RV Archives - Making Sense Of Cents

We Spent $43,486 To RV For One Year – How to Spend Way Too Much Full-Time RVing

August 24, 2018 BY Michelle Schroeder-Gardner - 22 Comments

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Michelle's quick note: Today, I have a great guest post from Brooke and Buddy Baum. As you all know, I absolutely loved RVing. However, it's not for everyone. So, when I had the opportunity to hear this RVing story, I jumped at the chance to share it with you all. Enjoy!

We're Brooke and Buddy Baum – digital nomads, bloggers, travelers and nature lovers. We recently ended a year-long stint of RV life that taught us so much about life, marriage, travel, freelance work … and the importance of making smarter financial decisions. If you are looking into RVing, we hope our story helps you make a better plan than we had!

We spent $43,486 to RV for just one year. Ouch.

We threw up in our mouths a little just typing that out. That's no small number, especially when you take into account that RVing was a budget move for us. And this total doesn't even include normal life expenses. It is only RV-related costs, including the down payment, RV payments, insurance, campgrounds, fuel, and the loss we took to sell it. [Read more…]

Welcome To Paradise – We’re Living On A Sailboat!

July 17, 2018 BY Michelle Schroeder-Gardner - 75 Comments

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It’s official, we’re now living on a sailboat!

To be specific, it’s a Lagoon 42 catamaran that we named Paradise.

Now, we are still very new to this lifestyle, but we are very excited!

We’ve wanted to move onto a boat for a while. In fact, we wanted to live on a sailboat before we even started RVing.

Our switch from RV life to living on sailboat started earlier this year, when we made the journey from Tucson, Arizona (where we were wintering in our RV) to Fort Lauderdale, Florida. We started looking at sailboats online, both on the west coast and east coast, but Florida just had so many more options.

We pulled up the RV jacks and made the long trek to Florida. Along the way, we stopped in multiple places, sort of a last RV trip hurrah to see our friends and family that live all over the U.S. [Read more…]

The Digital Nomad Lifestyle – A Day In The Life

June 18, 2018 BY Michelle Schroeder-Gardner - 76 Comments

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“What do you do all day?”

I am regularly asked what my average day is like. It's always such a difficult question to answer, as there is no routine day for me. If you know me at all, then you know that I pretty much hate schedules, haha.

My hatred of schedules is probably one of the main reasons for why I love living the digital nomad lifestyle.

Telling people that I work online and travel is always an interesting conversation. Telling people “I'm a blogger” just leads to so many questions, which I completely understand. But, when they find out that I’m a full-time traveler too, they get even more confused!

Now, blogging is a lot of work. I may not work a ton everyday, but there are many days when I'll work 16 hours a day. There is almost always something that needs to be done when it comes to my blogging business, and I have a whole long list of things that I want to do when I have more time. [Read more…]

Why I Love Living In A Vehicle

May 2, 2018 BY Michelle Schroeder-Gardner - 53 Comments

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Why I Love Living In A Vehicle #livinginavehicle #livinginacamper #rvlife Most people probably think that living in a vehicle is not “normal” and probably a little weird, haha.

Many people even make jokes about living in a home with wheels, like it's something you shouldn't aspire to.

But, it's my life, and I really, really love it!

RVing is becoming more and more popular too. According to the Recreation Vehicle Industry Association, there was a 17.2% increase in new RVs over just the previous year. That is a HUGE increase.

And, more than 9,000,000 households now own an RV, and surprisingly, the largest segment of buyers are between the ages of 35-54. More and more younger people are starting to see the appeal in RVing, and I have been hearing from so many readers who are interested in starting their own RV life.

While I know that traveling full-time and RV life isn’t for everyone, I also know that I don't want to live in a “normal” home again anytime soon. [Read more…]

Would You Consider Living In A Camper To Pay Off Debt Quicker?

March 19, 2018 BY Michelle Schroeder-Gardner - 48 Comments

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What would you do to save more money and pay off your debt quicker?

One thing that I've noticed more people doing is living in a camper in order to save money.

Before we begin, I will say that RVing is funny. Some people who don't RV think that all RVers are trust fund babies, and others think the complete opposite, like that we are all truly homeless and have no money.

In reality, living in a camper has a wide range of costs, just like houses that don't have wheels do. You could live in a $1,000 travel trailer, or there are $2,000,000+ motorhome mansions. Similarly, the budget you keep while living in a camper can vary widely too.

Some people manage to spend just hundreds of dollars a month, whereas others can easily spend several thousands of dollars a month RVing.

While we don't live in an RV to save money (the house we used to own was actually much less expensive than our motorhome), there are many who have been able to pay off debt, save for early retirement, and more, all by living in a camper. [Read more…]

What Traveling Full-Time For 3 Years Has Taught Me

February 10, 2018 BY Michelle Schroeder-Gardner - 54 Comments

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What Traveling Full-Time For 3 Years Has Taught Me Three years ago, we completely emptied our house, put it on the market, and drove to Colorado. We had been location independent for a couple of years at that point, and we had the travel itch. We were ready to explore, and little did we know that would be the start of our life traveling full-time.

It wasn't easy. I remember going out to eat with my close friends right before we moved. It was, literally, moments after we packed everything into a car, that I went out to eat with friends to say goodbye before continuing the drive to Colorado. I cried about selling our house and leaving my friends and family.

We found a “homebase” in Fruita, Colorado, and we used that as our jumping off point as we explored Colorado and nearby Utah.

We knew absolutely no one in the Fruita, Colorado area (or anywhere near it). We just picked it after a recent trip and liked the location, the small town feel, and all of the mountain biking, rock climbing, and hiking that it had to offer. [Read more…]

My Year In Travels – Where I Went in 2017 – Hiking, Biking, RVing, Sailing, and More

January 5, 2018 BY Michelle Schroeder-Gardner - 51 Comments

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2017 was an amazing year. We traveled to many new areas in the RV, went on a 10-day sailing trip, climbed several mountains, went on many bike rides, saw killer whales in their natural habitat, rode the third longest tram in the world, went on a brewery trail (yep, it exists!), and more.

We traveled to 18 states, too many cities to even keep track of, stayed in St. Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands, and sailed in the British Virgin Islands. We saw beautiful mountains, oceans, beaches, deserts, and everything in between.

We visited several new places, and we revisited many of our favorites as well. Some people think we're crazy for visiting the same place more than once, but we are always doing new things, and I think it's impossible to see and do everything if you only visit a place once. Plus, if you enjoyed your visit once, why not enjoy it some more?

2017 was an amazing year, full of great travel, building friendships and relationships, and more. I couldn't have asked for a better year.

Here's where we RVed in 2017. Credit: https://visitedstatesmap.com

Quick list of my favorite things from 2017: [Read more…]

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