Does owning a camper make you rich or a cheap tightwad?

[plasticmaster]

I had a 2008 Jayco TT for 8 years and now I have a 2016 Forest River Vibe TT. Through the years, I've received sentiment from opposite ends of the spectrum. Some folks think that I'm a cheap tightwad because this is how my family and I vacation. Others seam to think I'm rich because I own a camper. I'm definitely not rich. My family and I manage our money wisely. We love camping and enjoy being able to take several vacations per year instead of just one. Have any of you received similar comments? How do you respond?

[Atlee]

Yep, you must be rich. You have an RV. 🙂

Of course, once you drop off the truck camper, you qualify as "cheapskate" since you're driving a 17 year old truck and will not buy a new one.

JimBollman wrote:
11 year old popup truck camper on a 17 year old truck. No doubt in any bodies mind about me.

[Turtle_n_Peeps]

mt1729 wrote:
Can't speak for anyone else but I think it makes me very fortunate. We don't have a lot of money, however having a 2nd home on wheels & being able to do some traveling & having someone to share it all with makes us feel rich in everything but money. As long as we have food to eat & can afford fuel we are as happy as hogs in a sweet potato patch.:)

Great post! Exactly where I'm at!

[mt1729]

Can't speak for anyone else but I think it makes me very fortunate. We don't have a lot of money, however having a 2nd home on wheels & being able to do some traveling & having someone to share it all with makes us feel rich in everything but money. As long as we have food to eat & can afford fuel we are as happy as hogs in a sweet potato patch.:)

[atwowheelguy]

My camper doesn't prompt my friends to ask if I'm rich or cheap. They say, "You must be a terrific mechanic, carpenter, HVAC tech, painter, fabricator, electrician, plumber, upholsterer and caulker." You will NEVER have to be worried about having nothing to do after you retire if you buy a camper.

[K3WE]

To many posters here: I thought the OP asked a fun question- and so many of the responses are sooooo serious.

To this post below:

BizmarksMom wrote:
I get the "for the price of that trailer you can get hotel rooms!" comment every so often. I happen to love my rolling apartment. I wake up in my own bed. Use my own bathroom. The kitchen is stocked with the stuff I like. When it gets kind of funky after a long camping trip - it's my own mess and my own funk.

Yes, I do other traveling. Staying in hotels is part of that and I make the best of it. But I'd really rather wake up in my own rolling space.

I agree (and do both)- but I'd also go further...it's not about having your own, controlled hotel room/apartment (even though I will rant on having a heck of a snack selection IN the room at 2:00 AM in your PJs/whatever.)

It's the great variety of ADDITIONAL cool things you can do / places you can go. Awesome campgrounds right next to awesome locations, flexibility, the 'emergency house if you lose power, being sure you enjoy the journey as well as the destination, setting up in a driveway at a crowded relative's house...etc.

Are you rich vs. poor? Well, odds are a camper will COST $...I've played games with hotel prices and home cooking, etc...You can get close, but it all crashes and burns with ownership cost, need for TV (or expensive DP engine and bus tires), maintenance, insurance, etc...I think it is probably incorrect to say you are cheap.

Are you rich? I dunno: Compare camping as a hobby to OTHER types of travel...I don't know that you can say that it's more or less expensive than boat ownership, exotic travel, yada yada yada...(Of course, you have a huge range of $ you can spend on your camper...or a huge range of $ you can spend on your boat...it really washes out.

[sele]

Helimech wrote:
Live your life, not theirs.

exactly and does it really matter if you and family are happy

[blofgren]

Lexx wrote:
Let me say that I'm just embarking on this journey. We just got the F450. That cost me more than the Porsche. No I'm not rich. To me rich is having 50 mil in the bank, and with today's economy even that can be precarious if you're a spender.

I'm 56 and just retired. I worked myself incessantly, got married and had kids later in life. I neglected my health and so now I have some issues. Our kids are now 6 yrs old (we have triplets). I am determined to spend quality time with them for the next however many years they are willing to spend time with us.

We are financially secure. I have a beautiful home, passive income, etc. But no we are not rich. I gave up on that goal when I realized that life can be short and you can't take it with you. We in the USA live comfortably, probably much more so than the much of the world.

