I'm posting this to show your viewers that you don't have to break the bank to live this lifestyle. We are a retired full time RVing couple living on SS, and a couple small pensions for about 1/3 of what it used to cost us to live in our old S&B home. Our homeowner's insurance and property taxes alone on our old home cost us more than we now spend on housing (campground and RV park fees) in 3 years! Our older coach and toad are paid for, and we are debt free, which helps a lot. By buying an older, one owner coach with extensive maintenance records we got a very reliable RV that hasn't seen the inside of a repair shop in the last 5 years. We only paid 15,000 for our coach, letting the original owner suffer all the depreciation. Our toad is a little Chevy Cobalt we already owned. It cost less than $1,000 for the tow bar, baseplate, break-away and wiring to be able to tow it behind our MH (as we bought some items used.) We have no mortgage, utility bills, property taxes, homeowner's insurance, landscaping, garbage bills, cable bills, etc. which saves us a ton! We boondock most of the time, living almost entirely rent free on BLM and Forest Service land. We sometimes spend $180 for a 7 month permit to winter over at the LTVAs surrounding Quartzsite, AZ/Imperial Dam, Ca. For only 86 cents/day you get not only a safe, warm place to stay the winter, but unlimited water, dump and trash disposal too. We boondocked for 8 months straight last year and will do so even more in the future as we just installed a huge solar system that allows us to be totally electrically independent. We lived FT off of only 620 watts of solar for 5 years, but we now have over 5,000 watts of solar and 23.5 kwh of batteries which provides 24/7 air conditioning and heat and lets us use our appliances just like we are plugged into a power pole at an RV park. This system wasn't cheap to build (around $10k) but now that it is installed, we have eliminated our electricity costs for the rest of our lives and greatly expanded the places and seasons we can live too. We usually boondock all over the western US, staying the typical 2 week camping limit before moving on. We're in NC now, visiting family, where boondocking places are hard to find. So, we found a nice RV park that is letting us camp in one of their spacious no-hookup sites for only $100/month. We dump our tanks and take on fresh water for free every 2 weeks at the dump station, just like when we are boondocking. When you have a large solar system, you have lots of options on how you can choose to live. We've never paid the daily rate at an RV park. We have, however paid 1/2 the daily rate at BLM, Forest Service, NP and COE campgrounds, which usually comes to around $10-$15 a day, with our America the Beautiful pass. We only occasionally splurge like this, usually so we can dump, saving a $10-$12 dump fee. Fuel and food are our two biggest expenses, and both are controllable. If we find we are running low on funds we just eat out and travel less. But we go where we want and do what we want so we never feel deprived. We live frugally most of the time so when the mood strikes us, we can go out and eat at an expensive restaurant on occasion, and not have it impact our budget. We travel a lot, so typically burn around $3,000-$3,500 worth of fuel for both coach and toad, and eat $6,000-$7,000 worth of food in a year, though both could be reduced by 25-30% without much hardship, simply by traveling and eating out less. BTW, we stopped traveling to CA as both gas and food are outrageous there. We love the state but hate the politics that drive their ridiculous prices. Propane cost us about $400 last year but should be under $300 this year since most of our heat is now provided by our solar/battery powered mini-split heat pump. Our insurance for both car and coach is right at $1,000 a year, just for the basics, plus another $109/yr. for our Escapee Roadside Assistance plan. Registration for both car and coach costs $80 every 2 years in our domicile state, Louisiana. Our FMCA unlimited AT&T WIFI is $65/mo. plus whatever Netflix charges these days. We stream free TV from Roku, and our cell phone is only $27/mo.. Our mail forwarding service is $120/yr + postage. Laundry is about $300/yr. We avoid toll roads at all costs. We do all our repairs, maintenance and upgrades ourselves to keep the price down. That said, repair parts around $1,700 a year on both our 1999 National Tropical Class A motorhome and 2006 Chevy Cobalt SS toad. We simply budget for routine maintenance items like tires. We purchased 8 new ones for our coach last year. We plan on doing so every 8 years as they age out before they wear out, so we put $300 a year into our tire fund so there's money there when we need it. Our healthcare is covered by a Medicare Advantage PPO plan (so we can see plan doctors around the country if needed) that is not only free but gives us back $130/mo. from what Medicare part B over charges us in addition to many other benefits. Our total FT budget is around $33k, but our actual expenses run closer to $30k out of $44k in income, allowing us an adequate emergency fund without dipping into savings.
Kevin, what we find as full timers is that the first thing you want to do is never, ever write any of that stuff down, and never keep receipts, but most of all, never make a spreadsheet with all your expenses, it will drive you crazy😂. If the funds run out, we'll go live with our kids, hey, they lived with us for 20 years, they'll have to put up with us for a while🤪. Love your videos. TP
Thank you so much! The truth is needed and you shared it with us. You don’t just get an Rv and drive off into a cheaper life style. You have worked, prepared, and planned for your life style. What you shared is so needed. Thank you! You got me with the man driving by! Lol! Great! Great! Great! Video!
Your welcome! We had a plan of staying at 5K a month when we started and after 2 years we avg around 6K a month! We could do it for less, but we enjoy moving and exploring so we are ok with the price! Not only is it far cheaper than our previous life it allows us to spend time as a family! That guy just kept driving by!
Have you ever thought about moving your domicile to the state of South Dakota. I believe you only need to spend one night every year or every other year. (one of the two). Registration fees on vehicles and trailers are lower. No annual inspection fees on vehicles or trailers and I believe vehicle insurance is also cheaper. The best part is you can do everything online. All you do is get a receipt for staying 24 hours in South Dakota and get an address in South Dakota through a mailing agency to show a South Dakota address. You would need to get South Dakota plates and licenses.
We did consider that when we first started and it came down to our big picture plan! Will we fulltime forever?We don't know, also at some point we will settle down or at least have a part time base in Texas! We are both from Texas, everything we own is already registered in Texas and what ever our next stage in life is, it will be in Texas so switching everything over seemed like a hassle when we know our future will likely involve a home base in Texas!
