New home… or more appropriately… a new place to park it. Full-time Rving… one of the cheapest ways to live in an Rv is to have some campground membership parks. We have two memberships just southeast of Disney, we consider them our home base. Every two weeks we move 10 miles from one campground to another… that’s the way memberships work. After paying our years dues we can use the resorts as much as we like with no or very minimum cost (with the two week rule- two weeks in and at least one week out ). We picked our current site with a little shade in mind… ahhh… cool shade. There’s always a breeze here in Florida, so even 85° in the shade is very comfortable. On the other hand, the direct sunlight this far south will over heat you even at lower temps. It’s even nicer that these parks are predominately snowbird parks… a place for northerners to winter… and then they go home the rest of the year… leaving the park almost empty. It’s rather nice having the pool usually to ourselves. It’s also nice to have the peace and quiet of the resort being nearly empty. So while we are not traveling around the country, this is a great place to call home… the vacation capital of the country… Disney, Universal, Seaworld, and a host of many other attractions and dining options. Being Disney Annual Passholders, we can have unlimited admission to Disney Parks for less then $50 a month. Sweet deal to “Stay & Play”.
Pool, clubhouse, tennis, and shuffleboard.
Other options to Rvers… Workamping Jobs at Campgrounds. As you travel around the country, workamping gives you a place to stay with utilities included. Some parks provide the site as a completely free benefit as part of the job, usually working 30+ hours per week for hourly pay. Some campgrounds “charge” a fee in the form of hours for the site. Some as little as 8-12 hours per week, some at 18 hours, some 24, and some even higher. Lets say it’s 18 hours… which is a bit steep. The first 18 hours that a person/couple works each week is their site… and the rest of the hours worked is usually around $8/hour. Doing the math… at $8/hour… working 18 hours per week comes out to 78 hours/month. (18hrs times 52 weeks, divided by 12 months). 78 hours per month @ $8/hr means the cost (in labor) is $624 per month. That’s a pretty high price to pay, and generally more then off the road monthly rates for the public. So, if you decide to workamp, consider how many hours you have to work for the site, verses the benefits of being someplace you want to be. In our case, staying with our memberships, those 18 hours that we might workamp, now either gives us 18 hours of free time that we don’t have to work, or if we did work locally, those 18 hours puts that $624 a month in our pocket. Some places charge 24-28 hours a week for the site ($970/month). Some higher! Don’t know how that is ever worth it.
So with a little careful planning, for long term living… you can full time rv at a very reasonable cost. And travel at reasonable costs. By the way, while traveling, many campgrounds offer monthly rates (if you can plan to stay that long) , which little more then what would amount to a normal two week stay at nightly rates. So you can travel or live in your rv as expensive as you like, or as reasonable as you want.
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