Category: Finances & Money

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Finances & Money

How Much Does It Cost To Live in an Airstream? September 2014 Summary

Airstream Living Cost template copy

I’ve had to revamp the budget. AGAIN. I hate budgeting. What I was doing was just not working – see that “Bonus Item” category? That’s for everything that didn’t exactly fit int he budget (Rachel’s new bike, birthday presents, workout DVD’s, Amazon orders, etc). Notice how large it is? Yeah. That needs to stop. Lol. I’ve gone from a weekly discretionary budget (clothes, eating out, entertainment, etc.) to a monthly budget hoping that will help set a baseline. We’ll see. I’m not convinced, but obviously something has to be done.

I’ll detail a post later on about how I budget in general (because that’s not really Airstream life specific) but just know that these are not ALL of our expenses. Not even close. These are just the ones that are fairly Airstream specific. We still have health insurance, life insurance, entertainment expenses, loans on the Airstream and truck, HSA contributions, children’s savings… You get the idea.

But aside from all that, most people want to know what it’ll cost in the Airstream. The biggest differences for us are the camping fees, higher gas spending, higher groceries, laundry, and occasionally the higher eating out (only because we never really ate out before).

For the most part, our Airstream expenses this month were pretty normal. I did promise that I would eat my way through Portland, and looking at our Dining Out total, I’d say I accomplished that goal very nicely. Higher eating out was balanced by lower camping fees and gas. That’s kind of nice, so I’m not stressed about it. Our 11 nights of courtesy parking largely involved staying with friends who graciously allowed the use of their laundry facilities. That helps us keep our laundry quite low – as well as just not having very many clothes. I think I usually end up doing about 3 loads of laundry: 2 clothes, 1 sheets & towels.

We also just don’t move very far very fast. 187 miles per week of total towing. We started the month in Bend, OR then migrated north through Portland, Battle Ground, WA, Payallup, Mt. Rainier, then finally up into Vancouver, British Colombia.

I’m curious if any other full time traveling families keep a budget? What does yours look like?

Untitled-1 copy

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Finances & Money

How Much Does It Cost To Live in an Airstream: August 2014 Summary

Airstream Living Cost template copy

August has been great! We spent the majority of our time along the coast between Willits, CA and Crescent City, CA. We then meandered into Oregon seeing the Oregon Caves National Monument, Medford & Ashland, Crater Lake and finally into our boondocking spot in Bend. Oregon has been great so far!

I’ll detail a post later on about how I budget in general (because that’s not really Airstream life specific) but just know that these are not ALL of our expenses. Not even close. These are just the ones that are fairly Airstream specific. We still have health insurance, life insurance, entertainment expenses, loans on the Airstream and truck, HSA contributions, children’s savings… You get the idea.

But aside from all that, most people want to know what it’ll cost in the Airstream. The biggest differences for us are the camping fees, higher gas spending, higher groceries, laundry, and occasionally the higher eating out (only because we never really ate out before).

I really do hate having a budget and I’ve always been terrible, but I suppose it is one of those necessary evils. Let’s take a look at how August went.

Spreadsheet for August 2014

We seriously went almost no where! lol! We couldn’t believe only 539 towing miles. Yeah. We don’t like to move very fast. Camping fees higher, but still under our $1000 budget for the month. Groceries… well, I probably went to Costco too many times and stocked up on things we probably didn’t really *need*! Oops. Overall, we are pretty happy with the numbers still!

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Finances & Money

How Much Does It Cost to Live in an Airstream – July Summary

How Much Does It Cost to Live in an Airstream July SummaryWe are back to monthly summaries!! These are probably entirely for my benefit as I feel it provides some accounting for us month to month, but I figured we could share in the interest of anyone else that might be crazy enough to feel the information is useful.

We have officially had our first “full time” (no mortgage) on the road financial month. I feel like it was a good representation of what we expect this life to be like, and fairly similar to our last round of summaries that you can find here. We did eat at a few favorite restaurants and I was surprised at our dining out bill – but since I know we stayed within our overall budget we spent less on other things to balance it out.

