourist area (like Washington, DC). We've just spent 12 nights at Birch Bay, WA (just south of the Canadian border) - our cost per night = $0. We budget $600/month ($7200) a year and that includes our annual dues for our membership parks. You need to do a little more research on what is possible in the way of nightly fees. I take it you are not on Medicare yet since your health insurance costs are quite a bit more than we experience.
Barb
So i am just guessing. Hope i am wrong
I plan on are stays to be anywhere from 1-weeks at most stops for the first few years
we plan to break the country into 4 zones and spend a year in each zone Starting on the east coat year 1, year 2 will be the west coast and the midlle 3 and 4
after that we will spend most of our time in the zone we liked best and our stays will be longer ( Maybe)
always keeping in mind that we want to stay very flexable
hard for me to belive we will be able to average 600.00 per month or 20.00 per day. unless we stay for long periods of time.
Just me, again hope i am wrong!!!!
I think the " knowing" where to camp is going to be hardest for us.
In NY and NE, We even had yearly rentals at a rate of about 1000-1200 / year ( 7 mo ).. But that was maybe 10 years ago..
We plan to roll in .. rent by the day 1 or 2 .. if we like it.. pay for a month.. if we don't .. Just move on to the next place.
The parking location will be the deciding factor.. I hate being boxed in.
we have also camped in the Lake Goerge area, stayed about 15 miles north and paid close to 50.00 per night for a full hook up.
I think it was a KOA and that was a few years ago now
we like clean well taken care of areas.
we have been in some cheap parks in NH and Maine. would never go back. almost distroyed our 36' motor home getting in and out. deep pot holes and tree branchs that almost took the roof off, weak electrial, no thank you.
we are now seasonal camper on Cape Cod ( this Park is very expensive but nice and doable for us right now) Paved roads, 2 beachs on a lake, pool, rec area, 10 minutes from the Ocean. ( i think the daily fee here in season is around 65.00 per night)
and the biggest Plus and the real reason we are there, our grand kids are 5 minutes away and we get to spend all most every weekend with them during the summer
Sherry, thanks for the vote of confidence. That helo tour reminded us to add, to our 20 year anniversary return trip to Hawaii, a tour from the air of Kilauea (a bucket list item for us). Thanks.
Bobc, you threw me for a loop with your medical estimate since we haven't delved into that area yet. Hoping we can do that for less than 833/mth, at least untill Medicare kicks in.
We are looking at Campground fees around 15/night average or 460/month(inflation adjusted) when we hit the road but that includes P/A and a club membership too good to pass up that has been offered to us by a family member. Add in an "America the Beautiful" pass when we turn 65 and the camp fees go even lower. We do not plan on being in FHU sites for extended periods(without the mentioned discounts) unless we are either workamping(not high probability or priority but possible depending on circumstances) or we have a need to stay put for a while. Short term FHU will always be an occasional necessity. We also expect that our early costs will be a fair bit higher due to our "Newb" status so we have factored in a sizable fudge factor to cover our $$$es.
YMMV as they say.
Campground fees, I have not figured in any membership groups, even thou we are life time good sam members. i will have to check to see what groups work best for each zone we will be traveling as there seem to be some big saving here.
being from the Northeast i just can not wrap my head around 15.00 site fee's unless it is in a parking lot somewhere.
Some will higher, some lower or none at all. 15/night is just an average that will include some boondocking...0/night(not just walmart though it it may happen on ocasion while moving to a distant next location) lower early in the week(with P/A discount), weekends higher unless in a location for more than a few days, club parks are very reasonable with the membership(30 nights a year is roughly 17/night, 100 nights cuts to roughly 5/night)... We're not shooting for 15/night every night. Sure we'll probably end up some nights at 40, 50 or even 60/night as needed but not every night... Ouch!!
-- Edited by biggaRView on Wednesday 11th of June 2014 12:36:20 PM
It will be a little while before i would use it.
But i will check it out
Much cheaper. Even with averaging about 900 bucks a month for campground fees and going out to the pub more than when we lived in the house. We had no mortgage on the house and have none on the rig either but even if we did the rig one would be less than our house mortgage was, but that obviously depends on where your house is/was.
H&L live on about 36K a year IIRC. We're above that…but then we don't boondock, don't park without hookups and like our wine and beer. Overall we're averaging about 12000-15000 a year less than living in the DC suburbs.
Easy peasy on that much…but could do it for 3K if you tried to and/or needed to. I've even known folks that full timed on about 12K a year…but then that was all they had and they lived pretty frugally in cheap parks that we personally wouldn't stay in.
Budget expands to what you ca afford…in our case with a USN pension, my wife's pension and her part time job with a local VA college while on the road we haven't touched a dime of our "retirement money" even after 2 years on the road and we don't want for anything.
