Hey Everyone. I'm in my 50s and at a stage in my life where I'm considering a drastic change. Actually, I quit work last year and I'm about to sell my house. One idea that I've been considering is a year or more of RVing, but I can't seem to find data about how expensive it is to live at state or national parks. Based on what daily/weekly rates at these places, it seems to me that it would cost more than $1,000/mo just to park the rig. That's a mortgage payment where I live. Are there places to stay for free. What should I budget for annual site fees.
Not an RVer yet, but looking for info about long term RVing.
- Thread starter Larry J
- Start date
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Kevin Means
Site Team
Hi Larry. Yes, there are places you can stay that don't charge anything. Of course you won't have any sevices either. We often boondock in the Arizona desert, about 30 miles south of Quartzsite, but not during the summer for obvious reasons 
. You can camp there for two weeks, then you have to move on. The Rangers will politely remind you of that too.
Many RV parks have lower rates for long-term stays (a month or more) and the prices will vary depending on the quality and location of the park, and the time of year. Welcome to the forum.
Kev
. You can camp there for two weeks, then you have to move on. The Rangers will politely remind you of that too.Many RV parks have lower rates for long-term stays (a month or more) and the prices will vary depending on the quality and location of the park, and the time of year. Welcome to the forum.
Kev
halfwright
Well-known member
- Joined
- Feb 27, 2013
- Posts
- 1,212
Larry,
Before we started full time, I joined the Moose, VFW and Eagles. Many of them have places to park for $10-15 with hookups or in the lot for a donation. We also volunteer and workamp. In the 3 years we have been on the road, our average cost has been about $2/night. We have not paid for a spot in the last 6 months. We have had to spend 5 nights in a Walmart lot in 3 years and 2 of thse were because the roads were closed. Living is an RV gives you more control over your budget than any other life style. You can spend $65/night at a high end resort park or $0 at a dispersed camping site in a national forest. You can travel every day and buy fuel or stay put for 2-3 days at a time and see the sights locally. Run a search on the forum for "budget" and you will find all kinds of information. We have seen 38 states in 3 years on $2250 a month.
Before we started full time, I joined the Moose, VFW and Eagles. Many of them have places to park for $10-15 with hookups or in the lot for a donation. We also volunteer and workamp. In the 3 years we have been on the road, our average cost has been about $2/night. We have not paid for a spot in the last 6 months. We have had to spend 5 nights in a Walmart lot in 3 years and 2 of thse were because the roads were closed. Living is an RV gives you more control over your budget than any other life style. You can spend $65/night at a high end resort park or $0 at a dispersed camping site in a national forest. You can travel every day and buy fuel or stay put for 2-3 days at a time and see the sights locally. Run a search on the forum for "budget" and you will find all kinds of information. We have seen 38 states in 3 years on $2250 a month.
Tom Hoffman
Well-known member
Hi Larry, My wife and I stay out for 3-5 months at a time for her Job as a Traveling Nurse. We have stayed on the East Coast, Central US and and Nevada and Arizona. Consistently I have been able to find medium to nice RV Parks to live in for each of the stays ranging from a Low of $200 per Month to a High of $550 per month. So far east of the Mississippi, electric was included, out west electric was extra.
By far the best place we have stayed was in Yuma AZ for $350 per month + electric which averaged $60 per month. The nice thing I find in the RV parks in AZ is there are few urchins living in them unless they are a family park, not many of them in YUMA. We are on our way back in mid Oct to Yuma for the winter Her Job starts Oct 17 and we will be there till Mid April. Frankly I can hardly wait to get there, we are in Iowa this summer and it is $450 per months + $20 per week to have the Black water tank pumped each week. Gray water runs out to the ditch and waters the grass.
Traveling expenses per trip so far have averaged around .40-.50 per mile for fuel. once in our location, our fuel expenses are very low as we can go up to 3 weeks on a fill up.
We have never tried to stay in City, County or National parks the few that I have asked about limit the length of stay and most I have checked in the mid west don't have sewer hook ups so you either have to move often to dump tanks or move because you stay is limited.
My best advice is to get on the phone and call 5-6 RV parks per area you are interested in or look up their web sites and check out amenities and monthly rates. By far the most expensive rates are daily or weekly.
