Where are we today ?
Looks like we are going to have a few days of cool, damp, windy and rainy weather here so can do some computing and research, instead of playing outside. But the plus side is No snow and No Tornadoes (that we know of right now).Suzie went to help her Mom and Dad purge a bit and I got to play with my computer doing stuff like this. I don't play games, there is so many other things to do.
So below is a breakdown of our costs that relate to a typical winter for us. All of the expenses are converted to Canadian funds at a 10 percent exchange rate.
Total number of days we were in the USA = 175 days
Round trip mileage from Ontario, Canada to
Palm Springs California and places in between = 6,049 miles (9, 735 KMS)
Total cost for fuel (gas) for our coach towing our car = $3,153.00 (.51 cents a mile)
Gas for car drove 3,000 miles (5,000 kms) = $443.00
Camping fees, membership parks and BLM lands = $658.00
We purchased campground memberships many years ago and try to use them exclusively, over 700 parks to choose from from no overnight fees, to 9 or 10 dollars a night.
Entertainment cost includes, sightseeing, shows and restaurants = $979.00
Repairs and maintenance, includes 2 oil changes,
generator repair and new
carbon monoxide detector and propane detector = $805.00
Total cost for our 6 months in the sunny southwest =$6,038.00
Take away the repairs that needed to be done anyway - $805.00
Our winter in the southwest cost us $5,233.00
Some people spend that much for one or two weeks down south. It would have cost us a lot more to stay in the cold blustery winter here in Canada.
All other expenses, like food, alcohol and clothes are day to day living expenses and again would have cost more here in Canada.
Now our membership campgrounds cost us around $10,000.00 over 10 years ago, and about 1,200.00 a year to maintain. But compared to $30.00 a night camping fees we have saved close to $60,000.00 since 2006 factoring in all of our costs. This works great for us because we do enjoying being on the move year round, up to two weeks in most campgrounds and we have that hitch itch. Deals can be had by staying in an RV park for a month to 6 months, but that is not what we like to do. We have wheels on our house and will keep them turning as long as we can.
The rest of the day we did manage to read for while (inside) even though we prefer to enjoy our books outside. Only 45f but feels like 37f (3c) heavy rain and wind for the next few days, so be it, always something to do. We have a couple doctors appointments over the next week or so then we can be on our way.
Now time for supper, still raining, and had planned a nice one dish meal inside. A real easy chicken stir fry. One pan meal again, you can check out the recipe here. But as I am doing this the wind dies down, rain stops and the sun comes out! Go figure, we could have cooked on our Weber Q. Such is the life of an Rv'er. Sure beats working for a living.
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| sure was tasty and hit the spot |
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| after 6 pm the sun came out and is wonderful |
All in all it was a pretty productive day, Hope some of that info answers a few questions you may have. And that you had a great day in the process.
Thanks again so much for stopping on by for visit. Too bad you were not here for supper, we had leftovers! Couple nice easy lunches for me then.
Posted by George, a.k.a. "The Weber "Q" Man of Blogland" according to Rick Doyle.
Check out the map below to see where we have been this Spring
View Summer 2014 in a larger map
Just wondering why you don't include your out of province medical expenses in your budget. We find it adds over $2000.00 a year to ours.
ReplyDeleteEven if you go south for a week or two still need to pay for it.
DeleteOnly $1,700. 00 for our six months. Still a pretty cheap winter in the sunny warm south. Compared to what would it cost to stay in Canada for the winter and suffer from the cold?
Mind you we do have friends that do not pay for that out of province insurance. If you care to gamble.
DeleteHey George, I am curious what campground membership did you choose over these years?
ReplyDeleteWe have Coast to Coast, ROD (Resort of destinction) and AOR (adventure outdoor resorts, all work great for us.
DeleteAgreed, the $1,700 should have been included, but I'm pretty sure it was just an oversight. Yikes on the cost of the campground memberships, but it seems you've made it work for you and you're happy with that so that's what counts. And of course you should also be including $200 a month in the cost of your campsites due to the maintenance fees.
ReplyDeleteEither way you look at it, it's still cheaper than staying in Canada for the winter.
www.travelwithkevinandruth.com
Yes it was an oversight, we just pay it.
DeleteOur maintenance fees would be only $100. a month because we use these park 12 months on the year.
