RV life has two ways of living: stationary or travel. Between housing price increases and the ever climbing gas prices, we’re going to break down what is actually cheaper, living stationary in an RV or traveling.
RV Stationary vs RV Travel
Over the last decade there has been a huge increase in families and couples (and even singles) jumping into the full time RV travel life. In the last article, we went over if it’s actually cheaper to RV Travel vs Owning a Home. Now, let’s go through which is cheaper to RV Travel or simply purchase an RV and stay put. (I’ll leave it to you to decide if RV Stationary is cheaper thank owning a home).
With the increasing costs in the housing market and skyrocketing rental rates, many are looking to find ways to save their hard earned money. One of these ways, could be, RV travel (check out the budgeting sheet in the sign up below to see if it’s cheaper for you). One of these ways could be RV stationary living.
What Is RV Stationary Living?
While long ago, living in an RV was considered “trashy”, it has become one of the smartest budget moves and it’s trending for that reason. Many RV Parks and campgrounds have designated spots for monthly, semi-annual and annual spots. These spots can be purchased or rented.
These stationary spots can be for a regular RV (such as the types we cover in What Type Of RV Is Right For You) or it could be a park model/destination trailer, a mobile home or a tiny home.
While living in a rental apartment or home can have some light maintenance, living in a stationary RV takes a little more work. When selecting a spot for your stationary RV, ensure you have a full hook-up or water, power and sewer – otherwise RV life as stationary will become quite intensive with work.
The long story short, RV Stationary living is quite simply, living in a home that can travel, but in one spot.
Is It Financially Smarter To Live In An RV?
Again, the long answer short: yes and no. For some who already own an RV and already own land they can legally park on – of course! Why even ask the question. However, for some, this isn’t always the best financial decision. If you don’t already own an RV and don’t have land to park it on, the costs can get complicated and can change drastically depending on many factors.
Starting with the first factor: the cost of RV’s themselves. RV prices have increased significantly over the last few years (what hasn’t?!). Prices from as low as $30,000 for a simple travel trailer all the way over $100,000 for fifth wheels and toy haulers – and even some destination trailers. Adding in the RV payment each month, plus the cost of a long term spot, could easily have you over what your local rent could be. Not to mention adding in the costs for heating and cooling in extreme conditions.
If you can purchase, or already own, an RV that keeps you away from having payments, this can save you a lot of money in monthly expenses. This financial move alone will make RV life cheaper than owning or renting.
RV rental spots vary drastically as well between locations. One city or state could offer annual spots at the monthly rate of $300. While another more popular location could be upwards of $1000 per month. Note, these rarely include your electric, however when they do, this can be another money saver. Researching where you want to park and the costs around that area will help in determining if being stationary is more cost effective, especially over renting.
RV repairs and upkeep are probably one of the biggest expenses in the RV life (when not factoring gas for travel). RVs break. Period. Even a brand new fresh off the lot RV can have a slew of issues. To keep an RV in good working condition to prevent more repairs, it requires constant maintenance. Many RVs were never made for full time living and the wear and tear it can put on them.
Part of your deciding factor will need to be the possible expenses for repair and your time to keep the maintenance. Some, this is a deciding factor as they would rather the comfort and stability of a sticks & bricks home and spending those extra dollars each month is worth the peace of mind.
Is RV Stationary Life Cheaper?
Considering all these factors: RV payment, site payment, electric, repairs. You could easily spend $1500-$2000 each month. By removing your RV monthly payment, you could take it down to $1000-$1500 a month. By picking a campground with lower monthly fees it can be brought way down to $500-$1000 a month. Then, by making your RV home as energy efficient as possible, you could decrease your electric costs during extreme weather as well, bring it down to as little as $100-$500 a month.
***Note: this doesn’t include costs like insurance, fuel for your vehicle, etc. Simply living cost for being stationary vs travel.
While stationary RV living isn’t always easy, and you may second-guess yourself, it can give you so much freedom. While saving a lot of money, it can allow you to pay off debts, save up for a larger purchase or simply live in a campground with lots of new people each week. Many love this way of living and find they couldn’t imagine not living this lifestyle.
While RV stationary living can come with quite the low monthly cost, it can also come in just as expensive as rentals in the area you’re looking at too. But is RV stationary life cheaper than RV travel life?
Is RV Travel Life Cheaper?
