Miles Travelled each Year! - Montana Owners Club

DarMar · 08-13-2005, 10:44 AM

Right now my wife and I are 2 years from retirement. With all this talk of fuel pricing, will our fuel costs go up with our new lifestyle? Each year we put about 25000 miles on our vehicles combined and it costs us x dollars already. So in retirement will we put more or less miles on our vehicle pulling our Monty? Take those fulltimers for example: How many miles would you average per year on your vehicle while fulltiming?

sreigle · 08-15-2005, 04:35 PM

Darwin and Maureen, this is a very difficult question to answer. Much depends on how long you plan to stay in one place, how much running around you will do for sightseeing, how many miles towing (poorer mileage), where you are (prices vary) etc. We average 3,000 to 3,300 miles per month with less some months and more in others. But some of our other expenses are less (no suits/ties/dress shoes for me and work outfits for Vicki, for example). Your fuel costs may be higher if you do more driving but other costs may be lower and offset the fuel costs.

Parrothead · 08-15-2005, 06:06 PM

Another thing to think about is when you are retired even if you don't full time all daily costs are down. As Steve mention Clothes is one. I have enough clothes to last the rest of my life! And ones you might buy now are not as expensive. Also you are not spending money commuting to work, eating lunches out, buying gifts for fellow employees or staff, contributing to those endless envelopes that come around for some donation or another. Also things like makeup (for women I hope), getting hair done, buying expensive shoes. All these things are gone so you save some there. I've heard full timers say they spend less for gas when traveling than they did when working because they don't drive every day like when you work.
Happy trails...............

richfaa · 08-16-2005, 12:30 AM

I have been retired for 6 years and yes many expenses go down.retirement contributions, Insurances, city taxes, taxes in general.Although my yearly income decreased my @ 20% upon retirement my monthly retirement check was only about 300.00 less than my working take home pay.As is mentioned by others expenses go down in many other areas, Lunches Coffee breaks, work clothing, you tend to drive less and since you are now a senior person..55 or over, there are many other discounts. My wife retires in 14 months and we had planned to travel perhaps as much as 30 to 35,000 miles per year for at least 5 years..and we did some very careful budget planning ..however..I have to say that the current fuel pricing and if it should remain the same or increase, plus the fact that the price of oil effects most everything else including campground fees..has trashed our retirement travel plans...We are in a wait and see mode..and we are not happy campers.

Glenn and Lorraine · 08-16-2005, 01:29 AM

Quote:

quote:will our fuel costs go up with our new lifestyle?

With the oil companies running rampant your fuel costs will go up whether you travel or not. At the current rate we will be paying $4 or more a gallon next year at this time.

We have been fulltiming since Oct 2003 and put 70,000 miles on our TV. That's an average of about 3200 miles a month but with the fuel prices going up and up we will be cutting back on the traveling. This winter we both will be taking parttime work to supplement our retirement income.

DarMar · 08-16-2005, 05:57 AM

Thanks for the good info here folks. I realize many things are variable for each of us, but it would appear that we may be driving 30 to 35000 miles when retired and of course more of that mileage will be towing the Monty. I think we need to focus a bit more on Steve's comment that "your fuel cost may be higher" "but other costs may be lower and offset the fuel costs". We will have less clothes costs(no more dress clothes), daily lunch costs will be less and many other costs that have been mentioned. We are determined to do this no matter what the cost is when we retire, even if we errode some of our savings,investments during the decade or so we wish to travel extensively. Maybe I will pump gas here and then to offset costs. Let's all keep our dreams ALIVE. Everyone says we won't be needing near as much to live when we reach 75 or 80 years of age. Maureen & I will be done travelling long before then. To those of the forum who are still pulling the Montys after 75, I tip my hat to you!!!

jrgwdenner · 08-16-2005, 06:13 AM

DarMar, I think you have the right attitude. Go for your dream. We didn't even think twice about not making our trip to Alaska, in spite of the rising gas prices. You only live once, as we well know and were reminded when Glen was very ill a few years ago. We will try to be prudent but we want to live our dreams as long as the Lord gives us the health to do it.

Parrothead · 08-16-2005, 08:34 AM

I like the bumper sticker that says "We're spending our children's inheritance." It goes along with you only live once. We have dreamed of going to Alaska since we got our first fifth wheel years ago. We are going no matter what.
Happy trails...................

NJ Hillbilly · 08-16-2005, 09:05 AM

Workamping is another way to maintain the rv lifestyle without going broke so quickly. You can host, be a tour guide or many other jobs that will offset living expenses. It also helps ease the transition from fulltime working to fulltime living.

John

Parrothead · 08-16-2005, 04:39 PM

John
Good thought if nothing more you get a free space. I've been retired now for 2 1/2 months. I'm doing fine adjusting to not working. It was a lot easier than I thought it would be. Of course I have a lot of projects to keep me busy. I've finally mastered Microsoft Access and set up databases for my Michener collection, CD's, DVD's and Campgrounds. And when we go on the road I can still do all of this!
Happy trails.........................

jrgwdenner · 08-16-2005, 05:35 PM

There are also some great volunteer ministries that will give you a free site in exchange for volunteering and it'll make you feel good, too.

