So we'll take you through each category and overall costs like last time. However
this was the year that Covid hit. It was crazy. Yeah it was nuts.
Hey everyone we're Christine and Kevin and we're back for another year of our RV living costs
explained. Last time we told you about our second year of full-time family travel where we did
a lot more awesome traveling, including fall in the northeast and down the east coast.
If you missed that video, check it out so you can see the cost of full-time RV
life in year two now compared to our third year. The costs to live in an RV full-time
can definitely change from year to year, but we had anticipated a bit more consistency from
year two to three considering we felt like we had hit our stride and were continuing on with more
travel. However, this was the year that Covid hit and that all went completely out the window. Yes.
So we'll take you through each category and overall costs like last time but
now as our original plans drastically change along with some of our costs.
In this video we'll share our RV full-time costs from March 2020 through February 2021.
We're sharing our costs to live in an RV full-time as we think transparency around RVing costs is
helpful and we want to share what we've learned. At the end of year two we were back in Florida
after our fall in the northeast caravanning with Christine's dad and his RV and traveling down the
east coast. Year three was going to be another awesome year of lots of travel and sightseeing,
checking off more new states on our map. But no... The other plans we had for the year changed really
quickly once the pandemic began. And so we instead decided to head west from Florida to Colorado
via Louisiana and Texas. And then on to family in Washington and Oregon to have a place to stay and
wait everything out for a while just to see what would happen. We were fortunate to be able to
do all of that and not have to worry about what campgrounds were open and which ones were going
to shut down on us. Because on our way across country the Louisiana state park that we were
staying in actually closed down the day we left. And then when we finally made it to Colorado
the state park that we were going to stay in there closed down the same afternoon that we got there.
It was crazy. Yeah it was nuts. Thankfully they let us stay one night there at least because of
the high wind advisory on the interstate and we've got a tall rig. It's maybe the only time
I've been really thankful for having a really tall rig. Thankfully we found another park in Colorado
in Glenwood Springs so we could rest for a bit and then we headed first to family in Washington
for almost two months and then continued on to Oregon for almost another two months.
When we finally started traveling a bit again after that we went through southern Idaho
and to northwest Montana for a bit. But due to the wildfires in the west we then headed south
pretty quickly for a little while into Utah and Nevada where we explored for a bit. We
headed back up to Oregon for late fall and to spend time with Kevin's brother and his
family as they welcomed a new baby and then spent the holidays through the new year in Nevada
with my dad. In January we went to Arizona and ended up spending several months there kind of
unexpectedly because there was so much to see and do. And that rounded out year three for us. What
started as a very different year ended up being one that despite the challenges and changes was
one of the many blessings as well. We had a lot of time with family, more than we'd had maybe ever.
And that was great for us and even more special for the kids. The same things we mentioned not
being included last time still hold true. We don't have a truck or RV payment but we did share
the original cost of both of those in the year 1 cost video if you haven't seen that. RVing costs
can also vary due to the factors we've listed here on the side and many more. Again we're just
showing you what it cost us. Now we'll share our average RV living costs per month and the year for
each category with the grand totals at the end. Starting with Groceries. For groceries we spent
an average of $1,139 per month and $13,672 for the year. The cost increased for us again in year
3 and we think we can attribute some of this to our kids eating even more because they're getting
bigger but grocery costs also just got a lot more expensive during the pandemic. We also mostly cut
out restaurants starting in March except for some takeout here and there so we bought more groceries
instead of eating out. With the unknowns there were times that we stocked up on various things
as well. Not toilet paper. We weren't one of those. So everything in this category is food and
drinks and anything else that we buy at a grocery store. We'll share restaurants and additional
merchandise separately later. Next up are Fuel Costs. This includes diesel for the truck,
gas for our generator, and propane. This category cost us an average of $350 monthly and $4,197 for
the year. Our cheapest year yet in all of our RV travels. Well... so I'm "Yes! Saving money," but
we didn't get to go as many places as we wanted so, you know, mixed bag. It is worth noting that
diesel prices this year were ridiculously cheap. Anyway here's the breakout. Even though we did a
long haul across the country and then to some additional states later in the year, once we
got to the places we were going we really didn't drive much at all compared to the previous year.
Next up: General Merchandise / Miscellaneous. This includes things that aren't food and drink
but we couldn't buy at the grocery store. Like clothes, presents, toys and games, other supplies,
postage, ATM withdrawals that we didn't tie specifically to other categories, essential oils,
electronics, etc. You get the picture. It also includes RV related things which in year 3
were not very much. They were a hitch lock and generator spark plugs. So this category cost us an
average of $836 monthly and $10,032 for the year. This cost went up a bit from the year before,
mostly because we were due for another new phone, new bedding, and clothes, and bought some artwork
as well. All of that adds up. So in year 3 these costs were mostly non-RV related. Medical, Dental,
and Vision Care were still covered through my company and an HSA in year 3 so these costs were
again $0. Entertainment and Travel. This category includes the things we do for fun. We often find
free or cheap things to do when we can and this year we spent a lot of time just hanging out with
family. But this year we also did pay for the Full-time Family Reunion Rally, the Virtual RVE
Summit, a Datebox subscription, a Christmas lights drive in Las Vegas, and a National Parks Pass.
This year we didn't have anything additional for travel which would typically include any flights,
rental cars, or hotels. Though we had planned to go to Germany and had already bought the tickets,
these were thankfully refunded in full. This category also includes any parking and tolls
which were $0 this year. So, this category was an average of $78 per month for a total of only
$932 for the year and is a big decrease from the year before. For obvious reasons.
Restaurants. Our restaurant costs also went way down this year for obvious reasons. Again.
