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eliandjax1's avatar
eliandjax1
Explorer
Mar 11, 2014

saying hi as a fellow fulltimer in a different situation.

Hello,
I am new to the forum but have been reading them for sometime and found them extremely helpful. Thank you to everyone who contribute.

A little bit about my family and myself... I am 27 and dw is 25. We have two boys 7 and 3. We currently live fulltime in a 2002 Pioneer 30ft travel trailer at a commercial campground in tx. We started our journey back in feb 2013 when we purchased a 1978 shasta 27'. We had decided to take a year off to travel after I finished a 3 month job in flordia. We had always talked about wanting to try it and we knew we did not want to stay in our current location in illinois so we ended our lease on the 2800sqft house sold almost everything and away we went. We traveled in 6 states and ended up in texas where we decided we wanted to live. We essentially picked a point on the map and looked at local rv parks and chose one. No real plan was devised but within two days of hooking up camper I had a fulltime job that offered the best pay I have had to date.

So here we are living fulltime in a travel trailer with 2 boys and our two girls (pitbull and german shepherd) I know we are not the typical snowbirds or retired couple and we are by no means wealthy (in debt actually). I felt the desire to introduce myself so that maybe anyone else surfing these forums that maybe in a similar situation as we are would know it is possible to fulltime and enjoy it. I hope that I can provide maybe a different perspective to fulltime living on the forums.

20 Replies

  • I hope you and your family is prepared when the "real world" comes and slaps you around. Your children are going to find that parents are not going to let their children go over to their "house" to play. They won't get to know their neighbors because they will always be changing and they will have to learn not to trust their neighbors because you will never know who will be staying next door for the next couple of weeks.
    You are living in about 250 square feet of living space. There isn't going to be any privacy. When the Texas summer rolls around, you don't spend time outside, so that 250 square feet will become your entire domain. Most RV AC units are close to inadequate for the Texas heat, so you might find it uncomfortable at best and downright miserable at worst. We have a 45 motorhome and the 3 AC units don't keep it cool enough for me, so we don't do Texas in the summer, that's the time to move north.
    Being frugal is fine and dandy, but be careful it doesn't have long lasting negative impacts. After all, the purpose of working for money is to have money to use to benefit yourself and your family. be long term smart.
  • Welcome to our forum! I had to laugh at my first response to your post and question. Of course, you much understand, I am pretty much a smart alec and my first response usually reflects this. My response to your question is this. You have to full-time somewhere! You can't do partial living, even without kids! You have just chosen to live in a movable home. You may return to a stationary one at some point, but for now, you live in your vacation vehicle! Happy Trails!!
  • Thank you for the warm welcome all.

    The main reason we did the rv "thing" was to spend more time with our children. Just over a year ago dw worked fulltime at a bank and I worked not 1 not 2 but 3 jobs to pay for our honestly obscene lifestyle. We realized that we were working ourselves to death and practically aabandoned our children to pay for a house we were never at and a bunch of toys we weren't home to enjoy. It was truly a blessing to get to spend the last year traveling with the children and really getting to spend time with them. Everything from a campfire to legoland and clearwater aquarium have been a blast. The kids have enjoyed more in a year than many will their entire childhood (including my own) not to mentiom dw and I got to partake in the fun as well! We may be settled in a semi perm location now but we will continue the lifestyle and will continue the good times with our children.

    The almost hysterical part currently is... were now enjoying not only our children but eachother and our lives as well while easily battling our way to financial freedom. I know a lot of people say rving is expensive but in our particular case it has been 100x cheaper. Went from aquiring additional debt EVERY month to now living on just 10percent of just my income!

    If I ever add anything worthwhile to this forum let it be this. I wish I would had came up with this 10 years ago and I'd be a lot better off. If you ever have the desire for the type of lifestyle that allows freedom do it now. The advice I give me children om graduation day will be most likely this. Buy yourself (maybe with help from mom and dad) a truck amd camper. Dont get tied down to material things and enjoy being free!
  • brirene wrote:
    Welcome to the forum, and thanks for sharing your story. Best of luck to you and your family.
    X 2
  • Welcome to the forum, and thanks for sharing your story. Best of luck to you and your family.
  • Welcome. We started 6 years ago and have been happy with the lifestyle. Currently 37 and DW is 39 we have a 7 month old.
  • Welcome. You would be surprised how many full timers with families there are. Some have real honest to goodness 8-5 jobs, some are contractors, and some find work camping jobs that pay, usually minimum wage plus a parking space. personally being retarded, er retired the camp host thing is to my liking. But then again a couple both working at minimum wage as hosts could earn a decent living.
    Enjoy the time with your kids while you can. That time is far more important that killing yourself trying to make a lot of money.