Help Calculate Actual Cost of Fulltiming??

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Smoky said:
I can provide a spreadsheet from the Newmar Yahoo forum.
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Smoky, unless it's your own creation, please ask the author for permission before uploading it here. Let him/her know you'll provide appropriate attribution.

Thanks
 
I can build the sheet easy enough, it is id'ing all the prospective data points.  Guess I better get to work...
 
The example they give, IMO is living "high off the hog" at 51k a year.
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IMHO 51K isn't that "high" a hog. :) :) :)

I guess it always comes down to what you consider essentials and what you include in the budget.
 
Our total expenses are about the same as when we lived in a stick house.  We just spend the money on different things. For example we now spend more on diesel fuel and admission fees. 

You can live very cheaply, or in a lavish style.

Jeannine
 
>>Our total expenses are about the same as when we lived in a stick house. <<

Ditto...Ours is the same as before we retired.


Terry
At Moab, UT
 
Ours will be greatly reduced.  Mainly because we are eliminating ALL debt.  But also will live less expensively.  We have been too extravagant in the past heheh.  We figure shifting our focus to the great outdoors instead of accumulating things is going to lower the budget.
 
Smoky
I'm with you onthis.  Heck, I don't spend 51k a year now!  When we go it will be with no debt, so long as we don't make much new debt, it will be fuel when we are travelling, and fees for staying.  For the next x amount of years we plan on continuing to work, although at lower end jobs, figuring the egg will mature a little more before we have to crack it.  Hoping to hook up with a national temp agency that has health coverage. 

Our lifestyle is pretty easy going.  Rather cook than eat out, don't do much in the way of movies etc.  We are pretty low maintenance.

 
Yup same here.

We feel very fortunate that my retirement medical is so good.  We could not be fulltiming without it.  Our biggest nightmare is that Verizon might jettison the coverage.  There was some possibility of this three years ago, but a new retiree association was formed, collected funds, hired attorneys and made quite a commotion and became a powerful force.  The pension plan is overfunded, so there is no crisis such as is at GM of funds running short.  But Verizon has become a cutthroat company interested only in short term bottom line, and the BelTel Retiree Association really has its work cut out watching them.

Like you we plan to not eat out much (see our picnic table posts  :D ) and do a lot of boondocking (main reason for a motorhome rather than a fifth wheel) and like you work at various short term low level jobs and some workkamping.  I am really happy to get away from a professional career where the job owns me and I am enjoying lower paying but interesting odd jobs which I can feel free to walk away from at any time.

Insurance will be another big budget item along with maintenance and repairs.

But we think we can scrape along without feeling like we are scraping along.  When you are fully occupied with a life sized adventure, you don;t have the time to dwell on lots of material "things".
 
Like you we plan to not eat out much (see our picnic table posts  Cheesy ) and do a lot of boondocking (main reason for a motorhome rather than a fifth wheel) and like you work at various short term low level jobs and some workkamping.  I am really happy to get away from a professional career where the job owns me and I am enjoying lower paying but interesting odd jobs which I can feel free to walk away from at any time.
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Hi Smokey,
We are working to get out of the suffocating office routine and right now plan to get a 30' 5th wheel.  At that size, I'm not sure if boondocking is a realistic option.  Is it?  Why does a motorhome lend itself to boondocking better than a fifth wheel?
deb
 
Deb:

I am sure others more experienced than me will jump in.  I can tell you what I learned from my "intensive" 8 months of experience, but have almost no boondocking experience other than in my 30 foot trailer, which was entirely unsatisfactory without a genset.

My feeling is that the motorhome is more suited to integrate the various electric and fuel technologies than a fifth wheel.  I do know a lot of people who boondock in 5th wheels and do so successfully.  I bet they added gensets and inverters and have pretty large 5th wheels to hold everything.  The motorhome already has much of what is needed to begin with.

