Budget

Earning a living on the road – How we (and others) are making money while we travel full-time

Mar 202016

Earning-A-living-Income-Travel-money

Making a living on the road – how we earn an income (plus ask others to share how they do!)

One of the most common questions we get is “How can you afford to travel full-time?” I wrote about affording travel full-time here – we did a lot of saving and living frugally to build ourselves a strong financial foundation before hitting the road.

But even with all that we did to save, and being debt free when we started, we probably wouldn’t travel full-time if we didn’t have a source of income on the road. I think this is the biggest obstacle for people wanting to travel full-time – how are you going to make money when you aren’t going to an office or a job in the same location everyday?

I thought I’d write about how we make money on the road and go into a bit more detail about how we are making it work.

how-to-make-income-full-time-family-travel

Nearly seven (7) years ago I created a free website, QueenBeeCoupons.com, to help folks save money through coupons, online sales, easy recipes, store discounts and more.

The website was created out of both necessity and passion after I quit my job as a Communications Manager with the Washington State Department of Transportation to stay home with my newborn son. After Liam was born I no longer had the desire to work in an office anymore and I wanted to stay home with him. But quitting my job meant our family income would drop 60% – so I started couponing to make ends meet. Times were tough everywhere – and friends and family would ask me how I was saving so much money. So I started QueenBeeCoupons.com to help others save like I was.

QueenBeeCoupons.com started with just a few page views a day (mostly friends and family) but fast forward six years later and it was bringing in nearly a million page views a month, helping people all across the country save money! I had no idea when I started it that it would become such a blessing in our lives. I count myself lucky that I get to help others save money (at no cost to them) while also earning money to support my family.

For years I managed the site entirely by myself but I was putting in 60-80 hours a week and it wasn’t healthy or sustainable. So now I currently have seven contractors who help and provide content for QueenBeeCoupons.com and although I still work on the site daily, I’m able to live a more balanced life as a mom, wife and full-time traveler.

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Harvest Hosts – FREE camping and it supports local businesses

Oct 212015

Harvest-Hosts-free-camping

I’m a bit behind in blogging about our adventures– this is from our travels around September 5-6, 2015. Follow us on Instagram to find out where we are currently!

After spending a lot of time in Michigan our next “destination” would be Western New York to see Niagara Falls and to spend some time with my cousin near Rochester. Instead of taking our time, like we did in Michigan, we wanted to move a little quicker through the next couple states. There was a slight sense of urgency because we wanted to spend some time in New York – and then jump over to the east coast before the colder fall weather.

We try not to drive more than a few hours a day (we are all happier when we follow this rule), so we figured we’d need to stop one night in Ohio and one in Pennsylvania on our way to Niagara Falls. As we looked at our campground options, along our route, we weren’t seeing much – and the ones that looked convenient were completely booked due to Labor Day weekend!

We decided this would be a great time to use our Harvest Host membership! For $44/year, a Harvest Host membership allows you to stay for FREE at local wineries, farms and other small businesses. And in exchange for a spot to park for the night, you support the local business – perhaps by purchasing wine, vegetables/fruit, souvenirs. Or you can volunteer, perhaps helping with a harvest or another need at the business!

We LOVE this concept – because we love supporting local businesses and we think it’s great fun to spend our money on food or drink instead of “rent” at a campground.

Winery-Harvest-Hosts-Ohio

Our first night we stopped at a winery in Ohio. I won’t mention the name because it’s part of having the membership – but it was delightful. We had a nice big pull-through spot at the winery with a grassy area and picnic table. Jeremy and I took turns going into the winery and doing a $3 tasting – what a treat! And we purchased a bottle of wine. The winery closed around 5 p.m. and we had the whole place to our selves (except one other RV with Harvest Hosts). . .we had a crazy rain storm and then the most magnificent sunset!

[Read more…]

July 2015 Travel Budget – $3,745, with broken water tank and two Costco trips. . .

Aug 212015

Let’s talk about our July full-time travel budget (June budget here). I have been dragging my feet to post this because I feel like we could be doing better with our budget. Please read the detailed summaries about each category for background on the totals.

As a reference, I had created a tentative budget back in May, of what I thought we might spend each month. I’m trying to get a few months of full-time living before modifying the budget.

Okay. . . now for July’s expenses. . . .

July 1 – 31, 2015 expenses

Camping/Resort fees – $1,117.87 (averaging $36/night)
Groceries – $915.59 (yowza!)
Gas – $673.26
Vehicle/Trailer Insurance – $100
Dining out – $423.01
Cell and internet – $270
RV maintenance/supplies – $18.63
Entertainment/Museums – $179 ($85 for annual membership for museum)
Toiletries – $0
Laundry – $42.50
Showers – $6.00
Propane – $0 – didn’t need to fill it up yet!

