Can You Live Frugal In an RV?

Whenever you are thinking of rv living, the question of money will come up. Let’s face it, we need money to survive.

With that in mind, I did a bit of hunting for other families who are forging the trail before my wife and I and possibly you, who can offer us some perspective.

Below you will find some links to other articles on this topic plus a few videos on the idea of full time rv living and how much it costs. Enjoy!

Living Frugal in an RV…it is a Lot of Fun | Senior Housing and …

Living frugal in an RV is not about depriving yourself. You will have lots of company with people who find this lifestyle fun and rewarding as well.

Publish Date: 02/08/2010 13:55

http://senior.infonex.us/

Living Full Time In My RV

Hello everyone, I am 59 years old and I just retired from the US national guard. I had some money saved in for retirement so I decided to splurge and.

Publish Date: 01/27/2010 9:14

http://www.frugal-retirement-living.com/Frugal-living-blog.html

Plus here’s some videos that I found on Youtube. Truly a great story.

bnf on nightline Part I of II

Two parts (for YouTube limits). Segment was ~10 minutes and ran without a break. … barenakedfamily barenaked family abc nightline …

Here’s part 2:

bnf on nightline part II

Two parts (for YouTube limits). Segment was ~10 minutes and ran without a break.

Full Time RVing

If you’ve been reading any of the posts here at Best RV Living, you’ll know that my family and I are trying to migrate to a full time rving lifestyle.

I can honestly say that I’ve just had an experience that has wet my appetite. My son and I went for a week long father son RV trip with a bit of a twist. We planned a route with very specific things to see and treated like we did have an RV.

Well, we don’t yet have a RV, but we do have a van that we gutted and built in sleeping quarters. And I must say, that it was an experience. I decided that we had to test some of the things I’ve read about, such as boondocking and planned travels.

What an experience it was. It was definitely something that tells me about the flavor of full time rving! We boondocked two night in Walmart parking lots and it wasn’t an entirely bad experience. Actually, what I did learn is we will definitely need to make sure our future RV has adequate shower and toilet facilities.

Running for the can at 2am is not fun. Otherwise, it wasn’t that bad at all. Not the scenery that I’d want, but it was a cheap night’s stay!

Second, we tested some off the beaten path camping sites plus some state run camping sites. These experiences too were quite good. We did learn that if we are hauling a larger 5th wheel or travel trailer, we will have to consider the road and campsite restrictions for campsites.

But we can always have the standby KOA’s. But KOA’s do suffer from one drawback – cost. They definitely are the most expensive overall for camping facilities. But to be fair, they are normally the most feature filled.

So, in terms of cost, what would full time rving cost when just considering night parking fees. If you took at 30 day month and say decided to boondock 10 nights, spend 10 night in average priced full service lots and 10 nights in KOA style lots, the cost would work out to roughly $750 per month.

That’s not too bad when considering that this is your water, electricity, sewage and rent bill. I would consider tossing in another $200 just to cover costs like usage of propane to run heaters, stoves, fridge and the such while boondocking. So, that would bring costs up to $950 per month.

Still under a $1,000. Not too bad. From the point of view of costs, I can see why this is interesting. And I’ve not even considered the option of longer term parking with an RV. This can help increase the experience while reducing costs further.

Now consider planned holidays. Now, we’ve planned most of our holidays in the past, but this time, it had a slightly different twist. We planned our holidays to do certain activities and to accomplish specific goals that are both pleasure and business related.

Our results were mixed. First off, we did complete some of what we had planned. But things did take a lot longer to get done (or not get done!). So, this will have to be added into the equation. You simply have a bit more to do to live while fulltime rving.

Overall our results were quite gratifying. In the end, we just wanted to keep going. I can see getting an RV will be the way to go. So, if you have an adventurous heart, don’t limit yourself to a street address. Consider joining the ranks of full time rving enthusiasts!

Best RV For Full Time Living

This is something that is near and dear to my heart. Trying to find the best RV for full time living. For my wife and I to hit the open road, we need a lot. But we’ve looked a lot and may have narrowed down the options.

We had many things to satisfy when it came to finding an rv for full-time rving. Some for you may or may not be relevant. But I hope at least, it makes you think.

Here’s a great video of an older couple who talk about moving to a full-time rving lifestyle.

We Are Newbies!

Now, let me start by telling you that we have everything to learn. It may be a bit naive, but true never the less. We’ve only owned a pull behind pop up tent trailer manufactured some time before world war one. And it did eventually become a relic of the scrap yard. For the past four or so years, my family and I have camped our vacations in tents. Now, this is something I know I DON’T want to do full-time!

But let me continue. We have three children, so it does make this a bit harder for us. Most RV’s with bunk units are designed with two children in mind. And we wished to not have to be setting up beds from table tops or couches every night. I’m sure that will get old really quickly.

