in this video we're going to talk about something that not a lot of other channels talk about and
that is exactly how much that this lifestyle costs us in the midst of telling you about that
we're also going to share some money saving tips on how we save money when it comes to RV related
expenses so you're definitely going to want to stay tuned if you're new here my name is charity
and my husband Ben our kids our dog our two cats we've been traveling the us in our motorhome for
over five years now and we have learned a ton along the way so the reason that we have this
channel is to share with you in the RV Community all of the things that we've learned tips tricks
hacks great places to go stay food to eat and more so if that's something you're interested in make
sure you hit that subscribe button we've got some really cool travel videos coming up later this
month that I know you're going to want to check out so in this video we're going to share with you
exactly what our expenses have been so far year to date 2022 as it relates to rving before we
jump into that I do want to kind of give a quick disclaimer when it comes to things like expenses
and budgeting and money spent and that is Life Is Life and if you're living and breathing you're
going to have expenses and whatever you currently spend on things like food or insurance for your
cars or your cell phone a lot of that's not going to change much when it comes to coming over to the
RV lifestyle because you're going to have those expenses regardless so we're gonna share our RV
related expenses with you and tell you exactly how much that this lifestyle has cost us this year now
part of our philosophy is experiences over things and because we really want to be able to go do and
see we need to have resources available to make that happen so that is why when we purchased our
RV we purchased this RV used and I'm going to tell you exactly how much that we paid
for this RV we purchased it in 2018 and we paid forty thousand dollars for this RV it's a 2004
Fleetwood Discovery Diesel Pusher RV and we love it but because we did pay cash for this RV we
don't have any sort of monthly payments we don't have monthly payments on our vehicles our vehicles
our older vehicles they're not the newest vehicle but they're Dependable they're reliable and the
best thing is is that they are paid for and that frees up resources for us to be able to go do and
see and really prioritize those experiences over things even in the RV lifestyle all right so let's
Dive Right In and let's talk about exactly what this travel lifestyle costs us on a yearly basis
so our first expense that we have every single month is mobile internet now if you're living
in RV travel lifestyle you need to have a mobile internet solution and if you work from the road
like we do you need something that is reliable and robust we have a plan that is through Verizon and
a t and a T-Mobile plan now what we are paying for that every single month is just right around
sixty dollars with taxes and fees I will let you know we have got some grandfathered plans that
you currently can't get so we're fortunate in the sense that we have got those cheaper plans
for now that still work for us if we turn on our starlink which we do use as a backup add another
130 a month onto that for mobile internet we have used our starlink about six months this year on
the RV plan just because it has worked better in some areas than the other options that we have
our next expense campgrounds so our campgrounds year to date for 2022 have cost us eight thousand
dollars we have actually saved quite a bit this year by using some state parks and with our
Thousand Trails membership but we've also stayed in some places that are pricier so just outside
of New York City that Campground was not cheap but we weren't going there to save money we were going
there to experience New York City same with Acadia National Park and the campground outside of Boston
those areas they're not the cheapest areas to go stay again we weren't going there because it was
cheap we wanted to go experience those particular cities so that's what our Campground expenses
have been so far for 2022. we'll have a little bit more that we'll have coming up towards the
end of the year for Campground expenses but nothing significant because we're using our
Thousand Trails membership all right number three is Insurance here's something I want
to talk just a little bit about we have to carry commercial insurance for our RV and our Commercial
Insurance runs this 1848 dollars per year if you are making content in or around your RV
you need to talk to your agent to see if you need Commercial Insurance we do because we make money
if you make money from posting on Instagram Tick Tock anything like that as it relates to rving you
need to check with your agent and make sure that you don't need to make that switch to commercial
Insurance there's a good chance that you might so the next thing is is health insurance but this is
a question a lot of people ask about what do you do for health insurance on the road so we
technically don't have insurance per se we utilize a health sharing plan now this enables us to be
able to see any provider that we want we don't have to worry about is somebody in network or out
of network or all of these other things it also saves us a ton of money by being able to actually
shop around for our expenses so this year I needed some Imaging services and I was able to actually
