What happens when two people who have no RVing experience try to figure out what it will cost,
hit the road, and then live like they're on vacation? So that brings our grand totals to,
drum roll please...
Ouch.
Hi, if you're new here we're Christine and Kevin and along with our two young kids and dog, we've
been traveling full time in our RV for over three and a half years now. And during that time we've
had all sorts of experience learning everything RV related, from how to find great campsites and
boondocking, to route planning, a do-it-yourself solar project, and road schooling our kids.
And much more, including the costs of RVing. We've been tracking these numbers since the
beginning, and for two number geeks like us with backgrounds in business analysis and engineering,
we find it fascinating what it costs to live this lifestyle, how it can vary from one RVer to the
next, and even for us over time depending on how we're traveling. So because, how much does it cost
to RV is a question that is asked all the time, we thought because we have all this information
we could share it with you. We hope that we can inspire you in your own travels, and sometimes
the financial piece of that can be kind of daunting. So we want to show that it is possible,
and then maybe this information can help you plan your next steps too. When we first started RVing,
we did our best to make a budget. But we grossly underestimated how much some things would cost.
Luckily we overestimated in other areas as well. But we're going to share the info that we wish
we had had when we first got started. So we're starting today with what will be the first in a
series of RV cost videos, starting with what we like to call, living like on vacation. If you
haven't heard our story before, we'll link that video so you can check it out. But in summary,
Kevin and I saved up in advance, took a six-month sabbatical from our jobs in the D.C. area,
packed up all of our things, towed our travel trailer around the U.S. on a whirlwind tour,
and then relocated to Denver, Colorado and restarted work. We came up with a budget prior
to that six month trip and actually revised it four times trying to estimate what these
RVing costs might look like. What happens when two people who have no RVing experience
try to figure out what it will cost, hit the road, and then live like they're on vacation?
Spoiler alert. They spend way too much. Way too much. It was just the two of us in a travel
trailer, checking off bucket list destinations that we'd been dreaming about for some time.
And we lived it up. You gotta admit it was a good trip. It really was. It was the best.
Well, should we get into the numbers? Let's do it. We have a laptop here with all of the data
that we'll be referencing and also putting on the screen for you all as we go along. We left D.C. in
May and we RVed for six months, through the month of October. Here's the route for some quick scene
setting: Northern Virginia to Indiana and on to Arkansas. Then a crazy long drive all the
way up to North Dakota, down to South Dakota for some rock climbing in the Black Hills.
Then to Wyoming to Grand Teton and Yellowstone. After that it was Idaho and Craters of the Moon,
Montana and Glacier National Park. Next we went into Washington, the Olympic Peninsula, and
down the coast through Oregon. We did take a quick break from RVing to fly back east for a couple of
weddings, drive my car to Denver from where it had been stored, and then flew back to the west coast
to continue our trip. Onward to California, the Redwoods, Kings Canyon and Sequoia,
Joshua Tree, and then over to the Grand Canyon in Arizona. The government shutdown happened and
so we headed on to Texas to visit family on our way to our final destination of Colorado. Whew!
We did say it was a whirlwind tour. What's not included in these numbers that we're about to
share with you, is our tow vehicle as it was already paid off by this time. And even though
we were moving at the time, we're not including the costs for storing our items in the moving pod
or shipping it to Denver, Colorado. We also had a town home at the time that we began renting out,
but we did have one more month of the mortgage payment before that took effect. So if you have
any of those costs as well, just keep that in mind as you're planning your expenses. Also keep
in mind that RVing costs can vary from person to person depending on how big your family is,
what kind of traveling you're doing, how fast you're moving, and many other factors. We just
want to show you what this kind of trip cost us, and it may end up costing you more or less.
But probably less if you're not living like you're on vacation. Starting with costs for our RV,
we bought a Skyline Koala 23CS and the fall before we started our trip we paid
$14649.50 and we put $5000 down on that. During the trip we paid $164.43 per month for a total of
$986.58 for six months. We actually sold it a few years later for $14500 even but that also included
all of the accessories that we had bought for it. Next up are fuel costs. We moved
really fast and did a lot of sightseeing. So we paid a whole lot for fuel costs.
We covered about 16000 miles in those six months and of which about 9000 of that were towing.
