Roaming America
Our Actual Expenses

We don't really follow a budget, but we do track our expenses. All of our expenses are posted to categories set up in the financial tracking software we use, which is Quicken. It's easy to pull reports of expenses in the various categories. However, since we sometimes charge items, sometimes use a check, and sometimes use cash, expenses are not always posted to Quicken in the month in which they were incurred. Therefore, it makes more sense for us to also show a rolling 12-month average, which is close enough to indicate our monthly expenses. That is what is presented in the table below. I have also included a year-to-date column for whatever it's worth.

We have  included categories related to the RV lifestyle that we believe folks researching the lifestyle would be interested in. Other expense categories that are discretionary and are totally controllable by each person/couple based on how much they have to spend, and how they want to spend it, have not been included. Regardless of how you budget, it's a good idea to keep an on-going system to track expenses.

I will update this page whenever I put up a new travelogue, so it may not be updated on a monthly basis.

May 19, 2006 was our sixth anniversary of life on the road. For the 72 months that we have been on the road, we have:

* driven 63,147.6 miles;

* used 7,920.5 gallons of diesel fuel for an average of about 7.97 mpg;

* put 1,309.9 hours on the Cummins engine.

I was curious about costs, so I ran some Quicken reports. I include the results here for RV wannabes who follow our travels and as data that may be interesting to veteran fulltimers. Over the last six years, we averaged:

*  $1.89 per gallon and $208.35 per month for diesel fuel.

*  $371.99 per month for campground fees. We were pretty happy with that number given that we always wanted to try and keep our campground costs to around $400 per month.

 





2001

 2002

2003





2004





2005



2006



2007



2008



2009
  

Rolling 12-month averages

mm/dd, 2010
 thru
  mm/dd, 2010
Notes
Campgrounds

$397.57

$364.33

$434.71
$402.30
$363.49
$443.12
               $363.37

$436.41
$376.44

$000.00

#1

Rallies

$62.42

$14.92

$42.33

 $24.92
 $183.33
 $10.83
 $17.54
 $134.17
 $0.00

$0.00
Touring

$43.83

$60.02

$85.14

 $39.09
 $19.50
 $172.42
 $3.58
 $34.02
 $29.17

$00.00

#3
Gasoline (Honda)

  $82.98

$65.86

$84.03

 $84.72 $93.08
 $80.71
 $94.79
 $105.46
 $78.24

$00.00
Diesel Fuel (Dutch Star)

$212.86

$129.08

$169.91

 $185.37
 $308.75
 $480.89
 $222.44
 $604.93
 $138.16

$000.00

  
Propane

$3.96

$6.33

$8.83

 $4.15
 $8.92
 $12.24
 $7.20
 $9.71
 $7.39

$0.00

  
Motorhome supplies

$18.52

$10.76

$5.21

 $5.40
 $7.29
 $5.15
 $2.79
 $15.57
 $7.38

$00.00

#2
Motorhome Maintenance

$141.29

$94.44

$73.38

 $102.64
 $257.39
 $120.48
 $51.15
 $122.63
 $43.34

$000.00

 #4
Motorhome
Repairs


$26.90
 $37.41
 $41.58
 $93.11
 $163.22
 $16.96
 $000.00
 #5
Auto Maintenance

$38.84

$45.39

$32.03

 $69.17
 $5.33
 $107.75
 $75.45
 $10.75
 $17.12
 $0.00













  1. Includes membership fees to Coast to Coast Resorts and Passport America

  2. Includes chemicals, waxes, car washes, oil, etc

  3. Fees for visiting local sites, museums, ferries, etc (doesn't include road tolls)

  4. Six new tires in June 2005 ($2400)
  5. Ball joints in September 2007

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