Mobile Lifestyle Expenses | Initial Findings

When Dana and I began discussing a mobile lifestyle two of the first questions we asked ourselves were ‘What’s the monthly cost?’…AND…‘How long can we live like this…IF we like it?’.

Reading various blogs, websites and watching YouTube videos we quickly discovered the answer is, it depends. We observed expense claims of $650 to $5,000 per month. One of our concerns with the findings was a lack of consistency as to what expenses were included and what type of mobile lifestyle we would be afforded; some were very basic in description (i.e. – single monthly amount with no category breakout) and others were quite inclusive and detailed (think full spreadsheet).

With this wide range in front of us we concluded we wouldn’t know the true answer until we lived this lifestyle and began our adventure, and this answer could vary based on what we are doing and where we are doing it. We did, however, set an initial budget of $2,000 and are being diligent in tracking our expenses.

We chose to exclude categories like insurance, retirement contributions, communications (cell phone), monthly payments, subscription services, etc. in this post (and future posts) because we believe these categories are unique to an individual, or family, and would provide minimal information to others seeking a transition to a mobile lifestyle.

The expense categories we will include are as follows:

• Travel

• Food

• Lodging

• Repairs/Upgrades

• Entertainment

• Utilities

Dana and I are both ‘the data doesn’t lie’ people so therefore we wanted a full three months of control data prior to implementing any changes.

After three months we have an eyes wide open look at the cost of our current lifestyle and while we have kept these costs low…ish, we feel room for improvement exists with real-world knowledge obtained.

November 2019 through January 2020 Average Monthly Expenses

Travel - $248.97

• Includes gasoline for Arty (tow vehicle) and any other needs – i.e. washer fluid, oil, etc.

Food - $801.56

• Includes groceries, restaurant meals and food when refueling during moving day – this was surprising. There is room for improvement here…perhaps a few less meals prepared by others 😉 and a portable refrigerator in Arty for day trips and moving days. For example, we recently visited the Grand Canyon and, of course, in touristy places prices are higher, but we still spent $47 on food!! Yikes!

Lodging - $1,049.22

• Includes campground sites with water, electricity and sewer hookups. Thus far, this seems reasonable as it is less than the monthly TAX payments on our house in New York. We believe we can do better…. but, will we??? We're exploring additional options. Stay tuned...

Repairs/Upgrades - $398.26

• Includes any repairs needed and upgrades or accessories purchased for Arty or Leigh (our RV). Most of the three-month average is from November, so we expect this to decrease…or, perhaps, increase if we find more toys or switch to more boondocking with a solar setup

Entertainment - $45.25

• Includes any entrance fees to parks, exhibits, museums, etc. and souvenirs. The America the Beautiful National Park Pass has saved us some dollars in this area. As an example, it saved us the $35 entrance fee to the Grand Canyon National Park

Utilities - $23.39

• Includes propane refills of our 30lb bottles and any electricity charges (uncommon to date). This amount was surprising (we expected this to be higher), and we have our electric fireplace and full hookups to thank; the fireplace provides heat and the refrigerator runs off the electricity when hooked up. Looking back, I was initially sour on the fireplace and thought the space could be better utilized but we have enjoyed having it and has allowed for cost avoidance in this category.

Total Monthly Average for the Period November 2019 to January 2020

$2,566.65

What does this amount afford us? To date, our mobile lifestyle has consisted of staying in campgrounds (think KOA) with full hookups, moving every 1-2 weeks, good meals and using the campgrounds as a home base to visit the amazing places the USA has to offer.

So, what have we learned? Our initial budget of $2,000 was optimistic when considering no change in habits from Dana and I being gainfully employed and if we want to extend this lifestyle indefinitely from the 9-5 grind, then we need to consider making some changes; three months in…we are enjoying the lifestyle.

We’ll post new monthly expenses on a quarterly basis aligned with the calendar year. With this, the next post will only have two months of data but should still be worthwhile.