We just spent 3 months wintering in texas, and the monthly cost was almost equal to what we would have spent at home. We paid by the month for rent, which is about the same as our property taxes. Utilities, food also about the same as winter at home, so no real added expense there. Only real extra expense is fuel, like you said. But we are used to spending 2 weeks in Hawaii, for 6k for 2 of us, and 3 months in texas has cost us about 4k. And much more relaxed and fun. Our house is paid for, as is our truck, and trailer. We have allocated 45k for the 2 of us and 3 dogs, for each year, and haven't even come close to spending that much.. Planning is everything.
We thought 5k a month was a good goal we came close but average 6k! We could save if we didn't move as much on RV parks and Diesel, but we like the adventure! It is also some serious perspective when we are way cheaper than the life we had in our house!
Your welcome! We were able to stay close to 5K the first couple of months when we were staying places a month! Once we started to move more our typical now is around 6K a month!
Depreciation doesn't matter, we bought this RV and truck to travel! They are tools that serve a purpose to achieve our goal! If your worried about how much you're going to sell it for, why did you buy it in the first place!
Great breakdown. As for me, with just a cat, my expenses are much lower. My Class C payment and car payment (which I am thinking of selling) are about $995/month. As long as I stay 2-14 days in one spot, my gas stays fairly low. But deciding to travel from AZ to SD and back in a fairly short time period, my gas was way high. Other than that, I boondock, and have only stay 5 nights in the last year at a RV Park.
Thank you! We would love to say we could save money by boondocking, but with a family of 5 it just wouldn't work for us! We would always be out of water!
I see. Your getting better at your advertisement. The E-bike thing was awesome. Funny. Lol. When your advertisement is something I've seen. I'll fast forward it. But this one was great. I had to wait and see what was this guy doing. Good one
Thank you! In the past I shot one clip for the giveaway and just used it in every video during that giveaway! I found this was kinda boring and repetitive for me as the creator, so likely it was very boring for the viewer! I decided to change it up for every video now when we are doing giveaways! It still serves the purpose of giving you the info but it's done in a way that doesn't feel like an advertisement! Glad you enjoyed it!
Thank you! We made the choice to live this way because we wanted to spend more time as a family and less time working to collect things! This may seem expensive, but it is far less than the old life we used to have!
It was fun watching you guys blow through $200,000. You know you could have a kid every other year and it will help your channel. It was nice not seeing this on a spreadsheet but you showing places and items. Nice to see Buddy he seems to hide from the camera. Glad you guys are enjoying life and your kids are having a great life. Stay safe and healthy.
It seems like a lot, but it is significantly cheaper than the old life we used to have! Buddy is a rescue dog and had a rough past, he gets scared every time I point the camera at him! I have been working on it, but he seems to only not be afraid of it if we're out walking around!
@@PavingNewPaths We use to get dogs from fight clubs and tame them back down so they could have a life and not be put to sleep. I understand Buddy's feelings, still nice to see him once in a while when you can. I have a soft spot for dogs that had a hard life. Hope you all are staying safe and healthy.
He is helping be with my opening scenes this week! So far, you get to see him 3 days in a row, If I can get him to come to work today, it will be 4 days!
Glad you enjoyed that portion of the video! We tried something a little different for that, and all of our viewers seem to have enjoyed it, too! Thank you for watching! We are having a great time so far!
We did some traveling in a 33 ft. travel trailer, but my health keeps us from traveling. I love to watch your videos to see the stuff I wish I could experience.
Good break down. It it unreal how much we spend each month. Y’all did good keeping up with every receipt. Ok I loved the bike rider. That was to funny!!!
Thank you! We shoot for under 6k a month and do pretty good most months! We track everything, for our records because we want to know! That guy just kept riding by!
It’s always fun watching other people spend money, lol. Looks like you all are having fun and having a great life. That’s the main thing! Love your channel, keep it up! P.S. say hi to Phil.
we plan to be stationary me and my boyfriend most time because we don't work remotely so the crunching we should be saving to do more things and get married
If you don't move, you will save so much on RV parks and Fuel! We started out staying every place for a month and we found we like to move and travel! This cost us more but it is the experience we want to have!
Budget is definitely subjective, but having a nice home and vehicle for a family of 5 for 7k a month is not bad at all. Then on top of that you get to travel all over and see all the things you want to see. I have a family of 7 and just our house is close to 5k a month with tax and insurance. Then when we go anywhere its all extra vacation expense. Having a big family is incredibly expensive nowadays. I have no clue how my grandmother had 7 kids and raised them on a single income working at a factory. Its mind boggling.
Our budget every trip is defiantly influenced by what our goals are for the year and what we are trying to do! We had 20 states to see in 10 months this year so we knew we would be on the move and we choose nicer RV parks between Memorial day and Labor day so the kids would have a great summer! I think everything nowadays is expensive and the way our parents and grand parents grew up with big family's and only one parent working just isn't possible anymore!
Tell me about it. I've got 17 years of paying for a Class A, living in it full time for about half of that time and owning two different houses the other half of as it sat and only used a time or two a year. But it takes money to live regardless, no matter the route! Hey, before you went number crazy, the pestering guy on the bike scene was one of your best!
That guy wouldn't leave me alone! It cost money no matter how you live! This way of life is cheaper than our old life, but there still is some cost involved in living this way! We could save money by traveling less but we planned for travel and make it a priority in our life!
Its amazing you and your family get to enjoy traveling and all the memories. Its worth it... don't mind the haters. Live the way live and have fun and your children are only young once, you are the envy of meny. Love you content Rodger and Sheila
Thank you! This is why we choose this way of living now! They are only young once and we wanted to give them the best childhood as a family together! One day we may go back to owning a house and collecting things, but for now we are happy traveling!
