By Bob Difley
Back in the good ol’ days when we were all making money on our stock portfolios and our retirement income was healthy, we didn’t have to think much about economizing or how to save money while on the road.
The toughest decisions we had to make was whether to buy the $20 or $40 bottle of wine, go to a 4 star instead of a 3 star restaurant, and whether to stay at RV resorts boasting amenities such as golf tours, swimming pools and hot tubs, and lots of planned activities.
I fear that, except for a minority of us, those halcyon days of yore are gone. The pundits on CNBC are back talking the “D” word, Europe’s woes are making headlines, and street demonstrations are growing. Even the most un-conservative spendthrifts among us have to be thinking of watching the outflow with all this uncertainty.
One of the things I’ve always liked about the RV Lifestyle was our ability to make such cutbacks when the times warranted. That was a hard thing to do when we lived conventionally in nice suburban houses and had more-or-less fixed monthly expenses–gas bill was mostly the same month-to-month, club dues the same, food bill ditto.
But with the RV lifestyle, when the s**t hits the fan, or markets are on the verge of panic, we RVers (at least fulltimers) have the ability to weather the storm by instantly changing our plans and just as instantly cutting expenses until things settle down. For instance, to cut down on your fuel bill stay longer in each location and drive shorter distances between campgrounds.
To save on campground costs, avoid expensive RV resorts (photo), stay at campgrounds for a week or more to save off the much higher day rates, stay at lower priced state parks or forest service campgrounds, or boondock free on public lands–which essentially reduces your campground costs to near nothing. To save on food costs, shop local farmers markets and buy mostly local foods (locavore is the term for eating locally), cook more and eat out less, and when you do eat out look for interesting local and ethnic restaurants rather than tourist traps.
There are many ways to instantly cut expenses until bumpy times even out, and my eBook 111 Ways to Get the Biggest Bang for your RV Lifestyle Buck will give you many more. Then when the economy gains some strength, you can return to you more profligate ways–or you may decide that the changes you made are not so bad after all and you spend the left over money to help someone in need or contribute to your grandkids’ college fund–we know they will certainly need it.
Check out my website for more RVing tips and destinations and for my ebooks, BOONDOCKING: Finding the Perfect Campsite on America’s Public Lands (Kindle version), Snowbird Guide to Boondocking in the Southwestern Deserts (Kindle version), and 111 Ways to Get the Biggest Bang out of your RV Lifestyle Dollar (Kindle version).
vhildreg
X2OPMJ , [url=http://rkstpwucyrno.com/]rkstpwucyrno[/url], [link=http://ynnoxnlsguce.com/]ynnoxnlsguce[/link], http://fmidwcqboasy.com/
sihgdjcx
7vm4Fq zkhnxtpfpmyw
hbrjvzmu
zg8VER ciqpuurrxlce
Cynthia
We camped in rokpcort and took the ferry to port aransas but not with our Vectra. We would like to go back someday. Can you put your camper with a toad on the ferry?What year is your Vectra? Looks a lot like ours which is a 1994 34 pusher>
Jeanett Gracie
Wow, fantastic blog layout! How long have you been blogging for? you made blogging look easy. The overall look of your site is excellent, as well as the content!
Cherlyn Gunia
Oh my goodness! an incredible article dude. Thanks However I’m experiencing situation with ur rss . Don’t know why Unable to subscribe to it. Is there anyone getting an identical rss drawback? Anybody who knows kindly respond. Thnkx
colon cleanse
Very nice post. I just stumbled upon your blog and wished to say that I’ve really enjoyed surfing around your blog posts. In any case I am subscribing to your rss feed and I hope you write again soon!…
natural colon cleanse
Superb blog! Do you have any suggestions for aspiring writers? I’m planning to start my own blog soon but I’m a little lost on everything. Would you suggest starting with a free platform like WordPress or go for a paid option? There are so many choices out there that I’m completely confused .. Any suggestions? Thanks a lot!
Meredith Hurlburt
Great website. Lots of useful info here. I am sending it to a few friends ans also sharing in delicious. And naturally, thanks for your sweat!
Annetta Vicars
Would you be focused on exchanging hyperlinks?
lån 4000
Hello. Cool post. There is a problem with the site in firefox, and you might want to check this… The browser is the marketplace leader and a big section of other folks will omit your great writing because of this problem.
Lizette Doelger
Hey there, You’ve done a great job. I will certainly digg it and personally suggest to my friends. I am sure they’ll be benefited from this website.
Rv Back Up Camera
This is great advice! One way you can cut costs is to avoid accidents. An RV accident can cause a great deal of damage and also cost you money. Make sure you’re always using a backup camera system when driving your RV.
walt kaiser
Cindy; I think the full timer lifestyle is actually growing. We see more and more people who have lost their homes moving in to 5ers and TT’s. A few in to class A’s as well. More people on the road and more “residents” in parks. Been full timing for 10 years They will have to pry the keys out of my dead hands before I quit.
Jerry Odom
@ Bob Difley;
Better a “Senior Moment” than no moments at all.
As for the government, If they were all voted out, then that would get rid of the biggest waste in the whole system.
Ron Butler
Hmm, I guess I was already behind the curve! We have only been in a handful of “luxury” resorts like the picture, tried to keep our daily mileage down, did very little eating out except for seafood and Mexican resturants and then never the chains! We have always been on the prowl for that “special” $10 bottle of wine! The only $40 wine we ever get is from our friends that have a winery and they give us a great discount! So, I guess we don’t really miss those “good old days”!!
Good comments that I enjoyed anyway!
Ron
Actually, “locavore” means you eat crazy women.
Cindy Martin
Club dues? I guess I never lived that high in my lifestyle to begin with so there isn’t much more cheaply I can live. I wonder how many of those “free” sites will remain so in the near future as everyone, including the government, seeks more revenue. I think it will become more difficult to full time cheaply in the future, just because things change and that’s the way it always happens once someone decides to start regulating things. I think there will also be more competition for the cheap life.
hoppe
This wasn’t quite what most of us envisioned when we heard the phrase ‘when the sh_t hits the fan’, was it? Or is it just starting? If we don’t get the House of Representatives to straighten up and fly right. Hmmmm.
The good news is, if they continue the way they are going, there won’t be any Rangers to throw us off the Public Lands? I know of places for the summer where that is already not such a big deal. The forest service here in Colo. is already on the decline, since they’ve Privatized the CGs already.
I bought lead and components instead of Gold. Hope I don’t have to ‘spend’ it!
Caravan
“Then when the economy gains some strength”
I admire your positive thinking.
When I read things here on RV.net I’m often envious of the opportunities that you have in North America, and the cheap fuel, oh the cheap fuel. In Europe one thing we can do easily is pick a low cost economy, like Portugal, head down there, find a nice cheap site by the sea and hunker down until things get better, or we’ve saved enough to move on.
Bob Difley
Thanks for the heads up on the link to my ebook. I have fixed it and it now works. Sorry for the senior IT moment.
butterbean carpenter
Howdy Guru,
MAKES A WHOLE LOTTA SENSE TO ME!!! Thanx, for the info…
How are you agonna get all of those boondockers into the forest when the free spenders want to close them all down, hah!!! They’ll probably do the boondockers like they did the Occupiers!!!
Good thinking though, Bob!!
Ron Howes
Ouch! The link to your online ebook doesn’t work!
joe
Timely topic, and one that so many people are interested in. You might want to check the link to the ebook. It’s broken for me (both of them).