The Pewter Palace -Our Love Affair with Avions-

People often post many questions online want to know if the full time RV life can be cheaper than living in a sticks n bricks (house, apartment, condo).

In today’s world the quick answer is probably not, unless you plan to do a ton of dispersed, boondock (no electricity, water or sewer connections), and primarily remote desert camping in AZ for at least the winter months.

In this article we will break open the envelope on things to consider, questions to ask yourself and also reveal what our full time RV life budgeting with travels around the USA have cost in financial sense. In a future article, we will answer the “WHY” question that is also so frequently asked….“why did you decide to travel full time in an RV and sell everything including your house?”

LET’S JUST BITE THE BULLET AND SAY…….Times have changed.

average Campground Rates: Rates at campgrounds now, based on national surveys, range from $45-125+ per night with the average nationwide being $50-70 per night- and this may only be for electric and water hookups. A campsite in the Yellowstone National Park’s Fishing Bridge Campground with full hookups can run you between $100-150 per night PER NIGHT. Fishing bridge has close spaced paved sites (no privacy, no shade) and no pool, hot tub or other recreational activities in the campground- it is purely a base camp to enjoy the NP with.

Towing/RV travel Costs: Gas, diesel, tolls all factor into travel costs as well and with those prices going out of the roof, travel costs alone have skyrocketed over the past 10 years. Diesel at over $6 per gallon this summer/fall has had many RV owners changing travel plans.

What many people fail to factor in is that many of the recurring monthly costs you have as a home dweller – these do not disappear when you begin living and traveling in an RV. Rather, think of it as some budget categories just SHIFT!

Some good examples of these are:

• Your mortgage or rent payment …..can become your RV payment (and maybe also a new vehicle payment too)
• Your cable bill….becomes your Starlink bill (or other sort of connectivity device) Relying on simply a cell phone connection is not viable if you plan to do any sort of streaming, uploading or remote work. there are still many “dead zones” in the uSA & Canada!
• Your heating bill ….becomes your dump fees, electrical hookup fees if charged Separately- which they are in long term stays and many Harvest Host stays now.
• Your monthly light & water bill… becomes part of your camping fees
• Your household repair/maintenance bills–become your RV repair bills (and they will happen regardless of how new or how old your RV is!)
• Vehicle Fuel Bills: they get bigger with this lifestyle. no longer are you only using your primary vehicle for commuting to work and/or running errands around your hometown and the Occasional vacation trip. Now you are easily putting anywhere from 100 to 1000 miles on a week!

What does nOT disappear if you choose to spend the rest of your days living full time in an RV (traveling or stationary) are things like:

Things like: Insurances, groceries, vehicle repairs/rv repairs, electronic devices and bills, clothing, pet costs do not disappear with RV life.

Some interesting comparisons for our RV travel over the past 3 years of Full Timing:

the below graph is ONLY for costs doing actual RV travel trips & camping stays. it only covers what we anticipated as expenses when we planned our routes: gas (@$5.00 per gallon), camp fees (@$50 ave per night), snacks/drinks on the road (@$5 per day) and meals (@$30 per day) while traveling and staying in the various states listed.

TRIP THEMES, DIRECTIONS	2024= AZ, NM, CO, WY, MT,ID,  TX	2025= TX, ND, IN, NY, VT, PA,OH,TN, GA,FL,AL,MI, LA, FL	2026= GA, FL, NC, VA, NY, MI, IN, OH, TN, GA
RV TRIP TOTALS
TOWED MILES	6,257	7,390	5,708
# TRAVEL NIGHTS	261	257	270
**TOTAL COSTS PER RV TRIPS CALCULATION (*RVTRIPWIZ)	$9,836.01	$10,395.50	$17,327.32
AVE COST PER NIGHT ON TRIPS*	$37.68	$40.44	$64.10

*IMPORTANT OUR PERSONAL BUDGET SUMMARY NOTES:

