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Old 06-30-2013, 05:27 PM   #1
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camping expenses

I know we have had a fair bit of discussion about the costs involved in full timing with eggs, so maybe this thread could be about trips that are longer than a week, but not truly full time.

We spent 29 nights away and I have just worked out our expenses.

Total = $2168.80.

As we planned to see some of the more 'admired' parts of southern Saskatchewan we mainly used campsites in National, Provincial and Regional Parks. These tend to be in particularly interesting places - and there are no Freebies! Average cost per night was $20.93 - and most nights included a nice site, clean washrooms and sometimes hot showers in addition to fascinating scenery and wildlife. At Grasslands National Park we were amused to note that the bison herd roams freely but the campers set up inside a sturdy fence.

We spent an average of $28.04 daily for gas and $15.25 daily for groceries. The cost of meals out averaged $6.19 and sundry extras came to $4.32 a day (laundry, flat tyre repair and some medical costs because I broke my wrist).

It would be interesting to hear how this compares to others people's trips.
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Old 06-30-2013, 08:19 PM   #2
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In an earlier posting Brian suggested checking out the topic of fulltiming here: Right here in FiberglassRV there is a whole forum for this: Fulltiming in a Molded Fiberglass Trailer - Fiberglass RV

Norm and Ginny travel close to full time and have TONS of great advice. I suggest you contact them at Honda03842.
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Old 06-30-2013, 09:04 PM   #3
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Since one eats and does laundry whether at home or on the road , I question the cost of groceries and laundry as a trip expense. Camping fees , meals eaten at a restaurant, extra fuel use etc would be trip expenses in my book.
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Old 06-30-2013, 09:12 PM   #4
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There are so many different ways of "camping" that the costs estimates are difficult to obtain. I can tell you that mine for the last 4 years of 3 months traveling were quite low. I don't remember the gas cost and other incidental costs, but I do remember the cost per night for camping fees was under $7.50 per night. My guess is that our food costs were about the same or lower than when at home. Our eating out costs I estimate very close to when at home. Gas cost was probably a bit more than when at home but not really that much more since we would often stay in one place for 2 to 3 to 4 weeks at a time.

Because we do the 3+ months thing in the winter the house isn't heated except to just above freezing, The internet is turned off, along with garbage collection, and water usage is zero. Thus saving considerable which is used for travel.
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Old 07-01-2013, 06:53 AM   #5
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Hazel,

$74 a day is a reasonable amount to spend.

We averaged about $94 a day for our 47 day trip to Newfoundland. This includes $14 a day for the ferry costs. We averaged about 140 miles a day, mainly exploring side roads and spent about $28 a day for gas.

Most days we spent $14.95 for camping in Provincial parks with electricity.

We averaged $10 a day for groceries and $14 a day for restuarants. Restuarants and groceries were both probably higher than normal. Food and restuarants are more expensive in Canada. We ate out more because Newfoundland provides opportunities for some different foods or at least cooking styles.

We do laundry once a week on the road.

We generally find staying home more expensive. For example have been home two days and had 10 people for dinner both days.

The road is wonderful and offers all kinds of stimulation, peace and escape from the world.

Happy Canada Day.
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Old 07-01-2013, 07:39 AM   #6
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Originally Posted by steve dunham View Post
I question the cost of groceries and laundry as a trip expense.
They may come out of a different budget line but it is nice to know what your total expenses are going to be if you are planning a trip.
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Old 07-01-2013, 08:29 AM   #7
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We've been on the road for 13 years, 7.5 months a year, so we've tracked all our expenses.

When we were young I started a small business. Our first year we doubled our income. At the end of the year we had no extra cash. The second year we wrote our expenditures down by category. No formula budget but just a new consciousness. It worked.

Since we had no traditional income, younger than traditional retirement age, we kept track of everything we spend on a daily basis as we've traveled.

Knowing what we spend on food is interesting and seeing how it differs from when we're home educational.

Since we're on the road most of the time our budget sheet includes items most might not include like gifts, medicine...

We don't include are home expenses.

We average in the $90 a day range on the road. It really defines how much cash we need each year.
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Old 07-01-2013, 08:40 AM   #8
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Most days we spent $14.95 for camping in Provincial parks with electricity.
That sounds very low. Did you get a discount or am I wrong in thinking Canadian campgrounds would be more expensive? Raz
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Old 07-01-2013, 09:06 AM   #9
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Newfoundland Campground Costs,

Raz,
In Newfoundland Provincial Parks, single night camping fees for seniors are $14.95 with electricity, under $10 without electricity. This price is with a discount, Seniors get a 35% discount. The discount is for all seniors, no matter country of origin, a very nice gift.

They also offer weekly, monthly and seasonal rates.

Newfie provincial parks never offer full hook ups, fill with water as you enter and dump as you leave. Every park had wi-fi, generally near where you pay your fees.

The bathrooms were outstanding. Nothing less than sparkling true tile floors, some of the best campground bathrooms ever.