Great information! I always wondered how much RVing full time would cost. Loved the breakdown and the E-bike portion of the video 👍 Be safe out there 🙂
Hi we are also full time rv ers question for you who do you us for you internet service we have t mobile for cell phones and internet but its not that good
We had Nomad for 2 years and it was great! We ultimately canceled them on Jan 1 this year when they no longer serviced the plan we had! Now we use Verizon and it is amazing but has a data limit that we exceed every month and get throttled! We have another option we are trying now, but are not at the point where we can share it yet!
OK Kevin, you Out-CDO'd me, and got me mathin'!!! 😂 I ran some numbers, and found that in the last two years, I spent 63-days of travel & camping, and it cost me on average of $228/day, not including food or ancillary items. I guess it's a lot cheaper when you're full-time living on vacation, than when you're an occasional RV'er like me, going on vacation a couple times a year, where my destination is usually over 1,300 miles away. Great thought exercise! Thanks, and safe travels!!!😎👍
Our cost we feel are pretty good, they are a bit higher than our orignal budget we had in mind before jumping into this life! But then again we were making a budget off of things we had not yet done or had an idea what the real cost were going to be! We are not far off of our goal, but still far cheaper than our old life! That being said having our old life and doing this would be a huge expense for us as just a hobby! We probably wouldn't have such a big RV, or have nearly the same expenses but it would still add up!
Where do ya'll get your insurance through if that's not to personal? I'm going to aspartame travel nursing in a few weeks and need insurance for my husband and I.
We are not it doesn't work for the way we like to move! Plus we are not always in that area and Thousand Trails really is only a great option on the east coast! We explored the idea but didn't like the planning game you have to play to fully utilize it!
Great video Great information thanks for sharing. Some of the things I was thinking about as far as expenses glad you guys live the life style you want at an age you can enjoy it. That guy in the bike was a bit suspicious🤔
Your health insurance is cheap really for your family of 5! 745 or whatever the number was is darn good. We’re older mid 50’s my wife and I is 1600 / month
It sounds good, but we've really never used it except for Alecia's accident! It's always cheaper to just pay cash, which made us wonder why we were even paging for health insurance! But when Alecia had her accident, it definitely helped the overall cost!
I enjoy the videos, and the ebike ad was creative. Just curious - the ebike contest went thru 4/20, I haven’t seen anything on who won the bike. I entered, and thought it would make a nice bike to bring on camp trips.
Thank you! The way the contest works is since there is a way to enter through mail in entry's we have to wait a week after the contest is over before we can start putting together everyone that has entered! So last Friday 4/28 we submitted all the entries to Lectric Bikes and they are going to do the drawing and arrange shipping! Once a winner has been selected we will notify everyone in our Newsletter! Usually within two weeks of the contest ending the winner has been announced!
We were hoping people would enjoy us keeping it real on these true cost videos! That biker guy wouldn't quit passing by! We've been trying to get Buddy comfortable with the camera!
We use a verizon Hotspot thats is great but has a limit and gets throttle bad about 20 days into each month! We have another service we are trying out but will see how it goes before we mention it!
Much more than I was thinking, but we live well on $3200/mo. I guess we will have to run a spreadsheet before jumping into anything. Thanks for sharing.
We are also a family of 5 and we move every 7-10 days! so that adds to our rv park and diesel cost big time! If you moved less often and did less exploring it would be much cheaper!
People pay more than that in a house if i could i live on the road and i did for about 3 years and loved it and i want to go back living on the road again but i will have to see how thing goes now since i had Medical problem and that why i had to but i really love watching all your videos because you put it all out there and i love that keep doing it please
Thank you so much for sharing. We will be going full time in about a year. Can you tell me what type of health insurance you have, we are trying to research that now. Thank you for all you do. 😀
$900 a month for parking… the start adding up the gas, no storage so your food costs are high, etc… I really can not see an upside on cost for living in an RV
Things do depreciate, but why is that a bad thing? This channel is a business so it doesn't hurt us! We also live in a strange time where I can sell both for more than I paid for them!
@@PavingNewPaths True however I don't know how you make your money. I'm self employed so I pay estimated taxes which is a monthly expense that is not just taken out of a pay check. Just juggling numbers.
What do you mean? Videos like this are the easiest and fastest videos to make! I spent 3 hours making this video! An adventure video takes a whole day of filming and then we still have to edit them! We didn't realize the food was recalled until the vet asked us to go get a bag from the store, when we got to the store they told us it has been recalled and no longer available!
We still filmed adventures, but we felt having this video, the last one and the next one be together since they are all about money and all tie into each other! Don't worry we have plenty of adventures coming, right now were filming a video every single day and will be releasing them in a week long series!
I assure you this is not a low quality camper! Yes it was unfortunate that it happened, but it did! Also at the time it happened we had seen more use out of the rv than someone who uses it a few times a year would in 10 years! This is what fulltime use looks like!
I'd be willing to bet if you removed the kids the cost would not be much less! The Rv, rv parks, diesel, and adventures would all be the same cost! The only thing that would go down is groceries and health insurance! Kids really are not expensive at this age!
Well ok then, let just say 200k really isn't that much money in this day and age.😊 My dad told me 25 years ago, a million really isn't that much money anymore. You know, if you were doing all this in Mexico, you would be only spending a fraction of that 187k. USA prices are out of control.
It was 172k spread over 2 years that is why we broke it down by monthly cost! We used two years because that is enough data to give you a good average of your cost with two completely different trips in different parts of the US and prices! The kids at this age have no impact on the expenses that add up when living fulltime!
That's why after two years we decided to share our budget with everyone! It is close to what we thought going into this life but still far cheaper than our old way of living with a house!
They are correct 5:55 clearly explains that every thing in this video is over the last two years so 1900x24 does equal $45,600! Having two years of data, gives you a better representation of a true cost! This is why I broke down by month and by the day!