CountryGuy · 08-16-2005, 05:38 PM

Got to admit these gas prices are scareing ole Carol. Al says we are going to spend all of our $$, leave nothing behind for the kids. It is tough on the retirees with frozen income. We are spending some time re-evaluating our living situations. Got to also admit, it really ticks me off, finally got to the age when we have the time to travel more, got the RV of our dreams, fixed her up right nice, and now this gas thing gives me the willies! Think he said it will cost us over $120 to fill up the truck and the van and pull Montana and the boat back home. Says will have some gas left in the tanks, tho. Whew!

Glenn and Lorraine · 08-17-2005, 12:52 AM

I've already told my kids that "We're spending our children's inheritance." When we go they will have to take up a collection to bury our butts.

But seriously, this fuel situation is starting to put a damper on our travel but we will get by. This winter we both will be getting jobs and getting our finances back in order. By next summer we should be able to get back on the road and if fuel costs go to $5.00 a gallon, So Be It, What will be will be.

Fordzilla · 08-17-2005, 01:10 AM

Gas prices will continue to climb until we as citizens start to lobby our congressmen and others to do something about these big oil companies. Soon everything in the country will be shooting up in price and the economy will drop like a rock. Congress will say something and prices will subside for a few months and then start climbing again for next summers oil shortage.

richfaa · 08-17-2005, 01:59 AM

Parrothead.. you are doing what most everyone does the first few months of retirement.Not working is good and there are all these projects to keep you busy...then after 6 months or so you say...now what... I had to wait 6 years before Helen could retire (we are almost there) and figured I could do that easy..I lasted a year then the.."now what"..started to drive a charter bus and school bus to keep my sanity and it paid for the new truck and will pay for most of the new camper... Keep busy keep active..retirement is still the best job I ever had...

Parrothead · 08-17-2005, 07:43 AM

Well in about 6 months we should have our new truck and then we can take off in the Monty. Our only kink to our plans is my Mother's caretaker is moving so we will need to find another. She is almost 88 and still lives alone but can't get around too well so someone needs to get groceries and take her to Doctor. I do believe staying active and busy is part of the key to long life. And I have the MOC to help keep my brain active. Maybe I'll challenge the Legend!
Happy trails...................

adelmoll · 08-17-2005, 09:45 AM

We too have averaged over 3000 per mo. in our full time travels but hopefully this winter we will stay in one place for months instead of weeks or days. We try not to travel more than 300 miles per day which is about one tank of diesel or somewhere between $55 -$90 per day depending on the price of fuel. Boy does it change hourly. We feel after waiting 60+ years to do this if it costs an extra $10 grand a year we'll just leave less for the kids. They make a lot more then we did at their age anyway BUT........ I do think we should be trying to put a stop to this bogus increase. WE must get active with the powers that be and find out who, what, where and why this money is going.

Helen

sreigle · 08-18-2005, 09:08 AM

We've found a couple of ways to economize that actually turned out to be positives, at least for us. This has to do with our getting past the first year or so of fulltiming and realizing we don't really need to be on the move so often. At first we stayed in one place a couple of days, maybe four or five. A week was a long time to stay in one place. The rare two-week stay was almost too long.

But now we find staying longer allows us to explore an area more thoroughly and see some beautiful and interesting things most tourists don't know exist. PLUS, it's a whole lot cheaper to stay for a week or a month. Most often the weekly rate is equal to 6 days. The monthly rate can be a whole lot cheaper than that. For example, this park is $21/night plus tax (and this is a very decent park). But we're here for a month and are paying $350 plus tax. That's for full hookups and includes all utilities. This is a 31-day month so that works out to 11.29/night. We're on 30 amp but it's $25 more for 50 amp. And we're in a resort area, 20 miles from the west entrance to Yellowstone National Park. I know of a park in Kansas that is 20/night, 120/week, 225/month plus elec on the monthly rate. We don't really care for that park but it gives you an example.

We are really enjoying the longer stays in our destination areas. We still overnight while on the road and sometimes park for 2 or 3 nights so we can do laundry or just have a day off from driving. But more and more we're staying a month. Sometimes 2 months if we feel we need more time in that area. When we started fulltiming I could not fathom staying in one place that long. I was in a big hurry to see all these great things I'd read about in school books all those years. My fulltiming uncle told me that would change and he was right.

Another thing is to join discount providers like Passport America, Escapees, Good Sam. As much as I hate to say it I find KOA prices way too high for what we get, in most cases, even with their discount card, which we have. Just my opinion though. Passport America is 50% off although usually limited in number of nights and sometimes limited by date. Escapees is 15% off for participating parks and much better than that for their own parks (still don't fully understand this one). We've been using PA for several years and are on our first year using Escapees. We usually save our annual PA membership fee back in the first month of the year. I think we'll save also on Escapees but school's still out on that. I tend to go with PA first since it's the bigger discount and many parks offer both PA and Escapees discounts. Both discounts are off the daily rate, not the weekly or monthly rates. We've had some that offer the discount no matter how long you stay. You naturally can get only one of the discounts at a time. We've found some very, very nice parks take PA or Escapees and also some real pits, just like a random sampling of rv parks.

Good Sam is another. 10% off the daily fee at many rv parks.

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