Our regular Wednesday article (depending on availability of Internet connection)
Early in our RV blogging, we received several requests for information about the cost of living in an RV full-time or for extended travels. Other than saying we recommend living within your resources, that’s tough to answer, and we can speak only from experience, not as financial advisors.
Keep in mind that a three-day weekend in DisneyWorld can cost more than a month in a nice RV park. The obvious rule here is that you have to decide how you want to spend your money, i.e., setting a budget and staying true to what you decide.
That said, let’s begin with the most obvious expense: With our four-wheel drive diesel we get about 10.5 miles per gallon. If I decide to drive to the nearest grocery store for the Sunday paper (cost $1.75 or more) and the grocery is 2.5 miles away or 5 miles round-trip, I’ve spent about $3.25 for the newspaper, which I try to justify by saying coupons in the paper will defray the cost. If I buy coffee while I’m at the convenience store, well, the price goes up from there.
If you know how much money you have to spend on fuel each month and you know your mpg and the cost of a gallon of fuel, you can figure out how many miles you can drive in a month to stay within the budget. Don’t forget to include in your fuel budget visits to town for supplies, groceries, entertainment, etc.
Are you willing to stay at BLM sites, which are probably the least expensive camping choices other than your sister’s driveway, or do you want a utopian resort with lavish facilities? Your preference and/or your budget and the choice of RV have a bearing on your camping alternatives.
What you drive, of course, makes a huge difference in your expenditures. Consider the lifestyle you want while traveling and buy the rig that is most appropriate. A weekender with two kids and a dog can have a great time in a pop-up. But if you want all the comforts of home compacted into 300 or so square feet, you’ll probably need to spend more in initial costs plus operation and maintenance. Keep that in mind when you visit your friendly RV dealership. It’s a buyers market in these economic times, but the expenses don’t stop when you drive off the lot.
So far, our biggest maintenance expenses have been tire replacements on the trailer and the truck, and the cost of our summer’s caravan rip to Alaska. Diesel fuel eats heavily into our budget, but it’s an expected expense.
We eat in fast-food restaurants once or twice a week at the most. Sub shops and pizza places these days are in fierce competition, which we use to our advantage. Once or twice a month, we use special offers to go to fancier restaurants. If you’re inclined to eat every meal out, consider that you’re probably paying more in tips than we spend on food in a week.
How many T-shirts with a moose or an amusement park ride do your need? Where will you put them, particularly with all those hats that remind you of favorite stops cluttering up your bedroom? When the shopkeeper asks us where we’re from, it leads us to say, “As full-time RVers, we can’t buy anything.” And you know what? They don’t really care. They’re just glad to talk to somebody who shows an interest in them. Oh, and they’re glad to tell you where not to eat in town and the most interesting spots to visit.
In essence, we don’t think anyone is in a position to answer your question about cost of RVing except you. If you know how much you want to spend, you can figure it out.
Here are some common expenses to consider:
1) Payments on your rig, if any
2) Insurance
3) Cost of fuel
4) Repairs and maintenance (often depends on the quality of the coach and driving conditions) including tires, and cleaning products
5) Camping fees: $0 for boondocking to $125 per day in Key West … and more in some resorts. National parks and forests with no hookup and Corps of Engineers Parks with partial hook-ups run from $6 to $10 a day using the America Pass/Golden Passport. Alternating between full and no hook-ups, we usually stay in a range of $400-600 a month. If you sign up with an RV resort company, that can be a monthly or yearly charge, plus unscheduled related charges.
6) Propane and firewood
7) Food, not too different from home, except that many RVers seem to indulge themselves by eating out more often as a reward for their lifestyle. Include beer/wine/liquor in your budget, if that applies.
8) Health & beauty aids, etc., should be about the same as living in a house.
9) Regular (non-souvenir) clothes, a minimal expense
10) Communications and TV/satellite radio costs (probably similar to at-home costs)
11) Computer-related costs: Internet fees, WiFi on the road, new programs, repairs – most of which are the same as in a house.
12) Activities, entertainment, events. Golf, fishing, white-water rafting, music events, street fairs, hobbies you didn’t have time for at home, etc. Being nature-loving campers, we frequently “entertain” ourselves by hiking or putting our chairs by a lake or river and reading,
14) Books, DVDs, CDs: We visit used bookstores, thrift shops and movie rental stores that sell previously viewed movies. We stay very entertained, or, in other words, we live by the “Never Bored RVers” slogan.
15) Tolls (set your GPS to avoid them if you have more than two axles)
16) Postage
A major item in how you use your financial resources is whether you keep your bricks & mortar home, if that is even a choice in this economy. We talk with lots of people unable to sell their property, who either have a relative live in and take care of their homes or lease them. Several own farms they lease out. If you keep your house, you need to factor those costs into your budget.
Where will you save money if you free yourself from your house attached to solid ground?
– Property taxes and homeowners insurance
– Clothes
– Utilities, exterminator, school fund-raisers, etc., etc.
– Gardening supplies (a hard one for many people to give up!)
– The usual maintenance and repairs
Life in a Recreational Vehicle is not for everyone, to be sure, but we admire people willing to give it a try.
From the “Never-Bored RVers,” We’ll see you on down the road.
P.S. Another expense you might be able to control with self-determination — We don’t really want to give a sermon about the cost of smoking cigarettes, but at our per-mile fuel cost, we can travel from the Atlantic to the Pacific on what many smokers would pay for about 12 cartons of cigarettes.