Have a good one.
Tom...
By far the best place we have stayed was in Yuma AZ for $350 per month + electric which averaged $60 per month. The nice thing I find in the RV parks in AZ is there are few urchins living in them unless they are a family park, not many of them in YUMA. We are on our way back in mid Oct to Yuma for the winter Her Job starts Oct 17 and we will be there till Mid April. Frankly I can hardly wait to get there, we are in Iowa this summer and it is $450 per months + $20 per week to have the Black water tank pumped each week. Gray water runs out to the ditch and waters the grass.
Traveling expenses per trip so far have averaged around .40-.50 per mile for fuel. once in our location, our fuel expenses are very low as we can go up to 3 weeks on a fill up.
We have never tried to stay in City, County or National parks the few that I have asked about limit the length of stay and most I have checked in the mid west don't have sewer hook ups so you either have to move often to dump tanks or move because you stay is limited.
My best advice is to get on the phone and call 5-6 RV parks per area you are interested in or look up their web sites and check out amenities and monthly rates. By far the most expensive rates are daily or weekly.
Have a good one.
Tom...
To help keep costs down lots of us camp host either as volunteers or paid positions. As a volunteer at least in the Oregon state park system we are obligated for 30 days at a time, and 20 or 30 hours a week, with 2 days a week off. Clean a few camp sites, check and restock rest rooms and bundle and sell fire wood. For that we get a nice full hookup site and some of the best rangers in the nation to work with. Places like workcamper news for a paid subscription have lots of paid and volunteer job opportunities posted each month. How frugal you want to live is totally up to you. State and NF parks will have stay limits, generally 14 days. Private parks generally will continue to take your money for as long as you want to stay.
There is no way that the RV life is cheap, but it can be very rewarding if you want it to be. I have seen far too many thinkthis life is glamerous, purchase a nice RV and after a year either sell it at a great loss or simply park it and let it self destruct from lack of use/maintenance. Your choice. Be prepared to budget around 3000 dollars a month for living on the road. Some do it for less, but there are a lot of others that it costs a lot more.
There is no way that the RV life is cheap, but it can be very rewarding if you want it to be. I have seen far too many thinkthis life is glamerous, purchase a nice RV and after a year either sell it at a great loss or simply park it and let it self destruct from lack of use/maintenance. Your choice. Be prepared to budget around 3000 dollars a month for living on the road. Some do it for less, but there are a lot of others that it costs a lot more.
Gary RV_Wizard
Site Team
I'll second much of what the others have said. Fulltimers and longtimers typically do not pay daily rates - they stay long enough to get at least some longer term discounts, and they don't always stay in high-end places. Campsites cost $300-$900 per month depending on location, season and amenities included. Where you fall in that range depends on you. Sometimes they find friends to visit and a week or two of "camping" might be had for the cost of a dinner in a restaurant or a contribution toward the electric bill.
If your motivation for RVing was to save money, you can pretty much forget that. If your choice of abode put you in the $1000/month mortgage payment group, then you will probably spend at least that much on your RV home, plus campsite, fuel and vehicle maintenance costs as well. You can buy an old, inexpensive rig and stay in less-than-pristine campgrounds, but you could have the same low-budget lifestyle without getting an RV at all. Assuming you maintain a similar living standard to what you now enjoy, the RV is not going to save you money. What it WILL do is enable you to move around at whim, see what numerous other places have to offer (good and bad), and meet many new people.
If your motivation for RVing was to save money, you can pretty much forget that. If your choice of abode put you in the $1000/month mortgage payment group, then you will probably spend at least that much on your RV home, plus campsite, fuel and vehicle maintenance costs as well. You can buy an old, inexpensive rig and stay in less-than-pristine campgrounds, but you could have the same low-budget lifestyle without getting an RV at all. Assuming you maintain a similar living standard to what you now enjoy, the RV is not going to save you money. What it WILL do is enable you to move around at whim, see what numerous other places have to offer (good and bad), and meet many new people.
Thanks for all the feedback guys. It helps a great deal. My motivation for wanting/considering RVing is to see the country and do an enormous amount of wildlife photography while I can. I'll have to get a real job and get back to a routine a year or so afterwards' depending on how much I spend.
