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Variable Travel Costs

"Rent"

Since we don't maintain a fixed home base, we consider our camp/dockage fees plus fuel to move our homes to replace what used to be our rent or mortgage payment. And we love that these are variable costs that we have a lot of control over based on decisions we make about where we stay and how many miles we move.

Camp & Marina Fees 

RV Camping Fees

Fees vary by location, amenities and whether we're in a public or private campground. We consider ourselves happy when at the end of the year, our average monthly campground fees are under $400-500/month. But we don't sweat it.

Range of Camping Options

• Boondocking/Free: We enjoy mixing in a lot of boondocking. This might range from awesome places on public lands (BLM, National Forests, etc), staying in lower cost public campgrounds without hook-ups, 'blacktop boondocking' overnight in commercial parking lots or rest stops, to driveway surfing with friends & family (got bus parking? We love invitations!).  These low/free cost stays not only bring our average cost down a lot, they're some of our most memorable stays.
• Public campgrounds: State, federal, county, city, etc. parks can range from $5-50/night (some are even free!), but generally have a 14 day limit on them. Amenities can range from dry camping to full hook-ups with electric/water/sewer. We generally love public parks, as they offer larger sites, more privacy, great views and access to active things to do out in nature... we spend a lot of time in them.
• Commercial RV Park & Resorts: These can cost more in $20-90+/night range, and many offer more affordable weekly/monthly rates or have discount programs they belong to. We stay in these when they're the best option for the proximity to where we want to be, or we need access to full hook-ups to beat the weather, or dump/fill tanks.
• RV Co-Op: We also own a lifetime lease to a co-op park in Benson, AZ that serves as both storage for our bus and our winter base. We paid about $27k upfront for the lot with a lovely little casita. Ongoing, we just pay electric and annual park maintenance (about $1500/year - if we don't put our lot in the rental pool).

RV Membership Clubs

We keep memberships in these clubs to help give us discounted and/or free stays at places:

• • Passport America to save 50% on nightly fees at participating parks - the annual fee pays for itself with just a couple stays. We use this club mostly when we're in-between extended off-grid stays to dump & fill the tanks. (If you join, our member number is R-0242893 .. thanks for using our referral!)
  • Escapees RV Club - they have their own network of RV parks, and they offer 15-50% discounts at over 1000 parks nationwide. (If you join, select 'Technomadia' from the referral field.. thanks!)
  • Harvest Hosts - gives you access to a database of wineries, vineyards, farms, museums and other unique places that welcome RVers. A fun way to mix it up - but we save in camping fees, usually increases our food & drink budget!)! (Use our affiliate link and save 15% off new membership!)

More Info: Our Guide to RV Clubs

Other Tips for RV Camping Costs:

• Monthly & Weekly Rates: For staying in RV Parks, monthly rates are the best rates followed by weekly, and help balance out shorter stays while we're in transit. Urban locations are typically more expensive - so if we need to be somewhere like San Francisco, Austin, St. Louis, etc. - monthly rates can be $500-1300. Some locations have seasonal rates too, so if we need to be in Florida during the winter (where our family is), it's more expensive. If we don't need to be near an urban area, the lowest we've paid so far is $300/month.
• Volunteering & Workamping: We also haven taken fun volunteer positions from time to time - such as interpretive hosting at a lighthouse in Oregon. We get to do something incredibly fun and give our time for under 20 hours a week, and get a full hook-up site in a gorgeous location. With our full time work commitments however, we rarely have time for the extra hours however. Many campgrounds will accept 'workampers' for a few hours a week in exchange for a site - check Workamper News for more information.
• Reservations & Pre-Paying: One consideration with the variability of camping fees, is that to score great spots during peak season in your desired location - you may find you have to pre-pay for your spot at time of reservation or put up a sizable deposit.  So if you're making your winter reservations during the summer - you could end up paying for part of your winter lodging, while still funding your summer lodging. Always be sure to check out the cancellation policy when making reservations in advance - sometimes they're refundable, and sometimes there are fees involved.

Further Related Guides:

Finding Campgrounds & Boondocking

Free & Cheap RV Camping

Boondocking

Marina Fees

We mix it up with:

• Monthly Stays - Marinas tend to charge by the foot for monthly stays, ranging from $10 - 30 per foot (we're 47-55' long depending on how a marina measures, so anywhere from $500-1400, plus electric and liveaboard surcharges).  Like RV Parks, these are the cheapest marina rates and we LOVE a slow pace of travel spending time in marinas in cool downtowns with lots to do in walking range.
• Nightly/Weekly - Marinas are much more expensive by the night, typically charging $1-4 per foot per night, or $7-12 per foot per week. This comes out to $50-200 per night! We minimize these.
• Anchoring/Mooring - This is the RV equivalent of boondocking, and it's far more abundantly available. There's lists of anchorages on resources like Skipper Bob's, Active Captain and Waterway Guide. Some do charge a permit fee, or mooring balls might have a fee too.