My bad, you said 2 years, I apologize. Our cost without children, is 4K a month with payments on both the camper and truck, but very little in maintenance.
No problem! We decided to use two years because we've had two very different years in terms of expenses and travel destinations, and we found it interesting that both years were very similar in total cost! But also two years gives you a more realistic number of what you are actually spending each month! We we're aiming for 5k a month but it's around 6k for the way we travel! Staying places longer would cut down on RV parks and diesel, but we like to move!
Thank you! How I make my money is pretty irrelevant to the video as it about how much it cost to travel fulltime as a family of 5! We made it to show that traveling in an RV is not really cheaper than living in a home! But just like anyone else in this world we have a job!
The only thing this taught me was.... don't allow a woman to attach herself like a tick on your leg, dump the women, suddenly you'll only be spending less than half of what you are now, space is more than doubled.....full time RVing is best for single men, otherwise it's foolish.
So, you want GD to take care of you while they pay for the problem......You want people to buy your merchandise to make money, all awhile you are looking for sympathy because you have a problem. Take personal responsibility and quit looking for someone to prop you and your family up.
No, we actually just want GD to take responsibility for cutting costs and potentially injuring or killing someone in the process. If a 20k lbs. RV frame fails while going 60mph down the highway, imagine the destruction it will cause. Human lives are more important that a manufacturers bottom line! We want people to buy our merch (or make their own) to wear at the RV Shows or rallies to wake this industry up! Apparently the thousands of people who have experienced frame failure is not enough to wake them up to their deceptive business practices. We never asked anyone to prop us up. We are merely a consumer who is experiencing the consequences of an under engineered cheap frame. Luckily for us, this did not end in a catastrophic loss, but I can assure you, if changes are made quickly, someone's life will be claimed.
I'm posting this to show your viewers that you don't have to break the bank to live this lifestyle. We are a retired full time RVing couple living on SS, and a couple small pensions for about 1/3 of what it used to cost us to live in our old S&B home. Our homeowner's insurance and property taxes alone on our old home cost us more than we now spend on housing (campground and RV park fees) in 3 years! Our older coach and toad are paid for, and we are debt free, which helps a lot. By buying an older, one owner coach with extensive maintenance records we got a very reliable RV that hasn't seen the inside of a repair shop in the last 5 years. We only paid 15,000 for our coach, letting the original owner suffer all the depreciation. Our toad is a little Chevy Cobalt we already owned. It cost less than $1,000 for the tow bar, baseplate, break-away and wiring to be able to tow it behind our MH (as we bought some items used.) We have no mortgage, utility bills, property taxes, homeowner's insurance, landscaping, garbage bills, cable bills, etc. which saves us a ton!
We boondock most of the time, living almost entirely rent free on BLM and Forest Service land. We sometimes spend $180 for a 7 month permit to winter over at the LTVAs surrounding Quartzsite, AZ/Imperial Dam, Ca. For only 86 cents/day you get not only a safe, warm place to stay the winter, but unlimited water, dump and trash disposal too. We boondocked for 8 months straight last year and will do so even more in the future as we just installed a huge solar system that allows us to be totally electrically independent. We lived FT off of only 620 watts of solar for 5 years, but we now have over 5,000 watts of solar and 23.5 kwh of batteries which provides 24/7 air conditioning and heat and lets us use our appliances just like we are plugged into a power pole at an RV park. This system wasn't cheap to build (around $10k) but now that it is installed, we have eliminated our electricity costs for the rest of our lives and greatly expanded the places and seasons we can live too.
We usually boondock all over the western US, staying the typical 2 week camping limit before moving on. We're in NC now, visiting family, where boondocking places are hard to find. So, we found a nice RV park that is letting us camp in one of their spacious no-hookup sites for only $100/month. We dump our tanks and take on fresh water for free every 2 weeks at the dump station, just like when we are boondocking. When you have a large solar system, you have lots of options on how you can choose to live. We've never paid the daily rate at an RV park. We have, however paid 1/2 the daily rate at BLM, Forest Service, NP and COE campgrounds, which usually comes to around $10-$15 a day, with our America the Beautiful pass. We only occasionally splurge like this, usually so we can dump, saving a $10-$12 dump fee.
Fuel and food are our two biggest expenses, and both are controllable. If we find we are running low on funds we just eat out and travel less. But we go where we want and do what we want so we never feel deprived. We live frugally most of the time so when the mood strikes us, we can go out and eat at an expensive restaurant on occasion, and not have it impact our budget. We travel a lot, so typically burn around $3,000-$3,500 worth of fuel for both coach and toad, and eat $6,000-$7,000 worth of food in a year, though both could be reduced by 25-30% without much hardship, simply by traveling and eating out less. BTW, we stopped traveling to CA as both gas and food are outrageous there. We love the state but hate the politics that drive their ridiculous prices. Propane cost us about $400 last year but should be under $300 this year since most of our heat is now provided by our solar/battery powered mini-split heat pump.
Our insurance for both car and coach is right at $1,000 a year, just for the basics, plus another $109/yr. for our Escapee Roadside Assistance plan. Registration for both car and coach costs $80 every 2 years in our domicile state, Louisiana. Our FMCA unlimited AT&T WIFI is $65/mo. plus whatever Netflix charges these days. We stream free TV from Roku, and our cell phone is only $27/mo.. Our mail forwarding service is $120/yr + postage. Laundry is about $300/yr. We avoid toll roads at all costs.
We do all our repairs, maintenance and upgrades ourselves to keep the price down. That said, repair parts around $1,700 a year on both our 1999 National Tropical Class A motorhome and 2006 Chevy Cobalt SS toad. We simply budget for routine maintenance items like tires. We purchased 8 new ones for our coach last year. We plan on doing so every 8 years as they age out before they wear out, so we put $300 a year into our tire fund so there's money there when we need it. Our healthcare is covered by a Medicare Advantage PPO plan (so we can see plan doctors around the country if needed) that is not only free but gives us back $130/mo. from what Medicare part B over charges us in addition to many other benefits.
