Living Smaller and Spending Less
We get the question all the time: how do you live in an RV at your age? Truthfully, living in the RV has enabled us to survive on way less, one income in fact. It's an amazing opportunity and we're learning to live with less all the time! This week, I'm breaking down our budget to share exactly how we make this lifestyle work for us.
We camp host, which means we have a free campsite. I'm able to work the campground and take care of the home stuff while Loren works full-time. We're living on about $2,000/month after taxes. Even without rent, this calls for a pretty strict budget.
Living on a budget isn't easy, at least it isn't for us. We have a somewhat murky past when it comes to spending. Yes, we even have credit card debt, and no I'm not going to claim I know how to pay off $7,000 in 3 months on our budget. I mean, do the math. It isn't possible, unless I open another credit card to put all of our bills on. Hmm, maybe that would work. Just kidding!
...mostly
Cost of RV Living (for us)
This breakdown includes our regular bills, though this will obviously vary a great deal from family to family. We have two leased cars, the RV payment, cell bill, insurance, credit card payments, and student loan payments. I'm not including gas in this, because Loren gets reimbursed for mileage that covers our monthly gas bill. Gotta love that Prius C! These bills alone add up to just over $1,500, hence why I'm looking to cut down on our misc. spending.
Car Payments $530
RV Payment $378
Cell Bill (includes unlimited hotspot) $210
Credit Card Payments $200
Student Loans $120
Insurance $105
This year, we're going to get rid of one of our leased cars and our credit card will be paid off by this time next year. Our student loans are more of an endless pay until the government crumbles kind of debt, so we're just not worrying too much about that one for now.
Grocery
Our tiny pantry :)
Pretty much the only expense I have control over: the grocery bill. We used to spend about $400-$600+/month on groceries, household products, eating out, etc. It's something we were just been in the habit of while living in the city. That had to change, so I started doing some research.
I've priced our most commonly used goods at Costco, WinCo, Wal Mart, and Target. My hypothesis, that Costco would be well worth the $60/year, turned out to be false (at least for us). It's just two of us in 175ish sq ft, so buying in huge quantities was an issue. Even if I had the storage we came to the decision it wasn't for us. Costco carries a lot of quality, brand-name goods, that we stopped buying a while ago. Costco is also way too crowded and overwhelming. Neither Loren nor I would do well in this type of store!
On our week-to-week budget, WinCo won out in the end for almost everything we buy. I tried going every other week, but ended up spending more that way. Now, I go once a week with a detailed list of the things we'll need for over the next 7 days. I plan our dinners, usually two-three big things I can cook and reheat for a few nights. I get the same items for our weekday breakfasts and lunches. Our diet consists mainly of bagels/cereal for breakfast, salad/oatmeal for lunch. I make desserts and weekend breakfasts, so we don't get bored.
We get our paper products at Wal-Mart along with random RV stuff. Amazon is great if you have a consistent address, but we do not. We do use it, typically one purchase every other month or so. It's kind of nice not having a consistent address as a preventative.
Planning and eating about the same stuff every week makes budgeting and price comparison shopping much simpler. It took a few trips to figure out which brands and the quantities to buy to save the most. Even though it took some training, especially for Loren, to limit food choices seeing the grocery bill decrease really pays off.
Cat Products
Cats are such low maintenance pets! False. We have two cats who can be pretty pricey members of the family. Buying their food is no longer a question because our special boys have prescription food. This food comes from a vet in a 17lbs bag around $65 - lasting about 4 months. The cats were also going through 1000+ pounds of litter a day... give or take a few pounds. We just made the switch to Pretty Litter last month and LOVE IT. We highly recommend this product! This is a flat rate of $40/month (without discounts) and truly lasts the whole month without needing changing. Prior to this product we were spending upwards to $60-70 a month on the name-brand light weight stuff. Also, there's no odor, no need to line the litter box, and if you're into it helps you to monitor their urinary tract health - which we are into.
Bottom Line
We've managed to get the grocery bill down to $40-$70/week. We could get it lower if we never bought alcohol or soda stream canisters, but not a huge concern right now. The cat products run about $50/month. We only eat out every other month or so. That means we are right at about $300/month for groceries, cat products, paper products, etc. With $2,000/month budget, we spending about $1,800. Not bad, considering we're still paying off some debt. If we are really in a bind, we can decrease that. All in all, I feel like I have more control and knowledge over our spending now that we're in the RV.
Feel free to share your tips for living smaller and spending less below! Also subscribe to our email list for weekly updates.