Tag: How much does it cost to Live in an Airstream

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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

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.

 

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Finances & Money

How Much Does it Cost to Live in an Airstream? February Summary

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

What amazes me about life on the road is how unpredictable it is. One month can be completely different from the last, but that’s what makes it so exciting! At the same time, variety makes budgeting difficult.

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, 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).

This month we spent 1 week at Disneyland in an RV Park, and then another week in San Diego (actually 2 – but we crossed into March). A little bit of courtesy parking, regional park in AZ, and a National Park in CA. So, pretty varied as far as camping fees go. BUT we also drove less. WAY less. So less gas money. It seems we average out between the two most months.

Here are February’s numbers:

Feb 1st: Halfway between Tuscon, AZ and Phoenix, AZ
Feb 31st: San Diego, CA

Total miles driven: 1,301
Total miles towing the Airstream: 687
Average Towing Miles per Week: 172

Camping Fees (State parks, RV campgrounds): $1029.55
# of Nights Courtesy Parked with a friend/free parking: 2
Gas: $321.59
Propane: $55.70 (way less! Hooray for an electric heater!)
Groceries: $612.45 (also includes all paper goods, and Pull Ups)
Laundry: $21.25
Dining Out: $111.81 (does not include eating out at Disneyland – that was budgeted separately)

Here’s our 3 month average for Dec 2013 – Feb 2014:

Average Miles per Month: 1997
Average Towing Miles per Month: 1194
Average Towing Miles per Week: 99.5

Camping Fees: $23.87/night
Gas: $594.22/month
Propane: $79.44/month
Groceries: $662.56/month
Laundry: $18.42/month
Dining Out: $126.07/month

Not too shabby. We originally budgeted about $40/night average, $700 for groceries, and $700 for gas. So, under on all three! This makes me very hopeful we can continue this lifestyle without too much stress. Hooray!

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How Much Does it Cost to Live in An Airstream? January Edition

How Much Does it Cost to Live in an Airstream Jan 2014Another 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 Mexico State Parks are ridiculously cheap). However, what we saved on camping fees we spent on gas as we are still traveling too fast. It was also very cold for a bit there so we spent more on propane.

Going into February we definitely predict camping fees to go up. Moving into California, we will have a week in Disneyland at an RV Park, plus California State Parks are just expensive. We have put into motion the acquisition of a generator and that will help with recharging our batteries and giving us more flexibility on where we stay.

Enough talk. Here’s the numbers for January:

Here we go:

January 1st: South Houston, TX
January 31st: Halfway between Tuscon, AZ and Phoenix, AZ
Total miles driven: 2,443
Total miles towing the Airstream: 1,666
Average Towing Miles per Week: 416

Camping Fees (State parks, RV campgrounds): $276.70 ($15.37/night average)
# of Nights Courtesy Parked with a friend/free parking: 13
Gas: $834.19
Propane: $98.99
Groceries: $598.90
Laundry: $4.25
Dining Out: $85.83

And here are December’s just for comparison. Next month I think we’ll do a 3 month average:

December 1st: Tampa, FL
December 31st: South Houston, TX
Total miles driven: 2,247
Total miles towing the Airstream: 1,228
Average Towing Miles per Week: 277

Camping Fees (State parks, RV campgrounds): $842.45 ($31.20/night average)
# of Nights Courtesy Parked with a friend/free parking: 4
Gas: $626.88
Propane: $83.62
Groceries: $776.32
Laundry: $29.75
Dining Out: $180.58 (ouch! I didn’t think we ate out THAT much. It must’ve been the beignets in New Orleans!)

Obviously there are more expenses (clothing, entertainment, decorative upgrades, etc.) but these are the main ones. The thing is, what it costs to live on the road is highly subjective. Just as living in a house can be. How nice of an RV Park or Campground do you want (camping fees)? How far are you traveling every week (gas)? How many people in your family (groceries)? How cold is it outside (propane costs)? What do you like to do for fun (entertainment)? These costs completely vary from family to family just as they would in a brick house.

If you’d like another opinion on costs of traveling full-time, our instagram friend Kyle has a great article that breaks down various costs on his blog Where Is Kyle Now? Go check it out and let us know what you think!