Budget Question

BusaGuy wrote:
Makes me wonder if my wife and I will ever get to the point that we can go camping for a couple of months a year! I didn't realize that it was that expensive.

The very biggest expense is the cost of the TV and the rig.

The next biggest variable is how far you want to drive - and thus - how much money you have to spend on fuel.

RV spots are a lot cheaper than hotels. You can also eat a lot cheaper when you travel and camp with an RV than when traveling by car, staying in hotels and eating out all the time.

You can be as expensive or as cheap as you want.

Just GO !!!

Don't wait too long, or getting older will make travel impossible.

BusaGuy wrote:
Makes me wonder if my wife and I will ever get to the point that we can go camping for a couple of months a year! I didn't realize that it was that expensive.

It' not...that's taking everything else out of the picture....If you can average $25/night camping...that's $750/month. $400 groceries (and you could probably cut that down more, I know we can if we needed to) and whatever you want to pay for gas....You are at $1150 just for food and camping....You can cut that down by boondocking here and there....

$3500 should be more than enough for the expenses you mentioned...you could do it on a thrid of that or less if you really wanted or needed to...or you could easily spend 2 to 3 times as much. I don't know about you, but our food budget is $400 a month for 3 of us and was the same when there was 4 of us. That leaves over $3000. You should be able to camp an entitre month at state park type of places ($25/night) for around $750...double that ($50) for private parks and you are at $1500...that leaves a $1000 for gas...If you can get gas for $3 a gallon..that would be 333 gallons...even at 8mpg, you are talking over 2500 miles....if you plan to go from coast to coast and back again in a month,...then no, it will not be enough...but it would be enough to go from the east coast to the west coast once...You can save by joining discount groups and overnighting in walmarts, truck stops and etc every now and then...and then there's boodocking... I follow a guy who lives in his motorhome on about $600-700 a month...very doable...

$3500 PM is about right for us. We stay out of restaurants most of the time but we don't skimp on food quality at the market. We do W&E sites, backins mostly. We do SPs & COEs as a preference rarely staying for more than a few days so no weekly rates. We usually do 15-18K miles a 5 month travel season.

wintersun wrote:
$3500 is not even going to cover your fuel costs during the year.

His budget is $3,500 per month - not per year.

There are Walmarts, and casinos where you can overnight for free. Casinos are everywhere. Those that allow overnighting usually have a lot of RVs and have good security. Casinocamper.com shows them all. I plan on using some Texas rest areas this year that allow overnighting and are supposed to have a lot of RVs nightly.

Internet is free at McDonalds and many other places. I was on a 15 week trip and had $0 internet fees.

Makes me wonder if my wife and I will ever get to the point that we can go camping for a couple of months a year! I didn't realize that it was that expensive.

$3500 is not even going to cover your fuel costs during the year. Figure on 10 MPG with diesel at $4 a gallon or $0.40 a mile. $3500 will cover your fuel costs for 8700 miles of travel.

Campground fees vary from $7.50 a night for state and federal parks for seniors to $75 a night at many private RV parks. Having a full size truck towing a 35 ft. trailer is going to limit where you can stay and add to the cost per night.

You food costs will be same as they are now so if you are spending $400 a month on groceries at home you can expect to pay at least that much on the road.

Internet access on the road is going to be 3-4 times the cost of what you are probably paying at home.

"OP, are you selling your home and "taking off", or are you going on a "walk-about" for several months?"

We're renting it out for a year...so we have something to come back to if this doesn't work as expected.

My wife loves to grill and cook so we will most likely eat in the majority of the time. We are in no hurry what so ever, so staying in one place for a week or two is not a problem..there is so much to see that I don't really anticipate driving much more than 100 miles at a time (until we get out west) if that. "Work camping" could be a very good option...

Thanks to everyone that posted - makes me feel much better about the budget