How much $$

Full-timers typically can live very comfortably on $2-3,000/month. That includes travel, fuel, places to stay, food, vehicle insurance, medical, registrations, vehicle maintenance, etc. In other words, all living expenses that one would spend on in a regular house.

Snowbirders need to take into account what the regular house expenses are that you'll still have to pay while you're gone such as electric, gas, insurance, etc. On top of that you will then have travel fuel expenses, campgrounds, food and misc. Everyone is different in their home expenses and how they travel during the winter.

Basically you can cut back drastically on RV travel expenses by staying in much cheaper RV parks rather than one that has a lot of amenities. You could limit your driving distance (fuel) to get there, you could stay in one place for the entire time and get a better rate than daily or weekly.

Food expense should be the same as when you're at home. You will probably eat the same and if you're not one to go to restaurants normally then you don't have to go to restaurants while traveling.

Same for entertainment. Many folks do free things. That's up to you on how much outside entertainment you need.

So really, no one can tell you exactly how much it will cost. Everyone is different. You'll just have to do some figuring based on your finances. I will say that if you can get that RV and vehicle paid off you'll feel a lot better. With full-timers, especially, it's recommended that you be debt-free before beginning the new lifestyle. I would guess that the majority of snowbirders are not debt-free.

Start by calling some RV parks that would be possibilities for you. Then roughly calculate how much fuel to get there and back. Then estimate other expenses and you'll soon come up with a good approximate idea.

Good luck and hope you can get away during the harshest time of winter if only for 2-3 months.

At 60 yrs, old and no pensions
I would NOT be spending 'savings' on trips/travel

With what sounds like your worries are, you might check in on Dave Ramsey,s web site, Financial Peace University. He has some pretty good ideas on budgets and tracking money. It might help you get a better grasp of possibilities. Good luck and I really hope it all works out for you.

imouthere56 wrote:
We are going to start traveling in the winter months nov-april but my wife is nervous about $$. We are both 60 we have no pensions but about xxxk in savings. I will work 6 months when we return each year, we have about 1500 month in payments, car, MH and HOA fees. is this possible to do?

Alot depends not only how how you spend your money but also on where you want to spend your winter. Florida can be more expensive than Texas or Arizona.

And if you sit more than you drive, fuel will be less of an expense.

Only you know what your lifestyle, expenses and assets are. If you put pen to paper and your wife is still nervous, then ask her what would make her feel easier about the situation (more money in the bank? car paid off? life insurance policy since you're the only income in the family?).

And for those who think you can't/shouldn't hit the road without everything in your life being paid for "free and clear", we'll just have to agree to disagree. I sleep just fine at night even though I have a MH payment to make every month for the next 218 months ;)

With such an open ended question you will get figures branded around all over the place. Just as some folks can live in a house of 3000sq ft with utility bills less than half those of a similar family living in a 1200sq ft. Some folks are more conscious than others about finding ways to conserve their spending - some eat out all the time and have to have a cafe latte every day and others eat at home and pack lunch and drinks with them to reduce their expenses.

Whilst there is RV Sue and her canine crew, and many others over the years I've briefly read about that seem to enjoy life very frugally around $1000 to $1500 a month or less, there are many others that will spend up to even 5 figures a month average. It's how you intend to spend your time for those 6 months - moving a lot and eating a lot of fuel? boon docking with next to zero CG fees? Activities/hobbies/interests of little cost or expensive admissions? Many many things will come into play.

There are lots of folks that discuss budgets such as Wheelingit.us Technomadia.com GoneWithTheWynns.com, Roadslesstraveled.us Pastorscott.com (http://pastorscott.com/travel/2014-end-of-year-expenses-report/) Travels with Kevin and Ruth - Canadian couple from Ontario that CG host in Sask' in the summer months and travel during the winter to warmer climes. Camperchronicles.com is a couple that have been working on the road about a year or so.

There are lots of others but these kind souls that have shared, if you read a bit about them to understand how they roll should give you a bit of an idea to formulate your own budget albeit these are FTers.

Bottom line is there are folks that travel very frugally for $1000/1200 a month moving very little, there are a lot in the $2500 to $4000 range and then there are others that would find it hard to operate under $6000 a month. Just as in SnB living everyone has a different level of spending and needs to satisfy.

Appreciate that in the ideal world you would have wanted to have a firm or small variable budget suggestion from responders here but it truly is impossible to hone in within an acceptable range.

You truly won't get a true feel for what it costs for you personally until you are out there and monitoring your costs in the various categories for a few months. You will then adjust based on what you can afford going forward. Some that continue to turn a blind eye we have read end up coming off the road due to not being able to afford it = everyone has a different way of living/travelling.

Happy travels.

Volunteer.gov for parks that need volunteers in exchange for sites
what are you doing for health insurance
by volunteering we reduce bills to food, gas, insurance, phone, direct tv, etc.

I would try it for 6 months and see how it goes. You can dry camp, camp in Corps of Engineers parks and state parks to save money. You can stay in one place and find a park that has a low monthly rate. We try to average $20-$30 per night. That's $600-$900 per month for camping. Fuel will be the next biggest expense and that depends on how far you want to travel. You could keep the trips closer to home the first couple years to see how it goes. You can figure the cost per trip on http://www.goodsamclub.com/travel/freetriprouting/
I say give it a try. Just monitor it and have a plan to stop if you find it's cutting into your savings too much.

coolmom42 wrote:
With that much debt, I would be working full time and pay off at least part of it before going to half-time work.

You got that right. My self, I wouldn't be comfortable until all my debt was paid off. Depending on part time work, and when I wanted it.....no way. Not in today's world economy!

I've been reading several RV forums and blogs by RV'ers for over 10 years. When the posts have shown monthly expenses the average is in the $2200 to $2600 range per month for fulltime folks who travel about once per month. These are folks who do not try to skimp but don't have an extravagant lifestyle either.

Here's a website where they have listed their monthly and yearly expenses since becoming fulltime RV'ers about 10 years ago: www.rv-dreams.com