July costs TOTAL – $3,745.86

Here’s a bit more detail on June expenses:

Camping and resort fees were higher than I would have liked for July. We spent a week in an expensive location in order to be close to family in Coeur d’Alene – which I wouldn’t change for the world. We had initially planned to offset this higher cost with more boondocking in the second half of the month, but our fresh water tank broke mid-month forcing us to stay in private RV parks where we could had a direct water hook-up. Summer is the most expensive times in terms of RV park rates so we’re averaging closer to $40/night when I’d prefer $30.

Our fresh water tank wasn’t fixed until August 21 (yes, today!) here in Michigan – so we’ve had the first 20 days of August at RV parks, so we expect this number to be higher in August as well. Rates at many RV parks and state parks drop after labor day and we are looking forward to this!

Groceries – Honestly I have no idea how we spent so much on groceries this month (do you ever feel this way?). We do eat a lot of fresh produce, meats and local food (when possible), which does increase the costs. We eat nearly ZERO processed foods, so this budget reflects buying lots of fresh foods on the go. We did host dinner for family a couple nights and this DOES include TWO trips to Costco for foods that we’re still enjoying in August. I’ve been using my Target Cartwheel app whenever we’re near a Target with groceries and I’ve clipped a few coupons – but it’s so difficult to coupon shop on the road – especially when the store chains change weekly. I’m hoping this amount is less for August, but I can’t stress about it too much.

Dining out – I realized I don’t even have this in our tentative monthly budget – I’ll have to update that. Eating out for us is part of the fun of travel – trying new places and trying new (local) foods. On days when we are away from our trailer exploring we try to only eat one meal out, but even things like ice cream cones and snacks can add up along the way. This total includes a full day’s worth of eating at Silverwood Theme Park – which probably accounts for 25% of this total.

Diesel Gas – We drove about 2,950 miles in July (wowza!). We are using a free app called Fuelly to track our miles per gallon and we seem to be averaging about 13 miles per gallon (as low as 11.4 towing through hills and as good as 14.8 not towing). On average we’re paying $2.61/gallon for diesel fuel.

Entertainment – We purchased an $85 annual museum membership to the Museum of the Rockies, which is part of the Association of Science-Technology Centers program and gives us FREE admission to hundreds of museums and zoos nationwide. This membership has already paid for itself a few times since we got it!

Cell phone and internet – I think this will be a typical month for us in terms of wifi data usable. Since I need to work daily online (QueenBeeCoupons.com), I rely a lot on cellular data – it’s a necessity of working on the road!

Remember budgets are very personal things – every family will prioritize different things. Our main purpose for sharing our full-time budget is to HELP OTHERS determine if this type of lifestyle is feasible based on our realistic costs. It’s one of the areas we researched the most when planning to travel full-time and there is very little out there online sharing this type of info. Keep in mind – before hitting the road we saved ruthlessly so that we wouldn’t have to worry about money on the road – I would advise any family getting ready to travel full-time to have plenty of reserves AND a way to make income on the road, just to be safe!

I want to point out that this budget is for full-time TRAVEL. You can save a substantial amount of money if you stay in an RV park long-term . . .especially if you get weekly and or monthly rates (big savings here – paying as little as $350 – $400/month!). You can also save a lot by having a Thousand Trails membership – but this limits where you can stay and we wouldn’t likely take advantage of their best promotion of buy three (3) weeks, get one FREE. You can also save a lot by boondocking – which means camping in free spots without hook-ups. We hope to do boondock more once our water tank is fixed!

Health insurance – We have health insurance covered through Jeremy’s work until the end of September – so this is not an expense now, but will be down the road.

Bills we are NOT paying traveling full-time – We are no longer paying a mortgage/taxes ($1,500/month), garbage, water, electricity, cable, internet, alarm system, HOA dues, daycare/preschool, insurance on second car – and we are CONSUMING so much less because we don’t have the space to store clothing, toys, games, kitchen gadgets, etc. We are spending much less a month than when we lived in our house full-time.

We also do NOT have a trailer or truck payment – This was really important to us, so we purposely paid cash for the trailer and the tow vehicle. For families considering full-time travel, if you can avoid a monthly payment by saving up and paying cash I feel like it eliminates some of the pressure to earn on the road.

So there you have it, our July budget. There is certainly room for improvement – especially with lodging and groceries – we’ll work on that. But I can’t worry too much about it – we’re still living below our means (able to save every month) and we saved ruthlessly to live this year on the road. I don’t want to worry so much about being frugal that we miss out on opportunities or stress too much on the road. It’s a fine balance, you know?

June 2015 Travel Budget – $1,731.77 {partial month}

Jul 132015

We hit the road full-time on June 15 and I thought I’d share with you the budget for those last two weeks of June.

As a reference, I had created a tentative budget back in May, of what I thought we might spend each month – and I plan to update that later this week based on what I’ve learned so far about our habits, needs and choices.

June 15 – 30, 2015 expenses

Camping/Resort fees – $457.91
Groceries – $322.39
Gas – $314.19
Vehicle/Trailer Insurance – $100
Dining out – $193.66
Cell and internet – $150
RV maintenance/supplies – $97.44
Entertainment/Museums – $53.39
Toiletries – $32.04
Laundry – $24.75
Showers – $11
Propane – $0 – we haven’t had to refill yet!

