Chickery's Travels

Chickery's Travels logo. A blue-green Earth globe with continents surrounded by dots with an arrow denoting movement or travel and "Chickery's Travels" as part of the dotted circle. Next to this is a photo of their blue and white Arctic Fox 5th Wheel with the awning out.
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      • Best Campgrounds in Florida
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      • Military Camping in Key West
      • Patrick AFB FamCamp (Cocoa Beach, FL)
      • Rainbow Springs State Park & Campground (Ocala, FL)
      • Walt Disney World’s Fort Wilderness (Orlando, FL)
        • Halloween at Disney’s Fort Wilderness
        • Chickery’s Travels Podcast Episode 5: Fort Wilderness Campground Review
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      • Best Campgrounds in Texas
      • Alsatian RV Resort (Castroville, Texas)
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      • Complete Guide to Camping at Shenandoah National Park
      • Fort Belvoir Travel Camp (Alexandria, VA)
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      • Apache Trail: A Crazy, Scary, Beautiful Drive
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      • Must See Sights in St. Augustine, FL – America’s Oldest City
      • Rainbow Springs State Park & Campground (Ocala, Florida)
      • Sunny Sarasota
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        • Get Back to Nature in Tampa Bay
        • Take Me Out to the Ball Game – Spring Training in Tampa, FL
        • The 5 Best Beaches in the Tampa Bay Area
        • Why We Love Tampa
      • Tarpon Springs – The Gulf Coast Town with Greek Flavor
      • Top 5 Things to Do on Florida’s Space Coast
      • What Not to Do When Kayaking on the Weeki Wachee River
      • Wizarding World of Harry Potter – Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure
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      • Visiting Atlanta? Don’t Miss These Civil Rights Museums
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      • One Day In The Windy City – Chicago Itinerary
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      • Las Vegas RV Campgrounds: Nellis Air Force Base and Lake Mead RV Village
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      • Burgess Falls: 3 For 1 Waterfall Special
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      • Best Eats in Fredericksburg
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  • RV Resources
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    • Living in an RV
      • 9 Lessons From 2 1/2 Years on the Road
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      • Full-Time RV: 2019 Year in Review
      • Full-Time RV: 2018 Year in Review
      • Full-Time RV Travel – 2017 Year In Review
      • How Full-Time RVers Celebrate the Holidays
      • How to Prepare for Full-Time RV Travel
      • Internet Solutions for RV Travelers
      • Learn How to RV Full-Time
      • Living in a Tiny, Traveling Home
      • Making Friends (and reconnecting with old friends) While Traveling Full-Time
      • Pros & Cons of Full-Time RV Travel
      • RV Organization & Storage Ideas
      • Short-Term RV Storage: Leaving The RV Behind
      • Top 3 Lessons Learned & Biggest Regret: 3 Years Full-Time RV Living
      • What We Wish We Knew Before Full-Time RVing
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      • Why We Are Traveling Full-Time In Our RV
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      • Planning an RV Remodel
      • RV Kitchen Cooking Videos
      • Painting Your RV Interior
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      • RV Remodel Costs with Before & After Photos
      • Vintage Camper Renovation
    • RV Holiday Tour – Decorating Our Small Space
    • RV Hurricane Evacuation
    • RV Misery Can Be Overcome By The Generosity Of Others
    • RV Travelers: How to Read Books While Saving Space and Weight in Your RV
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      • Cooking Videos
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      • RVing with Your Cat
      • Traveling with Restricted Breed Dogs
    • Why I Prefer RV Travel Over Flying
    • Your Guide To Planning The Best Family Vacation This Summer
  • Travel Finance
    • 5 Tips to Save on RV Travel
    • 5 Ways to Fund Full-Time Travel
    • Full-Time RV Expenses
      • Annual Full-Time RV Expenses – The Big Three
    • Five Credit Card Strategies To Improve Travel
    • How Much Do Campgrounds Cost?
    • How Much Does it Cost to RV Full-Time?
    • How to Camp for Free
    • How to Start a Profitable Blog
    • How to Save Money on RV Fuel Costs
    • How to Save on Food While Camping
    • How We Earn A Living While Traveling Full-Time (And How You Can Too)
    • How We Paid $139,000 of Debt in 2 Years While Full-Time RVing
    • Learn How to Finance Your Dreams
    • The Top 7 Ways to Save Money While Traveling Full-Time
    • Roadmap to Financial Freedom
      • Roadmap to Financial Freedom: Accountability Report April 2018
      • Roadmap to Financial Freedom: Accountability Report May 2018
      • Roadmap to Financial Freedom: Accountability Report June 2018
      • Roadmap to Financial Freedom: Accountability Report July 2018
      • Roadmap to Financial Freedom: Accountability Report August 2018
      • Roadmap to Financial Freedom: Accountability Report September/October 2018
    • RV Purchasing
      • RV Purchasing: Understanding RV Types
      • Benefits of Renting an RV
      • Should I Buy A New or Used RV?
      • The Costs of RV Ownership
      • The True Cost of Financing an RV
      • Why You Should Attend An RV Show
    • Save Money Using the Public Library (On More Than Just Books)
  • Military Travel
    • Guide To Using Military Campgrounds
    • Health Care for Retired Military Full-Time RVers
    • Why Military Retirees Should Fly Space-A
  • Videos
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January 3, 2018 by Julie 12 Comments

Annual Full-Time RV Expenses – The Big Three

In this article we’ll share our expenses for the year of full-time RV travel across three major categories: campgrounds, fuel, and entertainment. We’ll provide our average monthly costs and explain what occurred in the high and low months as well.

