Volunteering for Fun

We’ve been camping on America’s public lands for many years now, enjoying all the blessings and benefits that this beautiful lifestyle offers — multi-million dollar views out our windows, incredible wildlife sightings on a regular basis, and the delicious peace and quiet that go with living in nature.

What’s a painless and useful way to say “thanks” for the privilege of being able to live this way? Whenever we set up camp in a new boondocking spot, we take a moment to clean up our site before we settle in. It takes just a few minutes, and it makes our new front and backyard so much more attractive.

Boondocking, boating and camping at Roosevelt Lake in Arizona

Boondocking and boating at Roosevelt Lake in Arizona

Lots of people volunteer their time to help out the various government agencies that manage America’s public lands, and they usually receive either a free RV campsite and/or a small stipend for their work. This is a fantastic exchange, however, it doesn’t need to be so formal and there doesn’t even need to be a tit-for-tat trade. Besides, in places like Arizona’s Roosevelt Lake where camping costs seniors just $3 a night, the volunteer host is hardly making a killing!

We recently arrived at a campsite to find it very overgrown with weeds, so Mark grabbed his rake and hedge trimmer and began doing a little groundskeeping to trim back the thorny mesquite and palo verde trees and to get rid of the piles of tumbleweeds.

Folks kept driving by and asking Mark if he were the campground host. When he said, “No, I’m just cleaning up a little,” they looked puzzled and asked him why he was raking. The answer is easy: We love our lifestyle and want the privilege of camping on public land to be available to us and others in the future!

Mark plays air guitar with his rake

Besides, sometimes it makes Mark feel happy and goofy enough that he whips out his rake and starts playing air guitar!

More info: Camping at Roosevelt Lake

Related posts:

What Kinda RV izZAT?? A One-of-a-Kind Rolling Home!

December 2014 – There are so many very cool RVs on the road, and we just love seeing all the variety. Lately, we’ve been eyeing up a particularly unusual one that has been parked near us. Yesterday, I had a chance to talk to the owner, Stan, and what a great story he had to tell.

Growing up on a farm, Stan dreamed of more distant horizons. At age 35, he left the family farm for a life of adventure. Taking a big manure spreader truck and an old truck camper that had been lying around the back of a barn, he put the two together to create a terrific rolling home. Now 73, he has been living in it on the road ever since — some thirty-eight years!!!

Truck and camper converted into an RV

Now THAT’s a long-term full-time RVer!!

Stan is very handy and has given his home many upgrades over the years. Today it sports 1,200 watts of solar power (holy smokes!) and a whopping 600 gallons of fresh water!! Hookups? Are you kidding? Never!!

Free to roam, Stan has ridden his mountain bike and dirt bike all over some of the most remote dirt roads of the west.

“If you live this way, you’ll live forever,” he told me with a carefree smile.

Yes, indeed!! You don’t have to spend your cherished nest egg on a luxury Class A to have a little fun and find some independence in the full-time RV lifestyle. Just grab an old truck and camper and take off!

We love meeting folks who are living adventurous lifestyles with a twist. You may enjoy these related posts:

 

RV Budget, Costs & Expenses – What does it cost to RV full-time?

The biggest question most people have before they run away to live in an RV full-time is: Can I afford it? To help you answer that question, this page outlines our living expenses for six months of RV travel in 2014, and it compares those costs to the costs we incurred during our first year of full-time RVing in 2007-08.

This is a long post. To read it in sections, the following links skip further down:

1. Is the Full-time RV Life Affordable?
2. Fixed Expenses
3. Variable Expenses
4. Cost Comparison: 2007 vs. 2014
5. Capital Costs & Depreciation

IS THE FULL-TIME RV LIFE AFFORDABLE?

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People enjoy the full-time RV lifestyle on all kinds of budgets, and the money full-timers have to work with comes in all kinds of forms. Some retirees have big pensions but not a lot of savings. Others have a nest egg of savings but no pension. Many younger full-time RVers work while they travel, either to cover all of their living expenses or to supplement other income streams.

The form your money is in makes a difference in how you RV and what your expenses will be. If you have a big income that comes from a limitless source (a pension and/or Social Security), then a large loan on a new luxury Class A motorhome may be just fine and the nightly expense of high-end RV parks won’t be a problem. However, if you are trying to make a small nest egg last to your dying day, and you are not even retirement age yet, you may be best off spending a portion of it to purchase your RV outright, rather than paying interest on a loan, and you will also be looking to save money on camping and overnight parking.

If you are planning to work camp in exchange for an RV campsite, or if you will be working part-time jobs as you travel, or working via the internet from your RV, your choice of overnight parking spots may be based more on your job’s requirements than on the whims of your travel interests, and your camping costs and the kind of work you do will subsequently be tightly linked.

The bottom line, however, is that if you can afford your current lifestyle in a stick-built home, you will probably be able to afford a more mobile lifestyle in an RV.

Full-time RV Costs are Very Personal, including ours!

Everyone has different priorities and lives differently, making budgeting a highly personal project. My numbers here reflect who we are. We have been frugal in our choices, and we have adjusted to a simple life.