We've taken many expensive vacations. But at the end of the day, I'm always wanting to get "behind the scenes". IOW I want to see how the locals live, not just the tourist stuff. I love getting out of the city and seeing how the natural area looks.

For example we were up in Vancouver, Canada a few weeks ago. My wife is a Vancouverite so that was a homecoming for her. And we go quite often for the food, friends and culture. But this time we took a drive up to Whistler - not to see Whistler itself, but to spend time off the main highway along the way and back. And the scenery is just amazing. Those of you who've gone know what I mean. The lakes, mountains, fresh air - all that stuff is priceless. That's what I'm looking for with the truck and trailer. Will I find it? I'm dreaming so.

Does it make me rich or poor? Meh, that part doesn't matter so long as I can afford to pay my bills. I'm going to start enjoying life!

Good for you! I can only dream to be retired at 56.

I’m happy to hear you enjoyed your trip here; the scenery on the Sea to Sky Highway is really second to none!

[OFDPOS]

Usually get the "hey how much you pay for that" ?
My first reaction is to say what business is it of yours to ask such a question.
But usually answer back "are you looking to buy one" ? when they say no , then I just smile and say why do you want to know how much "I" paid for it then...

I'm sure like allot here get asked that question quite often at gas stations etc..

Most of our friends are toy happy owners ,fancy cars, fancy boats , Harley's etc. But credit card dept maxed out to the hilt and can't go out and enjoy what they have massed around them !
Basically living pay check to paycheck just to meet the payments on said items.

Sad really, but ones that are sincere , I'll tell them how we started out with a tent , moved up to an older MH and so on. To what we have now, which isn't that much , but it makes us happy and yes we know who slept in the bed last night. 😉

[Lexx]

DSSAMP wrote:
Well, was married for 26 years. Had an old 15' pull trailer, then a 1960's truck camper, a 38' 5th wheel, 2 lance TC's now own a Host mammoth. My wife passed in 2000 and boy did we enjoy those times. For the past several years I have owned campers but haven't really done any camping...that is going to change in 2018. We saved our money when I was in the Army, Own our home and last year I bought a 2017 Harley Street Glide (what a beauty)! I'm now 69 and the only thing I've done since my wife passed is ride a Harley. Been thinking I really need to go again. Even by myself. I've forgotten how beautiful this country is, how many places I haven't been to, in the middle of Montana or Utah or N or S Dakota. Am I rich? Well got a little, but worked like hell to get it. Got some friends that seem to think I'm rich, or a little crazy, or whatever. But life is short, so short. Screw what people think, get out there and do it...

Get that bike out and go ride! I can't tell you how many patients I saw who were fine and then 6 months later, something had happened and their health was gone. Or like you, they lost a spouse. You never know what's going to happen to you. As long as you have enough $ to not just barely scrape by, enjoy as much as you can. Life is short and unpredictable.

[DSSAMP]

Well, was married for 26 years. Had an old 15' pull trailer, then a 1960's truck camper, a 38' 5th wheel, 2 lance TC's now own a Host mammoth. My wife passed in 2000 and boy did we enjoy those times. For the past several years I have owned campers but haven't really done any camping...that is going to change in 2018. We saved our money when I was in the Army, Own our home and last year I bought a 2017 Harley Street Glide (what a beauty)! I'm now 69 and the only thing I've done since my wife passed is ride a Harley. Been thinking I really need to go again. Even by myself. I've forgotten how beautiful this country is, how many places I haven't been to, in the middle of Montana or Utah or N or S Dakota. Am I rich? Well got a little, but worked like hell to get it. Got some friends that seem to think I'm rich, or a little crazy, or whatever. But life is short, so short. Screw what people think, get out there and do it...