Full-Time RV Finance is designed to help you realize your full-time travel dreams. Over 25 video lessons, we will help you chart a course towards financial freedom, create a realistic full-time RV budget, and learn how to make money and save money on the road.

Campgrounds

We stay exclusively in full hook-up (water, 50 amp electric, and sewer) campgrounds. We read reviews and typically stay in those that have good WiFi (to save on our hotspots), pools, and fitness rooms. We are typically near cities with a major airport due to frequent work travel.

This year we stayed in 11 different campgrounds: 4 Military, 6 Private, and 1 State Park. We post reviews of our stays on our YouTube channel. We travel slowly and take advantage of monthly rates when we can.

  • Average Monthly Cost: $575
  • Highest Monthly Cost: $1500 This was at Fort Belvoir, VA in the Washington DC metropolitan area. While it was an expensive campground for us, we think it is worth it because our oldest son and future daughter-in-law live nearby! You can see our review of the campground here.
  • Lowest Monthly Cost: $495 We spent the month of July at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, FL. You can see our review of the campground here.

Fuel

Heartland Cyclone and Chevy Silverado HDWe pulled a 44’ Fifth Wheel with our Chevy 3500 HD Truck. We typically stayed in place 4-6 weeks before moving which helps keep costs down, but the truck is also our only vehicle for local drives. In addition, Sean has to travel quite a bit for work and we are typically about 1 ½ hour away from a major airport and have to drive there and back a couple of times a month. Next year, we plan to keep a separate log of mileage from moving with the Fifth Wheel, driving in the local area travel, and traveling to and from airports.

  • Average Monthly Cost: $365
  • Highest Monthly Cost: $793 This was in September when we had to evacuate southeastern Florida due to Hurricane Irma. We moved from Jupiter, FL to Valdosta, GA; Auburn, AL; Millington, TN; and finally back to Cocoa Beach, FL in that one month. Luckily we maintain an emergency fund as part of our financial strategy.
  • Lowest Monthly Cost: $233 This was in October. We were exhausted from our adventures the previous month and stayed put. The weather was lovely and we road our bikes around the local area and hardly used the truck. We did have to make 2 trips to the Orlando airport.

We also spent $52.76 on propane for the whole year. We stayed at full hook-up campgrounds in warm climates and only used propane for cooking (stove top and oven) on a daily basis.

Entertainment

  • Average Monthly Cost: $210
  • Highest Monthly Cost: $294
  • Lowest Monthly Cost: $119

Our highest month was August in Cocoa Beach, FL. We both went on a bioluminescence kayaking tour which was $84. Also Julie got the deluxe adventure package at the Brevard Zoo which included an aerial adventure obstacle course, zip lining and kayaking for $57. We discuss how much fun we had on the Space Coast and what 5 activities we recommend in this article. Our least expensive month was again at Fort Belvoir because there are so many free activities in the Washington DC area (i.e., Smithsonian museums, monuments, and hiking galore).

What’s the Bottom Line?

If you add together all of our expenses, our average monthly cost to RV Full-Time this year was $3,576. We are both working and are fortunate that we are able to live on one income and put the remainder towards debt and savings. Our savings is further broken down into categories for things like retirement, vacation fund, holidays, etc.

In December 2017, we set a goal of being debt free by the end of 2019. In addition to our income, we employed 3 other strategies to help us pay off $91,000 in debt in under 12 months.

We also created a program called Full-Time RV Finance to help others financially achieve their full-time travel dreams. Over 25 videos we help you chart your course towards financial freedom, create a realistic full-time RV budget, and learn how to make money & save money on the road. 

Can you be more frugal?

Yes! It is possible to have a more frugal budget for sure. For example, we know folks who dry camp the majority of the year. This very low cost and sometimes even free. Many others that are trying to cut back on expenses will reduce their budget for dining out and cut out the streaming subscriptions and extra hot spots. You can read our tips for saving money here. And just remember, it is completely up to you and how you’d like to live.

Sharing is caring! Please share the image below on Pinterest. 

See a breakdown of one year's worth of full-time RV travel expenses. If you've ever wondered what it costs to travel full-time in an RV, motorhome, fifth wheel or travel trailer, you can find all the expenses here.

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