In my former corporate life, I hit Starbucks most mornings and ate dinner out almost every night. We owned and maintained two cars, and we each had significant commutes. Now we eat dinner out very infrequently, and we limit our coffee shop splurges. We own just one vehicle and drive much less. Where we used to have property taxes, utilities and HOA fees, we have none of those things in our RV lifestyle. All in all, we spend about $500 less per month in our RV than we did in our house. But that huge savings is entirely a function of what our old lifestyle used to be and what our current lifestyle is now. Other full-time RVers might not see those same savings.

To cut to the chase, our living expenses for our six months of summer travel in 2014 came to $2,090 per month. But that’s a meaningless number until we uncover where it came from…

How We Travel

We have a 2007 Dodge RAM 3500 single wheel diesel truck that we bought new one month into our full-time RV lifestyle. It now has 84,000 miles on it. This truck tows a 2007 NuWa Hitchhiker 36′ fifth wheel trailer that we bought new at the end of our first year of full-timing in the spring of 2008.

We own our truck and trailer outright and do not carry any debt. This not only helps us keep our monthly expenses down but makes it easier to sleep at night. There is a lot to be said for the budget traveler’s creed: “Go cheap, go small, go now!”

To save money, we don’t have a cell phone. We estimate that since we started traveling this may have saved us about $50/month or as much as $4,500 all together. We have also equipped our trailer with solar panels and we camp for free virtually every night. These choices make us happy, but may not suit everyone. Here’s a description of our minimalist internet and communications solution and our tips for how to live off the grid in an RV.

What Will Your RV Budget Be?

Budgets for this lifestyle are both easy and difficult to anticipate. Your full-time RV lifestyle budget will be exactly what your stick-built-home budget is now, minus the expenses related to living in your current home, plus the expenses of living in your RV.

It’s that simple.

You already know what you typically spend at the supermarket, and that will stay the same when you travel in an RV. Look at your current bills and scratch off your mortgage/rent, utilities, property taxes, HOA, house maintenance costs and the gas/registration/insurance costs for your current vehicles that won’t be coming along on your adventure.

If you want help managing expenses and boosting rental income when your rig isn’t in use, RVManagement USA offers resources and support.

Then estimate your future lifestyle costs that you need to add in (the numbers we share below will help with that). These include your fuel costs and your vehicle insurance and registration fees for both vehicles that make up your rig, whether it is a motorhome/car combo or a truck/trailer combo. If you have chosen your domicile city/state, you can do very specific research to estimate your future vehicle insurance and registration fees. We have some notes on domicile selection on our full-time RVing page.

There are also maintenance, repair and upgrade costs for the rig and your own personal interests to consider as well.

Of course, the whims of the economy are beyond anyone’s control. In the spring of 2008 diesel fuel prices soared out of sight in just a few months. Half a year later the world economy fell apart. Yet, the full-time RVers that were on the road then just kept on going — like everyone else — finding ways to make the best of a grim situation. So, once you launch your full-time RV lifestyle, you will find yourself adapting as the world changes around you — just like you did at home.

A Look at our Expenses, Then and Now

Mickey Mouse Calculator

Mickey always makes this stuff more fun.

My plan before we started in 2007 was to spend about $1,800 per month. I estimated $500 per month for food and household items (which is what we had been spending at home); $500 per month for gas; $500 per month for campground fees; $100 per month for RV and truck insurance; and I left a slush of $200 per month for other things.

We ended up spending $1,672 per month during our first year on the road, beating our budget by a little. During those twelve months we saw diesel prices jump by almost 90% from $2.75 to $5.16 per gallon (in the places where we were buying diesel). At the same time, we also learned about boondocking and discovered that we didn’t need to spend anything on campgrounds. Those two unexpected events cancelled each other out!

Seven years later, we are now spending $2,090 a month. This is a 25% increase. Part of that is due to inflation which has raised consumer prices 14% between 2007 and 2014. The other reason for the increase is that we have changed our lifestyle a little bit, and we’ve become less stringent about splurging on things like eating out.

FULL-TIME RV EXPENSES BREAKDOWN

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RV Lifestyle expenses can be broken into “fixed costs” that you spend every month regardless of what happens worldwide or to you, and “variable costs” that depend on your activities.

FIXED COSTS – Six Months – May 1 to Oct 31, 2014

Our fixed costs for the six months between May and October of 2014 are shown in this chart. There is an explanation of what each category represents below that.

Expense Category Amount
Food & Household Items $582
Vehicle Insurance $135
Communications $88
Propane $50
Laundry $50
Miscellaneous $40
Mail & Postage $32
Vehicle Registration $29
Hair Care $15
RV Dumps $4
Health Insurance
Total $1,025

Food & Household Items – $582 / month
This item covers all supermarket purchases, including groceries, household cleansers, toiletries, laundry detergent, over-the-counter pharmaceuticals and anything else that can be found at Walmart, Safeway, Albertsons, Target and other places. Our rig is fully outfitted, but occasionally we get a small kitchen appliance or pick up a DVD. Those things get lumped into this number.

Vehicle Insurance – $135 / month
This includes both truck and full-time RV insurance for our 5th wheel trailer. We pay it annually, but the monthly cost is shown. If we had kept our Arizona home address, this line item would have been twice as much. There is more detailed info on the selection of a domicile (home address) and the implications that choice has on your vehicle insurance in the fulltiming section.

