Our Monthly Expense Log

One of the most common questions we’re asked is how much it costs us per month to fund our full-time nomadic lifestyle. There’s really no easy answer, as quoting a monthly cost would require us having a concept of a typical month (and heck, we went nomadic to avoid the word ‘typical’).

Every nomad’s expenses are going to vary by personal style, pace and comfort zone. We are not driven by frugality or minimalism… we’re driven by living the life we want. We are completely debt free, cash positive, actively manage our investments and work as we roam running our software business.  Our monthly income varies, and so do our expenses.  The fact of the matter is, you can travel on just about any budget.

We share our monthly cost log to enter another example of what it can cost to travel full time. This should by no means be an indicator of what it’ll cost anyone else.

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

Fixed Costs

These are the costs that we incur every single month and don’t vary much.

Connectivity

Our internet and communications cost is essential to our livelihood. We each have an iPhone on AT&T (one with a tethering plan), an iPad with unlimited data and we have a wireless aircard thru Millenicom with no contract.  In total, our monthly connectivity is $270.

We also have a HughesNet Satellite dish without a contract, When staying in areas without cellular signal, it costs us an additional $80/mo.

Auto/RV Insurance & Registration

We have a full-timers policy on our bus that is kinda like a combined home-owners and auto policy (~$600/yr), and annual tag fees ($300/yr). We’re registered and insured out of South Dakota, which for a heavy vehicle is actually not the best state as their registrations are by the pound. We may look into changing that in the future, but for now the balance of costs in SD works out for us.

We also of course have insurance and tag fees on our toad (tow behind vehicle), a 2009 MINI Cooper. That comes out to about $600/year in total.

Health Insurance

We both have an individual HSA plan with moderately high deductibles (~$5000/yr) with a provider network that is fairly nationwide. We’re currently with Assurant on their PHCS network. This is a 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. It’s a good way to go for someone in our age group without major medical problems. Our monthly premium is $400 for both of us.

Storage Unit

Ashamed to say, we keep a storage unit in Sacramento.  When Chris left his CA life to become nomadic (before he met Cherie), he didn’t fully purge everything and hasn’t gotten back to that task.  Cherie however, did a much better purging job when she joined him on the road, and just has a few boxes of stuff left.  So, in addition to a lot of Chris’ old stuff, the unit 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: $129/mo.

A future goal is to significantly downsize this unit, or get rid of it.

Variable Costs

Fuel & Maitenance

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.

We seem to be getting 7-7.5 mpg in the bus, which is better than we anticipated.

Our toad is a 2009 Mini Cooper, that gets 30-40 mpg (city vs highway), and we use that for local transportation.

We are aiming to balance out our fuel economy by staying places longer (thus, less miles on the bus, and more on the Mini) – and getting a better combined fuel economy than our prior truck/trailer setups.

There is of course also maintenance on both of the vehicles. The bus, we are anticipating about $2000-3000 per year in routine maintenance (fluid & filter changes, plus general upkeep), and we have a lot of cash set aside for major breakdowns (which we consider to be the equivalent of major house repairs, like replacing a roof). The MINI should be much less.

Rent/Camp Fees

Another part is how much we’re spending to live somewhere.

When traveling via RV, that would be camp fees. They vary by location, amenities and whether we’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 $20-90/night range, and many offer more affordable weekly/monthly rates.  Such as in San Francisco or San Diego (some of the more expensive cities in the country to stay), monthly rates can be $500-1300. In other parts of the country, we can find them as low as $200/month. We typically aim to keep our camp fees under $600/month, but make exceptions to be where we want to be.

Our camp costs vary quite a bit, based on where we’re at and what we’re up to. We also manage to stay free at places by overnighting in rest stops & parking lots when transitioning, finding cool boondocking spots or staying with friends who have bus parking. And we’ve been known to get invited to speak at RV Resorts about technology & travel in exchange for a free spot, or done some sort of work in trade.

When we’re not traveling via RV (such as our 5 month winter on St. John in 2010/2011) – we might be doing a short term lease on something. These cost will of course vary by the location.

Travel

It used to be fuel and camp fees was our primary travel costs. However, we’re finding we’re being mobile in more ways these days – trains, airplanes, hotels, rental cars, etc. So, we’re tracking those as a separate cost now.

Day to Day living costs

These are the normal costs.. like food, entertainment, event fees, clothing, laundry, etc. Also, somewhat controllable and vary based on personal style. We track our food costs above, as we’re traveling to more diverse places and like to see how the budget changes in different economies. Keep in mind, our food costs also can contains expenses to take a gracious host out to dinner in thanks for letting us stay with them.

The other day-to-day stuff we’re not sharing here – as they can vary so much and really not all that relevant to anyone but us.

Geeky Essentials

One of our major expenses is actually our geek arsenal - computers, cameras, equipment, gadgets, etc. If Apple didn’t release fun stuff all the time, we’d probably have a much smaller budget!   Since our business is technology and our expertise is cutting edge technology, this is pretty essential stuff to our livelyhood and keeping up to date is what allows us to be mobile.    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. Occasionally we’ll accept an offer to evaluate technology for a company, so some of the stuff we use we get for free.

We consider our lives a living laboratory for mobile technology.

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, exciting and full time traveling lifestyle. For us, it’s substantially less expensive than when we lived in fixed homes with rent/mortgage, upkeep, utilities, etc.  Others may be far more frugal than us and be able to substantially cut their costs, and others live far more extravagantly.  

It really comes down to personal style.

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