Mine will have solar panels to keep the batteries charged, a 2kw inverter, an 8kw Onan genset, and a lot of sophisticated wiring and circuitry direct from the factory.  When I researched fifth wheels I found that most of this stuff were "add ons" and a lot of dealers were vague about how to do it properly.  No dealers seem vague at all when they talk about boondocking motorhomes.
 
deber said:
... plan to get a 30' 5th wheel.  At that size, I'm not sure if boondocking is a realistic option.  Is it?  Why does a motorhome lend itself to boondocking better than a fifth wheel?
deb
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Moterhomes usually come with the stuff (generator, inverter, etc.) you need to boondock comfortably.  You have to add them to most 5th wheels.  We have a 5th wheel and do a lot of boondocking.  BUT, my husband installed the inverter and other items.  We have a portable generator, rather than a built-in one.  You also need good sized fresh water and holding tanks, which many 5ers don't have.  I don't think the length of the rig matters much.

Jeannine
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Thanks for the replies, Smoky and Jeannine

We may do some re-thinking on this as we definitely want to boondock...with solar.
We considered the 5th wheel more economical in the long run because we would only have one motor to maintain.  With a motor home, we will need to tow. 
 
I think a lot depends on HOW you want to deal with life on the road.  Don't forget that when you get to a place, you unhook and drive around a good sized truck.  We are going this way because we already have the truck, don't need to buy to pieces.  We have a motorcycle to get us around a bit too.  (not yet sure how this will be carried), with a MH you pull a little car, and have nice economical transport.  2 motors, sure, but that doesn't really enter into the equation that much. 

When I fulltime I will go MH.  For our current situation the 5er is best,  but will likely keep the slide-on camper.  We can go offroad with this combination, and as a trade-in, with the year it is, it is worth more to us to keep than to trade.

 
I meant to answer some of the boondocking here too.  Other than way offroad, which most stuff won't do anyway, boondocking would be fine in a fiver. With solar easy, and with a 5er set for a genset, or a prortable, you can take care of the other issues. 

 
Deb:

Originally we were going to fulltime in a 5th wheel.  It took many months to gradually swing over to the MH as our preference.  One thing I did not like was the idea of driving around in a truck.  We will be on a very tight budget and gas mileage will mean a lot to us.  We wanted something more economical to drive around in.

Another thing that swung us over was going to many many shows.  The more time we spent in MHs, the more we liked what we saw.

But either will work well.  I would say don;t set your sights right now on one or the other.  Just look at as many as you can and let the final decision come of its own accord.
 
I finally got around to re-uploading Ken Tarkin's detailed list of fulltiming expenses to our library. You can view it by clicking the Library button in the toolbar above, then clicking Fulltiming and selecting Fulltiming expenses. The data is a little old, and you'll have to extrapolate a little to today's $$, but it's quite detailed information.
 
Mike and I are inching our way toward full-timing so I've enjoyed reading this thread. On the 5th wheel vs motorhome discussion, my parents started full-timing in 1976 and still go out for 3-4 months at a time. They started out with a 20-foot trailer, moved up to a 35-foot 5th-wheel (all before slide outs) and now have a 25-foot 5th wheel with a slide out. They do a lot of boondocking and have never had a problem, Dad has a couple of solar panels he sets out when they're staying somewhere awhile and a small generator he hauls in the truck bed. HOWEVER, they are very, very low maintenance people when it comes to electric use....not big TV watchers, didn't have a satellite for years, and the computer stays home in Oregon when they go traveling. I guess what works for you depends a lot on what you do and how much "juice" you need !

Wendy
roasting in Colorado
 
I read most of the posts about plans, costs, different units etc.  One thing I have yet to see is the upkeep on whatever unit you have.  Most of the big motorhomes require expert maintanence.  Even the newer pickups do not lend much for do it yourselfers other than oil change/filters.  RV appliances are not as long lasting as normal household ones.  Parts are expensive and again, generally require professional experience.  All of these things should be expected and included in your so called budget.  In my years I have seen full timers in everything from a van to a Prevost conversion.  All had to live within their means.  Don't be fooled by our government's estimation of inflation, it is considerably higher when you are on the road.  I can almost promise you that you will underestimate your expected costs.  That said, do it anyway but just be careful.  Life is too short to worry.  You will rarely re-coup your initial costs of any RV.  In 10 years you will probably have replaced that 250K MH and be farther in debt but you would have had fun.  Cannot put a price on that. 
 
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