Communications – $88 / month
After five years of relying on free wifi signals for internet access and using pay phones for phone calls, we got a Verizon MiFi jetpack in 2012, and we now use it for all our communications, including phone calls. This figure includes both our Verizon account with 10 GB of data per month and our $2.99/month Skype account that lets us make unlimited phone calls to the US and Canada no matter where we are in the world (this was very helpful while we were on our sailboat in Mexico). We’ve gotten used to using the laptop as a phone on Skype. It’s a little weird because the person you are talking to ends up on speaker phone, which they may or may not appreciate, and some calls get dropped, but it works well enough.

Our complete communications strategy is described in detail HERE.

Propane – $50 / month
Prices for LP are all over the map, and we haven’t been very diligent about shopping around. We just buy it when we need it from whoever has it nearby. We’ve been paying anywhere from $2.59/gallon to a little over $4.00 a gallon in 2014. We use about 15 gallons per month: a little more in December/January/February when we use our vent-free propane heater to heat the trailer, and less in summer. RVers that stay in RV parks and campgrounds with electric hookups use a lot less propane than this, because they don’t run their refrigerator on propane 24/7. If you have hookups and don’t have metered electricity, you can save on propane costs in the winter by using an electric space heater.

Laundry – $50 / month
After a few years of messing with the little single-load washing machines at laundromats, we discovered that it is much better to use the biggest machines in the place because they are generally the newest machines, they do the best job, and they hold a heckuva lot. Dryers are usually 25 cents for a set period of time that ranges from 5 to 10 minutes, and we’ve found that most commercial dryers need about 35-40 minutes to get the job done. Washers and dryers at RV parks are usually much cheaper than those in the local laundromat.

Miscellaneous – $40 / month
My mom was a professional bookkeeper, and she taught me never to have a “miscellaneous” category because things get lost in there. However, I can’t ignore the $40 of cash we spend every month that is unaccounted for with receipts — little things like a coke and snacks from a convenience store on the road, or whatever.

Mail/Postage – $32 / month
This includes both our mail forwarding service and monthly mail delivery (discussed in more detail in the full-time RVing section) as well as postage we buy to send letters and packages.

Vehicle Registration – $29 / month
As with Vehicle Insurance, we pay this annually, but I show the monthly cost here. The cost is lessened by careful selection of a home address, discussed in more detail in the full-time RVing section.

Personal Care Services – $15 / month
For us, this is just hair cuts. Other full-timers may have other personal care services to consider like manicures, pedicures, massages, etc. (you never know!).

RV Dump – $4 / month
This item is here because it is a regular part of the boondocking lifestyle (you’ve gotta go every two to three weeks at a minimum). Many RV dump stations are free, but if you have to go to an RV park to dump the tanks because there aren’t any free ones nearby, it will generally cost anywhere from $5 to $15. Our RV dump station page has other tips and tricks related to managing the holding tanks.

Health Insurance —
Health insurance costs are totally individual, and the coverage for everyone is evolving. We do not have health insurance. Other younger full-time RVers have posted some terrific articles about health insurance and the impact on one’s choice of domicile state. Check out the excellent posts by Wheeling It and Interstellar Orchard. They both reference insurance agent Kyle Henson of RVer Health Insurance who is quickly becoming the go-to agent for all RVers’ health insurance needs.

 

VARIABLE COSTS – May 1 to Oct 31, 2014

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“Variable costs” are lifestyle expenses that are essentially optional — at least for a while. They can be deferred to a later month, foregone all together, or can make a fun splash in the current month. The great thing about these expenses is that they are controllable. If fuel costs skyrocket or you are short on funds, then stay put and save money! If you’ve got a more modest budget, consider staying in each location for a month or a full season to take advantage of the monthly or seasonal rates at RV parks. If you really want to skimp, boondock or at least stay in the dry camping sites at any RV park or campground that will allow it and has them available.

Expense Category Amount
Diesel $497
Upgrades* $163
Maintenance & Repair* $106
Restaurants $175
Entertainment $46
Clothes $37
Supplies & Tools $26
Memberships $15
Camping & Overnight Costs $0
Hobbies
Total $1,065
Grand Total Fixed + Variable $2,090

*These numbers are averaged since we started traveling. See descriptions below.

Diesel – $497 / month
Fuel costs are highly variable, both because they go up (and sometimes down) and also because you may drive more or less in any given month. Fuel can cost as little as $0 per month, if you stay in one place and ride your bike around town. Or fuel costs can dominate your budget if you decide to take your RV from Florida to Alaska and back via the scenic routes through New England and Southern California — in six months!

The figure here is our average monthly fuel cost for a six month summer season of travel. We drove a loop from Phoenix, Arizona through Nevada to Crater Lake in central Oregon and then went from northeastern Oregon to Sun Valley Idaho and Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming and finally dropping south through Ouray Colorado and into northern Arizona and back to Phoenix.