So in addition, we drove my car 2200 miles to Colorado to park it there for when we actually
moved there. Our cheapest gas on the entire trip was $2.99 in New Mexico, and North Dakota takes
the cake for the most expensive gallon of gas at $4.29. That was an average of $849.03
monthly, several hundred dollars more than what we pay these days, and $5094.15 over that entire
six months. Vehicle and RV Insurance. We paid an average of $98.43 a month for both our tow vehicle
and the travel trailer combined for a total of $590.57. We went through USAA and felt like that
was a good deal. Vehicle Maintenance Budget. We estimated too low in this category thinking that
a new travel trailer that we'd had for several months and had done several shakedown trips,
would have had all the kinks worked out, or it would have been too new for anything else to
break. But we were a bit mistaken about that as well. But we ended up with some small water leaks
in the shower, some re-caulking that needed to be done, and a drawer that was the bane of
Kevin's existence. I hated that drawer. Could not be fixed, but we did try several times. So luckily
small things and they didn't cost us very much. It cost us about $61.33 per month for a total of
$367.98 over six months. But we had only estimated $200 total in that category for the trip.
So it's a lesson that you should probably expect things to happen, probably estimate a little bit
more than you think you need, because things do happen. Propane. We actually didn't use any of the
money that we had set aside for propane at all. We had two full tanks when we started, and because we
were in the warmer months we really didn't use very much. So we actually never even filled up
once. I'm sure if the trip had gone on longer than October, we would have ended up using a whole lot
more than we did. On to laundry. Laundry actually cost us a lot less than we estimated, but with
only two people and no kids and being able to use large washers and dryers at the campgrounds
we stayed at, it only cost us $11.63 per month or a whopping $69.75 for six months. We also
took advantage of all of our friends and family's washing machines as we traveled. Thank you! Next
category is firewood and you never really have as many campfires as you think you're going to
while you're on the road. We've heard that a lot and it's definitely true. For about $8.50 a month
and $51 total for six months, we enjoyed what felt like lots of campfires and now we actually
just use a propane fire pit. Postage. This is actually a pretty easily overlooked category.
But when you're on the road you might want to send some postcards. You'll probably need a
mail forwarding service like we had. And maybe you might buy a gift for somebody and want to mail it
to them. So these are just costs that need to be considered and this cost us about $22.21 per month
which equals $133.23 for six months. It actually ended up costing us more than laundry did.
Phones. Our phone plans cost us about $157.58 a month and that was $945.49
over six months. Now we could use the internet on our phones, but at the time we couldn't tether
internet for our laptops at the time. So for our laptops and blogging and such at the time,
we used free Wi-Fi hotspots. Being on vacation meant that we weren't tied to needing the internet
the whole time so we really didn't need it consistently. Boy has that changed. Yes.
These things are cute but they get in the way. Yeah I know. It's really just a decoration.
Onward. Yep. Health Insurance. This category basically killed us. And that's not what you
want from your health insurance. Because we were very concerned about having good
health coverage on the road and we were basically going from one health insurance plan through our
work to another when we got to Denver, we took the COBRA coverage that was offered, for
convenience and peace of mind, but boy was it expensive. We really should have made
an effort to find a cheaper more cost effective option because on average that cost us $1050.60
every month for a total of $6303.60 for the six months. For just the two of us.
Health insurance is important, but as much as you can make sure that you have good coverage
at a not ridiculous amount. And we should have done a better job with that.
Thankfully these days we have a good plan at a reasonable price. Groceries.
Sharing this one is hard because we so woefully under-budgeted. I mean it's bad guys.
We had this misconception that we would somehow change our grocery habits and that
for some reason we wouldn't eat out a lot like we should have known we were going to do. And
we ate out a lot. In fact what you spend in this category on the road is probably more comparable
to what you spend now in a home than any other category, because you still have to feed yourself.
And in fact, it might even increase because you don't have access to the stores that
you're used to with the bargain deals and the things that you're used to buying in budget.
And then there's wanting to try all the new restaurants that are near you like you did.
Okay for groceries and general merchandise we spent $849.73
per month and $5098.36 over six months but that's not even eating out. So that cost
us another $722.60 per month for a total of $4335.59 over six months. So we were
bad at budgeting our provisions and our eating out, but in the end it was important to us to
eat well and enjoy the local restaurant culture in the areas that we were exploring
and we were willing to pay that additional cost to have that experience. So this really just
highlights that you want to take a look what you're spending now in these areas
and how you think you're going to spend when you're on the road. Are you going to be
willing to cook in the RV and eat more at home? Or do you think you'll want to explore and check
out a lot of those restaurants? Entertainment and Activities. We actually budgeted really well in
this category knowing that we wanted to experience certain things on our trip. We paid $80 for a
National Parks Pass which pretty much deserves its own category because it's that important.
