Six months as a Fulltimer Expenses and Recap…

Well as of today we will have been on the road for half of a year and it is amazing how fast it all went by… I haven’t really talked much about expenses in the blog because I am aware of how everybody's lifestyle is different. However, I remember reading tons of blogs before we set out to fulltime in our motorhome and the one thing that most interested me was what the expenses were to do so. So I will discuss our expenses in general terms that might help those who are planning to fulltime.

1. Camp Rent – this item was close to budget as I budgeted 700 per month and was under budget by 7% and since we forgot to budget for laundry we have just included it here.

2. Medical – was on budget since I retired from the state of Texas and knew exactly what it would cost me.

3. Utilities and Propane – I budgeted 88 per month and spent 53 per month. This included 7-8 weeks of boondocking where we used propane to cool the fridge and heat the motorhome.

4.Eating Out- I budgeted 170 for eating out and we hit that on the nose so that number seems pretty good for us. We cook a lot and eat out only as an occasional treat.

5. Entertainment - We were 12 percent below budget on this but I think the budgeted amount of 200 per month will work for us.

6. Groceries  - We were over budget here (no real surprise to us) and our budgeted amount of 300 will be adjusted upwards to 350 per month. This number includes all alcohol purchased at the store.

7. Department Store – Way under budget here as we averaged 50 per month so I will adjust this down to 75 and move the additional surplus to categories that are adjusted upwards. No real room for additional stuff so we haven’t bought any.

8. Gas and Diesel – I had budgeted based on $4.00 per gallon and we were still over budget. We spent 340 per month and budgeted 300 so we will increase this line item to 350 per month unless costs continue to go higher.

9. Cable – we budgeted 100 per month for cable TV but have never used this as we found that we get along fine with the over the air channels so we used this money to get internet to our laptops so we can watch TV on them.

10. Phones – I had budgeted 100 per month for two phones with only one getting internet. Since we decided not to get cable TV we moved this budget up to 200 which is what it cost us for our two phones with internet and we still pay for one phone with internet for our daughter till she is more financially stable.

12. Big Ticket items – We were way way over budget here as we bought many things we should have bought earlier such as surge protectors, brake buddy, and had the toad wired while on the road for towing. I have a budgeted number of 333.00 per month here that I will leave unchanged to see if things settle down into a more normal pattern.

So after six months we are over budget by nearly 25 percent. This was primarily due to several factors not included above. We paid off our Honda CRV, we had to pay mortgage payments on the rent house while it was vacant, we had to spend money on the upkeep of our former house till it sold, and we had to spend money on the former house to prepare it for sale.

So it appears after six months that are budget still hasn’t settled down into what may be a more normal routine. However, it may never become normal so we will stick with our original budget total and just tweak the columns to adjust where it appears we spend more or less.

We will write another blog in the near future that provides our thoughts on what it has been like to be full timers for half a year. Until then we will continue on this path and enjoy each moment it provides…

Oh!… and several readers asked if we had any Maine lobster yet and all I can say is that when you can buy lobster from a roadside vender for $3.95 per pound is… yes we have eaten many of those delectable Maine lahbstahhhs….