Our stats for this trip were as follow:

Total Driven: 9,092 miles Loop: AZ-OR-WY-AZ
Towing: 4,673 (47%)
Not Towing: 5,267 (53%)
Fuel Mileage: Towing: 10 mpg
Not Towing: 17 mpg
Gas Prices: Low: $3.59 (AZ)
High: $4.39 (NV)
Types of Roads: Interstates: 392 miles (3%)
State/Local: 9,573 miles (97%)
47 Stops Shortest Stay: 1 night (15 times)
Longest Stay: 22 nights
Average Stay: 4 nights

To show just how variable the fuel cost can be in the full-time RVing lifestyle, during the four months prior to this trip, from January to April of 2014, we stayed in the greater Phoenix, Arizona, area and had dramatically lower fuel costs. We towed the trailer very short distances (20-40 miles) every few weeks as we explored different places in a 50 mile radius of downtown. We drove the truck on its own only once every few days. During that time our average monthly fuel bill was $195. Our lowest fuel bill was $112 (in January). Diesel prices during that time ranged from $3.59 to $3.79 per gallon.

Maintenance & Repair – $106 / month

This item is hard to predict, but now that we have owned our truck and trailer all these years, we can provide an average of what we’ve spent so far on maintenance and repairs since we started full-timing.

This figure is an average of all our truck and trailer maintenance costs from 2007 to 2014 rather than being just the expenses we incurred over our six months of summer travels in 2014. We did not use the trailer when we lived on our sailboat, although we did use our truck when our boat was in San Diego and Ensenada at the beginning and end of our cruise, and all that is factored into this average.

Mark is very handy, and he does a lot of the maintenance work himself (not the oil changes, though). He replaced both of the fifth wheel’s front landing jack legs and landing jack motor while we boondocked in Arizona (absolutely amazing to witness — I will write a post with step-by-step procedures and pics eventually!).

A summary of our maintenance and repair expenditures since we started (totaling $5,830) is the following:

  • Oil changes: $75 or so every ~5,000 miles on the truck
  • New Tires: 2 sets of new tires on the truck, one set on the trailer, $800 per set
  • New Brakes: Replaced front brakes on truck
  • 5th Wheel Landing Legs: Replaced the landing jacks and motor on the front of the 5th wheel
  • Engine Maintenance: We have performed all the maintenance (and minor repairs) required on the truck
  • Wash/Wax: We wash the rig regularly and wax once or twice a year

For budgeting reference, the maintenance and repairs on our rig have cost 0.128% of the purchase price of our truck and trailer per month since we bought them. That may be applicable to other truck/trailer combos. I am not sure it would be applicable to a motorhome/car combo, as motorhomes are inherently more complicated and expensive to maintain.

Note: In 2015, although all of our expenses were about the same as in 2014, we had several MAJOR and UNEXPECTED repairs as shown below. Luckily, our RV Extended Warranty covered the repairs:

Here's a summary of what our four year RV warranty through Wholesale Warranties cost, what our repairs WOULD HAVE cost, and what our warranty reimbursements have been to date:

Cost of Warranty $1,904
Total Cost of Repairs we've had done $7,834
Total Out of Pocket Costs for those repairs $1,145
Repair Reimbursements:
Trailer Axle Replacement $1,036
RV Refrigerator Replacement $1,647
Plumbing Issues & Window Leak $1,142
Suspension Replacement $2,550
RV Toilet Replacement $314
Total Repair Reimbursements $6,689

Our trailer warranty has paid for itself 3.5 times over!
Confused about the nitty gritty fine print buried in RV Extended Warranties? Here's an excellent detailed explanation!!

Upgrades – $163 / month
Unlike Maintenance & Repair costs which must be done (although some can be put off until you have the funds to do them), upgrades to the rig are entirely optional. The figure here is the average of all our improvement and upgrade costs on our truck and trailer since we bought them rather than just the upgrade costs we incurred during our six months of summer travel in 2014.

The upgrades we have done total $8,235 and include the following:

Restaurants – $175 / month
This is a hugely variable cost that has changed a lot in our lives over the years. The figure for these six months of summer travel in 2014 is way higher than ever before. Our biggest “eating out” cost comes from getting coffee and muffins at coffee bistros (so nice!). The rest is a combination of beers at cute brewpubs and meals at Subway and other fast food joints. For comparison, in the first four months of 2014 before this trip, from January to April, our monthly restaurant bill was $70. In those months we weren’t camping near many inviting places!

Entertainment – $46 / month
We don’t pay for entertainment often because we find so much great entertainment that is free. However, we do miss out on some museums and events that charge an entrance fee.

Clothes – $37 / month
We have a two-week rotation of clothes for both warm and cold weather, and since we started traveling we have replaced almost all of these garments. Commercial washing machines are hard on clothes and they wear out. Our biggest clothing expense is shoes. We replace our hiking shoes and running shoes regularly, and we buy high quality, expensive shoes. As a side note, if you get a credit card from Cabellas, REI or another outdoors store, and put all your living expenses on it, and pay it off each month to avoid interest charges, you can use the points each year to get your hiking shoes or other camping gear for free.

Supplies & Tools – $26 / month
This category includes all the tools and supplies we use to keep the rig in good shape. Mark loves to try new products and has a growing collection of tools in his toolbox. Before we left, he made the mistake of selling almost all of his tools. If you are handy and can work on your rig, don’t make that mistake too! He tried to “make do” with the bare minimum of tools for the first year, which is why this category didn’t used to exist for us, but now he regularly buys little goodies that make his maintenance tasks easier.

