Typical RV annual budget

Veik wrote:

wbwood wrote:

Muddydogs wrote:
Personally I think if you have to go through all this you probably shouldn't purchase an RV. Can you afford the monthly loan payment, insurance and storage fees? If so then everything else will work itself out. In the end are you putting a price on family fun and enjoying life because tomorrow you might not be around.

You don't need to purchase everything at once, a sewer hose, water hose and a few wood blocks will get you camping then other stuff can be acquired over time. Are you storing the unit under cover or purchasing a new unit? If so then you don't need to pay for a roof check twice a year for the first couple years and you can do the checking if you are able to get on the roof anyway.

I think you have to look at the whole picture. If you can just afford the payment, insurance and storage and that's it, then you will have a rude awakening when you do need to buy tires as an example. Time on that would depend on the tires of the unit they bought. If a new unit, then they have 5 yrs or so. If a used unit, then maybe not that long or even half that long. Would suck to be making financing payment, inusrance payment and storage payment on a hunk of metal that you can't afford to move.

Exactly.

I am trying to compare a RV investment to an investment of 2-3 long vacations we currently take per year.

Well in this case your initial investment for an RV is what $20,000 to $100,000. If all you want is a few longer vacations a year then an RV probably isn't the way to go. For the cost of camp grounds and extra fuel used towing an RV you can just about stay in a motel, insurance and storage fees for a year sure would pay for a lot of restaurant dinning while traveling. If you want to get away more and like to dry camp or use cheaper camp sites then the costs per night drop way down.

Another question is will you still take a vacation without the camper?