Cost to go full timer rving

Check with the boondocker chapter of the Escapee RV club. we've met folks with enough solar panels that mostly boondock, but even when at a park with metered electric they still have minimal electrical costs thanks to their solar/battery package.

A lot depends.... When my wife was alive I got about 1700 a month, of which 700 went for the loan on the class A, she got 727... Now she's gone, I'm on Social Security as well, so I get more and of course my Pension goes up as well.

But that said, we were very very tight, We took advantage of membership camping (All memberships fully paid for) so our "parking cost" summers were on the order of less than 100 dollars and winter less than 200... On those occasions where we have spent a month out of systems (Not in membership parks) it's around 350/month. We shop mostly ALDI and Wal-Mart. abd dang few extras. This is a bit beyond modest.

At the end of this month I'll know how much my pension goes up not that the 50% survivor option is no longer in effect, The motor home will be paid for, and my standard of living will improve. Come fall I'll try again to get a good used car. Last one was great,, for four days.

beemerphile1 wrote:
How much do you have? That is how much it will cost!

We all have different lifestyles and different needs, there is no way someone else can tell you how much it will cost YOU.

and some months it will be everything ya got + 10% ;)

Our biggest monthly expense is for medical insurance which comprises more than 40% of our outlay. In Canada you are covered as you have a sane goverment. In the USA if you get sick you are SOL unless you are prepared to pay tens of thousands. I spent 3 hours in the emegency room with chest pains and left with a bill that was over $3000. I later had a 30 minute ultrascan and the bill for that was $1700. And that was inspite of paying $800 a month for medical insurance for myself. If you can arrange to get sick only when you are in Canada then you will be fine.

Check out this site, its a great example of how its done
http://www.rv-dreams.com/

Everyone has said this before, but I'm going to say it again because it's very true: no one can give you an accurate dollar amount because no one else is you.

Generally, if you don't change your spending habits you'll probably find that it costs you the same to RV as it does to stay still, unless your taking on a loan for your RV, or getting rid of one by selling a house, etc. Instead of rent/property taxes you're paying for RV sites/fuel to travel. Food will be about the same, entertainment costs will be about the same (as long as you don't treat it like a perpetual vacation - if you do that it'll be more!). It'll also cost money to maintain your RV, it's a house on wheels that undergoes earthquake like forces every time you move it - things break down faster than on a regular house.

I'm a young solo full-timer in a 17' molded fiberglass trailer. I have no debt whatsoever, and I live modestly. I've had months where I spent under $700 (work camping where site and utilities were paid for, didn't fill up gas tank the whole month, didn't spend a single dollar on entertainment, didn't have any maintenance issues crop up), and months where I spent over $1,600 (lots of traveling, going out to eat more, spending money to see the sights, going to the dentist, etc).

Also as others have said, things cost more in Canada than they do here, the dollar is weaker than their currency, so keep that in mind. I also second having an emergency fund, because RVs are complex and at some point something will go wrong, it's inevitable.

Whatever you decide, good luck!

If I got rid of the stick and brick, all associated expenses, all unnecessary insurance policies, entertainment and communications bills, my current living expenses would drop to under $1500 a month, as a single.

Assuming I could keep RV space rent and utilities under $500 by choosing the right locations, and didn't travel (but then why am I full-timing), that would translate to an under $2000/month lifestyle. When I look at what that would be, I don't know whether that would be "modest" or "austere" to you, as I consider my current lifestyle "modest" except for the $20,000 a year I budget for recreational travel.

I'm not sure I could keep it under $2000 a month living half the year in the U.S. (or Mexico) and the other half in Canada. Living outside of the country that pays for my medical greatly increases medical insurance costs.

Travel greatly increases your costs full-time RVing, if that's why you want to full-time. Figure out how much you want to be moving around, and figure fifty cents to a dollar a mile travel costs, depending on the size of the rig.

If you just want to commute back and forth between the same two locations, and you are going from someplace cool and cheap in Canada, and warm and cheap in the U.S., the travel costs could make renting (or owning) inexpensive property in both locations less expensive than trying to do it in a RV. Most of the snowbirds in my family move between inexpensive houses in Michigan and Florida, taking advantage of the low living costs where the economy stagnated.

In any case, location can be the biggest factor in lifestyle costs. The right spot in the middle of nowhere can cost a small fraction of the same space in the ritzy part of a metropolitan area. That's whether it is a house or a space to park your RV.

How much do you have? That is how much it will cost!

We all have different lifestyles and different needs, there is no way someone else can tell you how much it will cost YOU.

Without any rv payments, but did have to pay our health care we averaged $36,000 and had a blast. We fulltimed for 8 years and have been off the road now for 3, but costs may have gone up as fuel prices raised over the past 3 years.

First, you might want to read back posts on the Full-timers section of this forum and to post additional questions on that forum. No one person can tell you how much it'll cost. Everyone is different as to how they live. Some can be very frugal and others have unlimited funds. You're also throwing in a curve in that you want to spend 6m in Canada which can be more expensive.

One thing we would definitely recommend is to have no debt going into the lifestyle and that includes your RV and vehicle. Then you need a healthy amount saved for emergency costs - vehicles and medical. Fuel and campgrounds will be big expenses to figure in. Food and normal supplies can be the same as in your stick house. Entertainment expenses - that depends on you. Medical is a biggie nowdays. There are just a lot of variables so start making a list.

We've loved our past 16+ years of full-timing. We have also done a lot of volunteering for our campsite. We travel constantly otherwise and this is probably more costly than getting monthly rates but we love to explore new areas and we still haven't seen it all! We sold the house and everything in it and saved a LOT of money by not having any kind of storage unit.

Another point - if you're married, this lifestyle only works if both of you really want to do it. If you have a hard time parting with your family or your 'stuff' then you really need to rethink this. Any doubts, then don't do it.

As stated, workamping or volunteering in campgrounds can cut down your expenses a lot. Just read a lot from others' experiences and read full-timers blogs to see what their daily life consists of. Good luck.