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Our RVing expenses in July ended up being very close to June. It’s encouraging to see the daily expenses moving closer to $80/day. Health insurance and RV payment make up a large bulk of our fixed expenses. Without them, our daily expenses would come in around $48. If your RV is paid off or if your health insurance is provided free of charge, that will make a significant impact on your RVing expenses.
To view all reports, RV Living Costs: Full Time in a Motorhome for One Year.
Full Time RVing Costs: Motorhome Edition – July 2016:
Expenses:
Total Expenses: $2,563
Cost Per Day: $82.68
Total Miles Driven: 1,535
Generator Hours: 0
Jeep MPG: 17
RV MPG: 6.5
Nights At RV Parks: 22
Nights Spent Dry Camping: 9
Meals Eaten Out: 7
July 2016 expenses were $15 less compared to last month. $2,500-2,700 is becoming a normal range for our RVing expenses.
Here are a few notes about our expenses this month compared to previous months:
There is one change to our fixed costs this month. RV memberships dropped from $7 to $3. Harvest Hosts offer an extra month of membership for each new referral. Our membership has been extended several months. This means we did not have to renew for another year. Thank you to those of you who put us down as a referral.
Food costs increased nearly $44. Wisconsin has been good to us, not to our food budget. Read our posts on Things to Do in Milwaukee, Door County and Green Bay to see what we spent it on.
RV park costs were $287 compared to $210. The muggy Wisconsin summer had us tied to electric hookups so we can run the AC for Leo. We did get to dry camp for a portion of the month. The remainder of the time was spent at Cliffside Park, Tranquil Timbers, and Oneida Casino.
The entire month of July was spent in Wisconsin. This resulted in 331 miles on our gas coach. The Jeep Wrangler had over 1K miles put on it. This was due to us being camped far away from places we wanted to visit.
Miles on the RV: 331 – avg mpg 6.5
Miles on the Jeep: 1,204 – avg mpg 17
Below is the breakdown of fixed and variable costs.
Lessons Learned:
Some things we learned this month that we’d like to pass along.
One week is a good amount of time to explore a new area. When we first got on a road, we rarely stayed longer than three or four nights. Now, we try to stay for a week or more. This gives us enough time to explore, relax and work.
Buy local. We’ve found great local produce, meats and cheeses in Wisconsin. Farmers markets are a great way to buy local in season produce. This can also lead to saving money.
Plan for higher campground costs. Boondocking in the heat and humidity is not an option with Leo. We have to plan for more time at campgrounds during hotter months.
To view all reports, RV Living Costs: Full Time in a Motorhome for One Year.
I enjoy that you give so much information from income to cost. We just got home from Tiffin in Red Bay, Alabama ordering our 2017 Allegro Bus 40SP. We will pick it up in Florida this December 2016. I expect to spent $2500 per month no payments or healthcare cost and your blog gives me confidence that my budget is realistic. What are your thoughts on Thousand Trails? We have a large Amazon wish list and I will make sure to click on your site first.
Ed – with regards to Thousand Trails, if you plan to stay in one of their zones and camp enough to use up your days, we think the membership is worth it. Also look at the reviews for the campgrounds you might use to make sure that you’ll enjoy them. So happy we were able to help in terms of your budget and congrats on the (soon to be) new Tiffin! Thank you so much for using the Amazon link and if you haven’t seen it, check out the RV section in our store, we have all of the RV related products that we use and like.
Thanks for sharing your adventures. My husband and I plan to go full time rving as soon as our house sells. We are buying an older RV and will be outfitting it with something solar panels and a composting toilet in order to take advantage of boondocking. I would be very interested hearing how you guys manage your technology. We are retired and love to keep in touch with family and friends and to watch movies, keep current on news, world events and sports. What kind of systems do you use?
Loved your segment on Champaign-Urbana. That’s where we are from but now live in Montana.
Hi Kathy! Excited for you and your husband to get on the road 🙂 As for staying connected, we have an ATT 20G data plan and use that as a hot spot when we need to. Mostly, we go to coffee shops when a large amount of data is required. We do have a wifi booster and wifi repeater that’s come in very handy. Here’s a link to the post Joe wrote about it: https://weretherussos.com/extend-wifi-range-wifi-booster-repeater/ Also, one great resource for staying connected is Technomadia. This article is a good place to start – http://www.technomadia.com/2014/08/how-we-keep-online-illustrated-tour-of-our-rv-mobile-internet-setup/
Glad you enjoyed our Champaign content. We are back for the weekend so stay tuned for more!