Nearly nine thousand driving miles, 81 days, and 14 states later, we’re back!
If you follow us on the ‘gram I shared day-to-day glimpses into our trip on IG stories. One of my favorite things to do on travel days is to respond to AMAs, or Ask-Me-Anything. It helps pass the time, and it helps us reflect in real time. During our drive day from the Grand Tetons to Twin Falls, Idaho we received the question, would we share details of our RV travel costs. The answer was yes!
Now we are somewhat settled we started digging into the financials. While we use Empower to help us track all of our expenses, sometimes we have difficulty with all our credit card data syncing (uber frustrating!). To compile the information shared today, I actually went line by line through our credit card statements to label and record every charge. We try to utilize our credit cards for as many of our day-to-day expenses as we can to earn cash back and accumulate points (we pay off the full balance every month). Our credit card statements are generally the authority.
Over the years we have saved over $18,000 in credit card rewards--mostly for travel (hotels, airfare, car rentals, etc.) and groceries!
We also had to comb through transactions in our bank account. We upgraded to a diesel truck this year to tow our larger RV, and we use a fuel discount card to save money on fuel. This is linked to our bank account (it cannot be linked to a credit card, boo!). I’ve recorded that data, as well as a minor bit of cash we spent during the three months.
Why We’re Sharing Our RV Travel Costs
Before I go into details on our RV trip cost, I want to be clear why we’re sharing and how we approach travel spending.
- We believe money talk should be less taboo. The more we normalize talking about spending habits and costs, the better for everyone!
- When people dream of different lifestyles, such as travel, etc. one big barrier is cost. How can I know if I can afford something if I don’t have any benchmark data to start with? By sharing our trip expenses, we’re pulling back the curtain so you can get an idea of what 3 months of RV travel (our way!) looks like.
- We’re sharing a data point for others who may be interested in RV travel, not because if you travel 3 months in an RV you will spend as much as we did. This is an important point. No two families will travel the exact same way. So many factors influence the overall cost, including how many people you travel with, RV size, weather, location, how many miles you drive, pace of travel, type of campgrounds, where you grocery shop, etc. Our costs are simply a data point.
- You could 100% do the same trip we did and spend less than we did. We are not super frugal when it comes to travel. Our goal is to have an enjoyable trip and be comfortable, not to travel in the least expensive manner. While we’re not super frugal, at the same time we are not frivolous spenders. We constantly evaluate cost for what we are receiving–from campgrounds to groceries to experiences. TLDR: If you review our expenses and think, “I could do this cheaper,” we agree with you!
Travel Costs Broken Down by Category
As I mentioned above, we tried to get the most comprehensive view of our total expenses so we can share accurate totals with you. Since we have tracked our expenses for years now, our categories are fairly consistent from trip to trip. Let’s get into it!
#1 Biggest Expense: Campgrounds
Over 80 nights we spent $4,806.50 on campgrounds.
The most expensive campground we stayed was in West Yellowstone, coming in at $152 per night (ouch!). For reference, our average nightly campground cost for this trip was about $60, so it’s very atypical for us to spend over one hundred dollars per night on a campground. When it comes to popular destinations, such as Yellowstone, you will definitely pay a premium no matter the type of lodging you choose.
When we take a look at the breakdown of where we stayed, by far we slept mostly in private campgrounds. We spent a little over two weeks total dry camping on BLM land and other public land (which helped bring our average nightly cost down significantly), and hit a couple Boondockers Welcome and Harvest Host locations. Since Harvest Host requires a membership fee, I included that cost in this campground total.
One of our favorite stays was with Ordinary Sherpa and her family, where we “mooch docked” for several nights (they let us tap into some power and water). It’s so fun staying with friends but having our house with us.
#2 Biggest Expense: Fuel
We spent $2,812 on fuel, specifically diesel.
Y’all, we drove nearly 9,000 miles. We spent 264 hours or the equivalent of 11 full days driving over the course of 81 days.
Note not all of those hours were towing our fifth wheel. We drove a significant amount unhitched to explore the different areas, especially when we were in the national parks (Yellowstone is so big!). And in general, we enjoy driving to explore new areas.
#3 Biggest Expense: Restaurants
We spent $2,402 on restaurants. This is definitely a category where we spend more than we need to. But we really enjoy eating out when we travel. Food helps us experience a place.
One of our standout meals was at Harbor Haus, located in Copper Harbor, Michigan. While it was pricey, we enjoyed amazing food with perfect views of Lake Superior.
Groceries
We spent $1,820 on groceries. Some people ask us why we’d include groceries in our travel cost since this is an expense we’d have regardless of traveling.
We include it because undoubtedly we pay a bit more for groceries while traveling, and tracking our grocery costs helps us forecast for future trips depending on the length of travel.
Walmart (don’t love it), Costco, and Aldi are my grocery go-to’s when traveling.
Fun & Experiences
We spent $1,106 on fun and experiences. This is one category that was barely over $200, until… Mike discovered UTVing (Utility Terrain Vehicle)! More on that in a minute.
We’re lucky most of the things we enjoy (hiking, getting out in nature) don’t cost much. We spent $80 on the America the Beautiful pass that gets us into any National Park (or monument) for free for one entire year. That was a no brainer for us since we hit so many national parks on this trip!
