Our Costs For The First Six Months On The Road
As many of you already know, we left Fayetteville, Arkansas and our former sticks and brick home on June 1st of 2017. We have now completed our first six months (182 days) on the road. I thought I would break down our actual camping, fuel and maintenance budget for those six months.
In the repairs, maintenance and improvements cost we had some rather severe electrical problems and subsequent equipment replacement costs as well as a bad engine fan bearings that ran the costs up. Knock wood, we are past the major problems now. The figures below are aggregate costs without food and entertainment entered to show the actual costs of camping, fuel and maintenance while full timing. Our mileage ended up being just over 12,000 miles...phew!
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Camping Nightly Costs - $3,200.46
Fuel (Diesel) - $2527.66
Repairs, Maintenance, Improvements - $1836.77
Total Costs Full Timing for Our First Six Months - $7,565.27
Campground Nights and Places We've Been
Rocky Branch COE, Beaver Lake, Rogers Arkansas - 5 nights
Driveway surfing at a friends in Fayetteville 2 nights
Downstream Casino, Pocola, Ok. - 2 nights
Bennett Springs, Mo. - 5 nights
Lost Valley Lake, Mo. - 5 nights
Thousand Hills State Park, Mo. - 3 nights
Swan Lake State Park, Iowa - 6 nights
Hancock/Stevens Point, Wisconsin - 30 nights
Beantown Campground, Baileys Harbor, WI. - 5 nights
Fishermans Corner COE, Near Davenport, Iowa - 7 nights
Pierre Marquette State Park, Grafton, IL. - 3 nights
Lake Ft. Smith, Arkansas - 7 nights
Downstream Casino, Pocola, Ok. - 1 night
Lakeside Casino, Osceola, IA - 1 night
Adventureland Campground, Altoona, IA. - 2 nights
Carter Caves State Park, Kentucky - 5 nights
Blacksburg, VA to visit a dear friend - 6 nights
Francis Slocum State Park, Scranton, PA. 5 nights
Whispering PInes Campground, Hope Valley, RI. 38 nights
Assateague National Seashore Campground, Maryland - 5 nights
Northwest River Park and Campground, Chesapeake, Virginia- 5 nights
Cape Hatteras National Seashore - Cape Point Campground, NC - 7 nights
Cape Hatteras National Seashore - Oregon Inlet Campground, NC - 5 nights
Falls Lake State Park , Rolling Hills Campground Raleigh, NC. - 3 nights
Anderson Hartwell Lake KOA Campground Anderson, SC - 1 night
Natchez Trace, Jeff Busby Free Campground, SC - 1 night
Ameristar Casino Campground, Vicksburg, MS. - 3 nights
Tyler State Park, Tyler Texas - 3 nights
My brother in laws driveway - 14 nights
Total nights in Campgrounds
153 - nights in Campgrounds, 10 nights in Walmart Lots, 16 nights driveway surfing with friends and family.
179 Total camping nights
Kinds of Parks We Camped In
2 - Corps of Engineers Parks
8 - State Parks
5 - Private or Franchised Parks
4 - Casino Campgrounds
3 - National Park Campgrounds
Boondocking Nights
28 - total boondocking nights
When looking back on our total expenditures it is obvious to us that the C.O.E. and National Park costs are the cheapest camping options. Also, we happened to be reading a Texas State Park brochure and discovered that since I am a disabled vet I was eligible for their Parks Pass which waives entry fees, which can be $5-7 dollars a day per person. I will be on the lookout for that same deal in other states.