Our total FT budget is around $33k, but our actual expenses run closer to $30k out of $44k in income, allowing us an adequate emergency fund without dipping into savings.
Thank you for sharing your experience and perspective!
Kevin, what we find as full timers is that the first thing you want to do is never, ever write any of that stuff down, and never keep receipts, but most of all, never make a spreadsheet with all your expenses, it will drive you crazy😂. If the funds run out, we'll go live with our kids, hey, they lived with us for 20 years, they'll have to put up with us for a while🤪. Love your videos. TP
That's funny! But if our money runs out, I don't think the kiddos can support us yet! Haha!
That was very interesting watching. You were great in breaking it all down and making it very understandable! Great information.
Thanks so much for watching and for your feedback on this video! We tried to keep it as real and simple as possible!
Thank you so much! The truth is needed and you shared it with us. You don’t just get an Rv and drive off into a cheaper life style. You have worked, prepared, and planned for your life style. What you shared is so needed. Thank you! You got me with the man driving by! Lol! Great! Great! Great! Video!
Your welcome! We had a plan of staying at 5K a month when we started and after 2 years we avg around 6K a month! We could do it for less, but we enjoy moving and exploring so we are ok with the price! Not only is it far cheaper than our previous life it allows us to spend time as a family! That guy just kept driving by!
Have you ever thought about moving your domicile to the state of South Dakota. I believe you only need to spend one night every year or every other year. (one of the two). Registration fees on vehicles and trailers are lower. No annual inspection fees on vehicles or trailers and I believe vehicle insurance is also cheaper. The best part is you can do everything online. All you do is get a receipt for staying 24 hours in South Dakota and get an address in South Dakota through a mailing agency to show a South Dakota address. You would need to get South Dakota plates and licenses.
We did consider that when we first started and it came down to our big picture plan! Will we fulltime forever?We don't know, also at some point we will settle down or at least have a part time base in Texas! We are both from Texas, everything we own is already registered in Texas and what ever our next stage in life is, it will be in Texas so switching everything over seemed like a hassle when we know our future will likely involve a home base in Texas!
Great details! Laughed at the electric bike editing of you back and forth! Thanks. Your sweet family is fun to watch!
Thanks for watching! It was fun filming the eBike portion a little differently than I usually do!
We just spent 3 months wintering in texas, and the monthly cost was almost equal to what we would have spent at home. We paid by the month for rent, which is about the same as our property taxes. Utilities, food also about the same as winter at home, so no real added expense there. Only real extra expense is fuel, like you said. But we are used to spending 2 weeks in Hawaii, for 6k for 2 of us, and 3 months in texas has cost us about 4k. And much more relaxed and fun. Our house is paid for, as is our truck, and trailer. We have allocated 45k for the 2 of us and 3 dogs, for each year, and haven't even come close to spending that much.. Planning is everything.
We thought 5k a month was a good goal we came close but average 6k! We could save if we didn't move as much on RV parks and Diesel, but we like the adventure! It is also some serious perspective when we are way cheaper than the life we had in our house!
Thanks for sharing. We are shooting for $4-$5K per month for just the wife and I.
Your welcome! We were able to stay close to 5K the first couple of months when we were staying places a month! Once we started to move more our typical now is around 6K a month!
And people may want to consider trailer and truck deprecation. Doesn’t hit home you until you sell those items.
Depreciation doesn't matter, we bought this RV and truck to travel! They are tools that serve a purpose to achieve our goal! If your worried about how much you're going to sell it for, why did you buy it in the first place!
Great breakdown.
As for me, with just a cat, my expenses are much lower.
My Class C payment and car payment (which I am thinking of selling) are about $995/month.
As long as I stay 2-14 days in one spot, my gas stays fairly low.
But deciding to travel from AZ to SD and back in a fairly short time period, my gas was way high.
Other than that, I boondock, and have only stay 5 nights in the last year at a RV Park.
Thank you! We would love to say we could save money by boondocking, but with a family of 5 it just wouldn't work for us! We would always be out of water!
I see. Your getting better at your advertisement. The E-bike thing was awesome. Funny. Lol. When your advertisement is something I've seen. I'll fast forward it. But this one was great. I had to wait and see what was this guy doing. Good one
Thank you! In the past I shot one clip for the giveaway and just used it in every video during that giveaway! I found this was kinda boring and repetitive for me as the creator, so likely it was very boring for the viewer! I decided to change it up for every video now when we are doing giveaways! It still serves the purpose of giving you the info but it's done in a way that doesn't feel like an advertisement! Glad you enjoyed it!
Lot of information. Thanks for the video. Love you guys! Safe travels!
Thank you!
Happy day family. Life is expensive. enjoy the days weeks years that you have with your beautiful children.
Thank you! We made the choice to live this way because we wanted to spend more time as a family and less time working to collect things! This may seem expensive, but it is far less than the old life we used to have!
Thanks Kev very interesting n informative n so when Alecia driving?
Thanks Josh! If you want to see her drive, you're better off going to watch the old videos!
Oh wow. That was an amazing video. You gave a great lay out of the cost of full time living. I learned a lot. Thank you, guys.
Thank you!
It was fun watching you guys blow through $200,000. You know you could have a kid every other year and it will help your channel. It was nice not seeing this on a spreadsheet but you showing places and items. Nice to see Buddy he seems to hide from the camera. Glad you guys are enjoying life and your kids are having a great life. Stay safe and healthy.
It seems like a lot, but it is significantly cheaper than the old life we used to have! Buddy is a rescue dog and had a rough past, he gets scared every time I point the camera at him! I have been working on it, but he seems to only not be afraid of it if we're out walking around!
