Annual cost to fulltime

Short answer: right around $15,500 for 2013 and 2014, the two full years I've been on the road thus far. This is pretty close to what I paid living in an inexpensive apartment with a roommate before hitting the road - but this way of living is a lot more fun.

I mostly work-camp to pay my way so I stay in one place for months at a time, then do big re-positioning trips to get to my next gig. I work at national parks in the late spring-summer, Amazon in the fall-early winter, and then take Jan-March "off" (I volunteer in exchange for a free site).

I never boondock, will dry camp when getting from point A to point B, and get a steeply discounted or free site at my work-camping gigs.

My truck gets about 15 mpg highway towing, when towing my trailer I travel between 3,500 and 5,500 miles in a year - but when you add just truck driving (commuting, sightseeing, grocery runs, etc.) the mileage I put on my truck in a year jumps to about 16,000 total.

Health insurance, phone, mail forwarding, and vehicle insurance are my reoccurring bills (I'm debt free and rely on free public WiFi) and total about $267 a month.

I hope this helps! I also write a lot about topics like this at my blog if anyone's looking for more info.

Safe travels and happy trails.

I think the most important number is how much full-timing cost are different form S&B costs before full-timing.

For us - we dropped $1,732 per month on average for the ten months of full-timing.

That was almost all related to the expense of keeping a 2,500 sq ft home.

One item - internet data access - is $53 per month higher for less data than we had previously.

Our expenses for things like food, entertainment, clothing, cell phones, etc - have not changed.

We spent $2,639.97 on campground costs last year (2014) for 132 paid nights of camping. An average of about $20. We volunteered at a national park and a state park for the rest of the year. We traveled/ towed 6,586.7 miles for a cost of approx. 2,480.9 in fuel - $0.37656 per mile.

We spent approx. $865 on direct expenses for the trailer - upgrading the microwave, adding some things, etc.

So - we saved $17,320 in expenses for 10 months of full-timing.

We spent $530 of the savings for internet, $865 for the trailer, $2,639.67 for camping costs and $2,480.29 for fuel - a total of $6,514.96. Which turns into a net decrease in cash outlay expenses for 2014 over 2013 of $10,805.04.

If we had paid for camping rather than volunteer - that would have been about
$3,480 in other costs, and say $1,200 more in towing fuel. Which would have resulted in a net decrease in spending of about $6,125.

Yes, traveling actively and staying for only a few days is more expensive. We are in such a mode right now, and have to watch the penny's on food, cutting back on eating out and entertainment costs.

We will be at our volunteer location from mid-April to mid-October - where we will not be paying for camping or towing costs.

as others have said this really is a complex question.

My simple answer however is 35k for 2014. And that number is also how much I made in 2014.

schlep1967 wrote:
I understand there is no right or wrong answer to this and there are many variables. My question is, What is the average amount you spent to live as a full-timer for one year?

$10,000 - $15,000
$15,000 - $20,000
$25,000 - $30,000
more?


(EDIT: Rephrased question)

There's a lady who calls herself RV Sue who is full timing on abuot $12,000 a year but she stays mostly in free places boon docking a ton and rarely stays at a place she pays more than about $6 a night for.

RoamingRV wrote:
Here's a few ideas when planning your budget. This is my own blog - just wanted to disclose - but the info should be helpful.
http://roamingrv.com/rv-budget/

Clicky



Markiemark:C

Here's a few ideas when planning your budget. This is my own blog - just wanted to disclose - but the info should be helpful.
http://roamingrv.com/rv-budget/

JAXFL wrote:
Aren't campground prices crazy? It makes it hard to guess-ta-mate a budget when prices very between $13 and $44 a night.

This is so true, we have paid as little as $3/night for electric and water at a COE park in Kansas after Labor Day and $50/night for full hookups in the small town of Red River, NM in early September.

Dog Folks wrote:

JAXFL wrote:
Aren't campground prices crazy? It makes it hard to guess-ta-mate a budget when prices very between $13 and $44 a night.

Isn't that the truth.

Especially when you are trying to plan 5-7 years out!

Not even that long out. Here in Jacksonville area we have 2 public campgrounds and the prices are within $3 of each other. Prices are like $45 a night. Here are the differences.... One is like a big parking lot, and has a in ground pool, cable TV and is close to a run down flea market that is open on the weekends and has commercial planes fly in and out all day long. The other has a lake, sights have trees/shade unless you go to the over flow lot, it has a pool, a restaurant, a club house, a gym room, a kids play park, cable TV, and some activities. Then only 10 minutes away is another campground that does not have a pool, TV, club house just trees and it is only $20 a night. I keep thinking that in 5-7 years RV Camping is not going to be like it is today. I think most will be sold and turned into condo's or resorts and just finding a campground is going to be hard.

JAXFL wrote:
Aren't campground prices crazy? It makes it hard to guess-ta-mate a budget when prices very between $13 and $44 a night.

Isn't that the truth.

Especially when you are trying to plan 5-7 years out!

Aren't campground prices crazy? It makes it hard to guess-ta-mate a budget when prices very between $13 and $44 a night.