Memberships – $15 / month
This includes both annual memberships and magazine subscriptions. We belong to Join Escapees RV Club and Good Sam Club and we purchase an America the Beautiful Federal Lands Pass to the national parks each year. We also subscribe to several magazines.

Camping – $0 / month
Camping fees and overnight costs are extremely variable from one RVer to the next, because this is the very essence of the lifestyle. In addition, full-time RVers are a broad mix of people with a wide variety of tastes and preferences.

From May to October, 2014, we did not pay for any overnight camping, and that is the norm for us. However, although we did not pay for camping over the summer season (or in January, 2014), the months of February, March and April, 2014, were unusually expensive for us. Those three months averaged $83/month because we spent time at three different campgrounds visiting friends and chasing wildflowers at a state park (we were a little late for the flowers — rats!).

Many people boondock to save money, and we started that way too. However, we have found that it is by far our preferred way to camp. If we couldn’t boondock, we wouldn’t live in an RV.

That said, it is not for everyone. We have met very few full-time RVers who boondock as much as we do. Most people who enjoy boondocking, or “free camping,” do it from 25% to 75% of the time, at most. For full-timers who work, it is hard to find a boondocking location near most jobs, and you have to pack up and go to the RV dump station every 10 days to 2 weeks, disrupting your life. Even if your work is location independent, and you work out of your RV, finding good boondocking locations that have adequate internet access to do that is not easy. During the summer of 2014 we spent 5 weeks camping in places that were 10 miles or more from the nearest internet access. Now things are a lot easier, as you can type in on Google terms like “internet services near me” and when you do, you’ll be given lots of hotspots to choose from that offer free WiFi. You can also install Starlink on your RV and have good internet access everywhere, including while driving.

Overnight campsite and RV park fees with hookups typically range from $30 to $50 per night or more. That is $900 to $1,500 per month. However, a lot of full-timers avoid paying anywhere near that much and average closer to $500 to $900 per month. There are many ways to save money on overnight camping costs, and those are covered on our Full-time RV Lifestyle Tips page.

As a budget figure, if you are a future full-timer, and you are excited by the $0 figure here, and you plan to boondock a lot but haven’t don’t it much yet, include a “slush” camping fee figure of $350 per month in your budget until you find out if you really like it. Some folks plan to “free camp” all the time but find it isn’t practical for their lifestyle once they hit the road.

Hobbies —

An area I completely overlooked before we started full-timing was the cost of our personal interests and hobbies. This was an important oversight that we came to recognize only after we had been on the road for a few years.

Before starting a life of adventure, it may be hard to imagine that you will need or want to have any hobbies. Sightseeing ought to be enough! But it isn’t. After a while, you will want to have pursuits that complement your travels in one way or another or that perhaps are not even related to your travels at all. Our hobbies are photography, writing and mountain biking, and these all cost money.

Since we started full-timing, we have upgraded both of our DSLR cameras twice and upgraded both of our pocket cameras twice. As for biking, we started out with cyclo-cross bikes but sold those when we found we were almost always camped near very rugged dirt roads. We replaced them with mountain bikes in March, 2014. Bike maintenance isn’t a huge cost, but it’s there. We also upgraded our bike rack a few years ago. And back in 2008 we splurged on a fabulous Hobie inflatable kayak that we loved for several years but eventually sold because we needed more room in the basement.

Mountain BIking

All smiles mountain biking in Bend, Oregon

Even my writing has its expenses. Keeping a blog can be free, but hosting, backup services, firewall services and other things add up. Writing also requires a computer. When we started out, Mark and I shared a single MacBook Pro laptop. After four years, this became impossible because we always wanted to use it at the same time. So, we replaced that one MacBook Pro with two newer ones in 2011 and 2012. Then, in 2014 we replaced the older one of those with yet another newer one.

All of these expenses hit the bank account with a resounding thwang and can’t be ignored or wished away. You may not know exactly what your hobbies will be when you start full-timing, but put some kind of figure into your budget that allows for replacing your computer and phone as often as you have in the past (if you plan to use them as much) and for buying the various things that will make your favorite pastimes possible.

 

EVALUATION – COST COMPARISONS – Year 1 and Year 8 – Lifestyle Changes and Inflation

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Budgets and actual expenditures vary over time. Most fulltimers find that they spend a lot more in the first few months of travel than they do once they have been out for a while. It takes some time, and quite a few purchases, to make an RV a home, and most of those costs come at the beginning. These are things like patio mats, camping chairs and grills, tools your suddenly discover you need, area rugs, throw pillows, kitchen gadgets, campground directories, travel guide books, and all those funky gismos they sell at Camping World that are just so perfect for the RV lifestyle.

When budgeting for a fulltime RV lifestyle, it is probably wise to assume that the first three months will cost about 50% more than the target monthly figure. Make room in the budget for this, and you won’t panic when it happens.

5th wheel RV camper in the woods

Peace.

Also, it takes a while to figure out how you want to live this lifestyle. What kinds of campgrounds do you like? Are you okay with overnighting in a parking lot? How much do you want to drive each day? How long do you want to stay put in one spot?

Most new fulltimers dash all over the country in the first year, and we were no exception. The exhilaration of having the whole continent to yourself, with no one tapping their watch and expecting you home, is such a thrill that we all run around and try to see as much as possible. Only when we are utterly exhausted do we start to slow down.