Our search started by looking for the best RV for full time living within the motorhome category. A motorhome would definitely satisfy many of our needs, but one we kept coming against was sleeping arrangements. The best we could find for full-time bedding in a motorhome was double bunks right beside the master bedroom. Not only does it allow sleeping for two kids only, if you have older children, it’s definitely a romance killer if your kids are less then ten feet away!

But many of the other traits of motorhomes drew our attention. If we didn’t have kids, I would definitely steer towards a diesel pusher or maybe even a mid size class C unit. Very, nice and would suit two people quite well!

Next we looked at travel trailers. To give us the room though, that we would need, it could possibly be a difficult pull. So, enough said here. We haven’t looked much further.

Next we started looking at 5th wheel units. Now, this has our interest. We definitely loose the option of being able to have coffee brewed on the road and the kids sitting at the table doing homework while moving. But with the Ford and Dodge trucks offering nice leg space in the back seats, all of our kids, including my son, who is approaching 6’1” has lots of leg room.

But again, there are very few 5th wheel trailers that offer more then double bunks. But they do exist! We’ve been looking at two or three units that offer 3-4 beds in the back. Far away from mom and dad at night. Hello romantic evenings!

So that’s were we are right now. Searching and researching the right unit for best RV for full time living. We are now looking deeper into the options that could make or break a full-time rving lifestyle. I’d love to hear your comments about what you’ve encountered. Please feel free to comment below.

Full Time RVer

Are you looking to become a full time rver? I’ve discovered that it’s a trend that has been slowing developing for years.

My family and I are working, right now, to become full time rver’s. I can tell you that there is a lot of hurdles to overcome to meet our goals. The biggest is money.

If we decide to become a full time rver, then we need to find a constant source of income. Unfortunately, being Canadian’s we cannot legally work in the USA and to boot, working usually requires you to be stationary. Kinda defeats the purpose.

So, I’ve been working hard to find ways to replace me previous income with a more mobile stream of income. This has been quite difficult to date. It has required me to really re-think the way I do things and I’ve discovered a lot of my ‘soft skills’ that did me well in the corporate world simply don’t cut it in this new paradigm.

One avenue that I’ve pursued is Internet marketing. I have had some success but I can say that it has been quite the journey. This is not easy. And don’t let anyone fool you either in this regard. But I’ve begun to see some progress, so in my eyes, it’s really a matter of time.

Also, trying to find the right RV to become a full time RVer has been quite interesting. To date, we’ve not been able to find the ‘right fit’ for us. I’ve seen a couple of close ones. Right now, a Jayco model is in the forefront. Time will tell.

Also, there is the issue of space. And stuff. We’ve moved overseas a number of years back and we got rid of all of our stuff last time. Kinda sucked, so we are currently in the process of pruning our stuff to either fit in the space we will have in our new RV, (when we get it), or go into a reasonable amount of storage space.

Finally, dealing with larger assets such as vehicles and homes is also an issue. Do you sell or do you rent it out? In our case, I need to sell two vehicles and purchase a diesel pickup truck capable to pull a 5th wheel. That in itself is a challenge.

So these are some of the things we are currently dealing with. If you are thinking of becoming a full time rver or already are, I’d love to hear your comments and how you’ve overcome the obstacles. Thanks!

RV Living

rv livingWelcome to Best RV Living. My wife and I decided to create this site to tell you our story about moving to a lifestyle of full-time rving. Right now, we are in the early stages of planning and migrating to rv living, so we felt that if we documented our journey, it would greatly help you in pursuing your dreams to rv freedom!

So, feel free to venture into our site to see all our trials and tribulations, (and there are just a few), and save yourself a bit of grief! So, let us tell you about the big why?

Why would you start Full-Time RV Living?

 Great question. My wife and I are in our late 30’s, and mid 40’s, so we are by no means retired and have a gold mine in the bank. But we do have a big dream to travel the world and see as much as we can before we can no longer do so.

Last year, I left my full-time job. It was a radical life decision. I was on the top of my game, so to speak, and doing quite well. I walked away from a very lucrative salary to start building an income that pays us long term instead of right now.

I’ve currently been actively ‘retired’ for little over a year, and it’s been quite the ride. Not an easy ride, but I wouldn’t change it for the world. My wife and I finally came to the realization that we needed to take the next step and become globe trotters.

As a way to step into this lifestyle and finally see the rest of North America before we take off to other countries was to consider full-time rv living. Now, I can tell you, that this decision was not lightly made. We have three children, two in the teens and one at the age of seven.

Our seven year old is thrilled. But our teenagers, well, let’s just say, not so thrilled. One is not sure but the elder is not super happy about it. I can understand. He has friends and relationships that he doesn’t want to leave.

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