@@PavingNewPaths We use to get dogs from fight clubs and tame them back down so they could have a life and not be put to sleep. I understand Buddy's feelings, still nice to see him once in a while when you can. I have a soft spot for dogs that had a hard life. Hope you all are staying safe and healthy.
He is helping be with my opening scenes this week! So far, you get to see him 3 days in a row, If I can get him to come to work today, it will be 4 days!
Thanks for the real life break down of what it takes to live on the road.
You welcome! It can be less and it can be more depending on what experience you are looking for!
You just answered all my questions. Now I know the wife and I can travel full time with no worries. Thanks bud
Glad we could help!
Great information! Thanks for sharing.
Thank you!
We loved the E bike portion of the video. Great job. We love you guys. Hope all is going well with your trip.
Glad you enjoyed that portion of the video! We tried something a little different for that, and all of our viewers seem to have enjoyed it, too! Thank you for watching! We are having a great time so far!
We did some traveling in a 33 ft. travel trailer, but my health keeps us from traveling. I love to watch your videos to see the stuff I wish I could experience.
We are so glad you enjoy the videos, and we hope you have had a great time with us this year!
Great video and great brake down Kevin of all the things per month / day. Can't wait for the next video
Thanks Josh!
Good break down. It it unreal how much we spend each month. Y’all did good keeping up with every receipt.
Ok I loved the bike rider. That was to funny!!!
Thank you! We shoot for under 6k a month and do pretty good most months! We track everything, for our records because we want to know! That guy just kept riding by!
Kevin, that opening scene was hilarious! Great job on the video!
Thank you! I learned it is really hard to film a conversation with yourself!
@@PavingNewPaths I dare not try that, I might carry on a conversation.
Thanks for taking the time to make this video. It's amazing how much it costs jusr to live an average life.
You welcome! It could be less if we stayed at parks longer and did less driving, but that's not the adventure we wanted to have!
It’s always fun watching other people spend money, lol. Looks like you all are having fun and having a great life. That’s the main thing! Love your channel, keep it up! P.S. say hi to Phil.
Ha ha! We are having a great time, glad you enjoy the channel! Phil says hi!
Interesting....A+ on record keeping!!! Love the bike advertisement...very creative!!!
Thank you, glad you enjoyed it! We keep a record of everything on this journey!
Great video. So glad you are enjoying the lifestyle and tailoring it to your family’s style of travel!!!!
Thanks so much!
Wow! You must be great at keeping track of all those costs. I’m not that organized.
Thank you! We have tried to keep track of everything since we started this journey!
Agree the RV and car ins is going up, great video 👍
Thank you!
we plan to be stationary me and my boyfriend most time because we don't work remotely so the crunching we should be saving to do more things and get married
If you don't move, you will save so much on RV parks and Fuel! We started out staying every place for a month and we found we like to move and travel! This cost us more but it is the experience we want to have!
Budget is definitely subjective, but having a nice home and vehicle for a family of 5 for 7k a month is not bad at all. Then on top of that you get to travel all over and see all the things you want to see. I have a family of 7 and just our house is close to 5k a month with tax and insurance. Then when we go anywhere its all extra vacation expense. Having a big family is incredibly expensive nowadays. I have no clue how my grandmother had 7 kids and raised them on a single income working at a factory. Its mind boggling.
Our budget every trip is defiantly influenced by what our goals are for the year and what we are trying to do! We had 20 states to see in 10 months this year so we knew we would be on the move and we choose nicer RV parks between Memorial day and Labor day so the kids would have a great summer! I think everything nowadays is expensive and the way our parents and grand parents grew up with big family's and only one parent working just isn't possible anymore!
Lol must have recorded the Chick-fil-A part on a Sunday. Lol
Indeed, I did! I was looking for little to no background noise places!
Greetings from the Philippines! UP!
Greetings!
How helpful is this! Good job sharin!
Glad you found it helpful! Thanks for watching!
Tell me about it. I've got 17 years of paying for a Class A, living in it full time for about half of that time and owning two different houses the other half of as it sat and only used a time or two a year. But it takes money to live regardless, no matter the route! Hey, before you went number crazy, the pestering guy on the bike scene was one of your best!
That guy wouldn't leave me alone! It cost money no matter how you live! This way of life is cheaper than our old life, but there still is some cost involved in living this way! We could save money by traveling less but we planned for travel and make it a priority in our life!
@@PavingNewPaths There's always that "one" LOL
Its amazing you and your family get to enjoy traveling and all the memories. Its worth it... don't mind the haters. Live the way live and have fun and your children are only young once, you are the envy of meny.
Love you content
Rodger and Sheila
Thank you! This is why we choose this way of living now! They are only young once and we wanted to give them the best childhood as a family together! One day we may go back to owning a house and collecting things, but for now we are happy traveling!
I agree just dont whine about it
At least the trailer registration is cheaper in TX. I pay around $500 a year just for the camper
Texas has always been a little more affordable on things like taxes and fees!
Great information! I always wondered how much RVing full time would cost. Loved the breakdown and the E-bike portion of the video 👍 Be safe out there 🙂
Thanks for watching! It certainly wasn't as cheap as we first thought it would be! Kevin had a good time filming the eBike portion!
ouch! We missed y’all in Branson wel had a blast LO and I road all the big rollercosters I’ve been waiting many years to get to do that! love y’all 💙
We missed you guys too! Glad you guys got to check out all the rollercoasters!
Your videos are very informative! Thank you
Thank you! Glad you liked them!
What do y'all do for work living full-time traveling?
Our job is this RUclips channel for now! This video explains how we got started in a little more detail! ruclips.net/video/vat9EwbGYQQ/видео.html
Hi we are also full time rv ers question for you who do you us for you internet service we have t mobile for cell phones and internet but its not that good
We had Nomad for 2 years and it was great! We ultimately canceled them on Jan 1 this year when they no longer serviced the plan we had! Now we use Verizon and it is amazing but has a data limit that we exceed every month and get throttled! We have another option we are trying now, but are not at the point where we can share it yet!
