Living full-time in an RV comes with its own unique set of financial considerations, and many people wonder, “What does it really cost?” In this post, we’ll be sharing our October budget and actual expenses as a way to answer that question. We’ll go through each line item, from campground fees and fuel to groceries and maintenance, offering insight into what we spend as a couple living on the road. It’s worth noting that every family’s budget will look different depending on their lifestyle, travel pace, and individual needs, but we hope our breakdown will be a helpful guide for anyone curious about the financial side of full-time RV life.
RV & Tow Vehicle Expenses
| Budget | Spent | Difference | |
| Insurance | $185.50 | $185.50 | $0 |
| Towing Fuel | $450 | $200.35 | $249.65 |
| Non-Towing Fuel | $200 | $442.10 | -$242.10 |
| RV Maintenance/Repairs | $75 | $32.79 | $42.21 |
| Truck Maintenance/Repairs | $50 | $0 | $50 |
| Other RV/Vehicle | – | – | – |
| Total | $960.50 | $860.74 | $99.76 |
I’m not the best at tracking towing vs non-towing fuel, so those numbers might be off, but I care more about the total between the two. We did some long haul days of towing in September, but in October we did more towing days even though they were shorter. We towed for just about 300 miles total in October. One thing we don’t have in our budget that a lot of full-time RVers have is truck & RV payments, since we already owned our rig before going full-time.
Living Expenses
| Budget | Spent | Difference | |
| Campgrounds | $500 | $826.73 | -$326.73 |
| Internet | $130 | $60 | $70 |
| Cell Phones | $100 | $0 | $100 |
| Postage/Mail | $25 | $0 | $25 |
| Propane | $35 | $0 | $35 |
| Other Living | – | – | – |
| Total | $790 | $886.73 | -$96.73 |
Ok, there’s some weird numbers here so let’s take it from the top. We knew our $500/month campground budget was unrealistic, but we set that as an average across the year since we knew we’d be spending part of the year at home base.
In October we camped in a state park in Pennsylvania, a Harvest Host in New Jersey, a Harvest Host in Delaware, a county park in Maryland, and a county park in Virginia. We very rarely get full hook-up campgrounds, which is definitely a choice not all full-timers make.
The $60 internet cost was for our T-Mobile, but our Verizon internet and Verizon phones are on a family plan with Josh’s dad and we had prepaid him a few months at a time, so that’s why it looks like we didn’t pay that.
Food Expenses
| Budget | Actual | Difference | |
| Groceries | $500 | $641.22 | -$141.22 |
| Restaurants | $200 | $261.48 | -$61.48 |
| Pets | $75 | $45.01 | $29.99 |
| Total | $775 | $947.71 | -$172.71 |
Half of October was spent in the DC area, which meant lots of sightseeing and eating in the city. We knew going into October that we’d be over budget on restaurants and entertainment, but because those are budget lines we’re usually low on we were ok with going over. Groceries ended up high just because we were in a more expensive area. Also you’ll see in the next section that household products came out at $0 because it all got mixed in with groceries this month.
Other Expenses
| Budget | Actual | Difference | |
| Medical | $75 | $0 | $75 |
| Clothing | $50 | $0 | $50 |
| Grooming | $20 | $0 | $20 |
| Household Products | $35 | $0 | $35 |
| Entertainment | $350 | $495.24 | -$145.24 |
| Subscriptions | $50 | $29.98 | $20.02 |
| Gifts | $50 | $180.88 | -$130.88 |
| Donations | – | $20 | -$20 |
| Total | $630 | $726.10 | -$96.10 |
I think some of these categories need to be changed up. This month any household products, grooming products (shampoo, etc), and medicines ended up getting mixed into the grocery budget, so in the future I’ll probably combine those entirely. This is the most we’ve spent on entertainment in a month and includes Metro passes, admission feeds, and souvenirs. Our gift category is also high since we’re starting to collect souvenirs for Christmas gifts for friends and family.
October Budget Overview
Our total budget for October was $3,155.50 and we actually spent $3,421.28. We knew this would be one of our most expensive months because of the area we were in and the activities we were doing in DC. Most of our months we’ve been under budget, and we try to look at things over the course of the year instead of on a month-by-month basis. We have enough savings that we’re not living paycheck to paycheck, so as long as things net out in the long-term we’re fine.
Full-time RVers live on all kinds of budgets and it really depends on the kind of lifestyle you want. We typically stay at state or county parks instead of private RV resorts, so our camping expenses are cheaper than a lot of people, but more expensive than people who mostly boondock. We budget high for restaurants and entertainment because we want to enjoy travel, but the kinds of activities we like to do usually are cheap or free. I’d say we’re somewhere in the middle in terms of RV monthly budgets.
More Monthly Costs
We did a blog post back in April on our monthly costs too. April was our first full month on the road after living stationary for a few months: How Much Does Full-Time RV Life Cost? Our Full First Month Budget Breakdown
