Shooting straight from no experience to full-timing
Hi, everyone!
My name is Christine and I just started a new job as an agency travel nurse, and I'm traveling with my boyfriend, who's an agency physical therapist. We landed our first jobs and a gorgeous subleased house by a huge stroke of luck, but we've come to find out that finding three month leases for the time periods we need, that accommodate our pets, that are close to our assignments, and fall within the allotted housing stipend...is next to impossible. We worked it out that if we bought a used RV (taking into consideration payments on the RV + hookup fees + gas + satellite internet) it would come out to be about the same as short term rentals with our pets. Even if it came out to be a little more, it would be so worth it to have the freedom to go where we need to go without packing and unpacking every three months.
So we're going to buy an RV, but we have no idea what the hell we're doing.
We only intend to travel between 1-2 years, so we're not looking for something super fancy and expensive (if we fall in love with the lifestyle we can upgrade later). We are going to go with a Class A and tow my car (a small Nissan Versa Note hatchback). Our budget is around $15,000 for the RV itself. We have found a couple nice ones that are $9000 and $10,000, so we are going to check them out soon.
My biggest concern is that the RVs that are in our budget are older than 15 years. The ones we are interested appear to be in really good shape, so I'm not worried about that, but I've heard that there can be restrictions in parks on the age of the RVs. How prevalent is this and if we are full-timing (we are going to AZ next, then making our way up the west coast, then doubling back to Colorado), is it going to be a huge problem for us? There seem to be hundreds of RV parks out west, so I want to believe that we would find something that suits our needs, but I don't want to be naive.
I've read things online regarding how much it *really* costs to live in an RV full time, but I'd appreciate your perspective on that, too.
Other than that, I need to just explore the site and figure out how the heck to do this RV thing. I don't know my black water from my gray water from my drinking water, so I need to get the basics down. If anyone can point me in the direction of some resources, that would be great.
Are there any other travel nurses lurking around here?
I'm really excited to do this - I've wanted to do travel nursing in an RV since high school - and I'm ready to jump in with both feet. I know I can't do it blindly, though. But our next assignment is in April, so we don't have all the time in the world to plan! Just gotta make it happen! Being excited and motivated is half the battle...right?
Thanks in advance for the advice!
My name is Christine and I just started a new job as an agency travel nurse, and I'm traveling with my boyfriend, who's an agency physical therapist. We landed our first jobs and a gorgeous subleased house by a huge stroke of luck, but we've come to find out that finding three month leases for the time periods we need, that accommodate our pets, that are close to our assignments, and fall within the allotted housing stipend...is next to impossible. We worked it out that if we bought a used RV (taking into consideration payments on the RV + hookup fees + gas + satellite internet) it would come out to be about the same as short term rentals with our pets. Even if it came out to be a little more, it would be so worth it to have the freedom to go where we need to go without packing and unpacking every three months.
So we're going to buy an RV, but we have no idea what the hell we're doing.
We only intend to travel between 1-2 years, so we're not looking for something super fancy and expensive (if we fall in love with the lifestyle we can upgrade later). We are going to go with a Class A and tow my car (a small Nissan Versa Note hatchback). Our budget is around $15,000 for the RV itself. We have found a couple nice ones that are $9000 and $10,000, so we are going to check them out soon.
My biggest concern is that the RVs that are in our budget are older than 15 years. The ones we are interested appear to be in really good shape, so I'm not worried about that, but I've heard that there can be restrictions in parks on the age of the RVs. How prevalent is this and if we are full-timing (we are going to AZ next, then making our way up the west coast, then doubling back to Colorado), is it going to be a huge problem for us? There seem to be hundreds of RV parks out west, so I want to believe that we would find something that suits our needs, but I don't want to be naive.
I've read things online regarding how much it *really* costs to live in an RV full time, but I'd appreciate your perspective on that, too.
Other than that, I need to just explore the site and figure out how the heck to do this RV thing. I don't know my black water from my gray water from my drinking water, so I need to get the basics down. If anyone can point me in the direction of some resources, that would be great.
Are there any other travel nurses lurking around here?
I'm really excited to do this - I've wanted to do travel nursing in an RV since high school - and I'm ready to jump in with both feet. I know I can't do it blindly, though. But our next assignment is in April, so we don't have all the time in the world to plan! Just gotta make it happen! Being excited and motivated is half the battle...right?
Thanks in advance for the advice!