This category also includes park stamps I collect for my national park passport stamp book, which is fun, and some postcards I bought and sent along the way.
We did splurge a few times during this trip on some fun experiences. In Moab we did a self-drive UTV tour, which was incredible but also very scary at times with rock crawling. It was wild.
Soon after we decided to rent a UTV for a half day and explored the Alpine Loop on our own near Silverton, Colorado. The two UTV experiences cost nearly $800 total, and we’ll definitely never forget them!
General Supplies
From here our costs drop off dramatically. We spent $194 in general supplies. This category is a bit of a catch all and includes items for repairs we had to make on the road. For anyone familiar with RV travel this category is a huge question mark. When your home is traveling down the road so many things can go wrong, or break.
We had a couple significant issues, the worst being the day we went to move campgrounds but we couldn’t pull our bedroom slide in. We couldn’t move the RV until this was fixed. Luckily we were in Jamestown, North Dakota and minutes away from a Menards and Walmart. Mike was able to get what he needed to eventually fix the slide issue. We were lucky though to be near a hardware store when this happened. Many other places we stayed didn’t have hardware store!
From the get-go we had small water leaks (fairly common in RVs), and we spent some money buying new fittings to fix the leaks.
This trip we got off easy, but things have a way of balancing out over time.
Propane
We spent $100 on propane. We use propane to cook in our oven, and for our beloved Blackstone Griddle. Our furnace also runs on propane, which luckily we didn’t need much except for some cool nights in Colorado on the way home.
Tolls/Fees
We spent $57 in tolls and fees. This includes parking meters, car washes, etc.
Grand Total of 3 Months of RV Travel
If you’re good at mental math you already have an idea of the total. But for those who need a calculator like me, drum roll please….
| Expense Category | Cost |
|---|---|
| Campgrounds/Lodging | $4,806 |
| Fuel | $2,812 |
| Restaurants | $2,402 |
| Groceries | $1,820 |
| Fun & Experiences | $1,106 |
| General Supplies | $194 |
| Propane | $100 |
| Tolls & Fees | $57 |
| TOTAL COST | $13,298 |
Our total cost for 3 months of RV travel was $13,298.
That averages out to $166 per night, over 80 nights.
I’m really curious… Is this more or less than you expected? Tell me in the comments or on social media!
Would We Do Anything Differently RE: RV Travel Costs?
There are a few things we will do differently moving forward that can impact costs.
The first thing that comes to mind is slowing down our travel pace. We know we prefer slow travel, but even a week in some destinations wasn’t enough for us. We experienced travel fatigue on this trip (especially during Yellowstone and Moab), and could have benefited by building in more of a buffer to rest and catch up (grocery shopping, meal prep, laundry, etc.). In the future we will extend our stay in places where there is a lot to see and do.
Secondly, we may spend more on experiences in the future. I have some regrets over missing out on a horseback tour in the Grand Tetons and a float trip down the Snake River.
The third thing we’ll do differently is look for more options to camp on public land. We really enjoyed our time boondocking. When we “boondock,” we camp without any hookups (no water, power, or sewer available) for either free or a greatly reduced nightly rate. We have to be self-contained with our own power (from our solar panels and battery), and manage our tanks for water (we can fill up our water tank ahead of time) and sewer.
We enjoyed several amazing boondocking spots on this trip! The best spots were near the Beartooth Highway in Montana, Capitol Reef National Park, and two spots in Colorado. When the weather is right (not too hot, mostly!), this is a perfect way for us to camp while greatly reducing our costs.
Parting Thoughts
While you may (or may not) be shocked at our overall RV travel costs, there is nothing like the freedom experienced when you spend money in accordance with your values. If you’ve read any of our other content, you know travel supports our top values: freedom and adventure. We want our annual spending to reflect that.
You may be asking, how can you spend that much?!
First off, to know how much you can spend you need an idea of how much you currently spend. So my first piece of advice is start tracking all your expenses. I realize this may seem daunting. As I mentioned earlier, we use Empower to pull in all our accounts for a comprehensive view of our finances. However, there are other personal finances apps out there, or you can also do this in Excel or other more manual methods.
If your personal finances are in good shape but you struggle spending money, I’d really encourage you to do a values exercise. I go into more detail here. Understanding your top personal values can help you be more intentional about how and what you spend money on. Permission to spend is easier when you feel you are acting with intention.
If diving into your finances and tracking expenses is a new concept for you but you are intrigued, you may be interested in learning more about financial independence (FI).
What’s next for us?
Well, the RV is back in storage after unloading, deep cleaning, winterizing, some minor repairs, and a full exterior wash which was much deserved!
In the short term…
Mike has two large home projects he’s working on before winter weather arrives, including finishing the garage addition and building a new deck. We’re not sure how far he’ll get but he’s made a lot of progress just in the three weeks we’ve been home.
I’m pivoting back to focus on the blog, and hope to do more coaching now we’re home. I plan to share more about our overall trip, which will highlight some of the most popular national parks (!!), as well as FI (financial independence) content, so stay tuned!
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