They do have a reservation system but it's really only necessary to use it on weekends, when the parks generally fill up. The parks are well sited, large wooded sites typically.

A true bargin for the traveler.

There are a few NL Provincial Parks that have camping and no electric service.

Commercial campgrounds are more expensive. We stayed in a Passport Park in Deer Lake that was only $16, with every service. Most commercial parks were in the $25-32 range. Wi-Fi was available in most parks, at least on a limited basis and some with full park coverage.

There are many unlisted parks in Newfoundland, ones you won't find in any book or on any campground service. Though they may be 'out' and in small towns, they are totally safe and usually offer the small town benefit. To me the really interesting part of Newfoundland is 'out'.

Of course NL is a place where there are lots of places to park free. We drove the 100 mile road to Burgeo, nothing shows on the map for those 100 miles. However about half way down the road you come to Peter Striders Lake where about a 100 trailers are parked, with big solar panels and it looked like they had just put a septic field in. The charge for these virtually permanent trailers on Provincial land is $100 a year, a steal on this huge beautiful lake.

Of course, there are many similar lakes along this road. We stopped on the Burgeo Road for a snack, next to a lake. There was a sharp drop off beside the road. I noticed a yellow plastic ribbon on a bush, assuming it was trash I went to get it. On the otherside of the bush there was a narrow, rough drive to a spot beside the lake, big enough for a small trailer. Obviously the yellow ribbon was a marker. Like most of the lakes along the road, there was not another cottage on the lake. You have to love Newfoundland.
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Old 07-01-2013, 09:26 AM   #10
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That's enough. It's raining here and I can't go camping until I get my wood cut.
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Old 07-01-2013, 10:59 AM   #11
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Raz,

Wood is a major source of home heating in Newfoundland, typically 5 chords a winter....cut, cut , cut.
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Old 07-01-2013, 12:39 PM   #12
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Hazel in Sk View Post
I know we have had a fair bit of discussion about the costs involved in full timing with eggs, so maybe this thread could be about trips that are longer than a week, but not truly full time.

We spent 29 nights away and I have just worked out our expenses.

Total = $2168.80.

As we planned to see some of the more 'admired' parts of southern Saskatchewan we mainly used campsites in National, Provincial and Regional Parks. These tend to be in particularly interesting places - and there are no Freebies! Average cost per night was $20.93 - and most nights included a nice site, clean washrooms and sometimes hot showers in addition to fascinating scenery and wildlife. At Grasslands National Park we were amused to note that the bison herd roams freely but the campers set up inside a sturdy fence.

We spent an average of $28.04 daily for gas and $15.25 daily for groceries. The cost of meals out averaged $6.19 and sundry extras came to $4.32 a day (laundry, flat tyre repair and some medical costs because I broke my wrist).

It would be interesting to hear how this compares to others people's trips.
How many miles did you cover, Hazel? And I think that two grand for two people in a month's travel is darn good.

As others have said, so much depends on camping style...I, for example, am whatchamightcall a "dirtycamper", my idea of a good time being camped out for days on end somewhere in the boonies next to a stream which constitutes the only running water available.

I just got back from one such trip- two weeks of solitary bliss during which time my only expenses other than the gas to get there were for grub and the five gallons of propane I used up (though now that I think about it, that tank wasn't full to begin with- I hadn't filled it since some point in a trip last fall-?). Didn't even use up the charge in my single battery, so no extra energy costs or anything...nothin' saves power like not using it to begin with! Of course, the days are so long right now that one doesn't need much in the way of lighting, my only power draw.

I'm guesstimating around three hundred dollars for gas etc. (biggest expense by far) and maybe a hundred or so for food/propane. WAIT! I did treat myself to KFC on the way over- that's another ten bucks....

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Old 07-01-2013, 09:49 PM   #13
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Our campsite fees varied quite a bit - the 'nastiest' place we stayed was the most expensive! It was a trailer site that was the only spot in that area of the province (don't plan on parking at Estevan - $40 a night, no showers and only two stinky, dirty toilets).

We travelled about 6,000 kilometres but not towing all the time.

We included laundry in our costs because we had to pay cash to do it. At home I don't feed money into the washer and drier!
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Old 07-03-2013, 11:42 PM   #14
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Hazel, your costs seem pretty much in line with what we ended up with on our most recent long trip which we took this past spring. We were on the road for 33 days and our total expenses came to $2,277(US). We count campground fees, gas, and miscellaneous expenses like propane, laundry, museum fees, souvenirs, etc. but not groceries or eating out because those expenses pretty much stay the same whether we're at home or traveling. On that trip we had some rather higher than usual camping fees when we stayed 5 nights at a private enterprise campground near Zion National Park (because the park campgrounds were full). Gas was more expensive than it is now too. We just got back from a week long camping trip and gas prices are now about 10 cents/gal cheaper than they were last March, at least here at home. You can't control what you pay for a gallon of gas but if you can find cheap camping alternatives they can really cut your expenses. Unfortunately sometimes you have to pay more to camp than you'd like to in order to see the places you want to see. This past week we went camping in National Forest and State Park campgrounds and with our "senior" status we got discounted rates to boot, but on our spring trip we didn't often have those options and so had to spend more time in pricier private enterprise campgrounds.
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Old 07-04-2013, 06:19 AM   #15
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We have never bothered to track our expenses, though imagine we would be on the higher side of what most of you have posted. Though we rarely eat out, we do have higher gas costs as we are usually blasting somewhere to spend a precious two weeks or less at.