[pnichols]

Heavy Metal Doctor wrote:
I get both extremes from each end of the scale of my friends / coworkers. Family is all fine with any RV because there are many RV-ers in our family.
My bosses, who are a bit on the snobby end of things (that is, they have enough money to live in the best part of any town, never drive a vehicle past about 3 years old, and own some expensive toys they don't even use just to keep as conversation pieces with other richy-rich business associates) kinda looks down their nose at RV's unless you spend a million or more on a custom Prevost bus. They can't understand driving more then 4 hours anywhere - they'd just book a flight...driving long distances is to be avoided and only and activity for "commoners"... So they think it's big waste of money and even have an attitude along the lines of "I must be paying you too much if you can waste money like that."...Funny, though, the one customer we all work with who owns that 1.5 Mil Prevost just loves to RV-travel and would have no problem with me parking my measly TT on the site next to them so we could all have dinner together. We chat often about trips and where we've been / planning to go.

Then there are the rest of the "grunt" coworkers who get worked up over any mention of my TT and trips and RV's in general as being some super high end luxury that they could never afford. This somehow makes me the "big man" tha must be making twice the paycheck of any of them....But like others here have mentioned, they all do stuff like drive 3hrs to the beach every summer weekend to a rented condo and drop lots of cash of eating out and lots of alcohol...we all probably all spend about the same, we just have different ways to enjoy our off time.

Well put indeed, and so true!

Human nature is a strange thing. It's a good thing animals don't have the same version of it .... or they'd never survive.

That being given, I refreshed myself on the dictionary definition of "mores".

When we reach adulthood, I don't completely go along with the "who cares what others think" approach to what I do or to what others might be doing. Maybe what "others are doing", or what "I'm doing" could use some adjustment. Acting as adults (as opposed to acting childish), we should observe others, use introspection after our observations, and maybe rethink some aspects of our actions and lives. If more of that was going on with us personally and among those around us, perhaps society's mores would improve faster, or move upward instead of downward.

IMHO if each of us is open to change based on what we see, or read-of, others doing ... are own lives might wind up being improved. FWIW, that's how I try to use the discussion and information that comes out in these forums. 🙂

[FunnyCamper]

You had me laughing on your post.

See you listen to others while we do not.

I don't care one bit what someone thinks of how my lifestyle and what I own matters or what opinions anyone has on how I do my thing.

If someone says, hey smart move on saving money camping, I say sure is and it is fun.

someone says, hey campers are expensive and how can you afford that monster truck to pull it, etc....I say hey I spend my hard earned money as I want to spend it.

someone says, hey you are nuts to camp and spend that money, I say you do your hobby in life and we will do ours 🙂

come on it does not matter one bit what someone else thinks of how you live your life when it comes to something as personal as how you want to spend your vacations, travel times, make family memories and more 🙂 🙂

Time to do your thing and screw what other's think 🙂 and once ya do that life is way better in my opinion HA

[blofgren]

Well, I'm definitely not rich. And thinking about it I must not be a tightwad because of the amount I spent on the rig. I guess I'm somewhere in between!:B

[Lexx]

Let me say that I'm just embarking on this journey. We just got the F450. That cost me more than the Porsche. No I'm not rich. To me rich is having 50 mil in the bank, and with today's economy even that can be precarious if you're a spender.

I'm 56 and just retired. I worked myself incessantly, got married and had kids later in life. I neglected my health and so now I have some issues. Our kids are now 6 yrs old (we have triplets). I am determined to spend quality time with them for the next however many years they are willing to spend time with us.

We are financially secure. I have a beautiful home, passive income, etc. But no we are not rich. I gave up on that goal when I realized that life can be short and you can't take it with you. We in the USA live comfortably, probably much more so than the much of the world.

We've taken many expensive vacations. But at the end of the day, I'm always wanting to get "behind the scenes". IOW I want to see how the locals live, not just the tourist stuff. I love getting out of the city and seeing how the natural area looks.

For example we were up in Vancouver, Canada a few weeks ago. My wife is a Vancouverite so that was a homecoming for her. And we go quite often for the food, friends and culture. But this time we took a drive up to Whistler - not to see Whistler itself, but to spend time off the main highway along the way and back. And the scenery is just amazing. Those of you who've gone know what I mean. The lakes, mountains, fresh air - all that stuff is priceless. That's what I'm looking for with the truck and trailer. Will I find it? I'm dreaming so.

Does it make me rich or poor? Meh, that part doesn't matter so long as I can afford to pay my bills. I'm going to start enjoying life!