What amazes me about life on the road is how unpredictable it is. One month can be completely different from the last, but thatโs what makes it so exciting! At the same time, variety makes budgeting difficult. Iโll detail a post later on about how I budget in general (because thatโs not really Airstream life…
We had an Instagram follower ask us to detail where everyone sleeps in our 27FB International Airstream. I am more than happy to oblige. After we picked up the Airstream back in September 2013, we spent 8 days on the return trip from llinois back to Virginia. Iโm pretty sure in those 8 days we…
Over the last 10 years, weโve run into a lot of friends, relatives and acquaintances that were thinking about leaving the 9-5 hamster wheel and venturing off on their own. There are definitely a lot of perks. No set hours (unless you get a picky client), you can choose which clients or projects to take…
Thank you for this post! I have been wondering how insurance works on the road for the self-employed, and we are kind of in the same boat as you guys. We have 2 kids, and don’t plan on having more. We have a HSA account, but the insurance is through my wife’s work (being that we are not on the road just yet). I am self-employed (I make YouTube videos), and we are almost at a point where she doesn’t have to work anymore with our business’s growth.
Good idea about the catastrophic accidental insurance. Thank you again for this post. I would love to read a follow up post after you guys talk with your agent!ReplyCancel
Lane! What I coincidental surprise to see you in the comments. Are you planning on doing the RV thing? We have thought about it several times.
Anyway, we do a high deductible HSA as well. I didn’t know about accident insurance and that does sound nice paired up with the HSA.
Our plan ends in May so we will be interested to see how Obamacare has changed things. We’re a little nervous the rates are going to be much higher.ReplyCancel
Would love to know where you are finding health insurance for a family of 5 for $258/month? My wife and I are are both self-employed (i’m a photographer too) and we currently pay $600+ for the same 10k deductible HSA plan. Would love to know what company you are using. Happy to trade a family photoshoot for a sit down conversation about life on the road (we are planning on a year around the country when my youngest turns 6). We are in Colorado near Boulder…www.jameschristianson.com Shoot me an email if you can.ReplyCancel
We are currently with HumanaOne. I have no experience on how vast their network is, etc, but we are fairly healthy and haven’t had to use it much so I like that it’s cheap. ๐ We are grandfathered into a non-Obama care plan at least until December and then things might get a little more expensive after that. ๐ReplyCancel
That’s where the high deductible is handy. We recently went to do a blood draw for my youngest (allergy tests) and the financial lady was a little shocked I just wanted to pay for it and that my insurance wouldn’t cover any of it even though we were “in network”. I will happily pay per instance instead of an extra $300 per month. Grateful we are (mostly) healthy!ReplyCancel
Be aware that if you go to an ER “out-of-network” and you go beyond your “in-net-work” out of pocket max, that your insurance company MUST consider any Emergency visit as an in-network. Meaning, if you have an out of pocket max of 10k, and you end up with a 12k bill from an out of network ER visit/admission, you are only responsible for the in-network out of pocket max.
Also, read up about “balance billing” and if you end up with one of these bills, make sure it’s legal to do so in the state that you received care. Many states now have laws against it.
Traveling so far we have run into so many families that have sold everything for their life on the road. Whether out of necessity, or to just downsize and live simply, selling the house and everything in it is one way to fund and maintain a life on the road. Others we have run into…
Great post. So true, it’s hard to let go. Makes me glad that selling the house was the first (and so far, only) step we’ve taken towards making our dream come true. I’m not going to lie to you, it was hard. I still can’t think about it too much without getting sad, and even though we only live 10 mins away in a rental house, I haven’t had the courage to go back. It’s been since July. But it’s getting easier.ReplyCancel
We sold and it was a great decision, even being fairly sure we would return to Tampa. I can say that when we got home it was hard to drive by the old neighborhood and still is. We have even accidentally turned that way instead of proceeding up the Expressway to our new exit. In the end it was something that aided my faith and ability to trust God and place my sense of security in Him alone.ReplyCancel
We rent out homes and are thankful that we still have them both. We lived in one, then moved to the next while renting the first one out and now they are both rented. They have provided income, tax advantages and a sense of security (if we wanted to at some point, we could still move back to our own home). You have to get past the fact that sometimes things will break or you might get a bad tenant. Most of that is emotional and difficult because you’re not there. It will cost you more to handle things that come up when you can’t do it yourself, but if you’re prepared it’s really nice to know you still have your home. In the mean time, the mortgages keep whittling down and at some point they’ll be paid off and really be profitable.ReplyCancel
Another month gone by! Time seems to be flying. Another month means we re-evaluate the biggest questions: How much money is it going to take? Can we really make this work? Comparatively, January was better than December. I think. We definitely spent less money on camping fees (staying with friends, boondocking, and turns out New…
This is awesome. Thanks for sharing this.
You are welcome!
I always find it interesting to see how a family makes it work in a small space. Giving up the bed with all those windows would be really hard for me! It might be worth it for the midnight ice cream though ๐
Midnight ice cream is worth quite a lot!
Hmmm… Never expected this configuration. We have two kids, and we really like the new flying cloud 30 foot with bunks. The bunk area has a curtain to close off the kiddos so the master bed can still have access to the ice cream in the middle of the night! What year is y’all’s trailer?
Lane-
Ours is a 2008. We looked at the bunk model, but you’d have to give up the panorama windows around the dinette and we just couldn’t do it. Backing in to a site and watching the sunrise is definitely one of our favorite features!
That is the one thing that I don’t like about the bunk, the lack of windows. Why can’t we have the best of both worlds?
Exactly!! Our other problem with the bunk model is that there just aren’t many used ones out there so we’d have to buy new. We just couldn’t afford it. We are playing around with the idea of installing our own bunks (taking out the queen) or just putting in a U-shaped bed config for the 3 kids and leaving us out on the gaucho. Still going over our options. We know we don’t want to keep Cara on the floor indefinitely!
Did you guys build your gaucho yourselves as an addition to your airstream?
The gaucho came built into the model. Not sure which ones it comes standard in, but we helped Calypso learn after 2 years in hers that she had one too. ๐
I was wondering this! So glad you posted about it thank you!
Follow you guys on Instagram and stumbled upon this with a search for “how to sleep 5 in an airstream”. We are a family of five thinking of hitting the road full time starting this Summer, we currently have the same Airstream as you (@michaelgravel on instagram – pardon the few posts). When we head out we put the dinette down and pull out the bed and each twin sleeps there (10 yr olds) the 5 year old sleeps in the FB with us but thats gonna change she is crazy jumping bean in there. Exploring all kinds of ways on where to put her, one idea is to sew a canvas cot that can hang from the cabinets above the dinette and attach somewhere on the AS wall on the other side. She only weighs 35 lbs now. Her sisters suggested just putting her in the cabinet above the FB.
Just bought airstream flying cloud 25…and we would love to k
Learn more about how to travel safely….we can’t even figure out the fusion placenta
Ment to make the couch into a bed????
Love to hear about your adventures!
Sincerely
Rick and Gayle
Congrats! We’d be happy to answer any questions you have. When we first started we also found the “Newbie’s Guide to Airstreaming” very helpful! http://amzn.to/28TkenJ