The costs of a full year van-dwelling

I have tracked my van-dwelling expenses for one full year now, mostly as an experiment to see where the money really goes in my style of van-dwelling. While other van-dwellers tend to stay put for long periods of time. I usually put down a lot of miles of traveling and exploring which has it’s own unique monthly footprint. In 2013, both styles of van life show themselves over the course of my finance tracking. Not every penny I spent is shown in my experiment. I filtered out money that I send home to my family, put away in savings, and other things that had no real importance on the overall figures of van-dwelling. I wanted to show as much of my personal expenses as possible, but I felt that the addition of big-ticket items that were specific only to myself would not benefit the overall experiment.

In the spreadsheet I detail each month, quarter, and the total year-end expenses. I also track the average-cost-per-day for each item, which was quite startling at first, but became a fun challenge to try to keep my daily costs under $30 per day... <a href="http://www.van-tramp.com/wp/the-cost-of-2013-year-end/">Read more on my blog</a>

<a href="http://www.van-tramp.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2013/2013vancost.zip">Download my Excel spreadsheet</a>

Nice to see expenses laid out clearly. I've been trying for years to convince my adult children to do this. I've been using a budget all of my adult life. As you say, tracking expenses is the only way we can know where our money really goes. And computer programs make it so simple to track. Thanks for sharing.

Thanks V-T, appreciate substantive posts like this, they lay down a baseline
others might reckon from. Read your blog (have appreciated that before also) and forgive my math challenged brain but what do figure the MPG of your van averages out to?

@AltTransBikes - The MPG of the van has increased dramatically this year after doing some more general maintenance to the van (you can see that cost in my spreadsheet). The problem is, this year almost every one of my 10,000 miles was towing a small fiberglass camp-trailer (about 1,009 lbs) with me, which does have an effect on MPG. The van is rated at 12mpg hwy, and over the past few years I have averaged:
2010 - 12.63
2011 - 12.16 (lots of towing @ 10mpg)
2012 - 12.85
2013 - 12.4x (again, towing all year)

On average (hwy miles) I get 14's with some 15's thrown in the mix. When I am towing I get 12's with some 11's thrown in.

Another big factor in my MPG, other then towing, is actually elevation. When I am in states with elevations above 4,000ft I get those 14-15 mpg's, but down in WA, OR, and CA I struggle to get mid 12's. Sea-level = more dense air = more fuel my engine demands. This past year, in CO, WY, and MT... even though I was towing... I was getting 13-14 MPG. Normally I'd have been happy to get 14's even without towing, so I was super-happy about the extra MPG.

Van-Tramp said:

this year almost every one of my 10,000 miles was towing a small fiberglass camp-trailer

Click to expand...

I didn't see the exact number posted...but is 10,000 your total mileage for the year??


This is a great thread Tramp. Very interesting to see the actual break-downs of the costs involved.

I also never considered how living here at sea-level on the Oregon Coast affects my gas mileage in such a negative manner.




....but I ain't moving!!!

I average abt. $4-5 k less per year, bur am too damned lazy to itemize. ..Willy.

Van Tramp, I think this is really wonderfully useful information!! Would you consider writing a guest blog post for the cheaprvliving/blog? You've already done most of the hard work with gathering the info putting into post form shouldn't take too long. Let me know if you're interested!

I totally understand if you would rather not.
Bob

I will message you directly Bob.

Dammit Van-Tramp!

Now I have yet another new year's resolution. Yet another thing to keep track of. Actually I've been afraid to track my spending, but I do think it is essential. Last time I did it, I was able to get out of debt entirely. Need to do it again, as my money tree has a terminal case of root rot.

Seriously, great post. Thank you!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Best,
Marie

Nice job on the spreadsheet Tim. I see that you're actually getting a good reaction over on RVNet. Those people can be brutal sometimes. A few of them think that the only way to RV is in a huge motorhome, staying in full hookup parks. :-D

tonyandkaren said:

Nice job on the spreadsheet Tim. I see that you're actually getting a good reaction over on RVNet. Those people can be brutal sometimes. A few of them think that the only way to RV is in a huge motorhome, staying in full hookup parks. :-D

Click to expand...

And the Escapees are even more so. :s

Cool spreadsheet, I turned it into a google doc and will be using it from now on


I used mint, and this attempts to automatically do this for you, but i found i often had to go in and differentiate what purchases really were. Since a lot of stores here pull double duty, it would get confused...i might get groceries at a gas station but it thought i was getting fuel

Bump!

This is a good idea. I have found that keeping detailed logs and records in a spreadsheet makes it easier to think twice about expenses. You begin to notice patterns over time.

Excellent idea! I am a fiend for spreadsheets! I use them for many personal things. Here's yet another great use.

Old message from end of last year by vantramp. But great information and perspective. And the spreadsheet fits nicely on a iphone5 screenshot. Lol.

I am glad you all are still finding this useful.

When my son working full time at retail with $10 an hour living single with dog in $600 monthly rental says he can't get by. I show him this. -- then he goes to his second job and works a few more hours a week.

V-T
First let me say thanks again for this thread. I have it bookmarked as a reference point that I return to when I get reckoning my own personal financial matters and thoughts of heading out.

Also, I'm hoping it has been up long enough to where shifting the focus slightly will not be viewed as jacking the thread.

I wanted to ask (acknowledging fully that the budget recorded above already indicates considerable restraint and disipline) in hindsight reflection you had mulled over ways to pare it down even further, other than of course not driving as much and needing to purchase less gas. Curious if you'd had any thoughts on that as I make plans with an eye to 'balancing the books' ;-) Thanks

Yes, a lot of thought has gone into shaving 200-300 dollars per month off of it. There is "splurge spending" in each month where I end up buying a knick-knack or toy, but those are so minimal I dont bother with them. The real savings comes in two categories;
1 - Gas: In 2015 I am going to try to stay put for 1 full week at each location, then move only 100 miles or so for each location jump. That will allow me to reduce the fuel cost down to a single fillup each month (about $100 as opposed to $320+)
2 - Food: First, don't eat out, only cook my own food. Second, refine my grocery list to shave out those items that I buy yet rarely use. For example, I always buy a 6-pak of eggs, but rarely do I actually use them. More often than not they end up in the trash. Not because I do not like eggs, but because of the extra cleanup that eggs require. Pancake mix is another. I just never use them... but have continued to waste money on these types of food.

If I can refine both of those, then that is $200-300 each month in savings.

Some other little things I planed:
($30 per month) I have also eliminated the cost to store my other car. It will stay in the family garage over the winter and my son will be able to drive it after the snow passes (he turned 16 this year).
($20 per month) I now cut my own hair... shave it with electric clippers at a #2 clipper setting. Easier to sleep, clean, etc and saves money.
($10 per month) On average I spent $15 per month on my pay as you go phone. This has further reduced with a new smart phone which offers 3X minutes, data, texts for the same cost as my old one. So, basically my phone bill will drop to an average of $5 per month. I bought a $45 refill for it in March, and still have 1/3 of the time left on it 5 months later!
($30ish per month) I have my small stockpile of ammo for each of my 5 guns so do not need to buy more each month unless I actively shoot that month. The only one I do that is my handgun which I must keep well practiced on (since I carry it). So, instead of spending $60 or more on ammo each month, I can shoot 100 rounds through my handgun each month for under $30.

In the end, all of the above could bring my monthly average cost from the $976 shown in the original post down to right around $600... if all the planets aligned.... and that still includes almost 5000 miles of driving over the year. I'd be happy with $700-750 in spending per month for now.