We shared more about costs in this video/article:

How Much Does It Cost to Stay in Marinas?

Fuel & Propane 

This is a fluctuating cost - both in the cost of fuel and how many miles we're traveling.

Our bus gets 7 - 7.5 mpg, the fuel is diesel in our 8v71 Detroit Diesel 2-stroke engine. A typical driving day is 50-200 miles at 55-60 mph. In the past, we have covered 5000-7000 miles by road in a year. Now that the bus is a part-time home, we will likely only cover 1-2k miles a year.

Our boat has two diesel Cummins 370 engines, and we get just under 2 miles per gallon or burning 3.2 gallons per hour. A typical 'driving day' is in the 15-40 nautical mile range at 7-8 knots.  While our fuel "economy" sucks in comparison to our RV, we perhaps cover 500-1000 miles a year.  So thus our fuel costs actually aren't that bad.

Our van gets about 15-17 mpg, and is our daily driver, shuttle craft and camper. We'll likely put a few thousand miles a year on it.

We like to vary up our pace - some months we put lots of miles as we make a major repositioning, and then others we stay pretty still.  It all balances out, which is a beauty of this lifestyle.

More info: Pouring Rent Into the Tank: A Perspective on Fuel Costs for Full Time RVers and Boaters

Propane

During our summer 2015 RV renovations, we added back in propane for our hydronics systems (water heating, furnace, engine pre-warming) and our generator. Our van also uses propane for heating, hot water, fridge and stove top. The costs have been relatively minor - maybe a $150/year. Not worth tracking separately.

Transportation

These are our costs for getting around locally.

When we don't have the van readily accessible - we utilize walking, biking, renting cars, Lyft, public transit and borrowed vehicles.

Storage Fees

With the 3 vessels, it's likely at least one is in storage somewhere.

RVs can use storage lots across the country. Long term, we have purchased a lifetime lease at an Escapee's Co-Op park in Arizona that will be our storage option 2020 and beyond. While we're there, we enjoy a fabulous community and our own 'casita' with extended living space. This costs about $1500/year in community fees - or we can elect to store our bus in their storage lot for free, and put our lot in the rental pool to offset a lot of those costs when we're not there.

Storing the boat will be much more expensive depending on local options. It may be a combination of dry storage on land (which will also incur haul-out, blocking and bottom paint costs) or wet storage (pretty much monthly marina costs minus live aboard fees).

Our van is usually with us whether by boat or bus, but sometimes if we're actively cruising we may store it short term until we can go back to retrieve it. Sometimes marinas allow parking for free before/after a stay, sometimes local friends offer parking or we seek out a storage lot.

Maintenance

There is of course also maintenance on all of the vehicles.

The bus, we generally factor in about $1500-2500 per year in routine maintenance (fluid & filter changes, plus general upkeep), plus there is major services (tires every few years, brake job, bushings, etc.) and we keep a lot of cash set aside to handle breakdowns (such as needing a complete engine rebuild in July 2013).

The boat.. well, we're anticipating this to be pretty high in comparison. BOAT does mean Break Out Another Thousand (a misnomer, it actually means Break Out Another TEN Thousand), of course.  We've been warned to factor in 10% of the purchase price of the boat to be our annual repair & maintenance (so, we're figuring $15k a year). It's actually worked out to be closer to about $10k per year.

The van is more like maintaining a typical automobile - a few hundred bucks perhaps a year?

We don't include our home renovation, upgrade projects or non-maintenance repairs on our bus or boat however in our cost log above.

For more on upkeeping an renovating an older RV:

• Five  Years in a Vintage Bus (including our cost log on maintenance & renovations)
• Is It Worthwhile to Renovate an Old RV? Why Not Just Buy New?

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Fixed Travel Costs

These are the costs that we incur every single month and don't vary much, and are tallied up in the 'Fixed Cost' column above.

Connectivity / Internet Access

Our internet and communications cost is essential to our livelihood. If we can't keep online, we can't work - thus we couldn't do any of this stuff.

Our current arsenal includes:

• AT&T Unlimited Plus Business — $150 (We keep two phones and two hotspots on this plan, and then share several lines with family members, which brings our costs way down. Plan retired as of mid-2018)
• Verizon Grandfathered Unlimited Plan — $70 (no throttling or network management apply, 4K video enabled - they are still available, but very risky these days.
  • Neither of our plans are available anymore - but we track this stuff for a living. Check out our Current Top Pick Data Plans. 
• Calyx Institute Sprint/T-Mobile Plan  - Our $500/year membership to this non profit also gives us access to a year of unlimited data on a hotspot.

