First Year Recap

November 28, 2010.

We started our full time adventure after I retired on September 11, 2009. However we actually began living full time in our Carriage Cameo in October of 2009. The intent of this blog entry will be to try and re-cap and review our first year on the road as full time RV’ers. It’s over due for sure but better late than never. I’ve read some other blogs that detail their expenses and I want to include some of that in my review. We also have a budget that we use as a goal to curtail our spending. I’ve found that our discretionary spending in some categories is very similar to our spending habits when we were both working. However, so much of any budget is unique to individuals and their own preferences and lifestyles. So I’m only providing examples of some of our budget items.

First Year Expenses October 2009- September 2010

		Oct	Nov	Dec	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Total
	Camping Fees	$550	$0	$0	$0	$921	$657	$701	$306	$867	$770	$757	$0	$5,529
	Groceries and dog food	$459	$492	$528	$631	$421	$486	$374	$540	$323	$657	$501	$610	$6,022
	Entertainment & Dining Out	$216	$16	$225	$212	$297	$400	$85	$172	$144	$281	$265	$254	$2,567
	Propane	$0	$0	$20	$20	$0	$0	$0	$22	$0	$0	$0	$0	$62
	Cell Phones and Internet	$155	$160	$160	$157	$162	$156	$157	$157	$157	$160	$158	$156	$1,895
	RV Insurance	$0	$0	$0	$172	$0	$0	$0	$225	$0	$169	$0	$169	$735
	RV Maintenance	$0	$271	$118	$25	$0	$21	$17	$61	$0	$10	$0	$18	$541
	Diesel	$356	$163	$160	$100	$136	$237	$310	$232	$318	$173	$223	$75	$2,483
	Truck Ins.	$0	$0	$0	$0	$0	$0	$0	$191	$155	$155	$155	$155	$811
	Truck Maintenance	$100	$25	$0	$0	$73	$0	$0	$0	$28	$200	$0	$0	$426
	Gasoline	$40	$99	$78	$90	$128	$182	$158	$115	$228	$231	$158	$95	$1,602
	Jeep Ins.	$77	$63	$63	$63	$63	$63	$57	$57	$57	$60	$60	$60	$743
	Car/ Jeep Maintenance	$0	$32	$0	$0	$395	$168	$41	$19	$33	$10	$0	$0	$698

* (asterix) months spent volunteering/ workamping

Camping Fees: $5,529.

We try to budget for $900 a month or $30 a day for this category. During our first year we workamped/ volunteered for 4 of the 12 months. This results in a substantial savings but also allows us to adjust our budget in other categories. More importantly it gives us the opportunity to explore an area while contributing much needed assistance to a park or refuge. So far, we’ve found it most advantageous to us to volunteer during the winter months. Workamping/ volunteering is something that we plan to continue doing as part of our adventure and to fulfill a need to give back.

Groceries and Dog Food: $6,022 .

Some may think that our grocery expenses looks bloated and it probably is. However, we often do a lot of shopping at Walmarts and end up with lots of items that aren’t actually groceries and end up in this category as we aren’t meticulous enough to break it down. Also, we include in this category provisions for our two Boxers, Maggie and Rico. We budgeted $450 a month for this category but have exceeded it.

Entertainment and Dining Out: $2,567.

This category speaks for itself. We don’t eat out frequently, but at least once a week and primarily for lunch. We budgeted for $200 a month.

Propane: $62

Not a large expense category. We don’t run our propane furnace very often. When it’s cold we tend to use our ceramic electric heaters. However, when we use the propane furnace it uses propane fairly quickly. Also we use electricity for our water heater and refrigerator. Our stove however uses propane. With no prior RVing experience we didn’t know how much to budget. We had budgeted for $30 a month!

Cell Phones and Internet: $1,895.

We use two Verizon Cell Phones and their MIFI for internet. The monthly bill is fairly consistent with fluctuations due to texting charges. We budgeted for $160 a month.

RV Insurance: $735

RV Maintenance: $541

It goes without saying that this is a necessary category. We have a 2010 Carriage Cameo 35SB3 that is now a year and a half old with approximately 6-7K towing miles. Most of the items in the category were actually purchases we made for the rig and minor repairs. However, I did not include the nearly $1200 tire upgrade I made in April. As you may recall we went from Duro E rated tires to Goodyear G rated tires. Tires are something that needs to be budgeted as replacements should be made every 3-5 years.

