Can I afford to full-time RV?  That’s the question of this generation, it seems.  The idea of RVing full-time seems really great, right?  Has it been on your Bucket List for retirement?  Are you a 20-something millennial who just wants a change?  Are you an adventurous young family wanting to create memories with your children?  Today, we’ll be talking all about the numbers of full-time RVing.

We’ll be using numbers based on our experiences.  They do not directly reflect our expenses.  They are general numbers to help get you started in deciding whether full-time RVing is something for you or not.  So let’s dive in!

We prepared for two years to go on the road.  Most of that time was spent talking about the logistics of what we wanted the trip to be about.  We wanted it to have meaning and a reason.  A large chunk of that time was also spent budgeting for what WE thought the expenses would be.  There were five main categories that we looked at:  Vehicle, lodging, food, recreation, and recurring monthly expenses.

Vehicle Expenses as a Full-time RVer

Vehicle expenses as a full-time RVer can look different for everyone.  The type of rig you choose to take with you will greatly impact this number.  Since we knew we would be pulling a trailer, we estimated expenses based on Diesel fuel for the truck.  We even factored in a certain amount of money each month for the possibility of things breaking on either the truck or the trailer.

On average, we knew our gas mileage would be somewhere around 10mpg.  If you’re traveling in a Class A, you can probably expect that number to be closer to 6 or 7mpg.  If you’re in a Class B (van), you can bank on an average of around 16-18mpg.

You’ll also want to think about fuel costs per gallon in various areas of the country.  Prices can vary greatly.  So it’s important you do a little bit of research, and gather a realistic average based on your type of fuel.  Based on where we would be traveling, we approximated $2.50 per gallon.  We always factor towards the higher end.  That way, we know that our numbers are slightly inflated from reality.

Based on these two figures, and the amount we wanted to travel, we estimated our monthly fuel costs to be somewhere around $500.  This basically meant we could travel around 500 miles a week (2,000 miles a month).  When developing this figure, you’ll want to have a realistic idea of how much you’ll actually be driving.  How long will you be staying in one place?  How often will you be packing up and heading to the next destination?

Aside from gas, we also wanted to factor in costs for small repair of either our camper or our truck.  Major repairs would be covered under a separate savings we had set aside.  But small monthly repairs are reality.  They just happen.  To prepare for that, we added an additional $150 to our fuel costs to cover unexpected repairs.

Lodging Expenses as a Full-time RVer

Estimating your lodging expenses will also vary greatly depending on what you want your RVing experience to look like.  Are you set up well for boondocking (camping without hookups) and plan on doing that as often as possible?  Do you prefer the campground life and having amenities?  Either way, you’ve got options!

Let’s talk about campgrounds.  Nightly prices vary greatly from campground to campground.  We have found, that we prefer State Park campgrounds, because they are typically very reasonably priced.  And because of this, you’ll want to make sure you plan ahead depending on the time of year.  State Campgrounds fill up quickly because of their lower costs.  You can expect to spend anywhere from $15-35 a night at a state campground.

Privately owned campgrounds are even more unpredictable when it comes to costs.  You can spend anywhere from $25-$65 on average for a nightly stay.  KOA’s are typically on the higher end of that.  Small, mom and pop campgrounds are on the lower end.  And if you’re traveling in Florida, be prepared to spend top dollar.  Florida campgrounds can cost a pretty penny anywhere from $65 to $110+ a night.  That’s nearly $2,000 a month on the low end!

When establishing a budget, we wanted to stay below $35 per night.  We came up with a monthly budget of around $1,200 for lodging expenses.  Again, we estimated high and gave ourselves some wiggle room.  We use the AllStays app for finding and booking campgrounds that are in our budget.  It’s been a complete life-saver.

If you want to spend less on lodging, but don’t want to give up the campground amenities, consider Workamping.  Workamping is a great alternative to paying for lodging, but it’s not for everyone.

If you’re the more adventurous type, and you’re planning on boondocking more than anything, consider getting yourself a 1-year subscription to Boondockers Welcome.  Boondockers Welcome is a website that connects RVers with a host.  Unlike the name, many hosts still offer hookups.  The catch is length of your stay.  A one-night stay is typical.  However, we have found that most hosts are more than willing to negotiate an additional day or two.  Just don’t go into it thinking you’ll have a free spot to squat at for weeks on end.

Food Expenses as a Full-time RVer

From the very beginning, we knew we wanted to be as conservative as possible when it came to spending money on food.  I believe it’s the #1 thing to pay attention to when you’re wanting to cut costs.  It’s also the easiest part of your budget to let get out of hand.  It definitely requires discipline.

We knew this was going to be the most difficult change to make.  Before becoming full-time RVers, we had weekly date nights out at our favorite restaurants.  Grocery runs always resulted in excess food and an overflowing pantry.  Things had to change if we wanted to live on a budget as full-time RVers.

To establish a food budget, we basically took our weekly spending on groceries and simplified it.  Our goal was to spend $100 or less on groceries per week.  Again, estimating on the higher side.  It’s just my husband, myself, and our two mid-sized dogs.  We don’t coupon or anything like that.  So our monthly budget of $400 is based off of actual cost of goods.

Recreational Expenses as a Full-time RVer

Recreational expenses is a broad category for us.  It can best be described as “pleasure expenses.”  Anything we do for fun.  That can include date nights (or eating out in general), National Parks, zoos, museums, tours, and the list goes on.  I think this goes without saying, but we’ve become REALLY good at finding fun things to do for free.  It pretty much comes with the territory.

If you know you’ll be wanting to explore all the National Parks you can, I highly suggest purchasing a 1-year National Park Pass for $80.  Considering the National Park Service is proposing to increase their entry fees from $30 to $70, the $80 year pass has never been more enticing.  For now, it’s still advertised as $80 on their website.

I honestly can’t remember the exact number we came up with, but I think we may have given ourselves a $150 cushion for monthly recreational expenses.  I’m pretty sure we blew that number out of the water, too.  Whoops!  #mybad

We did end up finding plenty of either free or super cheap things to do!  St Marks National Wildlife Refuge and Mission San Luis in Tallahassee, FL and The Alamo in San Antonio, TX are just a few of our favorites so far.

Recurring Monthly Expenses as Full-time RVers

Recurring expenses are going to be completely different for everybody.  When I talk about recurring expenses, I mean things that you pay for monthly regardless of the fact that you’re full-time RVing.  This category can include cell phone bills, vehicle payments and insurance, health insurance, mortgage payments (if you still own a home), medical prescriptions, storage unit payments, etc.

Going into specifics here isn’t really necessary because this is going to be completely unique to each person.  Recurring expenses may sound like a no-brainer.  But in all honesty, I feel like it can almost be an afterthought for many people.  When planning to be a full-time RVer, it’s easy to get caught up thinking about all the big expenses like food and lodging.  It’s all too easy to overlook the simple, everyday costs.

Full-time RVing Expenses Overview

So far, we have $650 for fuel and vehicle expenses, $1,200 for lodging, $400 for groceries, and $150 for recreational activities.  Without including our recurring monthly expenses, we were expecting to spend approximately $2,400 a month to live on the road as full-time RVers.  See..wasn’t that easy?!

With this budget, we were allowing ourselves to still enjoy our surroundings.  We knew from the beginning that we wanted our budget to allow us to have experiences.  You can work the numbers however you’d like based on how you want your life as a full-time RVer to look.  You can really pinch pennies or you can live more extravagantly.  You can make it look however you’d like.

If this has helped you plan out your upcoming RVing adventure, or if you have questions, let us know by dropping a comment below.  We’d love to hear from you!  =)