I’ll detail a post later on about how I budget in general (because that’s not really Airstream life specific) but just know that these are not ALL of our expenses. Not even close. These are just the ones that are fairly Airstream specific. We still have health insurance, life insurance, entertainment expenses, loans on the Airstream and truck, HSA contributions, children’s savings… You get the idea.

But aside from all that, most people want to know what it’ll cost in the Airstream. The biggest differences for us are the camping fees, higher gas spending, higher groceries, laundry, and occasionally the higher eating out (only because we never really ate out before).

Here are the numbers. I thought the spreadsheet worked well so I’ll keep that but start over on our monthly average totals:

Spreadsheet for July 2014 copy

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Finances & Money

Baby Steps to Going Mobile: Start Working at Home

Baby Steps To Going Mobile - Start Working From Home

A friend asked me how I ended up with work flexible enough to allow for my travel. It was a good question, and one I’ve had before. Sounds like a great topic for a blog post!

I’m self-employed, working long term contracts paid hourly, and manage my own insurance and retirement, and I travel full time. The real tip here is to not make all those changes at exactly the same time. Prior to traveling full time, I was all those things minus the full time traveler. If you plan to travel (and are not made of money), then first find your way into flexible work. Many jobs allow working from home at least part of the time. Take the opportunity when you have it, and learn if remote work is for you.

A surprising number of full-time traveling (and full-time working) folks are technical in nature. I’ve not conducted a study, but among the circle of traveling folks we follow, most are in a technical field of some sort. If you can, find your way into such a field. You usually only need your phone, a laptop, and an internet connection to keep your work going (Technomadia recently wrote a great post about generating a mobile income HERE).

How do you land a job with so much flexibility? Be Awesome.

Now, I’m not AMAZING, but I do good work. I’ve been lucky to work with people that value contributions over warming a seat, and they have been willing to make me happy to keep me engaged there. One of my current clients would prefer that I was not traveling. My schedule randomness does cause some inconvenience for them. I’m not sure exactly how valuable I am, but since they haven’t fired me yet, I’m good enough to keep on despite my travel.

Being awesome shows up in two areas. The first area of awesome is good communication skills. You need to clearly understand others, and you need to communicate in ways that are effective to others. I find it valuable to learn to balance your communication methods. Email is great for things where clarity and a conversation history is useful. Text messages can help coordinate schedules and last minute changes. Phone calls and video chats are great when there are lots of things to discuss, or ideas need to be bantered about. Be sensitive to what type of communication is needed and when.

The second area of awesome is your work itself. You need to make it worth your client’s (employer’s) efforts to work with you. Your work needs to be excellent. There will be times when you will need to use your schedule flexibility to benefit your client. Putting in a few VERY LONG days at the right time can help a great deal. Changing your travel plans to be present for a meeting, or to make a customer visit can also be valuable.

The Short version: Prepare for a mobile life by finding a flexible job, working from home, communicating well, and doing great work.

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Finances & Money

How Much Does It Cost To Live in an Airstream: March Summary

How Much Does it Cost to Live in an Airstream March 2014

Another month! I like that these monthly financial summaries give me a bench mark as well as accountability. Another month down, another month still financially stable. Its exciting!

I’ll detail a post later on about how I budget in general (because that’s not really Airstream life specific) but just know that these are not ALL of our expenses. Not even close. These are just the ones that are fairly Airstream specific. We still have health insurance, life insurance, entertainment expenses, loans on the Airstream and truck, HSA contributions, children’s savings, mortgage and utilities on the house in Lehi… You get the idea.

But aside from all that, most people want to know what it’ll cost in the Airstream. The biggest differences for us are the camping fees, higher gas spending, higher groceries, laundry, and occasionally the higher eating out (only because we never really ate out before).

Here are the numbers. I thought I’d try a spreadsheet this month for easier visualization:

Untitled-1 copyConclusion? We are doing great! Well within our budgets. I couldn’t be happier. The next few months will be a bit different as we are headed back to our house in Utah (to sell it) but are planing a Southern Utah trip for May.