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After the high expense month we had in May, it was nice to see our expenses go back down in June. The RV windshield replacement really drove up our expenses last month. In June, our daily cost was just under $86/day. I think we can get under $80/day fairly easily. Just need to get Joe on board with that first. He’s not nearly as excited about cutting expenses as I am.
To view all reports, RV Living Costs: Full Time in a Motorhome for One Year.
Full Time RVing Costs: Motorhome Edition – June 2016:
Expenses:
Total Expenses: $2,578
Cost Per Day: $85.93
Total Miles Driven: 1,359
Generator Hours: 1.5
Jeep MPG: 17
RV MPG: 6.5
Nights At RV Parks: 24
Nights Spent Dry Camping: 6
Meals Eaten Out: 9
Our June 2016 expenses ended up being the lowest we’ve ever had since we hit the road full time. Compared to last month, we were able to cut $551 ($2,577 vs $3,098). Fixed costs remained the same.
Here are a few notes about our expenses this month compared to previous months:
Food costs (groceries, eating out, coffee and alcohol) increased nearly $200 in June. We spent a total of $465 compared to $267 in May. Although we ate out the same number of times as last month, we spent more money on the meals. A large Costco run also drove up our grocery bill. We stocked up on many items we ran out of. Several of these items will last at least a month which should help keep our cost down in July.
RV park costs were $210 compared to $120 last month. We spent the first 11 nights of June at Newmar customer service. Complimentary full hookups are provided for customers getting work done at Newmar. The rest of the time we spent at Hollywood Casino RV Park in Joliet, IL, Pine Country RV Resort in Belvidere, IL and Cliffside Park in Racine, WI.
We only put 422 miles on our gas coach in June. The Jeep Wrangler on the other hand had 937 miles put on it. This was due to us being camped far away from areas that we wanted to visit. We didn’t have to run the generator very much and only put 1.5 hours on it. While we drove fewer miles and used the generator less, we spent more money on gas compared to last month due to the increase in gas prices.
Miles on the RV: 422 – avg mpg 6.5 (201 fewer miles in June compared to May)
Miles on the Jeep: 937 – avg mpg 17 (66 fewer miles in June compared to May)
Below is the breakdown of fixed and variable costs.
Lessons Learned:
Some things we learned this month that we’d like to pass along.
The roads in Indiana, Illinois and Wisconsin are rough. Gone are the smooth paved roads we took for granted in Florida. The roads in these states have large pot holes with large uneven slabs. Times like these, we wonder if we would feel the rough road as much if we were driving a rig with air ride suspension. We have to do a full sweep of the motorhome to see if there are any screws that fell down. If so, we have to figure out where it came from and screw them back in.
The slow cooker has become one of our favorite kitchen gadgets for RVing. It’s perfect for travel days. We can start a meal at night and have a hearty breakfast/lunch before we leave for our next destination. The slow cooker doesn’t heat up the motorhome the way our gas range would. Another benefit is that we don’t use as much LP gas. We never thought we’d use a slow cooker in our motorhome. Now that we have one, we use it almost every day. Check out the One Pot Meal series on our YouTube channel.
To view all reports, RV Living Costs: Full Time in a Motorhome for One Year.
I’m so grateful for your site and your sharing of the expense/income information. My husband is ready to cut the cord and go full time. I’m the worrier. But I’m coming around. Maybe after Christmas. The more information I get, the more comfortable I am getting.
BTW – if you love the slow cooker, you have to get the Instant Pot. It slow cooks, rice cooker, pressure cooks, etc. I use mine 4-6 times a week.
Hi! We really appreciate your comment and feedback. It’s great to know the information we share is helping you and your family. Let us know when you get on the road! And if you haven’t watched our Live Life On Your Own Terms video series you may find that interesting and helpful as well https://weretherussos.com/live-life-on-your-own-terms/
We’ve heard great things about the Instant Pot and when the crock pot goes, that’s probably what we will replace it with. Thanks for the recommendation.
just went through the roads in Indiana and Illinois and I don’t want to come back. Some of the worst roads I have ever encounter…..Indiana Toll I 80 road is a horrible….what have they spent the money on?
Jim
Hi Jim – Sorry to hear you had to experience those bad roads too. We never made it on to the toll road, but sounds like those are just as bad.
By slow cooker, do you mean pressure cooker? Don’t recall having seen a post about it in the past.
Thanks!
Hey Peter! Our friend gave us a Crock Pot slow cooker that we absolutely love. Haven’t written a post about it yet, but we do have videos on our YouTube channel – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0vFS4XNonHw
Tell me about the roads, my wife and our two dogs Rascal and Jersey just got back from a trip to MORRyde in Elkhart the last two weeks of June for a I/S suspension replacement on our Grand Design Solitude fifth wheel made things better on those roads but still not perfect. I often wonder the same things regarding air suspension rig and air ride seats. Great review of the ShowHauler unit, wish I would have done that tour as well, hope to catch up with them at the Tampa Show and meet up with Lonnie. We did tour Dynamax really interesting to see how they manufacture these units, don’t think it is an apple to apple comparison with ShowHauler though.
Hi Andy! Glad to hear your suspension work made the ride better. It’s something we’ve considered for our coach. We didn’t have time to check out Dynamax, would have been interesting to compare their tour to ShowHauler. If you do catch up with Lonnie at the Tampa show, tell him the Russos say hi!