Full Time RVing Costs: Motorhome Edition – September 2016

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September RVing expenses were still higher than normal, but it was a huge improvement from August. Total spent on gas decreased by $447, almost a 50% drop. RV maintenance and higher than normal miscellaneous costs drove up our September RVing expenses. Hopefully we will get back to our normal range soon!

To view all reports, RV Living Costs: Full Time in a Motorhome for One Year.

Full Time RVing Costs: Motorhome Edition – September 2016:

September 2016 Expenses

Statistics:

Total Expenses: $2,816
Cost Per Day: $93.87
Total Miles Driven: 2,079
Generator Hours: 4
Jeep MPG: 17.5
RV MPG: 7
Nights At RV Parks: 4 (3 nights of dry camping)
Nights Spent Dry Camping: 29
Meals Eaten Out: 1

September 2016 expenses were $433 less compared to last month. Surprisingly, our expenses still ended up higher than our normal range of $2,500-2,700.

Here are a few notes about our expenses this month compared to previous months:

Food costs (groceries, eating out, coffee and alcohol) increased $22. Although we only ate out once, we spent more money on produce at farmers markets in Los Angeles. Participating in the Whole30 eating program also increased our grocery costs this month.

RV park costs were $87 compared to $260 last month. We started the month at our favorite free camping spot in Flagstaff, AZ. Ended the month at our favorite beach front camping spot in Ventura, CA. The rest of the time we street camped outside Joe’s mother’s house in Los Angeles.

RV maintenance was nearly $100. Joe changed the oil on our Ford V10 RV F53 chassis, the Onan generator and took care of a few other maintenance items.

Miscellaneous costs were higher than normal. Routine cleaning at the dentist and high parking fees in Los Angeles increased our expenses.

We drove fewer miles compared to August, but still put on 2,079 miles. That breaks down to 1,004 miles on our gas coach and 1,075 miles on our Jeep Wrangler.
Miles on the RV: 1,004 – avg mpg 7
Miles on the Jeep: 1,075 – avg mpg 17.5

Below is the breakdown of fixed and variable costs.

September 2016 Expenses Report

Lessons Learned:

Some things we learned this month that we’d like to pass along.

Street camping for an extended amount of time is not ideal. Not being able to put our big slide out made living in the motorhome uncomfortable. The sound of city life was also wearing us down. The school bus, dumpster trucks, and helicopters became our morning wake up calls.

We celebrated our one year of full time RVing and decided it would be a good time to reevaluate our material possessions. There were several items we brought that we never used in our first year. Those items were either donated or thrown out. We follow the one in, one out rule, which kept us from accumulating items we don’t need.

To view all reports, RV Living Costs: Full Time in a Motorhome for One Year.

RV Living costs

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8 thoughts on “Full Time RVing Costs: Motorhome Edition – September 2016”

  1. Street camping…we did that as well outside my mom’s house in BC, Canada, last spring. Ours is a bumper pull trailer though. Unbeknownst to us, there was a bylaw in the town about unhitched trailers on the side of the road. My mom got a visit from the bylaw guy saying we’d have to move. She lives on a crescent, so not a busy street, primarily just those who live on the little crescent going in and out. But, we did get away with almost 2 months parked there before one of the neighbours took exception! Lol! (He’s since moved-lol!) Anyways, it was nice being right outside her door to be around with spring yard work and cleanup. We moved on to the local Walmart that allows unlimited RV overnight parking. Love your blog and Youtube channel!

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  2. Have you considered the Winnebago View on Navion? We currently own a Baystar 2903 and have looked at these as an alternative. We have had nothing but problems with our coach in the last year. It’s a 2014 we bought off the dealer lot that was a demo. Back to the dealer 3X and Newmar once. Newmar missed the quality control on this one. Considering selling because it’s not reliable. No chassis isssues just coach issues.

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    • Sorry to hear about your Newmar. We have looked at the different View models and like them very much but they don’t have the carrying capacity we need. If I remember correctly, after a full tank of water, the two of us and our dog, we’d be left with only about 600 lbs of stuff we could bring with us.

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  3. I found your blog by googling RV’s. I currently live in Hawaii and was thinking of coming back to the mainland to do some road trips. I have two standard poodles weighing 57 and 52 lbs. (sorry to read about your dog that passed away.) What size was your first RV and what are you going to choose as far as down sizing. I looked at the the Thor “A.C.E .”and the “Latest Trend “by Winnebago on line. You have written a ton of advice, thanks for taking the time.

    Was it difficult towing your jeep?

    Mahalo for your thoughts.

    Reply
    • Welcome to the site! Our current coach is 29′ with the Ford Chassis (tow capacity was 5k lbs). No problem towing the Jeep with it. We’re looking at going down to a 19-24′ Class B van so it will be much smaller. Many of the vans we’re looking at only have a tow capacity of 2-3.5k lbs so we won’t be able to tow the Jeep.

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