June costs TOTAL – $1,731.77
Estimated MONTHLY expenses – $3,462 (if doubled)

Here’s a bit more detail on June expenses:

Camping and resort fees was our biggest expense. Due to the extreme heat wave in Eastern Washington/Idaho we skipped our stay in Hells Gate State Park and headed north to Coeur d’Alene, Idaho a few days early. This meant spending three nights in a premium RV spot because it was the only spot available in town. The state park would have been much cheaper but we wanted to head north because there was a lot more shade, lots of family to hang out with, and more things to do inside – we are so glad we did this!

Groceries/Eating Out – We left town with an almost empty fridge. We were so busy getting the trailer ready that menu planning and having groceries in the fridge just didn’t work out. We also ended up eating out a bit more than we had planned – but primarily because it was SO hot that we didn’t feel like cooking in the trailer or grilling in the hot sun.

Diesel Gas – We drove about 900 – 1,000 miles during those two weeks. We are using a free app called Fuelly to track our miles per gallon and we seem to be averaging about 12.9 miles per gallon (as low as 11.4 towing through hills and as good as 14.8 not towing). On average we’re paying $2.98/gallon for diesel fuel.

Entertainment – We did a LOT of free activities in June. Geocaching, visitor’s centers, state park programs and playing outside. Our limited costs were movies in Walla Walla, the Fort Walla Walla Museum and a local theater program.

Cell phone and internet – This is going to be way more than we expected initially. I was hoping to use the FREE wifi in the campgrounds – but it’s essentially useless during the summer months when the campgrounds are full of families streaming videos. In order to keep working and running my business (I blog over at QueenBeeCoupons.com), I’ve had to rely a lot on cellular data. This gets EXPENSIVE fast. Walla Walla Blue Valley RV park was really the only place with good free WiFi so far. We’ll see how this shakes out.

Laundry – Many folks commented on my low laundry budget and I can see why now – we’ll probably have to double our laundry budget to be realistic.

I want to point out that this budget is for full-time TRAVEL. You can save a substantial amount of money if you stay in an RV park long-term . . .especially if you get weekly and or monthly rates (big savings here). You can also save a lot by having a Thousand Trails membership – but this limits where you can stay and we wouldn’t likely take advantage of their best promotion of buy three (3) weeks, get one FREE. You can also save a lot by boondocking – which means camping in free spots without hook-ups. We hope to try this more after our comfortable level increases.

Health insurance – We have health insurance covered through Jeremy’s work until the end of September – so this is not an expense now, but will be down the road. More on this later.

Looking forward. . .I can tell you already that July is shaping up to be a ridiculously expensive month. It just is. State and national park campgrounds are full, private RV parks are charging a premium and we spent 10 days in Coeur d’Alene at an expensive RV park because of it’s prime location to family and activities. I expect our summer expenses to be higher than the winter – but we will have to see how that all shakes out.

What do you think about this RV budget? Is it less or more than you’d expect? How does it compare to your expenses in a regular or typical housing situation?

Our monthly budget plan {tentative}

May 272015

monthly-budget--full-time-travel-airstream

Going from a regular house to living full-time in an Airstream trailer our expenses are changing considerably. Gone are the days of multiple bills for water, sewer, garbage, cable, mortgage, etc. I cannot wait to simplify in this department! While we’ve done a lot of research and have a fairly good idea of what to expect in terms of expenses, we won’t really know until we have a few months under our belt.

You can read more about how we can afford to travel full-time here.

Budgets are very personal things – and are largely dictated by personal choices. We are giving ourselves what feels like a generous budget in terms of RV travel.

Keep in mind – we intentionally paid cash for our truck and trailer – so thankfully this is not a monthly expense for us.

Camping fees – $900
These fees include electrical, water, dump fees and state park passes. We expect this to be higher during the summer when rates are increased and our options are more limited due to crowded campgrounds. Some families spend considerably less by staying at Thousand Trails campgrounds (must purchase membership) but the real savings is staying somewhere 3-4 weeks, which we don’t think appeals to us at this time.

Also, many people opt to boondock (find free camping spots off the grid) but I think initially we’ll be staying in National Parks and campgrounds – until we become more comfortable with this new-to-us nomad lifestyle. Private campgrounds, in particular, can be expensive – and I imagine we’ll stay at these more in the early part of our travel until we become more confident in boondocking or venturing out on our own.

[Read more…]

Earning a living on the road – How we (and others) are making money while we travel full-time

Making a living on the road – how we earn an income (plus ask others to share how they do!)

Harvest Hosts – FREE camping and it supports local businesses

July 2015 Travel Budget – $3,745, with broken water tank and two Costco trips. . .

July 1 – 31, 2015 expenses

June 2015 Travel Budget – $1,731.77 {partial month}

June 15 – 30, 2015 expenses

Our monthly budget plan {tentative}

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