Realistic Budget?

[quasi]

We're planning our first long-term trip out west and trying to come up with a realistic budget. We know, as newbies, we're going to spend more than average seeing sights and running around too much. For you full-timers and long-timers, does this budget look reasonable?
January - April Trip
$3,600.00 Camp Fees
$1,457.00 Fuel
$2,000.00 Admission
$3,200.00 Hlth.Ins.
$400.00 Wireless
440.00 Dish
$200.00 Grooming
$2,400.00 Food
$800.00 Restaurant
$400.00 Hobbies

$ 15,397.00 Total
5200 mile trip.
January 1st through April 30th.

[Marine_By_Choic]

We usually average about $100/day

[BarbaraOK]

Senior pass age requirement is 62. BEST $10 you'll ever spend. Out west there are so many national parks/monuments that you really don't have to spend much for entrance fees - like 0 most of the time.

Jan-April means Desert areas of AZ and Southern Cal. Many different options, just all depends upon what you want to do.

[2gypsies1]

2chiefsRus wrote:

quasi wrote:
Thanks to all who've offered some realistic, constructive criticism of our budget. We plan on a couple of weeks in February in Puerto Penasco but we have no clue on the route we'll take to get there. For this first outing, I'm telling people that our plans are etched in Jell-o. We're going to use the flip-flop method for route planning. If It's too cold for flip-flops, go south and west.
Thanx,
Jim

You might want to check in with the RVing in Mexico section of this forum too for more information if you plan to travel into Mexico.

No issues for Puerto Penasco. There's usually a line of vehicles heading that way. Many folks in Arizona have condos there and go at every chance on the weekends and holidays. You leave from Lukeville, AZ and it's a short easy drive.

[Arcamper]

We have been on a few long trips and A average of $100 per day seems to work out about right. You are above that but mine does not include health coverage so back that out and you are right at $100 per day. Hope you have a great time.

[dahkota]

Buy a national parks pass. For $80, you will save a couple hundred $$ on admission fees. You don't state how old you are but, if over 65, it is even cheaper and gets you 1/2 price camping in most federal campgrounds.

You have no budget for maintenance. We have a line item for this in our budget and all maintenance and repairs are included - not just for the vehicles. Besides oil changes and tires, you will probably replace water filters, light bulbs, outside chairs, pots, etc.

Your restaurant budget is really low. You have no clothes/gifts/souvenirs budget. But, your admission budget is really high (unless you plan to raft the grand canyon) so some of that can be diverted to other things.

I'm not sure why you are including health ins., wireless, and dish, unless you are paying extra (over and above what you normally pay) during the four months of travel. If not, they aren't expenses due to travel.

I'm not sure how you are calculating your fuel budget. Typically, we drive our bus, park it, and go explore in our jeep. A 5200 miles bus loop means we put at least another 5200 miles on the jeep. At $2/gallon, your budget would only cover our bus fuel. Even if you get 10 miles/gallon, at today's current average of $2.25, you aren't covering much more than place to place fuel. And the price will be going up over the summer.

We have been fulltiming for about 2.5 years now and keep close track of our budget. That said, we average $2500/per month in traveling expenses (sites, food, gas, maintenance, propane, attractions/gifts/souvenirs) and we don't scrimp on what we want or do. I think your overall number is good, I just think you will find the $$ amounts a little different than projected.

Best of luck and I hope you enjoy your trip! It is a beautiful country out there!

[tragusa3]

I have little experience, other than a 2 month trip that we've done once. We came in at about $3500 for that trip. So, it can be done much cheaper if you need it to be. We leave soon for another 2 month one and I'm counting on about the same.

[2chiefsRus]

quasi wrote:
Thanks to all who've offered some realistic, constructive criticism of our budget. We plan on a couple of weeks in February in Puerto Penasco but we have no clue on the route we'll take to get there. For this first outing, I'm telling people that our plans are etched in Jell-o. We're going to use the flip-flop method for route planning. If It's too cold for flip-flops, go south and west.
Thanx,
Jim

You might want to check in with the RVing in Mexico section of this forum too for more information if you plan to travel into Mexico.

[quasi]

Thanks to all who've offered some realistic, constructive criticism of our budget. We plan on a couple of weeks in February in Puerto Penasco but we have no clue on the route we'll take to get there. For this first outing, I'm telling people that our plans are etched in Jell-o. We're going to use the flip-flop method for route planning. If It's too cold for flip-flops, go south and west.
Thanx,
Jim

[lj2654]

$15000 for a four month trip, wow....I hope mine are never that costly or I will have to sell mine.

[Alabama_Jim]

For four months you are pretty much on target. Of course, it all depends on how much you eat out and how many souvenirs you buy. Some attractions cost and can run a lot. These three areas are the budget busters.

Go have fun and may God Keep You Safe.

[Us_out_West]

quasi wrote:
We plan on doing some occasional boondocking and taking advantage of weekly rates whenever feasible. The lodging figure is 120 nights at $30 per night. Is that an unreasonable estimate? We've also tried to estimate everything at the high end. With money, I think it's better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it. If we find we've overestimated, we'll add another month or two.

Very good and enjoy your trip.

With that where out West are you planning? Remember Jan - April, and some times earlier and later, are winter months which can/could slow you down. If you get South early in your trip you may avoid some of the winter weather than taking a northern route.

Example; This was our backyard in Reno on Nov. 10. 2015 when we were getting ready to leave for S. AZ for the winter.



Anyways enjoy and budgets can be adjusted. :B

[timmac]

Was just thinking the months your going to in the west is our cooler months and you can do lots of dry camping and such to save the money, not sure were you are going but here in Cali now they have Indian casinos about 40 miles apart from each other and they always allow free camping in there parking lots.

[2gypsies1]

Everyone travels differently so it's hard to make a comparison. For us, as full-timers, we wouldn't spend that much for camp fees (we boondock on national forest or BLM lands & because we're 'old' we can use the Senior Pass to get us into the national parks free and 1/2 off on camping there and also at national forest campgrounds & other national public parks, no admission fees as we don't do that kind of entertainment, no Dish and half that for Wireless. Two to three haircuts in 4 months would be plenty for us so your grooming is high. We cook simply and don't go to expensive restaurants and our hobbies are hiking, geocaching, 4-wheeling - things outdoors. So....your budget is high for us.

If you're budgeting $30/night for an RV park then it's a good figure.

We went from Arizona to Alaska and spent 4 months, including expensive fuel along the way we came in much lower.

However, if that's what you spend at home then it's right for you.

[timmac]

Also if your going to be in a place for more than a week than get the weekly rate, it usually cost around $22 a night at some places.