Here is the final financial summary from my first 182 days. Counting
all expenses, I ran a bit over my $20k / year budget, but not by a huge
amount. Considering only those "planned" expenses, I hit it pretty
close.
I guess it's safe to say that it is costing me between $50 and $60
/
day to see the country. This seems like a lot, but I've discovered a
few
things ...
- Dry camping will save you a lot during the summer months, but
in the
winter
when the temps are dropping into the 30s at night, you use a lot of
propane
and/or fuel for the generator just to stay warm. The solar panels are
less
effective in the winter due to the shorter days and lower sun, and it
seems
that you get a lot more cloudy weather. That means more generator time
to keep the batteries up. All these factors add up to increased energy
costs. I discovered that it costs me as much as $7 to $8 a day in fuel
costs to dry camp in really cold weather. When hookups can be had for
$8
to $10, it makes sense to plug in and fire up the electric heater.....
- Food costs are a lot higher than I expected.... several factors
contribute
to this. First of all, I don't have the storage space or freezer space
to "stock up". This means I can't buy in bulk to save money. Also, it's
hard to know where the real bargains are when you are in a strange
town,
and I've found that food costs vary wildly! It's usually a safe bet to
hit a Wal-Mart supercenter for groceries, but a lot of times you will
be
at the mercy of the small local grocery store.
- When you are moving around a lot, both fuel and maintenance
costs
increase....
I originally budgeted for about 10k miles per year. Well, I have
already
traveled 12k miles and it's only been 6 months! This adds up in wear
and
tear and oil changes, etc. as well as the increased gasoline costs. I
can't
wait to buy new rubber for the trailer and truck... at the rate I'm
going,
it won't be too far in the future.
- Maintaining an online presence isn't cheap. I pay a flat $20 /
month
for
the access plus about $5 / hr. for use of the 800 number. Then, in
order
to use truck stop cafe phones you almost have to order a meal or
something....
The times I've used phones in copy shops and Mailboxes, etc. there are
charges that average to about $2.50 / 15 min. This stuff adds up. In
fact
it's cheaper for me to put the monthly web updates on floppies and mail
them to Mark at CCIS than it would be to FTP them directly. (I mail
them!)
For me, it's not rocket science: when the money runs out, I'm done.
Back
to work. 8-(
For those of you that are going to be trying to fulltime
indefinitely
on a fixed income, it's a little more problematical. A lot of folks
(myself
included 6 months ago) believe that fulltiming is a really inexpensive
way to live. I now believe that if you take what it is costing you to
live
right now, subtract house payments, utilities and taxes, etc., and add
fuel, maintenance and camping estimates you will come pretty close to
reality.
If you like to eat out a lot, you will probably still do so on the
road.
If you enjoy a hobby or two, chances are that you will continue to
enjoy
them on the road. If you like to spend a night on the town regularly,
fulltiming
isn't going to change that. These costs will not magically disappear
just
because you are living in a RV. To really save money to a significant
degree
you are going to have to make some compromises! For me, it's more
important
to see and experience everything along the road, and to travel
extensively.
This all costs money! "It costs what it costs" has become my byword for
fulltime finances..... You wanna dance, you gotta pay the band. On the
positive side, I think I'm getting a lot for my money! These great
experiences
are worth a lot, and there's just no way to put a price tag on the
friendships
and special moments..... anyway, that's the financial report from my
campsite
for the first 6 months and as always, "Your Mileage May Vary" !
7/15/98
OK, the data is in from my first year on the road. There were no
big
surprises this time. Most of the actual costs fell into the ranges I'd
expected them to. There were some significant financial events during
my
second six months, though... I had to rebuild the transmission on my
truck,
and it wasn't cheap! About $1475.00! This expense was somewhat offset
by
my two month stay at my friend's place in Miramar, FL as it was rent
free.