Knock on wood, we haven’t needed to take our Cameo in for any repairs under it’s two year warranty. Like any home it does require maintenance and minor repairs. Thankfully, I’ve been able to make the minor repairs and adjustments myself.

Diesel: $2,483

Truck Ins.: $811

Truck Maintenance: $426

Our 2009 Dodge diesel dually truck was purchased new for the specific purpose of towing our new home, a Carriage Cameo fifth wheel. It’s used primarily for that purpose. Because it’s new and has currently less than 13K miles it hasn’t required a lot of maintenance with the exception of scheduled oil changes and a fuel filter change. Diesel Fuel has been on average just over $3 a gallon. We budgeted for $300 a month in Diesel and $50 a month for maintenance.

Gasoline: $1,602

Car/ Jeep Ins.: $743

Car/ Jeep Maintenance: $698

If you’ve been a reader of this blog you know that aside from our Dodge dually truck we also travel with a second vehicle. Until the end of June that second vehicle was a 2002 Dodge Intrepid RT which we replaced with a 2010 Jeep Wrangler Rubicon Unlimited. Obviously many folks travel and full time RV with only one vehicle and it’s our personal preference to have a second vehicle. We don’t particularly care to use our large Dodge truck as a daily driver. When we travel, Joyce drives the jeep and I drive the truck pulling the fifth wheel. $395 of the maintenance expenditure this past year was for a set of two tires for the Intrepid. We find that using the Jeep (and previously the car) is much more manageable, enjoyable and economical for exploring. I’m not convinced that the expense of the second vehicle is much more than using the truck for all our driving. Gasoline prices have been on average just under $3 a gallon. We budgeted for $100 a month for Gas and $25 a month for maintenance. Obviously we are over in the gas category yet under in diesel.

It goes without saying that a lot of our budget categories are variable and dependent upon the amount of actual travel, entertainment and discretionary spending. Not unlike any lifestyle budget. We don’t have vehicle payments and that keeps our overall costs down. People often ask how much it cost to full time. Well the answer is fraught with too many variables. However including our other budget expenses, we spent nearly $36K in our first year of the full time RV lifestyle, considerably less than we had expected. Now having said that, we know that others out there are full timing and spending much more and/ or much less.

We began our new lifestyle hauling three bicycles. Two good all terrain bikes and a road tandem. We’ve discovered that we spend most of our time on gravel or in areas that are not very road bike friendly. Although we still use the all terrain bikes, it remains to be seen if we will hold on to the road tandem as it has seen very little use. 

It would seem that most Rv’ers have at least one dog or more. We of course, have two. Our Boxers, Maggie and Rico bring us great joy and entertainment. However, they are also a major expense and burden. Living with two large dogs in a RV has proven to be very doable yet less than ideal. They restrict our movements and our ability to be spontaneous. Thankfully they are not barkers and are very well behaved.

Joyce continues to do all our banking and bill paying on-line via the internet. This has worked out very well. In addition, we continue to use a mail forwarding service out of Florida that also provides us with our Florida address for vehicle registrations and licenses.

Currently we don’t miss having a stick and brick home. But I do miss not having a garage for our vehicles and a workshop. Volunteering does offer the opportunity of sorts to utilize a workshop. With the housing market in such a crisis, it’s sometimes tempting to me to take advantage of the low home prices. I don’t however, want to loose the freedom that we have to go where we want to go. Joyce doesn’t miss owning a home at all, but does miss her friends. She manages to keep up with everyone via FaceBook. This lifestyle has afforded us the opportunity to visit friends and family scattered across the country.

Some of our favorite places to date in our limited travels have been The Texas Hill Country and the “Banana Belt” of Colorado. The hills in Texas were beautiful and there seemed to be lots of areas to explore. The mountains of Colorado seemed to beckon us. We never grew tired of the high peaks and the snow capped mountains. There is however, much more of our great country that we have yet to explore.

Finally, this blog has proven to be a great way for friends, family and friends yet discovered to keep track of our adventures and perhaps learn something along the way. I enjoy writing the blog and chronicling our RV adventure life style.  Regretfully I often fall behind with the blog and a lot of that is do to poor internet connections. Even though we have a Verizon MiFi, it’s only as good as our phone reception which has been poor at our current location. When it becomes a hassle to get a connection, I find it difficult to upload pictures and keep up with the blog as much as I would like.