We did a guided climb at Custer State Park in South Dakota which was our biggest entertainment
expense. We went to some museums, tours, a gondola ride, had state park entrance fees,
and so on. So this category was a $199.09 per month for a total of $1194.56 over the six
months. New Clothes and Toys Fund. We definitely splurged again in this category. We happened to
be due for some new clothes, especially because we were doing all this extra hiking at the time.
And we needed some additional climbing gear. Because of that we spent over three times as
much as we had originally budgeted for this category at $194.88 per month and
$1169.25 over the six months. You will need to replenish things from this category periodically,
so just account for that with the things you like to do and your hobbies, etc. ATM Withdrawals, aka
the really lazy budgeters' catch all category. We spent $131.40 a month in this category for a total
of $788.40 over our six months. And we basically didn't track what we spent our cash on. It was
things like cash for some events, entrance fees, food and drinks sometimes. And what it really
means is we just needed to do a better job of allocating those things to their own categories.
So if you're better at budgeting than we were at the time then you will not have these kinds of
problematic categories. Campground Fees. We paid an average of $1058.97 per month and $6353.81 over
six months for camping sites. Our initial estimate was $35 a night for a total of $6300, and if we
had stuck with that estimate I think we would have been pretty pleased with the outcome. Our average
nightly cost based on a mix of staying in private campgrounds, state and national parks, regional
parks, moochdocking on friends' and family's property, and lotdocking is as shown on the side
here by month. But we had some big misconceptions about what our rig could and couldn't do. We
really thought that our battery would let us get through a night of boondocking and that we
wouldn't have to have hookups every single night. Knowing that we would use a couple of discount
programs like Passport America and Good Sam, and knowing that we would be moochdocking with friends
and family for quite a bit, we really thought that we could bring our nightly average down to $25
a night. And we only thought that we would need hookups about half the time.
Are you seeing a pattern here? Yes. Well we learned very quickly that that battery was useless
for that and we could barely eek through the night a couple of times at Walmart. So be aware of the
capabilities and limitations of your own rig and potentially be willing to do some things that
might cost a little bit more upfront but will save you money in the long run like upgrading
your batteries, adding a little bit of solar, buying a generator. Since our trip was temporary
we didn't even think to do any of those things. There could have been other cost-saving
memberships we could have tried or we could have used the ones that we had more frequently.
If we had planned further in advance and booked state and national parks, regional parks, more
frequently, we might have saved some money that way. But those were pretty booked up by the time
we got around to booking as we went along. We were traveling to specific things that we
wanted to see and finding camping nearby, rather than having the flexibility of finding a cheaper
camping option and then looking for things to do around that area. Four days in one place was our
average, and only on a couple occasions did we stay somewhere for two weeks. So again we were
traveling pretty quickly, but if you can stay longer so a solid week or a month at a time
that is another way to save money. So that brings our grand totals to, drumroll please...
$5593.72 per month for a six month amazing RV vacation road trip that cost us a total of
$33562.32. Ouch. So now we've shown you what it cost for us to live like we were on vacation.
We were not thinking about long-term costs or any kind of cost sustainability. We had a whole
bunch of misconceptions about what our RV could do and really about the lifestyle as a whole.
We knew we could enjoy and live like on vacation because we had saved up in advance and we had
the safety net of the jobs to return to once we moved to Denver. But now after years of experience
RVing and seeing how we can really save costs and spend better in all these categories,
it's a little painful looking back on. But it did teach us some good lessons. So we're hopeful that
this will help you all as well. Stay tuned for our next episodes where we talk about our subsequent
years and much more reasonable costs and a much less scary cost picture of this whole thing.
Check out the description below for the blog post related to this video with all of the details. On
our blog we also post our current monthly RV expense reports that are very in-depth. We'll
link that below as well so you can check those out monthly and you can even download the spreadsheets
and graphs and charts that we use to track our budget. If you like this kind of content make
sure to give it a thumbs up, leave us a comment, and subscribe. We'll see you all next time. Bye.