This Life: Counting the Cost

 

“Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Won’t you first sit down and estimate the cost to see if you have enough money to complete it?” 

~ Luke 14:28 ~

A common question for all fulltime RVers is whether it really is less expensive than living in a house. The answer? It depends. If you hop around campgrounds and RV parks and pay daily rates on a daily basis for hookups, then you’d better be made of money, honey! Paying a weekly or monthly rate plus utilities at a park is somewhat cheaper, depending on your location, but can be about as expensive as living in an apartment in some places. Of course, it also depends on how often you move, how far you travel, and a whole host of other things like activities, memberships, and commodity consumption, etc.

Since we don’t tend to do things the typical way, the way we RV is a bit different as well. We almost exclusively boondock; that is, we park our rig on public lands and live fairly self-sufficiently, without hookups. We rely on the solar energy we collect to power our batteries and provide basic electricity, we use propane for cooking and heating, and we find RV dump stations to empty our black and gray water tanks and fill our freshwater tank. Most of the time, we find places to do this for free, although occasionally there’s a small fee. We do have to pay to wash clothes at laundromats, which is perhaps the only real drag besides groceries (4 kids and a husband are about as hungry as Washington’s Army). We have no lease or mortgage payment, no water or electricity bill (only what we need in propane and drink in water), no trash bill, no HOA dues, no monthly memberships. Diesel is our biggest expense, but we can always scale back by not moving so far so fast. 

So far, we’ve been able to park (usually just overnight) for free at places like Cabela’s, Bass Pro, Cracker Barrel, Rest Areas,
Welcome Centers, Travel Centers, Casinos, and even a Walmart. It was super weird at first to sleep (and even cook) in a parking lot, but we’ve learned to make do. 

As far as boondocking and dispersed camping goes, we’ve been on land run by:

BLM - Bureau of Land Management

National Forest Service, State Forests and Forest Roads

Dept. of Fish and Wildlife

Bureau of Reclamation

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers

National and State Recreation Areas

A Utility Owned Recreation Facility (A Fish Hatchery)

Public Boat Launches 

Horse Camps

Dispersed Campgrounds

A City Park

….pretty awesome to learn about all that’s out there - we never knew!!

Although I had originally thought that we’d do hookups at least once per week, we’ve found it’s not usually necessary unless we’re near a big city and can’t find a close/convenient place to stay (the Southeast and East Coast are proving a little more difficult as far as availability for dispersed camping in a big rig, but we’re navigating that as well and utilizing Water District land in Florida which only requires an advance registration, but is still free). Laundromats are everywhere and we’ve found free dump stations along the way at fairgrounds, parks, gas stations (Maverik is awesome), rest areas, and RV sales lots, etc. We do buy our drinking water separately (in refillable jugs), even though the freshwater tank is filled with potable water, just so we don’t have to worry about extra filtering and we can extend our usage washing dishes and taking showers. 

To give you an idea of what our regular RV-related expenses look like, here’s a recap of our first 6 months on the road:

Month 1:

Overnight Parking: Free

Public Land Boondocking: $30 (we purchased a Washington State Discover Pass for certain areas that required one)

RV Parks: $331.78 + $240 (we only paid the $240 out of necessity to be close to my uncle’s for the family gathering!)

Laundry: $43.75

Propane: $21

Month 2:

Overnight Parking: Free

Boondocking: Free

RV Parks: $491.40 (Lippert Getaway Event)

Laundry: $50.85

Propane: $6.50

Month 3:

Overnight Parking: Free

Boondocking: Free

RV Parks: $30

Laundry: $47.50

Propane: $30.75

Month 4:

Overnight Parking: Free

Boondocking: Free

RV Parks: $203

Laundry: $49.25

Propane: $60.64

Month 5:

Overnight Parking: Free

Boondocking: Free

RV Parks: $208.84

Laundry: $22.35

Propane: $94.36

Month 6:

Overnight Parking: Free

Boondocking: Free

RV Parks: $69

Laundry: $27

Propane: $116.42

… as you can see, propane is quite necessary (and therefore more of an expense) in the winter months. Occasionally we “moochdock” and park near family or friends and use their laundry facilities (and sometimes power/water), saving us from having to spend our precious quarters on public washers. 

Our diesel expense ranges from $500-$600ish per month, but that’s really no different than what we were spending on gasoline for 2 vehicles when we lived in a home. Add food, insurance, phones and internet, and for us at least, overall, it has been cost effective to travel the country (12 states in our first 6 months), believe it or not!! Our upfront expense from adding solar has made all the difference, and is kind of like the equivalent of purchasing a Thousand Trails membership, only we’re not limited to just Thousand Trails RV parks. 

Campendium has been our very good friend, and we would have no idea where to look without all those who have come before us, done the research, and tested these places out. So here’s to all the RVers out there who blazed the trail for families like ours - cheers to you and all our fellow boondockers!