Anyway, the numbers look like this:
You may have noticed that there were some changes made in the
format
of the costs display.... The top line is year totals and the second
line
is averaged over 365 days. The third line shows the estimated costs
that
I hope to stay close to or under... I have fine tuned these numbers a
lot,
and, for me, they represent pretty much what it costs me to fulltime.
This
format works well for me and allows me to get a feel for how I'm doing
on a day-to-day basis. The end result is that I finished out my first
year
right about on budget, and even managed to absorb a couple grand of
unexpected
expenses. It's too bad that I incurred those extra expenses.... if I
hadn't,
my $16K / year original estimate would have been pretty close! I know
that
I could probably live cheaper than I do, but I don't like to suffer.
Now that I'm spending time in the Northeast, I expect that my
camping
expenses will be higher on average, as campground fees seem to average
much higher up here than other parts of the country. There are still
deals
to be had, and I will try to take advantage of as many boondocking
opportunities
as I can to keep the costs down.
1/15/99
Here's the data after 18 months.... No surprises here. In fact, my
expenses
have been slowly going down. Not a lot, but a noticeable amount! This
is
probably due to getting settled into the lifestyle and taking care of
start-up
problems with the truck and rig. The low gas prices have definitely
been
a help, too! Here's a snapshot of the numbers:
Part of the savings resulted from using my CCA membership to cut
camping
costs, and spending a fair amount of time parking free sure helped
smooth
that bottom line!
Here's a look at the data from the entire 18 months in 6 month
chunks....
this is interesting in that it seems to establish a favorable trend!
1st 6 months:
Notes: The "Maint." column is
blank because
I didn't break down vehicle maintenance costs separately the first 6
months....
they are included as part of "misc.". Unplanned expenses included brake
work on the truck, parts for the bike and some medical expenses.
2nd 6 months:
Notes: Unplanned expenses
included a rebuild
of the truck transmission and a new set of tires for the rig.
3rd 6 months:
Notes: Yay! No unplanned expenses!!
Looks like my daily expenses have fallen from a high of $58 / day to
$42.34
/ day. This can be misleading, as can any kind of statistics.... one of
the reason the 3rd 6 months looks so good is that the majority of my
large
annual bills (insurance, registrations, dues) occur between Feb. and
April.
Still, I'm happy to discover that so far, this adventure has only cost
me about $50 / day, or in the neighborhood of $18K a year. Such a
deal!!!
7/16/99
It looks like my costs have pretty much stabilized at near
$50 a day for the whole period. That translates to about $18K a year.
Not
too bad! It's those unplanned expenses that keep tripping me up....
this
last 6 month period, the cost of the new axles and tires for the
trailer
really hurt the bottom line, but it was a necessary expense. It costs
what
it costs! here's the snap of just the last 6 months... you can
compare
them to the other three above if you like.
All in all, I'm not unhappy with the results... my planned
expenses
actually fell again this last 6 months, indicating a nice downward
trend.
If I can get by without major unplanned expenses for a while, I'll be
looking
sweet! Unfortunately, I know that I will have to put new rubber on the
truck sooner or later, and that will be a sizable expense. I will post
more data after the next 6 months and at that time, I will probably
re-arrange
this page to be a little more consolidated. For now, though, I think
it's
worthwhile for you to see how it developed and how my original
assumptions
on costs had to be re-thought over time. Enjoy!
1/15/2000
Here are the totals for 2 1/2 years on the road. Pretty much as
expected...
this is a complete total of all 30 months.
Still hanging in there around $50 a day. I haven't had to make any
changes
in my budget and I'm really pleased that my costs have remained so
stable.
Here's the snap of just the last 6 months...
No surprises here either. Rising gas prices have pushed my gas
expenses
up a bit, but that was partially offset by a reduction in my parking
expenses
and misc. expenses. As promised, I did re-arrange this page a bit,
removing
my original estimates and start up costs to another page. You can still
see them by clicking Here.
7/15/2000
Here are the totals for 3 years on the road.... this is a complete
total of all 36 months.
