Monthly expense for lodging/campsites

[daveinaz]

We plan to "pull the pin," retire, and hit the road early this summer. We worked on a budget last night and it looks doable. We were able to come up with realistic numbers for the usual things like fuel, maintenance, insurance, vehicle registration, food, entertainment, cell service, etc. The only area we had a hard estimating was lodging/campsite rentals. Just like a stick house, that is looking to be the biggest part of the budget.

Our total budget number came to about $3500 a month, $400 of which goes toward maintaining our stick house, leaving a on-the-road budget of about $3100.

Anyway, I was wondering what those of you who are full-timing are spending on average for camp fees/lodging.

Thanks.

[DQDick]

You're going to find that all over the map and it depends on what part of the country you stay in and what amenities you want of need. Passport America and other memberships can help reduce the cost and if you work for someone like Fish and Wildlife your spot will be free. Also, if you stay places for a week there is also a discount. That said, $25-60 per night is probably close.

[AZ Traveler]

There are also free or very low cost options including serving as a camp host or boondocking on government land.

[Montana Man]

35 to 85 depending on their proximity to tourist attractions. Some CA sites are nearing 100. The trick is staying a while, like a week at a time to take advantage of weelky rates. That way you are not spending all your money on fuel as well.

[BB_TX]

If either of you are over 62, get an America the Beautiful Lifetime Senior Pass for $80. We often stay at a very nice COE park with 50 amp FHU sites with long concrete pads and large patios. Normally $26/nt but only $13/nt with the senior pass. I believe includes discounts at all federal parks/campgrounds.

[MidMOTraveler]

Last summer was our first year. We plugged in $50 a night to start.
We had a low of $17 in a PPA in Florida and $70 in a Jellystone in Nashville
We did 2 with weekly rates and spent September in Gulf Shores monthly rate.
When all said and done we ended up at $42p/n average.
Zero free sights and always 50 amp except 1 in Michigan.
It is definitely cheaper to stay longer.
Enjoy your travels.

[WeBeFulltime]

When most full timers start out they are in "vacation mode" and that time can be expensive. After you get over that period and settle into a routine it will get better. We've been at it for about 8.5 years now.We chose to sell S & B and are glad because it took so much pressure off and not necessarily just the $ part.

[travelcade]

I think you could use $40 per day as an average. Two years ago we took a 2 month, 10,000 mile trip. Some places we stayed overnight, others for up to a week. Some were state parks, others were private campgrounds. Some in tourist areas, others in the sticks. We were in full vacation mode as we weren't set up for workamping yet.

[mazboy]

Your question is sooooo open. If you live in your kids backyard or walmarts it is really cheap.
Do you plan on traveling around? $$$$$ in fuel.



But if you will be going into campgrounds figure anywhere from $500-1500 a month. In florida keys it would be $3000+ a month.


Bottom line, just do it and you'll soon figure it out. For us, in just truck and trailer costs we've put in nearly $2000 in repairs since December.

[daveinaz]

Originally Posted by mazboy

Your question is sooooo open. If you live in your kids backyard or walmarts it is really cheap.
Do you plan on traveling around? $$$$$ in fuel.



But if you will be going into campgrounds figure anywhere from $500-1500 a month. In florida keys it would be $3000+ a month.


Bottom line, just do it and you'll soon figure it out. For us, in just truck and trailer costs we've put in nearly $2000 in repairs since December.

I guess we'll just be spending the kid's inheritance... LOL

[sme1950s]

Appreciate the budget discussion. We are still in preseason with our RV before making longer trips. I have worked with the budget question for about a year as we camp and I read forms. I appreciate the discussion and understand that there is not a nightly answer for everyone every where. But I think this group of veterans has more to share. Out with it guys how the heck do you do this incredibly adventure and not worry about the next thing to fall of your rig at 65MPH. I try not to buy all the cool stuff and use my camping experiences to sort out my wants and needs. So to maintain a $30.00 a day budget here in Texas and surrounding states. I.E. we go to state parks and some dry camping for tests. State park visitor fees added to the camping fees can add 25% to the nightly get me back to $24-30.00 a day. A Blue boy hoses etc., if you don't want to move every three days adds $2.50 per night for a hundred days over three years camping. Batteries $1,500, a power source $1,000 on and on. Predicting these items as part of the cost of camping even over normal life expectancy seems to really add up. Add in camper and truck cost and depreciation this is not cheap. But it is fun!

[rps]

Here is the budget I planned for our Summer Travel:

RV Sites (150 days @75.00) 11,500.00
Truck Fuel (800 gals @ 4.00 per gal) 3,200.00

I estimate higher than I expect to spend - however, last summer we endend up in "hotels" for approx 20 days, while we had repairs done on both RV and truck

Ray Shaw

[Carl n Susan]

Howard and Linda of RV-Dreams have been educating new full timers for years. Among all their aids are their actual yearly/monthly budgets. Check them out at https://rv-dreams.typepad.com/rvdreams_journal/

[richfaa]

We do not have a planned budget never have. We know what our income is and we know what our expenses are.

[DebNJim B]

Originally Posted by mazboy

Your question is sooooo open. If you live in your kids backyard or walmarts it is really cheap.
Do you plan on traveling around? $$$$$ in fuel.



But if you will be going into campgrounds figure anywhere from $500-1500 a month. In florida keys it would be $3000+ a month.


Bottom line, just do it and you'll soon figure it out. For us, in just truck and trailer costs we've put in nearly $2000 in repairs since December.

Yes, we winter in the kids backyard in N. GA, but in Jan it got too cold for me and we headed to FL for a month. Total cost including food and fuel--$3600. Sites veried from 36 to 80. The hard part was actually getting a site on short notice. Most parks are booked up with snowbirds. That number may be a bit high as we also took friends out to dinner so we were probably heavy on the food side. Plan ahead and get weekly or monthly rates and don't eat out so much and you could likely knock 1G off that.

[mmturtle]

when we started ft in 2003 we had 2 park memberships that aloud us 2 weeks free. and our daily cost was around $15. a day. we did camp hosting for 2 years at 0 cost to save up some money for a trip to Europe. to day we are stopped traveling and are in a park in Cal. and including elect. and propane our cost is $22 a day. your cost really depends on where you travel. we spent a lot on time in nat. parks and Texas but we did go all over from porta verate Mexico to Canada
on

[daveinaz]

I think, like others have posted, that our expenses the first year could be all over the map until we kind of settle down and get this all figured out. We have booked stays at a couple of municipal RV parks with full hook ups at very reasonable rates (20-30 a night).

I have looked at some of the Passport America parks along our route, but the majority of them have severe restrictions (only 1 or 2 nights, "not valid in July or August", etc) making the program not quite as valuable as it would seem. Still, just using it for a few nights would pay for the yearly fee.

Insisting on full hook-ups really ups the price. Getting elec/water isn't too hard, but getting sewer too is a little harder. We'd like to stay in a spot for 2-3 weeks at a time, but that is more of a hassle without a sewer hookup since we'd have to unhook and all that to drive over to the dump station. So, for non-sewer sites, we are only staying 4-5 days figuring we'd need to dump about that time.