Morgan Hill, CA
10,000 miles - 19 states - 90 days
Holy moley!
It all came to a stop when we reached our current location.
As most of you know, we were not in competition with
but rather, had to be certain places by certain times.
Now we get to slow down, save $$, and get hitch-itch :-)
A recap of our expenses for the 3 months is an eye opener.
We knew that it was going to be out of line,
due to the fact that we were traveling so much.
We have been tracking every cent we spend
to get a complete picture of our habits to see what we need to work on.
We are lucky, as we went on the road with no debt,
with the exception of the RV payment itself.
That should be paid off with the FEMA buyout of our property.
Both our 401k earnings have done pretty well,
but we have not touched George's - and I can't touch mine yet.
So with all that in mind..
here is a recap by category of our expenses for 3 months..
Campground fees - $1,467.36
Cell phones/Internet - $719.42
Hair/nails - $272.29
Emergency Fund - $450.00
Groceries - $1,499.37
Entertainment/Dining Out - $970.31
Fuel - $3,375.87
Onstar/Sirius - $89.76
Health Insurance - $809.19
Prescriptions - $45.52
Truck/RV Insurance - $357.72
Truck/RV Maintenance & Repairs - $2,044.80
DirecTV - $171.14
Good Sam Roadside - $28.20
Other - $234.02
We were way over budget for:
Fuel
Entertainment/Dining Out
Groceries
Truck maintenance/repairs
We budget, and stash away in savings the following:
Health Insurance (currently covered by my employer)
Emergency Fund
Truck/RV insurance & repairs
The 'other' category includes items such as:
The 'other' category includes items such as:
Postage/Alternative Resources
Our new cell phones
and other expenses too small to categorize.
Since we are sitting in one place workamping
for the next 4 months,
we'll have no campground fees at all,
and our fuel will be way down as well.
We are working on our eating habits again,
so the dining out category will look a little better :-)
Although I don't recommend putting your finances
out for everyone to see..
out for everyone to see..
I hope that sharing this with everyone will help
those 'almost full-timers' make better decisions
when they decide whether full-time RVng is for them. :-)
It sure adds up fast doesn't it. Thanks for sharing those numbers, it helps us to plan for the future!
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for this. We too are looking to FT in the next couple of years. The information is so valuable to us as well as many others wanting to go in this direction.
ReplyDeleteIt really was an eye opener. I think finding the balance between a vacation and a life style, will be the hardest for us to over come.
I would be interested to see how this will average out since you will be in the same spot for the next 4 months.
Thanks again for "putting it out there" !
It is amazing how quickly things add up. We don't publish ours and don't really have a line item budget, just a total amount we "try" to keep things at monthly. Some months are much easier than others. Sitting in one place for awhile always helps.
ReplyDeleteIt took us over a year to go 10,000 miles!!!! You may still be up for an honorary PDD award :)
Wow, you have been moving!! lol Going from one extreme to the other!! Wonder how long it will take for you to get the "itch"?? ;)
ReplyDeleteI think you definitely qualify for a PDDA for those 3 months. At that rate you'd do 40K miles a year. Wonder how many Paul did his first year.
ReplyDeleteI suspect these expenses are not typical. We too keep track of literally every penny we spend including all the incidental cash and have for years. I can tell you what movies we went to in 1978 and what they cost. I know...I know.....
BUT that sort of detail has really helped us live a much nicer lifestyle than our incomes would imagine. Our first 6 months were more costly than subsequent. Until David's medical bills that is. But we're still hanging in there and it's the records that help us do it. Haven't had to do any work camping yet. But then we haven't been out of the state of Florida since he was diagnosed either.
Good for you for keeping the records. You'll be glad over and over.
That is a lot of miles, I bought my RV in April 2011 and drove from Florida to Illinois and then to Texas and back to Illinois and have been a full-timer since November 2011 and I have only added 13,000 miles in all that time. I spent more the first year because I was adding accessories and upgraded some electronic things. I keep track of expenses in Quicken, I may publish my 1st year expenses on my blog.
ReplyDeleteOuch, but now that your stationary it should start to balance.
ReplyDeleteYou could have fooled me... ;c)
ReplyDeleteThat's exactly why we traveled so far so fast our first year (18,500 miles), we had to be at certain places by certain times and we were gambling with Ol' Man Winter as we drove across the Northern states to OR.
Glad to see you are slowed down for the next four months. We're slowing down too.
Great post! We are on our way to Florida. I also keep a budget. Trying to see what the cost will be when we are no longer working!
ReplyDeleteglad to see you settled for a bit and enjoying the workcamping job :)
ReplyDeleteThe cost are always higher when you are just starting out. I am sure things will begin to settle out. Judy and I need to get our "eating out" under control, but we like eating out so much because it is way easier than cooking.
ReplyDeleteWhat a great three months! We don't do that much in a whole year. See you soon at the RV show. What a great blog.
ReplyDeleteI've spent more than I expected too. So now I have to actually work for money to increase my savings.
ReplyDelete