It also takes a long time to let go of old living patterns and establish new ones. When we first started fulltiming we were accustomed to one- and two-week vacations, and we lived as though we were on vacation. It was only after a few months on the road that we began to realize, deep inside, that we didn’t have to see all the sights in three days. We could stay three weeks and see them only when it was sunny and when we were in the mood for sightseeing.

This change in the rhythm of life ultimately affects how you spend your money. You begin to realize that this is not a vacation, so you can’t spend money as if it were. You begin to slow down and appreciate the truly priceless pleasures, like a quiet morning reading a book, or an afternoon hike that has no other purpose than to smell the fresh air.

Over time, both lifestyle changes and inflation have affected our monthly expenses. Inflation has hovered at around 2% a year (which compounds to a gross jump of 14% between 2007 and 2014 — here’s a graph showing inflation trends) and food prices have increased by 20% in the same time period.

FIXED COST Comparison

Studying the expenses we published on this page after our first year of RVing as compared to the costs for the current year (2014), it seems that, as expected, our fixed costs were most influenced by inflation.

Expense Category 2007-08 2014
Food & Household Items $477 $582
Vehicle Insurance $108 $135
Communications $88
Propane $42 $50
Laundry $40 $50
Miscellaneous $36 $42
Mail & Postage $30 $32
Vehicle Registration $15 $29
Hair Care $15
RV Dump Stations $4
Total $746 $1,025

VARIABLE COST Comparison

Our variable costs have changed more due to changes in our lifestyle than anything else.

Expense Category 2007-08 2014
Diesel $482 $497
Upgrades $140 $163
Restaurants $175
Clothes $8 $37
Supplies & Tools $26
Memberships $15 $15
Camping $145 $0
Total $926 $1,065
Grand Total Fixed + Variable $1,672 $2,090

What’s amazing (and a big relief!) is that our “Upgrade” and “Maintenance” costs didn’t bring any unwanted or nasty surprises during the years we have been on the road, and they have remained much the same as they were in the first year, although there were plenty of years without any upgrades or big maintenance projects. As mentioned above, we barely ate out in the beginning and we splurged this past summer. We had mostly new clothes when we started and have replaced almost all of them, and we now see the importance of having the right tools and supplies for little “RV Owner” projects.

CAPITAL COSTS & DEPRECIATION

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The biggest difference in costs between living in an RV full-time and living in your own stick-built house is that the RV will depreciate very quickly while the house will appreciate over time. The recent real estate collapse notwithstanding, housing prices always increase as the decades go by. In contrast, RVs, cars and trucks quietly make their way to a value of $0 and eventually breathe their last breath in the crushing facility.

In a five year period, a brand new rig (that is, a motorhome/car combo or truck/trailer combo) will typically lose 30% to 50% of its value, and by the end of a decade it will be down to 25% to 40% of its original MSRP. The only way to know what the full-time RVing lifestyle really costs is to know both what you paid for your RV at the beginning and what you sold it for at the end. The difference, divided but the number of months you lived in it, is the true cost of ownership.

That figure doesn’t show up in a regular living expenses budget. However, for a brand new $150,000 rig that reaches the ripe old age of 10 years, you may be looking at “losing” around $75,000 or $625 a month while you own it. Of course, that doesn’t include the additional cost of interest on a loan if you have one.

I’ve had several eager 20-something future full-timers email me saying they wanted to live in an RV after college because they didn’t want to throw away money on rent and they didn’t think buying a house would be a good investment. Unfortunately, an RV involves “throwing away” lots of money too. In the end, the cost of owning an RV — from purchase to sale and through the thick and thin of all the maintenance and repairs in between, not to mention the cost of campgrounds and RV parks — probably adds up to the same amount as renting an apartment or paying a mortgage/taxes plus utilities.

No one should ever give up their dream of RVing full-time because an RV is a bad investment. At the same time, no one should go into RVing full-time because buying an RV is a good investment.

SUMMARY

I hope all this info helps you out as you plan your full-time RV adventures. Despite all the words on this page, your future full-time RVing costs can be approximated fairly easily, and planning your budget involves just three steps:

  1. Write down all your expenses now
  2. Subtract the ones that won’t apply when you start full-timing
    (property taxes, utilities, car expenses for cars you won’t own and commutes you won’t make, HOA fees, etc.)
  3. Add the new expenses you’ll incur in your new lifestyle
    (motorhome/car or truck/trailer insurance and expenses, camping costs, “fun” – restaurants, hobbies, entertainment)

Quite a few RV bloggers share their budgets and their thoughts about the costs of the RV lifestyle on their blogs. The following links offer itemized expense lists and excellent insights into creating a full-time RVing budget:

  • WheelingIt – Personal budget and analysis
  • Technomadia – Personal budget and analysis
  • Gone with the Wynns – Personal budget and analysis (reported by quarter — divide by 3 for monthly!)
  • RV Dreams – Three tiers of hypothetical sample budgets

A final note — I posted this image in a Quick Pic post the other day, but I think it bears repeating here:

If you are lucky enough to find a way of life that you love, you have to find the courage to live it.

Words to live by.

Don’t stress out about the numbers too much.
Spice up your life, take the plunge, and go have an unforgettable RVing adventure!