Looks like I had another slight decrease in my average expenses,
with
a daily total of $47.32. This is mostly due to saving a lot of money by
parking free with friends over the winter and I used a lot less gas as
well. The other savings were in the areas of maintenance (less
traveling
means less maintenance!) and Entry fees (money spent for admission to
museums,
parks, attractions, etc.) The next snapshot really tells the story.
Here's
the snap of just the last 6 months...
Now that I'm traveling again, I doubt that I'll be able to do as
well
over the next 6 months, but we'll just have to wait and see. So far, I
have been able to find gasoline in the $1.50 to $1.60 a gallon range
pretty
much everywhere I have traveled. That's a lot more than it was a couple
of years ago, but still pretty close to the planned $1.50 a gallon that
my original estimates were based on back in 1997. I'm always on the
lookout
for inexpensive camping opportunities and I hope to do a fair amount of
boondocking this summer/fall as well as some 'mooching' off of friends
along the way. Stop back in 6 months and see how I did!
1/14/2001
Here are the totals for 3 1/2 years on the road.... this is a complete
total of all 42 months.
Looks like I had yet another slight decrease in my average
expenses,
with a daily total of $46.33 as compared to the previous total of
$47.32.
I did substantially more traveling during the last 6 months and gas
prices
were a lot higher this year. I was paying between $1.50 to $1.65 a
gallon.
These costs were offset by the time I spent camping for free with
friends
during October and November and also by the start of my Workcamping at
Suwannee Valley in mid-December. All in all, the last 6 months came in
at a very reasonable daily cost of $41.68. Here's the snap of
just the
last 6 months...
I guess that the good news here is that the longer I do this
Fulltime
thing, the less it's costing me per day. Part of the reason is that
I've
learned to trim my expenses a bit day by day, but the largest benefit
to
my pocketbook has been time spent boondocking and camping on friends
and
family. Now that I'm Workcamping, I'm really saving a lot of money...
I'm
not traveling, so gas and maintenance costs are way down and all those
free nights really improve the average for cost of camping! I will
start
traveling again in April and my big challenge for the next year is to
stretch
that dwindling nest egg of mine as far as possible. Based on my cash
reserves,
2001 may be my last year of traveling. I knew that I was in for a
limited
run.... In the beginning, I had figured on doing 2 years on the road
before
I would have to get a job again. I have been able to more than double
that
travel time thanks to good investments and frugal living, but the
writing
is on the wall: it ain't gonna last forever. Check back in 6 months and
we'll see how I'm doing!
7/16/2001
Here are the totals for 4 years on the road.... this is a complete
total of all 48 months.
Well, here we are after 4 years.... my average daily cost fell again
and
is now almost down to what I had hoped for in the beginning.... around
$44 a day or $16K a year! How about that? Looks like I was closer to
correct
with my original estimates than I thought a couple of years ago. Most
of
the savings come from the months of workcamping that I did during the
last
6 month period. If you want to see just how much difference some
workcamping
can make in your bottom line, take a look at the next snapshot! This is
a snap of just the last 6 months...
Wow! Quite a difference, huh? In fact, if it hadn't been for almost $5
a day in 'Unplanned Expenses' (trailer tires and a brake job on the
truck)
my daily cost would have been only about $28 a day! Food and bills and
such costs remain about the same, but camping, fuel and maintenance
costs
fall big time. That would work out to about $10K a year if workcamping
keeps those other costs down. Pretty significant savings! This is
a good illustration of how workcamping can help extend your time on the
road... it's sure working for me! Be aware that almost this entire 6
months
was either workcamping or parking free with friends.... but I did cover
a fair bit of ground as well, all the way from Florida, thru Alabama,
Tennessee
and into Kentucky.
To get a better feel for the financial trends for the last 3 1/2 years,
take a look at the data arranged in a different format. Click
Here to see my costs arranged in 6 month snapshots.
This page last updated on 12/4/13