Not sure if this will help, when we went on the road I decided to keep really detailed records for the first year to help us with budgeting future years. Some of you will laugh at the following stats or label me as OCD, but hopefully at least someone will find this useful. I'm a spreadsheet junkie, former financial analyst, type A personality who loves details.
While I've learned a lot about flexibility and have managed to achieve a much better attitude of "rolling with the punches" as life throws unexpected changes our way, I still revel in knowing the details and being able to track things at a minute level of detail.
, but after almost a year on the road I just looked back at the records I've been keeping, over the last 11.5 months we've averaged $671/mo in campground fees. We spent 2 weeks in Quartzsite last winter, so that was our longest boon docking experience, we've had 10 nights of enroute Wally docking nights, almost a week at a Casino, 142 nights at state/county/ city parks, 65 nights at commercial RV parks (13 of those were at a special "friends and family rate" due to knowing other workcampers for $10/night), 82 at membership parks (Passport America, Good Sam's, places we get discounts, etc.), 23 at Fairgrounds where we can usually find cheaper rates and 13 with free parking at art shows that we do. Mentally we budgeted $750/mo for campground fees, obviously we're under that number slightly
, our highest month was $820, lowest was $430, average was $671. We've camped in WA /ID / MT / SD / WY / CO/ UT / CA / NV / AZ / OR / TX / OK / NM over the past year. Wow, just realized we've hit 14 states in a year, hadn't added those numbers up before
Haven't gotten any further east than TX and not sure we really want to, but that's another discussion, let's just say we enjoy the more wide open, less populated areas of the West.
Not sure I'll have this level of detail going forward
So, I know that average monthly camp fee is more than $1200 less than the total of our mortgage, utilities, property taxes, home owners insurance, etc. We have slightly higher fuel / insurance costs than before, but we're still coming out 1K/mo less than when we had the house.
We are still working so probably spend a bit more on "conveniences" than we need to, but honestly, sometimes I'd rather pay someone to do the maintenance work on the rig that we could do, but would take away from our free time. For us it's a tradeoff, we have more expendable funds to enjoy doing activities we didn't use to have time for, we have funds available for charitable giving in excess of what we ever had before, we're still saving for retirement at an accelerated rate but enjoying life more than we did when we had a house. So from that perspective we've achieved our goals and have a satisfaction with life that we didn't even know was possible.
Ruth, sounds like your recipe is working out great for you and Dale... congratulations.
We bought into Thousand Trails zone pass program and it worked well for us. We spent approximately 120 nights at $3.00 per night. All of it on the east coast. For us, during the first year it was more about what we wanted to see and not necessarily about the campgrounds.
We budgeted $750 per month for camping and $500 for diesel fuel. Camping was under budget thanks to TT and diesel fuel was slightly over based on the 15k miles we drove.
It was a busy year but it turned out to be just what we wanted for the first year.
In addition to the 15k on the MH we put about 12k on the toad. In all we covered 32 states.
We have since slowed down and have been back on the west coast since Nov 2013.
I'm screwed..
We get out in Aug.. this year.
You sound exactly like what we want to do.. Same camping budgets, fuel ect..
I knew I was light on my entertainment budget.. but I'm way off.. I think.. Will have no payments on anything.. and are at 1/2 of yours..
How much are you averaging now? And have you found it more expensive on the east coast?
By maybe 1k.
I would must rather plan on a large budget to start and then maybe cut back from there.
We want to make sure we can do all the stuff we want to do and do much parking lot camping. Which does not excite us at all,unless it it just a one night hold over while going from A to B.
So I need about $330,000 for 5 years.. $66,000 a year, after taxes ? Most people don't make that much working at home..lol
Plus the RV, Tow rig.. etc.. about 1/2 million should do it?
Maybe I should just buy a beach house???
-- Edited by The Junkman on Tuesday 1st of July 2014 04:02:20 PM
I am sure it can be done cheaper. But for us.
I think we can enjoy our selves and not be to concerned about having to seek out cheap campgrounds that will take our planed trailer size (41').
Again I would rather plan for the higher number and then cut back if needed.
We will be on a 5 year plan. We will remain flexible. As the only thing you can be sure of is that thing will change.
for 1/2 mil.. I can fly in , and stay at the beach front hotel.. lol ALOT of places.. for a long time..
Maybe I need to rethink this?
Of course, we probably just spent double that on repairs and lots of odds & ends we needed.
We had a $300 per month car payment we decided to pay off and $200 in storage fees that stopped. So there's $500 right off the top. I don't have the numbers in front of me but we probably spent $500 to $600 per month on entertainment. Then there was a lot of eating out while we out spending $600 on entertainment.
Bottom line we are now closer to 4k - 4.5k per month. We could reduce off of that if need be. So far we haven't needed too!