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Circling the Wagons

We had a special reunion last night with our good friends Rich and Mark who joined us with their popup trailers. We circled the wagons and warmed our hands over a great campfire together. Popup trailers are so cool. Our friend Mark camps in an Aliner Chalet (on the left) that is cute as a button and sets up in seconds. But I’m partial to the popup tent trailer that Rich and his wife Mary camp in (on the right), because it used to be ours!!

Circling the wagons with RVs around a campfire

We circled the wagons around a glowing campfire.

This is the little trailer that started us on the road to full-time RVing, and we spent way more nights in it during the two years we owned it than seems possible. We drove away with it every Friday as soon as we got off work, and we camped in it right through til Monday morning sometimes. It was fantastic to see it again and to remember the many great trips we took in it.

Fleetwood Colonial Popup tent trailer

Rich welcomes us into our old popup tent-trailer we called the Luvnest… so many great camping memories!

A little trailer like this is the ideal way to get your feet wet and see if the RVing life is for you before you turn your life upside down and put your life savings into a bigger RV for full-timing. (Of course, we did meet a couple once who had been full-timing in a popup tent trailer like this for four years — and they were very happy!). If you want to run off to live in an RV a few years down the road, a little buggy like this can satisfy your itch and give you a taste of freedom right now!

Our full collection of Quick Pic posts lives here!

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Wise Words found in the Clutter!

Yesterday started out like many days, with a cup of coffee and a peek at the sunrise. But without warning, it suddenly turned into a Major Day of Reorganizing our Stuff. How that happened, I’m not entirely sure!

We’ve been losing a lot of things lately — a magic marker we just bought, a UV filter for one of our camera lenses, a magnifying glass. None of it is mission critical, but it was getting on Mark’s nerves, because he’s not a person who loses stuff. That’s my job!

I always thought I was orderly, but in our little household he is the tidy one, the one who knows where things are and who keeps us on track as we navigate our way through life. I’m the one who knows how to sweet talk the computers when they get cranky, who gets the paperwork done, and who makes those nasty but necessary phone calls where you’re put on hold forever.

So, when he suddenly started opening all the cabinets and flashing things in my direction saying, “Do you want to keep this?” as he placed it in a growing trash heap in the middle of the floor, I knew I’d better snap to attention and join the party, or he’d get to the back of the cabinets before I had a chance to know what had once been in them.

Reorganizing our RV

Yikes!!

As the papers flew, and the boxes of miscellaneous stuff got emptied, and the properly sorted goodies found new homes in new places, Mark suddenly stopped. He had a funny smile on his face as he held out a little slip of paper in his hand.

“Look what I found,” he finally said, passing it to me. “I cut this out years ago…”

Finding the courage to live your dreams

A true gem we found buried under a bunch of stuff…

Oh my. How true that is. We feel so lucky to have found a way of life that makes us truly happy, and we say that to each other every day. For everyone reading this — if you are dreaming of a life of travel, or you have other dreams you hold close to your heart, be bold, conquer your fears and take the steps to make it happen! It is so worthwhile in the end.

Our buggy is now better organized than it has been in years. Three lawn bags full of clutter left this tiny home! We never did find those missing items, but John Irving’s wise words of wisdom have found a place on our wall!

If you need some pointers for getting organized, our full-time RVing friend Donna Smallin Kuper is a best-selling author of books on decluttering, and she has oodles of organizing tips at her website! Her hubby Mike blogs about their life on the road at Flying the Koop.

New to this site? Visit our Home page to read more about our full-time traveling lifestyle and our Intro for RVers to find out where we keep all the good stuff. If you like what you see, we'd love for you to subscribe to receive our latest posts!

 

A Fleet of Leprechauns on the road!

Posted October 13th, 2014 – We often see happy Europeans in rental RVs cruising around the scenic western states. Usually they are couples or families on vacation, traveling on their own or with one other RV.

However, the other day while we were stopped on the side of the road to get some photos, a fleet of six matching Coachmen Leprechaun Class C RVs from RoadBearRV.com suddenly pulled up behind us.

Rental RV fleet of Coachmen Leprechaun Class C motorhomes from RoadBearRV.com

These guys were having a blast!

We ran over to say “hello,” and discovered they were a group of Germans on the trip of a lifetime. Their itinerary was taking them around some of the most scenic parts of Colorado during the most beautiful time of year when the aspens are ablaze with color. Their travel stops so far had included Denver, Estes Park and Aspen, and they were headed on to Durango, Telluride and Ridgway.

What a fabulous adventure, and what a great loop!!

 

 

A “FLXIBLE” RV!!

A Flxible brand RV

Hey, what’s that cool rig coming towards us??

Posted October 8, 2014 – We looked up the road yesterday and saw this really fun looking rig driving towards us. It’s a “Flxible” RV — and that’s not a typo! These groovy antiques were made from the first to the last decade of the 1900’s. Check out the owners group and history of these special RVs here: Flxible Owners.

What is happening to our Public Lands?

Fifth Wheel Trailer RV near Vermillion Cliffs National Monument Arizona

Will photos taken on public lands like this beautiful spot on the Utah/Arizona border require an expensive permit in the future?

October 2014 – There have been some interesting and disturbing developments on America’s public lands lately. For the last month, photographers have been up in arms over a proposal put forth by the US Forest Service to charge big fees for permits to take pics on public land.