1. Higher gas prices, as expected, have shown an impact into our towing travels cost  We consistently average 7.5-8mpg. Yours may be different! We are very thankful we do NOT have a diesel truck these days.
2. RV Travel is proven to be less expensive in the Midwest and Southwest of the USA versus the east coast. Traffic and tolls are a lot less out west as well.
3. We utilize our Thousand Trails Membership for at least 2-5 months per year. (We bought a used one in 2019 but did not begin to really use until 2023) This membership we purchased to reduce our annual camping fees. Based on the # of nights we used in 2023 we totally paid off the initial cost of the membership package ($3200). Therefore the calculations above only reflect our ongoing annual “maintenance fee” that we are billed by TT every March then this is divided by the # of TT campground overnights we did in that particular year. Currently, our annual fee is $709.00 Note– TT campsites are full hookup and most parks have amenities like swimming pools, laundry on site and some have hot tubs. Not all parks are great, some are in disrepair and dated, but based on our average nightly cost- we overlook a lot of that. Cost Average for our TT camp nights = 2024@ $6.96, 2025@ $6.75, 2026@ $17.53.
4. As noted above, the figures shown ONLY represent costs associated with actual RV Trips.  Based on our detailed and consistent tracking of ALL of our costs over the past 3 years we have averaged between $98-185 per day expenses.  This includes trip costs, daily/monthly household expense costs that anyone would incur living either in an RV or sticks n bricks home. The figures in #5 show nearly all overall regular living expenses factored in.
5. We do not eat high priced/high end foods or shop at expensive niche grocery stores like Whole Foods, Sprouts., etc. We also cannot take advantage of places like Costco or Sams Club simply because we do not have the bulk storage capabilities in our particular RV. Someone with a motorhome or Fifth Wheel trailer with lots of “basement” storage could benefit from that type of shopping for sure.
6. We also do not consume alcoholic beverages other than an occasional beer or glass of wine a month. Bar bills can get expensive! Alcoholic beverages, whether purchased and consumed at home or out on the town can greatly add to your overall monthly costs.
7. We do utilize a number of other membership discount programs as well as Veteran and/or Senior discounts for campsites, groceries, goods and services when offered. Visit our article on discount memberships, and ways to save here!
8. OUR ACTUAL AVERAGE OVERALL DAILY COST (INCLUDES 2 PEOPLE) BY YEAR:  2024=@ $118, 2025= @ $188  2026= @$128

try this worthwhile experiment!

An interesting experiment yOU may want to try is to: Track EVERY receipt & household Expense you have for each month for the next 3 months (we are talking even the quick coffee grab at the locale quick mart!).

then Do the same sort of calculations like we have to determine your “average daily cost” for living as you are right now. compare to ours!

CAMP HOSTING AND WORK CAMPING CAN GREATLY OFFSET TRAVEL BUDGETS NEEDED FOR OTHER MONTHS!

Oct 1, 2025 to March 27, 2026 (6 months) :  It is important to note that from Oct 1, 2025 to March 27, 2026 we were Camp Hosts so essentially did very little towing (but those long weekends are factored into our totals) and therefore our gas and dine out expenses were greatly reduced during that 6 month period. As city volunteers we were required to perform 20 hours of work total as a couple in exchange for our full hook up campsite. We did have to go through a formal government background check and interviewing process.

April 1, 2026-May 31, 2026 (2 months): We work camped for the National Park Service in NC so we had no camp fees and minimal gas expenses (we did factor in 1 weekend trip into our totals). Luise worked 3 days a week for 7 hours each day operating the visitor center and gift shop. Kevin worked 3 days a week 8 hour days with the park maintenance crew. These were the basic hour requirements.

October 5, 2026-February 22, 2027 ( almost 5 months) we returned to camp hosting in southwestern GA and so we incurred no camping fees during that period.  * we actually contracted to stay until Feb 22, 2027 which will help to offset travel costs for 2027. Here is a picture of our full hook up pull through 90′ long campsite at our Bainbridge Riverview Campground camp host location. Our patio looks out into woods and the beautiful groomed woodland disc golf course.

Below is a photo taken at our Camp Hosting (FHU) site at Bainbridge Riverview Campground in Bainbridge, GA

if this article has helped you to understand better the costs of RV travel or extended travel, please let us know by leaving a comment. As always we also appreciate it if you would subscribe to our blog. This way you will get first notification of new articles, events and happenings! We do not spam you, we do not sell your information. We do not fill your inbox with click bait.

thank you and safe Journeys!