OK Kevin, you Out-CDO'd me, and got me mathin'!!! 😂 I ran some numbers, and found that in the last two years, I spent 63-days of travel & camping, and it cost me on average of $228/day, not including food or ancillary items. I guess it's a lot cheaper when you're full-time living on vacation, than when you're an occasional RV'er like me, going on vacation a couple times a year, where my destination is usually over 1,300 miles away. Great thought exercise! Thanks, and safe travels!!!😎👍
Our cost we feel are pretty good, they are a bit higher than our orignal budget we had in mind before jumping into this life! But then again we were making a budget off of things we had not yet done or had an idea what the real cost were going to be! We are not far off of our goal, but still far cheaper than our old life! That being said having our old life and doing this would be a huge expense for us as just a hobby! We probably wouldn't have such a big RV, or have nearly the same expenses but it would still add up!
Where do ya'll get your insurance through if that's not to personal? I'm going to aspartame travel nursing in a few weeks and need insurance for my husband and I.
We went through an agent and he shopped everything for us and went with UnitedHealth care!
@@PavingNewPaths Thank you.
Are you a thousand trails member?
We are not it doesn't work for the way we like to move! Plus we are not always in that area and Thousand Trails really is only a great option on the east coast! We explored the idea but didn't like the planning game you have to play to fully utilize it!
Great video Great information thanks for sharing. Some of the things I was thinking about as far as expenses glad you guys live the life style you want at an age you can enjoy it. That guy in the bike was a bit suspicious🤔
That guy wouldn't leave me alone all day! We were shooting for 5k when we started and were not far off we hover around 6K most months!
@Paving New Paths your close, especially since the price of everything has jumps significantly.
We were going for half of what we used to spend in the sticks and bricks and we are still beating that!
Your health insurance is cheap really for your family of 5! 745 or whatever the number was is darn good. We’re older mid 50’s my wife and I is 1600 / month
It sounds good, but we've really never used it except for Alecia's accident! It's always cheaper to just pay cash, which made us wonder why we were even paging for health insurance! But when Alecia had her accident, it definitely helped the overall cost!
Do these numbers reflect the cost of Daredevil Alecia Knievel's jumping off cliffs and down hills and into flooding creeks???? :-P
Yes they do!
@@PavingNewPaths lol....i just got to 13:52 where they do come up!!! Y'all can never be politicians... You're too honest. :-D
That is the section! of the 13k we have spent 10k was from baby Kaden and Alecias accident!
Have you gotten a TSD card?
Yes, we have one!
I enjoy the videos, and the ebike ad was creative. Just curious - the ebike contest went thru 4/20, I haven’t seen anything on who won the bike. I entered, and thought it would make a nice bike to bring on camp trips.
Thank you! The way the contest works is since there is a way to enter through mail in entry's we have to wait a week after the contest is over before we can start putting together everyone that has entered! So last Friday 4/28 we submitted all the entries to Lectric Bikes and they are going to do the drawing and arrange shipping! Once a winner has been selected we will notify everyone in our Newsletter! Usually within two weeks of the contest ending the winner has been announced!
Do you use Starlink for your internet?
We use verizon for our internet!
What health insurance do you have? Thanks for sharing!
We went through an independent agent that shops all plans for us and we went with a UnitedHealth care plan!
@@PavingNewPaths hmm ok. We will have to start shopping for that soon
@@journeysendrv Find an agent that can shop for you make your life easier!
Goood morning family
Gooood Mornin!
I still want to know how you guys make your money on the road
You watch how we make our money on the road every Thursday and Sunday!
👋🏽 Thanks for keeping it real about the costs. Don't be too hard on that biker guy😅.It's great that Buddy has such a loving family. ❤
We were hoping people would enjoy us keeping it real on these true cost videos! That biker guy wouldn't quit passing by! We've been trying to get Buddy comfortable with the camera!
Great video! What health insurance do you guy's use? We are in the market.
Thank you! We used an agent and have a plan through United Healthcare!
Thanks for sharing. What do you guys use for internet?
We use a verizon Hotspot thats is great but has a limit and gets throttle bad about 20 days into each month! We have another service we are trying out but will see how it goes before we mention it!
Excellent information ❤
Thank You!
Man it add's up quick but it's all alot of fun...
It is so much fun, and a way better life choice than the way we used to live!
Much more than I was thinking, but we live well on $3200/mo. I guess we will have to run a spreadsheet before jumping into anything. Thanks for sharing.
We are also a family of 5 and we move every 7-10 days! so that adds to our rv park and diesel cost big time! If you moved less often and did less exploring it would be much cheaper!
@@PavingNewPaths good tip. Thank you.
People pay more than that in a house if i could i live on the road and i did for about 3 years and loved it and i want to go back living on the road again but i will have to see how thing goes now since i had Medical problem and that why i had to but i really love watching all your videos because you put it all out there and i love that keep doing it please
Thank you for watching! We are trying to keep things as real as we can on our channel! Good luck getting back into an rv!
Boy I am GLAD I have Tricare/ VA medical.
Health Insurance Is a big cost and you just have to deal with because you need it!
That was some good editing!!!
Thank you!
Thank you so much for sharing. We will be going full time in about a year. Can you tell me what type of health insurance you have, we are trying to research that now. Thank you for all you do. 😀
Thank you. We are glad you enjoyed the video! We used an agent to shop for us and went with UnitedHealth!
$900 a month for parking… the start adding up the gas, no storage so your food costs are high, etc…
I really can not see an upside on cost for living in an RV
This is half the cost of what we paid to live in a house! So for us this saves us big time and we replaced it with time spent as a family!
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 Your lectric bit was brilliant!!!!!!
Thank you! We tried to have fun with it!
You forgot to include depreciation on both your truck and trailer. Unbelievable what things cost.
