One of the most common questions we’re asked is how much it costs us per month to fund our full-time nomadic RVing roadtrip lifestyle. There’s really no easy answer, as quoting a monthly cost would require us having a concept of a typical month. As we hit the road to avoid having a ‘typical’, our costs vary widely based on where we’re at, how much we’re in motion and what we’re up to. We can say – it’s a lot cheaper than our previous stationary lives!

The key to our lifestyle is having no debt and keeping expenses low. While neither of us is independently wealthy, neither of us has any debts to speak of.  No mortgage, no rent, no credit card debt, no car loans, no RV loans, no student loans, no alimony, no child support, etc.

Not having debt is a powerful thing and is a big piece of our freedom.

In an effort to answer the question however, we’ll attempt to keep a monthly log of our directly related travel related costs here for you. We’re not including expenses like day-to-day living expenses (food, clothes, etc), entertainment or tech gadgets – as those will vary so much by person, and those would be expenses we’d have anyway.

And for more elaboration on the categories of our typical expenses:

Fixed Costs

Connectivity

One cost that is fixed for us is our internet and communications cost – essential for technomads. We each have an iPhone on AT&T, an iPad with unlimited data and we have a wireless aircard from Sprint.  In total, our monthly connectivity is $270.

Auto/RV Costs

We obviously have auto (about $400/yr) and full-timing RV insurance that is equivalent to a home owners/rental policy (about $600/yr), and annual tag fees. We’re registered and insured out of South Dakota, one of the best states to be from if you’re not from anywhere. We do have typical maintenance on our tow truck (not included in our monthly expenses), and we have a comprehensive manufacturer’s extended warranty to help contain unexpected repair bills. The Oliver has little maintenance cost – such as an occasional wheel bearing repack and water heater anode replacement.

Health Insurance

We both have an individual HSA plan with moderately high deductibles with a provider network that is fairly nationwide. This is pretty affordable way to go that gives us nation wide access to providers, but does put a lot of the more preventative and minor care costs on us. But it’s a good way to go for someone in our age group without major medical problems. Our monthly premium is $275 for both of us.

Storage Unit

We keep a storage unit in Sacramento that is set up as a walk-in library with all the books and media we didn’t want to part with, seasonal clothing and cherished items. We also keep our Burning Man specific gear and our stockpile of SmartPower Energy Drink there. Cost: $109/mo.

Variable Costs

Fuel

This is a fluctuating cost – both in the cost of fuel and how many miles we’re traveling.   Unlike a mortgage or a rent payment (which we consider our fuel costs to be part of our equivalent) – it’s only a cost when we’re in motion. And being nomadic does not mean you have to be in constant motion. If we’re stationary in one spot- the fuel costs go down. If we’re on the road a lot, obviously the fuel consumption goes up. And unlike folks working in a traditional job market, we don’t have to commute to work every day making our fuel expenditure completely and totally voluntary, conscious and controllable.

In November 2009 we upgraded our tow vehicle from a 2006 Jeep Liberty CRD (Diesel) that got about 18-20 mpg when towing, and 24-26 when not towing. The Jeep unfortunately was not up to the task of full time towing our home. Our new vehicle is a 2006 Toyota Tundra that has been getting us a much reduced fuel economy of about 11-12 mpg when towing, however it offers a much safer, comfortable and stable tow.

We also fuel our refrigerator, furnace, hot water heater  and generator off of propane, which is another variable cost. Our 50 lbs of capacity can typically last us 4-6 weeks. And prices vary widely from $14 – $52 a fill.

Camp Fees

Another part the equivalent to a our previous rent/mortgage costs are costs to park our home somewhere. Camp fees vary based on location, amenities and whether you’re in a public or private campground.  For instance, a public campground fee is in the range of $5-30/night (some are even free!), but generally have a 14 day limit on them. A commercial RV Park or resort can cost more in the $20-70/night range, and many offer more affordable weekly/monthly term rates.  Such as in San Francisco or San Diego (some of the more expensive cities in the country to stay), monthly rates can be $500-1000. In other parts of the country, we can find them as low as $200/month.

One of our goals with having a solar energy system is not only to be more green in our travels, but also to give us more options for camping. We have lots of water onboard, large holding tanks, lots of battery storage and as much sun power as we can soak up with our 200w panels. Aside from that, we have a  2000w generator that runs off propane that can run our 9200 BTU air conditioner and top off our batteries.

In a nutshell – we don’t always actually need hook-ups and can go months without paying for hook-ups or even plugging in.

This leaves us a lot of flexibility for staying at the cheaper (and free) places that don’t always have hookups (public lands, state/national/city parks, etc.), parked at friend’s houses for extended periods of time or overnighting in rest stops and parking lots when just passing through.

On average, we only pay for camping about 30% of the time (about 10 days a month) when we’re in motion. This can vary based on where we’re at, what the climate is like and what we’re doing, of course.

Day to Day living costs

These are the normal costs.. like food, entertainment, clothing, laundry, etc. Also, somewhat controllable and vary based on personal style. Thus what we spend isn’t necessarily relevant to what someone else might spend. And besides, we’d have these expenses anyway and we really don’t feel like micromanaging our finances to a point of tracking & reporting them here.

We cook a good bit at home, and we don’t eat out at expensive places very often. We do laundry at coin operated centers (which are very efficient) or at friend’s homes. We regularly utilize thrift shopping for our clothing – it’s fun, cheap and gives us great variety for our limited wardrobe space.  We go to movies, bowling, concerts, festivals, conferences, museums, tourist attractions, have a national park pass, a Netflix subscription and take vacations.

Geeky Essentials

One of our major expenses is actually our geek arsenal - computers, cameras, equipment, gadgets, etc. Since our business is technology, this is pretty essential stuff to our livelyhood and keeping up to date is what allows us to be mobile. And heck, we’re geeks – we’d have these expenses anyway.    But, we are very conscious about it too. Generally considering size, power consumption and how many needs an item addresses are major considerations considering our small space and solar living.

Saving for the future

Anything we make in excess of our costs, of course goes into savings and investments for the future.

So.. as you can see, between being debt free and having containment on living costs, it doesn’t take much to live a very sustainable mobile lifestyle. For us, it’s substantially less expensive than we lived in fixed homes with rent/mortgage, upkeep, utilities, etc.