We actually keep a bunch of other cellular data plans active - but those we consider to be expenses directly related in the pursuit of tracking mobile internet options. The ones above are the ones we would choose to keep if this stuff wasn't our day job.

Total Month: $250

For more information on internet for RVers & Cruisers (our 'day job'):

• Illustrated Tour: Our mobile internet setup
• Guide: Overview of Mobile Internet Options
• Our Book: The Mobile Internet Handbook.
• Our Mobile Internet Resource Center: Where we track industry news, write guides & product reviews and help our premium members navigate this stuff.
• Our Current Top Pick Data Plans for RVers & Cruisers

Insurance & Registration

We have no loans on our vehicles - all our paid for. So the only ongoing expenses is insurance, registration and maintenance.

• Bus/RV: We have a full-timers policy on our bus that is kinda like a combined home-owners and auto policy ($1193/yr), and annual tag fees for our personalized speciality plates ($110/yr). We are registered and insured out of Florida - and we have limited full coverage options for a restored vintage bus conversion
• Van: We also keep a full-timers full coverage insurance policy ($800) and personalized speciality tag fees  ($72).
  • Our RV insurance agent is Epic-Insurance - Gina is awesome, give her a call!
• Boats: Our full coverage boat policy costs us $2103/year and covers both the motoryacht and dinghy. Our annual Florida registration is about $150, plus $26 for Coast Guard Documentation (we prepaid 5 years).
  • We found our policy through the Marine Trawlers Owners Association's recommended insurance agent, who has worked out special provisions for MTOA members.

Total monthly : $370

Health Insurance

We have been insured with an Florida based EPO plan with BlueCross BlueShield (Florida Blue) that give us national access to their BlueSelect network. Since we don't claim subsidies at our income level, we have gone direct instead of through the marketplace starting in 2020. We went with a Silver HSA plan with a $8500/year family deductible / max. But includes preventative care at no cost.

Florida Blue plans starting in 2020 now included access to Teledoc for telemedicine - which is fabulous!

We love telemedicine and highly recommend RVers & coastal cruisers consider it, and have used it for routine ear aches, respiratory infections, etc. Click in their app, a doctor pops up in video chat and a few minutes later a prescription is waiting around the corner.  Sure beats trying to find an urgent care center in a new town! If your plan doesn't include it, it can be purchased separately on RVer Insurance.

For more information:

• Guide: Healthcare and Health Insurance for RVers
• For information on RVer compatible insurance options, we recommend RVer Insurance.

2022 premiums: $1039/mo

Mail Forwarding & Domicile

We use St. Brendan's Isle in Florida for our mail forwarding, and use their Mail Scan Pro service. Their address also serves as our legal address of domicile for driver's licenses, voting, vehicle registration, business registration, taxes, etc. They collect our mail, scan the front of the envelop and notify us via e-mail that we have new mail. We can then view our envelops online and decide what to do with them - scan, send or shred.  We can request a shipment to whatever address we're at. They're super cool and we couldn't be happier with the service we have received from them.

We 'moved' to Florida before the Escapees had an option, but if we were starting off new - we'd also consider them.  Their county tends to have cheaper insurance options.

For more information:

• Guide: Mail, Domicile, Registering Vehicles and Voting as a Full Time RVer
• Guide: Moving our Domicile to Florida

Monthly Cost: $22/mo, plus postage & scanning charges

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Non-Travel Specific Living Expenses

All of the below stuff we've not included in the above cost log - as these are expenses we'd have regardless if we were traveling or living in a stationary home. But we will discuss some things that influence these costs with a traveling lifestyle.

Day to Day costs

These are the normal things ... like food, clothing, laundry, etc.

Food

Obviously, food is a point where budgets can vary widely by personal dietary preferences... but you'll probably spend similarly to what you spend now, maybe a touch more. The biggest change is you may not have room to store bulk buys - so that could account for some increase. And you may be tempted to eat out a bit more while you're traveling, mostly to sample local cuisines but sometimes just because it's easier after a long day of driving, or cooking in a small space may be seem limiting.

If we're staying in a 'foodie' area, our expenses go up as we love eating local. If we're staying somewhere with limited dining out options, we tend to cook in more. We tend to lean towards organics, whole foods and are primarily vegetarian and gluten free at home. We enjoy wine, craft brews and local cuisine.

We know of folks who thrive on a few hundred a month for a food budget.. but that's definitely not us. It's not uncommon for our dining out and grocery bill to be near a grand a month.

Food is part of our social life, and brings us joy and good health.

Guide: Food Restrictions and Full Time RVing

Laundry & Clothing

Laundry is another consideration. We opted not to make room for a washer/dryer in our bus, there's no room in the van and have a washer/dryer combo in the boat.