This news has gone viral since the USFS first announced the proposal in early September, and there have been oodles of irate blog posts and tweets from some of the biggest online news outlets.

Read More…

Sisters on the Fly!

Sisters on the Fly Travel Trailer Club

What a cool little rig…

 

If there’s one thing we’ve learned during all these years of living this crazy traveling lifestyle, it’s never to leave home without a camera.

The debate, though, is whether to take the big camera or the small one.

Of course, everyone knows that the best camera in the world is the one you have with you.

 

 

Sisters on the Fly Cowgirls

“Cowgirls are Forever!”

 

This morning we had a brief errand to run at Walmart.

As we were walking out the door we looked at our big cameras lying on the sofa.

What could we possibly see in the next hour between our campsite and Walmart that would be worth photographing?

It was a rainy, gloomy day. There was no chance we’d see anything exciting.

 

Yee Haw vintage travel trailer

“We have more fun than anyone!”

 

So off we went, each with our little snapshot cameras in our pockets.

When we pulled into the Walmart parking lot, Mark suddenly pointed.

“Look! It’s your gals — Sisters on the Fly!”

Lo and behold, a brightly painted vintage travel trailer was parked right in front of us, with the words “Sisters on the Fly” emblazoned on the side.

We both jumped out of the truck and ran over, so glad to have our pocket cameras with us.

 

 

Honor the earth for all her beauty

“Honor the earth for all her beauty.”

 

When we looked around the parking lot, we realized this adorable red and white trailer wasn’t the only one in the lot!

Colorfully painted trailers were parked all over the place.

And grinning women with their hair blowing in the breeze were piling out of the trucks and cars that were towing them.

 

 

Sisters on the Fly Adventure Club

 

Suddenly, I found myself standing with three lovely ladies learning about their upcoming adventure weekend.

A group of Flying Sisters was headed to Idaho for a weekend of camping, late night chats, kayaking, cocktails, fishing and hiking.

Most were driving their own trailers to Idaho, but a few from Arizona were flying in to stay in cabins at the gathering place.

The most important thing about the weekend was that their hubbies were staying at home.

How fun!!

 

Sisters on the Fly is Outdoor Adventure for Women

Catch that moon!

 

“What I love about this group is that we get to do what we want to do.” One woman was telling me.

“We talk, we shop, we stay up late and chit-chat, and when we travel we don’t have to listen to someone whining, ‘We saw this already, why do we have to see it again?'”

We all laughed.

 

Wild paint job - Sisters on the Fly RV club

“Cowgirls rule the planets!”

 

 

What a great idea and what a terrific group of women they were.

This wasn’t our first encounter with Sisters on the Fly, however.

Five years earlier, while camping at the White Tanks Regional Park in Phoenix, Arizona, we had found ourselves amid an equally lively group of women adventurers.

 

Traveling off to a great outdoor adventure

To think that I saw it at Walmart!

Bohemian Belle Travel Trailer

An elegant bohemian belle…

 

They had been camping in charming antique trailers just like these, all done up and painted up, each one cute as a button.

When that friendly group of gals in Phoenix had told me about their intriguing club, a few of them had even given me tours of their sweet little rigs.

(See our blog post about it here).

Re-reading that post this evening, I see that back in 2009 their numbers were 1,000 strong. Today, these women told me, in June, 2014, Sisters on the Fly has over 5,000 members!!

 

Independent women love adventure

“Boots, beer and bling – It’s a cowgirl thing!”

This little group was at Walmart for just a brief pit-stop.

No sooner had I met a few gals and started chatting than a signal came from the wagon master and it was time for them to return to their rigs and hit the road.

Mark — always so sweet and patient with this kind of thing — quietly took photos from a safe distance while I ran around between them like a madwoman.

After all, our little errand to pick up a few cans of soup could wait a few minutes!

Cowgirls & whisky for Sisters on the Fly

“Head ’em up, move ’em out!”

 

The colorful vintage rigs began to move.

They circled the parking lot in a small proud parade as they made their way over to the exit.

“I saw you guys in Phoenix five years ago!” I yelled at one gal driving past me.

“I was there!” She called out as she disappeared around the bend.

Sisters on the Fly adventure travel club

“Cowgirl Moon-Inn”

Once they had all pulled away and we were walking into the store, I could only laugh and shake my head at my indecision this morning. Big camera or small? Gosh, I sure wish I’d taken the big one…

 

 

To learn more about Sisters on the Fly, click here. To see some other fun rigs we’ve come across in our travels, click here.

New to this site? Visit our Home page to read more about our full-time traveling lifestyle and find out where we keep all the good stuff. If you like what you see, we'd love for you to subscribe to receive our latest posts!

 

How big an RV do you need?

A lot of future full-timers assume that you need to have a big motorhome or fifth wheel trailer to “live the RV dream.” However, we have met a few folks living very happily in much simpler and less expensive rigs.

A few months back, we ran into Ruth and Randy who live in a pickup camper.

Truck Camper on a Toyota Tundra

Full-timing in a truck camper on a Toyota Tundra

Their camper isn’t a big Lance or Arctic Fox camper with a slide-out that requires a dually diesel one-ton truck to lug it around. Continue reading