Nerd Nomad

I wrote about the costs of living in an RV a while back. Now that I’ve actually been living on the road for a while, I’m a bit more confident about the costs.

In some ways it has been more expensive than I expected, but in most regards, it has been less so. So, I’m going to revisit all the ways I was wrong. If I don’t mention it, you can assume the old article proved correct.

RV Parking: $25/night (and dropping)

As mentioned in the previous article, RV parks along the coast of California are among the most expensive in the country. So, I spent a lot more during my trip down the PCH than budgeted. It averaged about $51/night for the first couple of months.

Once I reached San Diego, however, things flipped in the other direction (actually, the tide started turning in Venice, when I got comfortable with boondocking). Multiple parks in the area accept Passport America or Happy Camper, and boondocking in a friend’s neighborhood proved comfortable, quiet enough for Gidget to be left alone for a few hours at a time, and free of legal hassle. So, for the last month I’ve spent less than $20/night, on average, for parking.

With Passport America, I parked during the week at Mission Bay RV Resort with full hookups and cable TV, for $22/night, and then moved to my friend’s neighborhood for the weekend. There’s a price at which I’d rather have the convenience of full hookups (plus slide out and jacks down), even if there is no concern for getting cited or being bothered by traffic noise, and I think it’s about $22. That said, sometimes parking near where things are happening is even more valuable. It was really convenient to park the house near where the Derby Dolls Party bus picked up and dropped off, since one does not leave a party bus in an appropriate state for driving.

I’m currently parked at Slab City (AKA The Slabs) near Niland, CA. This is hundreds of acres of federal land that permits (or turns a blind eye toward) camping at no cost and for unlimited time. Free camping on BLM and Forestry Service land is not hard to find…but it mostly has time limits. This is also nearly unique in being heavily populated; during the winter Slab City hosts hundreds of RVers, and even now that it’s started to warm up, there are at least a couple hundred RVs and several dozen tents and vans and cars.

At Slab City, there are no hookups, dump stations, or fresh water, but the RV is level, and the slide and awning are out, and it’s simply beautiful out here in the desert. The people here are also seemingly universally friendly. Gidget has made several new friends, as well, and she’s having a blast being able to go off-lead out in the desert with other dogs around (I worry about some of the dogs that run loose all the time, as there is a road nearby with very rare, but often very fast, traffic). I can only stay a week this visit, but next year, I might stay a month, and drop my average nightly parking cost for the whole year by a few bucks.

In short, RV parks are going to be less than $35/night in the long run. It looks like I’ll average about $20-$25/night for the whole year.

Propane $40/month

As expected, now that I’m out of the cold, propane is lasting longer. But, another element is that I’ve realized that keeping water hot takes a lot of energy. So, now, I only run the water heater for an hour before taking a shower, or when I need hot water for some other purpose (dishes wash fine in cold water, but the dog doesn’t). My water heater was also leaking up until a couple of weeks ago, which hurt its efficiency a lot, as well.

When I’m in RV parks, I shower in the provided restrooms, which allows longer, and somewhat more comfortable showers (though the RV shower is actually a pretty nice experience and lasts long enough even for me, and I love a long hot shower), and doesn’t require any propane.

So, I’ve been filling up about once per month, but I’m finding I only need a little more than half a tank each time, so it’s costing about $35-$45.

Laundry: $25/month

I completely disregarded laundry last time I talked about money…I hadn’t had to do laundry yet. In the house, I had a washer/dryer, but now I have to use laundromats. I go through clothes pretty quick (I have a serious clean socks habit, and I go through two or three pair per day; also Gidget requires frequent drying and lots of washcloths now that she’s getting in the ocean and such), and so I do three or four loads of laundry every two weeks.

Fuel: $200

So, this one stayed the same, but I did want to mention a few additional bits of data. I am running the generator slightly more often than originally expected, since I began boondocking a lot more, though it’s still a negligible amount of my total fuel consumption.

Interestingly, on the last highway trip the RV averaged 12.2 miles per gallon, according to the ScanGauge II my dad loaned me. This is the same device that gave me the 7.5-10 MPG figures I was seeing on the way down the coast, so I think it is wholly believable. This leg of the trip was from San Diego to Slab City, which includes a huge 4000+ foot elevation climb. I believe the primary difference is that I paced the drive more slowly than previously…I ran about 55 downhill and on flat stretches, except when a downhill would let me go faster just by coasting), and 45-50 on the big climbs. While I’m not renowned for leisurely driving, I think it’s probably worth adding 10-15% to my travel time to save 20% or more on gas.

Internet: $70/month

Since the last post, I’ve added an additional internet cost to my budget. Millenicom offers the SprintPCS network with an unlimited data plan for $70/month. It’s a no-brainer for a full-time RVer. They also offer the Verizon network in a 10GB plan, but I did some comparisons of a few dozen places I plan to stop and found that SprintPCS has 3G in more locations. I’m getting 3G service pretty reliably here in the middle of nowhere, so I think I’m comfortable recommending the Sprint network, and Millenicom.

Repairs: $50/month and a whole lot of time

I didn’t factor minor repairs into my original budget, and it’s definitely worth mentioning. Stuff breaks all the time in an RV.

This month the following has needed work:

• Water heater pressure relief valve leaking
• Water heater drain plug leaking
• Closet hanger rod ripped its screws from the wall when I reorganized and removed a pile of stuff in the closet (that was apparently holding everything together)
• Bed side table drawer broke loose and needed rehanging
• Leaks
• Window curtain pulled loose from wall
• Door window dropped down in frame, leaving a 1″ opening at the top
• Oil leak in generator (I’m still stewing on this one, and haven’t repaired it yet…hoping it will be minor and not require a trip to a professional, as that’ll blow the budget badly)
• Climate control knob in the cabin broke (this one is also still outstanding because it’s not made by Ford, and I have to go to one of a few dozen repair centers in the whole country that sell Evans Tempcon parts)

All of this stuff was reasonably easy and cheap to fix. The most expensive was $18 for the water heater pressure relief valve, but it only took 15 minutes to replace once I had the part. If you’re handy, or willing to get handy, the costs can be kept low. It’d be a lot more expensive to have an RV repair person do the work, though there are RV handymen that will visit you in an RV park, making it a little less of a hassle.

The Big Picture

While there have been some unexpected expenses, overall I’m spending a lot less than I originally budgeted. The dramatic decline in parking costs over the past month are the biggest factor here. This was always marked as “optional” in the budget, but I’m finding I care about being in an RV park less and less the more comfortable I get with finding good places to park free and finding ways to safely and legally keep the RV leveled and even putting out the slide and awning, when parking for free. With a fully self-contained rig, it really doesn’t make a big difference. I don’t need cable, my batteries store enough power to keep my laptop running all day, and I can run the generator if I need (a lot) more power. With my 40 gallon tanks I can take two or three showers and live for about four to five days between visits to a dump station, so I don’t feel like I’m constantly having to stop for refilling water.