Life on the road in DP

jpsage wrote:

The final thing involves the "fear of the unknown". Several of you stated that it is an expensive life style and if I can't afford it I should stay home (again paraphrased). That made me be thankful for being able to afford this life style. And if I buy a quality motorhome at a bargain price then I should be able to deal with the risk of having to spend money to fix stuff.

It definitely doesn't have to be an expensive lifestyle. You can do it as reasonably as you want or as expensive as you want. You're in charge. Some do it on $20,000-$30,000/year. Some need to spend $75,000+/year.

You can cut back on travel meaning less fuel and perhaps a monthly rate rather than a daily. There are a wide range of campsite choices - mix it up to save some dollars. We've found some awesome boondocking spots overlooking a river or lake. We love public campgrounds for the larger, more private sites within nature. National forest campgrounds are great and many out West have been updated with paved site and electric. If you're 62+ you can use public campgrounds for 1/2 price - we've paid as low as $6/night. Check out county and city parks. Many are gorgeous.

If you have a moderate budget now in a stick house there's no reason to change. Cut back on restaurants and entrance fees on attractions, if needed at times.

Also, we enjoyed volunteering in national and state parks. It gave us purpose knowing we were helping out in places we like to stay. Parks treat volunteers very well as opposed to paid workers. :) We usually did it a season a year in places we wanted to explore more in depth. Many times we got private tours 'behind the scenes' to places the public doesn't get to see. You will also get a free campsite but that's not the main reason we did it.

Many bloggers give samples of their budgets. Check them out.