I imagine that once I retire, our costs will drop a lot, as we will not be driving quite so much on a daily average. I would imagine that fuel costs could really up the daily average if doing lots of driving.

Do you all count items purchased, not related to your trip, like artwork, clothes and other stuff like that? If so, I think my wife's expenses there would surpass all our other daily ones.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Francesca Knowles View Post
WAIT! I did treat myself to KFC on the way over- that's another ten bucks....
KFC is a punishment, not a treat.....just sayin'.
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Old 07-04-2013, 09:29 AM   #16
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Other Expenses

Jim,

We count everything we buy while traveling.

One interesting full timing change has been buying less. We now recognize we don't 'need' so much. We pretty much have stopped buying things. Clothes fall into the same class. We dont carry a lot and generally need more practical things that seem to last a good while.

Being on the road has changed us and particularly our spending habits. Interestingly we hardly ever do movies any more. I'm sure if I think about it more fully there are many other activities that have been dropped from our lives. Most of the other things we buy are gifts for others.

We do drive less when full timing. Our rule of thumb is that for every 100 miles we're towing we're driving about exploring for 100 miles. Pften, like in Newfoundland, we get no better mileage driving about than we do when towing. When towing we're frequently on the beter roads, when driving about in NL we were typicallyon poor secondary roads or worse.

I maintain that fulltiming is an opportunity to change who you are, what you do and mostly for the better.
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Old 07-04-2013, 10:48 AM   #17
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Norm, makes sense what you say regarding full time vs holidaying. Less rush resulting in less spending of money.

We do mostly boondocking these days, and obviously have little expense there compared to road travel while on holidays. In the future when going on extended trips, costs will be monitored much more closely.

Another factor is that we often travel with friends, and often their added needs can affect our costs somewhat too. With some their style and interests are similar, so no real change in costs, but with one set of friends their (previous) 23' motorhome required being connected to the grid, thus stays in more expensive campgrounds, plus they loved to eat out a lot. We have changed them some, showing them the simpler life, and pressed them to be more self sufficient, so they went and bought a new 25' motorhome with solar, propane water heater, and other things that allow them to boondock. Though, I could buy 5 of my trailers for the cost of their unit.
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Old 07-04-2013, 11:05 AM   #18
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Jim,

Eating out is something we do, not for the every day meals like breakfast, but generally for lunch, sometimes for dinner. Since we're usually out during the day, we either bring a light lunch or look for a unique place for lunch.

We rarely go to the more expensive places to eat, a change from pre-retirement, rather looking for the more unique local places. Also since we're usually off the beaten path, the food places are usually less expensive.

We generally don't travel with other people, not that we don't like people but rather because we are slow paced and like being able to decided when we stop and move.
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Old 07-04-2013, 12:37 PM   #19
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You know if you are considering full timing there are places where you might want to winter which have monthly rates. I know I've seen a number of places where you might pay between $250 and $300 a month. That would average from $8.33 to $10 per day. Now depending on where you would be you might have an electricity usage cost added. But that's not always the case.

Boondocking certainly would be cost effective however you need to give thought to that so you are prepared with food, water, garbage and of course sewage disposal.

I see fulltiming as a leasurely long term exploration of our great country. To me that means breaking up the country into small sections to explore each year. That way you stay in one spot for as long as you want. So staying in one spot or another for lengthly stays keeps gas costs down.

Check out RVSueandcrew.com. Under the header she has tabs, one which is her expenses and income. She has detailed them by month from the start which is going on 1 1/2 maybe two years. She winters in the desert boondocking and has been traveling north each year in the spring/summer.

That wouldn't be my preference as I'm not a desert person. I'd be wintering in Oregon SP's, County parks, BLM's or Corps of Engineering campgrounds while west of the Rockies. So my camping expenses would be from the high end of about $750 monthly to the low end of maybe 1/2 to 3/4 quarters of that. Still a lot cheaper than household expenses on a monthly basis when you add up utilities, insurance etc.
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Old 07-04-2013, 01:03 PM   #20
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RV Sue's blog is an excellent resource since she really breaks down her expenses. A lot of people have different ideas of "needs" versus "desires" and bring them into the full-timing lifestyles. I would not be discouraged by the high numbers given for monthly expenses. If you track your budget at home, you can easily come in really close with estimates on what it will cost full-timing by studying the budgets of others online and RV Sue is the best that I have seen. Seriously, I am frugal and some of the totals just blew me away and yes, we have traveled and full-timed in the past. If you have the desire, you will find a way to afford it. Explore the options.
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