Things do depreciate, but why is that a bad thing? This channel is a business so it doesn't hurt us! We also live in a strange time where I can sell both for more than I paid for them!
Did you mention taxes?
everyone pays taxes based on what they earn, doesn't matter how you live taxes are taken out!
@@PavingNewPaths True however I don't know how you make your money. I'm self employed so I pay estimated taxes which is a monthly expense that is not just taken out of a pay check. Just juggling numbers.
@@cb-gz1vl But taxes have no relevance to what we spend to live fulltime on the road traveling!
very interesting thank you
Whoa!!!
It's cheaper than our sticks and bricks life was but it still requires a signification amount to live and travel fulltime
Whoa that’s expensive!! But totally worth it 👍
It's cheaper than our sticks and bricks but a little more than we originally budgeted for this lifestyle!
What are you not doing so you have time to make these? Also don't poison buddy!
What do you mean? Videos like this are the easiest and fastest videos to make! I spent 3 hours making this video! An adventure video takes a whole day of filming and then we still have to edit them! We didn't realize the food was recalled until the vet asked us to go get a bag from the store, when we got to the store they told us it has been recalled and no longer available!
@@PavingNewPaths well these informative videos came during the birth and ankle injury. I appreciate them don't let my bad joke take that away.
We still filmed adventures, but we felt having this video, the last one and the next one be together since they are all about money and all tie into each other! Don't worry we have plenty of adventures coming, right now were filming a video every single day and will be releasing them in a week long series!
Waiting on my swag! I’m all entered. Let me know when you need my address 🤣
Good luck to you, and we hope you enjoy your new merch!
Some of that seems like it's a low quality camper. the roof and the floor, in 2 years! That should not have happened.
I assure you this is not a low quality camper! Yes it was unfortunate that it happened, but it did! Also at the time it happened we had seen more use out of the rv than someone who uses it a few times a year would in 10 years! This is what fulltime use looks like!
If you don't like tolls you definitely won't like going to Maine
We're spending $28 on tolls today and don't even have the rv with us! Tolls are a necessary evil, sometimes!
When your dealing with kids, forgettaboutit.😊 Waay too expensive.
I'd be willing to bet if you removed the kids the cost would not be much less! The Rv, rv parks, diesel, and adventures would all be the same cost! The only thing that would go down is groceries and health insurance! Kids really are not expensive at this age!
Well ok then, let just say 200k really isn't that much money in this day and age.😊 My dad told me 25 years ago, a million really isn't that much money anymore.
You know, if you were doing all this in Mexico, you would be only spending a fraction of that 187k.
USA prices are out of control.
It was 172k spread over 2 years that is why we broke it down by monthly cost! We used two years because that is enough data to give you a good average of your cost with two completely different trips in different parts of the US and prices! The kids at this age have no impact on the expenses that add up when living fulltime!
@Paving New Paths Need a full time job to afford living RV full time unless your rich. Either that or a youtube channel that pays the bills.😂
😍
Thank you!
Your expenses are off the hook
But much cheaper than what we spent when we owned a home!
My budget is 200 dollars a day. It's more expensive than you think
That's why after two years we decided to share our budget with everyone! It is close to what we thought going into this life but still far cheaper than our old way of living with a house!
@Paving New Paths hate people who say, "we live on $1500 dollars a month." You might be able to, but you're not moving or seeing anything.
@@swansong68 No way! Sure if your stationary at a very cheap place and just sit at home and watch Tv!
Your calculations are wrong. 12 x 1900 doesn’t equal 45k
They are correct 5:55 clearly explains that every thing in this video is over the last two years so 1900x24 does equal $45,600! Having two years of data, gives you a better representation of a true cost! This is why I broke down by month and by the day!
@@PavingNewPaths the screen said12x1900, but it’s their video.
There is no math on the screen in this video! Only grand totals, so please tell me what minute mark in the video you feel is wrong!
My bad, you said 2 years, I apologize.
Our cost without children, is 4K a month with payments on both the camper and truck, but very little in maintenance.
No problem! We decided to use two years because we've had two very different years in terms of expenses and travel destinations, and we found it interesting that both years were very similar in total cost! But also two years gives you a more realistic number of what you are actually spending each month! We we're aiming for 5k a month but it's around 6k for the way we travel! Staying places longer would cut down on RV parks and diesel, but we like to move!
Great video but where the money is coming from you must spend a lot of time doing work on a computer..
Thank you! How I make my money is pretty irrelevant to the video as it about how much it cost to travel fulltime as a family of 5! We made it to show that traveling in an RV is not really cheaper than living in a home! But just like anyone else in this world we have a job!
The only thing this taught me was.... don't allow a woman to attach herself like a tick on your leg, dump the women, suddenly you'll only be spending less than half of what you are now, space is more than doubled.....full time RVing is best for single men, otherwise it's foolish.
I think we know why your single...
@@PavingNewPaths whatever you say pal.....whatever you say.
Watch out for ticks!
@@PavingNewPaths you said it, not me.
I love my "ticks." I want to make sure you don't get one and ruin that RV bachelor pad life you're living!
So, you want GD to take care of you while they pay for the problem......You want people to buy your merchandise to make money, all awhile you are looking for sympathy because you have a problem. Take personal responsibility and quit looking for someone to prop you and your family up.
No, we actually just want GD to take responsibility for cutting costs and potentially injuring or killing someone in the process. If a 20k lbs. RV frame fails while going 60mph down the highway, imagine the destruction it will cause. Human lives are more important that a manufacturers bottom line! We want people to buy our merch (or make their own) to wear at the RV Shows or rallies to wake this industry up! Apparently the thousands of people who have experienced frame failure is not enough to wake them up to their deceptive business practices. We never asked anyone to prop us up. We are merely a consumer who is experiencing the consequences of an under engineered cheap frame. Luckily for us, this did not end in a catastrophic loss, but I can assure you, if changes are made quickly, someone's life will be claimed.