call and find out who has got the cheapest Imaging services in the area it's usually not the hospital
it's usually a standalone Imaging Center and so that not only keeps our costs down but it
keeps costs down amongst the group that we're sharing those expenses with lots of different
Health sharing plans that are out there we're part of a faith-based one there's also secular
ones that are not faith-based just check out your options do some research and I'm sure
you can find something that would work great for you on the road all right so our next expense as
it relates to the RV lifestyle is fuel now our fuel year to date has cost us five thousand five
hundred dollars this was not a cheap year to have a diesel pusher RV but again it's not about saving
money really this is about going and seeing and doing investing in those memories with our family
so that we're prioritizing these experiences over you know more stuff feel could have cost us a lot
more than that had we not used our TSD open roads program card so I'll put a link in the description
below I did add it up and we saved about 300 on fuel using that card this particular summer so
that's something you want to check out if you have a diesel vehicle and you're not currently
using that the next expense is RV accessories here's where I'm just gonna say this varies
across the board so many different things that you could do when it comes to RV accessories and
it's really no secret how much different things cost depending upon what you're looking at doing
with accessories now I will tell you we have been super thankful for e-trailer when it comes to RV
accessories we've gotten several RV accessories from e-trailer this year including a bike rack
that we just got in to be able to transport our e-bikes now on the back of the Jeep now the one
thing we like about e-trailer for being able to get RV accessories is that RVs are so different
there's so many different applications when it comes to getting those accessories and with
e-trailer you can actually jump on the phone with them it's all American Support they're right here
in the US talk to them about what's going to fit best on your RV they have a amazing return policy
if for some reason you get something and it's not what you expected or it doesn't work which
they pretty much try to avoid that with being able to call and talk with their representatives
we've gotten several accessories from them this year including our Max Air fans our toilet the
bike rack that I just mentioned all sorts of things we love e-trailer when it comes to being
able to get RV accessories we do have a link in the description below for e-trailer if you're
shopping for anything RV related make sure that you check them out first RV maintenance we do try
to do what we can ourselves to save money when it comes to maintenance but this thing's big it's a
diesel pusher there's just a lot going on that we can't do ourselves so we do utilize Freightliner
dealerships cat dealerships if we need emergency service on the road so our total expenses for RV
maintenance this year has been 4767 most of that spent at the Freightliner dealership but also at
the Freightliner dealership just purchasing parts that then we have put on ourselves things like
an air filter and a filter for the air suspension system things that we can do ourselves we will but
a lot of it has to be done by Freightliner when it comes to actual maintenance the next cost and I am
going to go over some things and some totals some things we did that we didn't have to do but we we
did it anyway so stay tuned for those our new lithium batteries and inverter install ran us
five thousand dollars this year there's no way possible we could have participated his season
one contestants in the RV unplugged show without that particular setup well I say there's no way
it we could have made it happen but it was a much more pleasant experience boondocking for
15 days straight with the lithium setup now our renovation phase two where we had paint done in
here we had some mods that were done inside of the RV that ran us 6 200 this year now the last
thing we did was our RV roof now I'll put a link right up here if you want to take a look at how
that process worked super thankful that we did it rvroof.com did a great job spraying our roof it is
now a lifetime warranty roof guaranteed against no water leaks and because it's a 40 foot Diesel
Pusher they charge by the foot so our total cost on that this year was seven thousand dollars so
our total costs 4 are things as it pertains to RV living the RV itself RV lifestyle this
year was approximately forty thousand dollars a lot of people especially on social media tout
this lifestyle is being cheaper than living in a Sticks and Bricks we are not talking about the RV
lifestyle in the sense of taking an RV and parking it and not moving the RV and just downsizing your
living there's a lot of ways to lift small you can live small in an RV you can live small in a
smaller apartment there's mobile homes there's lots of ways to live small but we are talking
about the RV travel lifestyle it's not necessarily cheaper and that is one of the myths that we see
perpetuated over and over and if you'd like to know some other myths about the RV lifestyle that
we have seen perpetuated well I'm gonna put those right here in this video that we talked about just
that if we do not see you around the campground or out on the road we'll see you in the next video