This category cost us an average of $40 a month and $478 for the year. We've always enjoyed going
out to eat, checking out local places as we travel the country, so this was definitely a change for
us, but we fairly quickly got used to it. In fact we still don't eat out that much anymore.
Next up: Recurring Costs. These include truck and RV insurance, phone and internet connectivity,
mail service, Legal Shield, and long-term care insurance. Truck insurance was an average of
$111 a month through USAA. RV insurance was an average of $79 a month and that's through
Progressive. Phone and internet were $189 a month. That's an increase again from the year before
because unfortunately the awesome AT&T unlimited plan for our Togo router was discontinued. I
know. Oh it was such a good deal but it was I guess too good of a deal. So we switched to
Nomad Internet and our costs went up. We still both had our phones through Google Fi.
Our mail service was $56 average per month, still through St. Brendan's Isle in Florida. And we pay
another $25 and $24 for Legal Shield and long-term care insurance respectively. All these recurring
costs were an average of $484 per month and $5,804 for the year. Vehicle Maintenance Budget. It costs
us on average $1,840 per month for a total of $22,078 for the year for both our truck and RV,
but before you ask "What in the world is all that for?!" these costs include routine maintenance and
repairs as well as RV projects. So the large cost is mostly our battery upgrade and RV solar system
installation. Without those two projects which together were $17,319, the rest of the maintenance
costs were actually a bit lower than last year at an average of only $397 per month for a total of
$4,759 for the year. Here's the breakout. For the truck this included new tires, an oil change, and
truck tags. For the RV this included new tires, water flow meters, an air compressor, a TPMS,
water filters, replacement drawer rails, a new sewer hose, and drain declogger. Yuck. And our
two year registration renewal. Yes. We decided this was the year that we would give ourselves
the ability to do some extensive boondocking. It was something we had hoped to do eventually,
though if it weren't for several factors we might have waited a bit longer to upgrade our batteries
and add solar or we might have spread out the install and created the larger system over a
greater period of time. However, at the Full-time Families Rally we went to, we were able to get
our six Battle Born batteries as part of a group buy and therefore get a discount as well as $50
of Full-time Families credit per battery that we could then use for future events or merchandise.
So that was a really good deal. Kevin got the batteries and installed them during the end of the
rally week. It was a lot to do all at once but the timing all worked out. Then we were still actually
debating for a bit as to when to add the solar panels. We found a Memorial Day sale of the Renogy
flexible solar panels that we wanted and by then we knew we were headed to my parents house for a
bit where we would have time and more space to do the install. So we made the purchase. We bought
15 solar panels that would equal 2,625 watts and allow us to run our ACs while boondocking. We'd
also been seeing campgrounds and other locations being shut down to RVers and there was still a lot
of uncertainty. So giving ourselves more option as to where we could go and how we could camp
seemed like a really good idea. We were also just excited to camp out in some amazing scenic areas
outside of campgrounds. Next is RV Rent. Let's start off showing you the numbers of nights we
stayed in various types of locations. So we ended up spending 163 nights in various campground
types. That includes private and state parks, recreation areas, and even an Airbnb camping spot.
We spent 135 nights moochdocking on family and friends' properties, and 38 nights boondocking.
There were 27 nights in Thousand Trails campgrounds and 2 nights at Harvest Hosts. So
all in all, campground specific stays cost us an average of $439 per month and $5,263 for the year.
For moochdocking there were definite cost savings staying with family for several
months. We did incur some costs though by buying some things needed for the RV connections there,
contributing some to utilities and dump fees. In the past you've seen that our dump station
fees were very minimal, like $10 or so, but this year it was $350 because in one location we had
electrical and water hookups with family but no sewer. So we rented a portable waste tank
from a local septic company, I mean I didn't even know you could do that, so that was pretty cool,
and arranged for several pump outs while we were there. Factoring these things in, moochdocking
cost us an average of $66 per month and $795 for the year. We also paid $40 to join Boondockers
Welcome. With this membership we were able to stay the night on hosts' personal property.
This accounted for 6 nights of our boondocking total. Let's talk about how our Thousand Trails
membership factored into RV Rent for year 3. We didn't really get anywhere close to the use out
of it that we had hoped. When you don't use your membership it's especially a bummer because we
still had to pay $74 in monthly fees and a $65 annual fee while not getting much use out of
it. Our monthly fee went down to $56 in November because we dropped the Thousand Trails Collections
parks add-on as we didn't see ourselves really needing that for now. We had an average of $73
a month and total of $881 in Thousand Trails fees in year 3 but only 27 nights. It was
just a crazy year and we knew we'd use it more in the future so we can't be too upset. We also
had high hopes for more Harvest Host stays this year with our membership but only ended up being
able to use it twice. Our membership rate is $67 a year. Factoring in what we spent at the locations
in addition to that to support the businesses came out to an average of $8 per month and $101
total for the year. So for all types of RV Rent we paid an average of $590 per month and $7,080
for the year. That is actually the lowest our RV Rent costs have been so far in our RVing history.
So with the battery upgrade and solar installation that brings our year 3 grand totals to $5,356
per month and a total of $64,273. But wait. Again since those massive projects really skew
the numbers and we really need to look at that over the long run, if we were to remove it the
remaining costs were only an average of $3,913 per month and $46,954 for the year. So that actually
brings our costs within a few dollars of our year 1 costs interestingly enough. Now you know our
cost of full-time RVing for year 3 of our family travels on the road. Is there anything else that
you have questions about? Let us know. Our fourth year on the road will conclude at the end of
February 2022 and then we'll make a video sharing what this most recent year has cost us. It'll have
more boondocking than ever, more Thousand Trails campgrounds, and lots of exploring out west. Hit
subscribe and turn on the notification bell so you don't miss it. See you all next time. Bye!