DOES THIS BUDGET SOUND REASONABLE?

Tommy47..maybe ask the Mod to close this then? Having said that, kudo's to you, for posting a follow-up. So many don't have the courtesy to do that.


Gary HAUPT

I'm the original poster. I posted this at least 3 months ago.
At the start of the trip, I was easily staying within the food and camping budget. Mainly driving to get from Michigan to out West. At about 4 weeks, The refrigerator quit working on gas. I lost about $30 worth of food and started staying in private campgrounds. Most were in the $25-30 range. Finally got the fridge going on gas again but got spoiled with electricity and Wi-Fi. Still did dry camping in NPs and NFs when available. However, I was in quite a few area of over 100 degree temps and wanted to run the air.
Had about $1200 of engine work done which corrected some problems. However, still getting what I think is vapor lock climbing mountain roads.
I will be changing my plans since I'm not sure I can climb the Rockies in Colorado. I think I'll start wandering home thru NM and Texas and do Colorado a different time with a different vehicle.
Planning for $5/gallon gas was psychologically smart since anything under 5 makes me think I'm earning money. I'm about $900 ahead, there.
Fast fooding meals is very cheap and I'm probably close to the food budget with that and still doing a lot of cooking.

Skid Row Joe wrote:
Need information on where and how and where one might go about procuring the Golden Age Passport for the elderly (62+ yrs. old)? Thank you!

2gypsies wrote:
As full-timers for the past 16+ years we think you can easily do it on your $2300 income per month. We, too, seek out public parks as our first choices. We also boondock a lot. We have the Golden Age Passport for 1/2 off on campgrounds. Best of luck to you and keep us all posted how you do!

Any NPS, USFS, BLM, USFWS facilite that collects entrance fess can sell you the pass if you have ID that verifies your age. I used my passport.

DOD honors the passport at COE acess facilites, but is not auhorized to sell it.

Where you going? Budget sounds reasonable for Oklahoma, rural Texas, most of the rural midwest, so long as you can find city-county parks and COEs. When you get into heavily populated areas, or places extensively developed as suburbs, parking cost is going to go up, if you are welcome at all.

Haven't eaten on $15 a day, on the road, since I got back from China in 2004. Can do it at home, if careful to keep to staples, but meat and fresh produce, packaged drinks, processed convenience foods can push me to $20-30. I tend to fast food it on the road, to save time, but that pushes my food costs way up, compared to eating in. However, a $2 bag of trail mix can go a long way with the day's nutritional needs while moving, and I don't even have to stop to eat.

In the RV, I have to pay to stay or pay to move. If the stay is too expensive, I'll move. lf the stay is cheap, like $8-12 a day, I'll stay, though most of those places have time limits. Get to a popular destination, or RV park close to an urban area, staying might be $25, $30, $50 a day, so I avoid those. Needless to say, your budget won't work for luxury resorts or premium destinations.

I lived for a year and a half on the road, working in the Mojave (NPS) for 10 weeks, and also for BC parks, twice, for a total of 24 weeks.

I paid for one nights camping...that was in Brookings, Oregon and it is worth every penny. There is free camping all over, you just need to think about it. And I don't mean Wal-Mart,either.

Someone mentioned Internet. You can get free Internet from many, many sources. There is NO need to pay for it. You can buy Phone Cards and use them at pay phones. Cheap like borsht.

You do want Health and ERS coverage. Just one visit or flat will pay for the intitial outlay and the peace of mind really is priceless.

I never, ever ate out. As mentioned..cook one time, but make enough for two or three meals. Learn to watch for the meat and dairy sales at different outlets. I never pay full for meats, milk or yogurt. Only buy enough to stock your fridge and carry some veggies in the tub..like potatoes and carrots. Don't buy a lot of anything..it goes bad and that's wasting.

A guy that many of us use to follow on his Blog..it taught me about dry-camping while in popular places..he preached DAY camp and NIGHT camp. Spending the day where-ever it was..beach, park, etc..and then moving off to the night camp...the place where you are going to sleep. And sleep only...pull in, lights out and go to bed. wake up..and go on to the day place again. Parks open early and close late, right? I had an alarm system installed and the flashing light? I had a BLUE Led installed on the dash. Blue LEDS are visable, even in the daytime and that flashing light keeps questionable folks away at night.

If you can limit your driving days and the distance you are going each time you move, you can stretch that tank of gas a long long ways. Your monthly income will more than cover your expenses as long as you pay attention. It's giving you a bit more than 750 a week. Hell...that is a LOT of money, done right.


Gary Haupt



Gary Haupt

I have kept track of every long trip I took over the last 8 years and 70k miles. They range from $69/day for the lower 48 to $107/day for Alaska. For traveling trips where I move every day not staying more than 3 days in any one place I spend more for gas which is the biggest expense. If I stayed a week or 2 and the same place it would be less than $70/day. From the way you described your camping style I would budget $80/day and I think you will enjoy the trip.

To me it does. BUT it will depend on how far you are travelling from home (across the country in one go or poking along?) and how long you are staying at each place. Make room for boondocking in there as much as possible...the $15 per day in campgrounds is low (but passport America would help that and boondocking will help a lot). The $15 per day for food is fine and should allow some eating out here and there (national average for food is about $7 per head daily last time I checked and that is usually our food budget). Currently $5.00 per gallon for gas is generous but you will have other things that might eat that up.
Squish those pennies and you should be okay. On long trips we have spent between $75 per day to $130 per day over the length of the trip depending on how far we went and how much we moved.

Planning my first MH trip, 4-5 months. I'll be alone.
I'll have at least $5000 emergency cash and will be recieving about $2300 per month while I'm on the road.
Guessing 1000 gallons of gas at $5 /gallon.
I eat cheap and am budgeting $15 / day for food.
Budgeting $15 / day for camping. I don't plan any private campgrounds. I have a senior pass for National Parks and can get 50% off federal campgrounds. Also plan to use small city parks along the way, some Walmarts, Forest service campgrounds.
Does this sound reasonable over the length of the trip? I do realize that on some days the actual costs will be higher as well as lower. But, on the long term average, does this seem doable?

Hi Tommy47,

My most recent trip was July 7 to July 31. I drove 5297 kilometers (3292 miles) and stayed 3 nights in campgrounds. Fuel cost was $1658.58, $30.93 for maintenance, and 798.32 for all other items. Total cost for the trip $2487.83.

I used 1358 liters of fuel (358.75 US gallons)

CloudDriver wrote:
We spent $3,117 for 882 gallons of gas, an average cost of $3.53/gallon. Our average gas mileage for the trip was 9.7mpg.

You did a lot of moving in 2 months. That's over 8500 miles! 135 miles average per day.

Need information on where and how one might go about procuring the Golden Age Passport for the elderly (62+ yrs. old)? Thank you!

2gypsies wrote:
As full-timers for the past 16+ years we think you can easily do it on your $2300 income per month. We, too, seek out public parks as our first choices. We also boondock a lot. We have the Golden Age Passport for 1/2 off on campgrounds. Best of luck to you and keep us all posted how you do!