In my article RV Travel vs Home Ownership, I went through the various costs attributed to RV travel life. The can vary drastically based on how you want to travel. Let’s just go through the cheapest way to RV travel, as we know the more expensive way can easily over run the monthly costs of standard home ownership.
If you were to maximize your boondocking nights and stay at your membership only campgrounds, you could live for nearly free. Boondocking costs nothing for your nightly rate. If you’re staying on your membership at campgrounds, such as Thousand Trails, your nightly fee would be covered in your membership. If you pay your membership monthly, it can be as little as $75 each month.
Note, staying in a campground for your nightly rates your electric will be included. Therefore you don’t need to worry about another monthly bill, this one is free as well. This RV travel is sure sounding cheap isn’t it?
This goes back to the biggest expense in RV life when towing/moving your RV – fuel. This will vary greatly as it depends on what you’re moving, how far you’re moving and what you’re moving it with. If you are moving just 30mins down the road, your fuel costs will be almost negligible if you’re moving every few weeks – every day can add up. If you’re moving miles and miles away, your fuel costs will increase significantly. This is where your budget can be blown and being stationary might be cheaper.
Another factor is whether you are moving your RV or if you’re paying a mover. Some moving services charge upwards of $300 per move (varying based on distance). This can also increase your monthly costs as RV travel. However, for some, purchasing a truck just to move their RV every few weeks doesn’t make sense and this cost is worth it to keep their daily driver more fuel efficient.
Overall Costs of RV Travel
Again, if you have an RV payment or a truck payment, this changes the monthly drastically. A truck payment alone can be upwards of $800 a month or more. Then add in the RV payment and you could be adding on another $500-$800. However, you won’t be paying site fees, just your membership fees, if you have one.
Then add it fuel – anywhere from $50 moving a few miles once every few weeks to $2000 moving far or every few days. This is where you will need to determine how you want to live and move in the cheapest form of RV travel. Fuel will always be greatest variant in costs.
If you have to hire a mover, you will be deferring the fuel costs of a truck, to just your vehicle’s move and paying the mover. This will put your total costs to between $50-$4000. Yep – all depends on your loan payments and how far/fast you move.
If you want to live that boondocking life, you sure can! And wow can it be extremely low cost. You will need to make sure to add your dumping fees and filling water into your grocery trips to also save costs. To be able to live that boondocking life it does need a little prep though.
We will cover that in another article that we will go more in-depth. You will need to look at ways to get power – solar, generator, power banks. You will also need to consider water storage and filtration. Also ways to take care of your waste – both trash and black tanks and grey water. While these don’t have monthly costs to them, they do have upfront costs or planning needed.
Extras To Consider:
Can You Live in an RV in the Winter?
Did you know you can stay in an RV through all four seasons? Yes, even in Canada. Does that mean it’s easy? Nope! But it is possible. RVs don’t have as high of a quality insulation as a home or even mobile home, so you will need to find all the ways to keep the warmth inside and keep that electricity bill down.
You’ll also need to find ways insulate your water – both in water and out water (hoses and drain hoses). By adding skirting, using heated hoses and finding ways to keep the underbelly warm and above freezing levels. Also, always having propane full and extra on hand will help too.
Is an RV a Good Investment?
While an investment is something that appreciates and typically has a massive return on that investment, an RV is a quickly depreciating purchase. However, they can still be a good investment for other reasons than its ROI capability. RVs are a great way for families to connect, make memories and experience places they’ve never been. These priceless memories fill in that gap of financial depreciation and make an RV worthwhile purchase. Even outside the stationary vs travel life – yes, I’m talking to you weekenders and sometime’ers.
If buying an RV turns your hard-earned money into a cheaper way of living, a way to explore, a way to get away for a weekend – it’s a worthwhile investment.
Which Is More Financially Beneficial?
This will be up to you and how you move and live. Since everyones needs are different, some need stability of a home-base, others want the freedom of free. It will depend on what you are needing. Breaking down both of these options, RV travel in the cheapest form, is the cheapest. Period. However, it can come with the discomfort of moving frequently and possibly no hook ups.
While you decide which option works best for you and your lifestyle, check out the other articles in this RV Beginner: Four-Part Series to see what options are out there, ways to travel and what to travel in or live in.
Which do you prefer? Traveling and exploring or the stability of a home-base? You know I love chatting in the comments, let me know which you prefer.
Till next time,
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