Fulltime family of 4: 2019 year in review

LadyRVer wrote:
Great trip! Are you using Excel or a trip expense planner? I have been out a year now, have all my expenses down on paper, but have not totaled them.

Google Docs spreadsheet (aka Excel but web accessible so it works from my laptop, work laptop, phone, etc). I track each campground that we go to, arrival date, departure date, miles from the previous campground, total cost, and what type of campground/membership was used. I then do manual totaling at the end of the year.

Lwiddis wrote:
Are the kids happy? What do kids say to their friends, not to you,...their friends?

As a trade, is shooting photos around Disney a worthwhile occupation?

Yep, kids are very happy most of the time. In our travels, we attended 3 rallies of other families who fulltime this year. It's through these rallies that we make connections and develop friendships. The kids friends are other kids who live and travel just like us, so we know we'll meet up with them throughout our travels. And for my teen daughter, her road friends know the challenges of maintaining relationships when you aren't face to face; her friends back home, not so much.

I say "most of the time", because with a now 16 year old daughter - 100% happy all of the time isn't realistic. She had a bit of a rough summer when we were in Florida with very few other folks around. Ironically, we did summer in Florida FOR her. So it's a crapshoot.

And yes, it seems like being a professional photographer in the Orlando area is able to be a career. At least it seems to be for Candi.

Thanks for the info...

I am amazed at your cheap overnights - those Thousand Trails CGs must be losing lots of money on you - you have to use more in just electricity than they get from you.

We are just travelers/campers and we spent almost as much as you on overnights this past year... But those overnights included NYC and the Keys. :)


As an added thought - I think your kids are lucky!

Lwiddis wrote:
Are the kids happy? What do kids say to their friends, not to you,...their friends?

As a trade, is shooting photos around Disney a worthwhile occupation?

HUH?

Great trip! Are you using Excel or a trip expense planner? I have been out a year now, have all my expenses down on paper, but have not totaled them.

Are the kids happy? What do kids say to their friends, not to you,...their friends?

As a trade, is shooting photos around Disney a worthwhile occupation?

TenOC wrote:
It would be nice if you added your fuel cost to the total. When I tell people I fulltime on between $10,000 and $12,000 a year including food cost they think I am wrong.

The problem is, I don't track fuel costs for just towing. I have overall totals in an app ( $4,654.90 for the year ). I average 8 mpg towing and my app tells me I pay an average of $2.80/gallon, that gives me a total of $2,441.25 for towing fuel.

I then have RV and truck payments plus registration costs.

And, $10,000-12,000 a year is what we budget on groceries alone (which also includes things like home supplies like laundry detergent, cleaning products, paper plates, napkins, etc). My monthly food budget line item runs $900-1,400 depending on the month and what's going on.

It would be nice if you added your fuel cost to the total. When I tell people I fulltime on between $10,000 and $12,000 a year including food cost they think I am wrong.