Your weather has been the exact same stuff here in Indiana...storming one minute and then sunny and clear. I like those one dish meals you write about.
ReplyDeleteThey work pretty good for us nice for a change.
DeleteYour breakdown of costs is so interesting. While I keep records of everything we spend, I've never analyzed it ... except for tax purposes. Do you include things that you'd have to buy no matter where you lived like clothing, groceries (probably our biggest expense), charities etc? Again... your dinner looks delicious!
ReplyDeleteAll of our money is accounted for Suzie has a complete breakdown. Even laundry, fleas markets, food alcohol etc...
DeleteGreat job on the break down. We used to keep track of every penny but then decided to just go and have a good time. That doesn't mean we don't worry about our budget. We just have become a bit more lax in keeping track of our expenses.
ReplyDeleteSuzie enjoys doing that, par6 of her daily routine.
DeleteI'd hate to really know what we spend especially on restaurants. It's not always being less expensive than going south. We just don't want to hang around ice, snow and rain. We do use Elks and our membership campgrounds often. Lots of folks boondock most of the winter. That would save a ton of money too but not something we want to do normally for long periods of time.
ReplyDeleteWe don't do a lot of restaurants, and fill in here and there boon docking, but not the whole winter.
DeleteI understand the cost of groceries is cheaper in the US, could you compare what you spend in Canada in the summer per month to what your monthly costs are in the US? Also propane, fuel. Would this offset the medical insurance or come reasonably close?
ReplyDeleteRoger don't really understand your question.
DeleteWe head south to get away from the cold Canadian Winters, we do spend a lot more in Canada for the summer months.
I believe that Roger is asking how much more you spend on food per month in Canada vs how much you spend on food in the USA. He is trying to see how much of a savings there is due to the lower cost of food in the US. He is also asking what the specific cost of propane is in the US vs what you spend in Canada as he wonders if the amount would be high enough to offset the $1700.00 you spend on health insurance. I doubt that you spend that much on propane.
DeleteWe actually spend about $4,000.00 more in the summer months in Canada. Travel less than 1,800 miles in our coach and about 6,000 miles in our car. Food $2356. for the winter, Summer $2662. Propane winter $130.00, Summer $152.00 Alcohol winter $1,095.00 Summer $3,193.00. Gas for both vehicles summer $1,895.00.
DeleteSo our lifestyle heading south for the winter saves us a lot of money and we get to enjoy travelling and better weather.
Thanks, Contessa for clarification, and thanks, George, for sharing your personal information. Just trying to gather enough information on how we can do this on a limited budget.
DeleteRoger it is very do able, much cheaper that we could stay in out house year round and much more fun.
DeleteA really interesting and informative blog, many thanks.
ReplyDeleteColin thanks for stopping by.
DeleteThank heavens for some wetter cooler weather, George, because this is really interesting information! Thank you!
ReplyDeleteYour welcome, compared to living, working and owning a house in Ontario this is a much more reasonable lifestyle, more fun too.
DeleteInteresting numbers on the breakdown, George. Thanks for sharing.
ReplyDeleteWe have the numbers here so we can budget.
DeleteYou two manage very, very well with your finances. A most interesting read. Thanks for sharing.
ReplyDeleteWe try to make the little we have last as long as possible.
DeleteI started a new Excel Budget program several months ago. I wanted to get it going so I'd have good figures beginning on Jan.1st. Well, I think I've made it too detailed / complicated because I've already become not so dependable on the daily spending sheet. I think I'll post something about what I have set up so hopefully followers, like you and Suzie, will give me some constructive criticism / ideas for simplifying it. Thank you for sharing your info. Some of the blogs I follow do post their monthly spending and some are really low. I enjoy checking out their expenses, but find that there are some things I just don't want to scrimp on.
ReplyDeleteSuzie has a lots of detail on her spreadsheet. We don't scrimp much either, don't eat out a lot and don't buy a lot of clothes, only when really necessary, buy food on sale, look for great book exchanges. Don't stay in expensive campgrounds, but don't do without either. We are very comfortable in our lifestyle, suits us to a T.
DeleteSounds like you need to spend all your winters in the south! Interesting blog.
ReplyDeleteWe have been down south every winter since 2006 and much cheaper than staying here, but family issues brought us back this year.
Delete