When RVing, we use mainly public coin laundry facilities. It's nice to get 2-3 weeks of laundry done in under an hour, and many campgrounds/marinas have laundry facilities on site. The cost of a load of laundry can vary widely by location and facilities. We've had them cost everything from free in Louisiana State Parks (seriously!) to up to $5-6.  Average is probably around $2.50-3.50 a load.  On a monthly basis, we maybe spend $20 on laundry - its not worth micromanaging.

But we do consider quarters to be like gold, and make sure we always have plenty. Nothing like having no clean undies left, arriving to a campground after the office is closed and not enough quarters to get a load done.

Clothing is something to consider as well. You'll likely have less space to store a huge wardrobe, but you will also likely be exposed to more climates and variety of venues - thus requiring a well balanced selection. We tend to do a lot of thrift shopping for our clothing, this helps us affordably adapt to local weather & venues.  But we're also not afraid to spend good money for quality staples in our wardrobe.

Guide: Tips and Tricks for a Versatile RVing Wardrobe

Fun Stuff

When you're traveling, you're going to be exposed to new things - from local foods to attractions to festivals/rallies/events. You're probably going to want to explore them, which will add to your spending. We recommend keeping a 'fun stuff' line item in your budget so you can fully embrace what you find out on the road.

After all, enjoying the places we visit is what being on the road is about for us. 

We enjoy going to events, conferences, rallies, concerts, hot springs, community theatre, musicals, local events (roller derby, festivals, rodeos, etc.) and just embracing what is around us. We like to find at least one 'touristy' thing to do in the areas we visit, and we soak up new experiences.

These were all things we did before we hit the road. But the costs are different now - as we're frequently finding out about events fairly last minute and sometimes paying late entry rates and sometimes able to pay less for a last minute ticket to an unsold out event. And, sometimes we end up needing to forfeit event fees that we had to sign up for in advance, but routing plans changing to make it unrealistic to attend. Be sure to know the ticket transfer/re-sell policy before you buy.

Of course, we also enjoy non-RV adventures and tend to take cruises, fly 'home' to family, rent cottages, take cross country train trips and more.

Also keep in mind that you may find that in order to attend events, special occasions of loved ones or emergency situations - other methods of travel than your RV or boat may make more sense. So you may need to keep a travel budget for airplanes, hotels, fuel for your vehicle, trains, etc. You know, just like when you lived stationary.

Geek Toys

We also don't list our other major expense: Tech!

You can probably get a good idea that we spend a lot in this realm.

Since our business is cutting edge technology, this is pretty essential stuff to our livelyhood and keeping up to date is what allows us to be mobile. We upgrade our tech early and often. Our computers are rarely more than 3 years old and we usually have the latest iGadgets released (we are app developers and need to test on the latest and greatest after all).

Saving for the future, investing and giving

We are actively saving and investing for the future.

We have retirement funds & investments we manage and contribute towards. We have emergency funds and savings at the ready too.

A lot of our income goes into a discretionary spending account for adventures, upgrades and fun.

We also are pretty quick to invest in others - supporting innovation, donating to causes we believe in, etc.

 

Between maintaining our previous income levels, being debt free and having containment on living costs - it doesn't have to take much to live a very sustainable, exciting and full time traveling lifestyle.

And all does come down to choices.

Other Full Timer Costs

Here are some links to other full timers who have shared their expenses so that you can get a range of what it might cost:

• RV-Dreams Financial Center - Howard and Linda have shared their budget and expenses for many years, and also offer some sample budgets and worksheets to help you track your expenses.
• Tiny House Blog - Andrew Odom shares a snapshot at one month's full timing expenses for his family of 3.
• Interstellar Orchard - Solo female RVers Becky Schade shares what her annual expenses are, which comes out to about $1300/month.
• Live. Work. Dream - Jim & Rene share their winter 2014/2015 full time RVing expenses, with links to lots of past articles on  the topic.
• WheelingIt - Nina Fussing shares their full timing costs back in 2011.
• Road Less Traveled - Emily & Mark Fagan share their full timing costs, comparatively over their many years on the road.
• Gone with the Wynns - Nikki & Jason Wynn share their costs of full time RVing on a quarterly basis.
• CheapRVLiving - Bob Wells hosts this entire blog/forum/website about living frugally on the road. He shows ways to live for as little as $500/month.
• RVSueandCrew - Solo traveler Sue shares her monthly & fixed expenses regularly on her blog. She lives entirely off her social security and Amazon affiliate sales.
• Hourly America - Heath and Alyssa share their expenses after traveling to 48 states in under a year as part of their project of getting hourly jobs in each state.
• We're The Russos - Joe & Kait hit the road in late 2015, and are sharing their monthly income & expenses.
• Five in a 5th - This family of 5 shares their monthly average cost of full time RVing after a year on the road.
• RVLove - Julie & Marc shared their RVing costs for a year on the road in a fun infographic.