Greetings from Houston - I look forward to learning from all of you. This forum was recommended to me after I posted a question about HS and RV'ing to an e-list. We have two children (1st and 4th) and have homeschooled all along. We love to learn, enjoy adventure, travel, history, museums, hiking and being outdoors. We need to travel to safely & healthfully accomodate allergies (food and environmental) and asthma. A friend suggested we look into RV'ing as a "perfect" solution. What do you think? I am seeking wisdom from the experienced! Warmly, Susan
Oooohhh.. First, Hello! I am new too! I just LOVE the idea of RVing. That would be so much fun. I don't think it is doable in our immediate future but I would LOVE to hear other stories on how families carried this out!!!
Ohhhhh KKKKKKKKKKKKRISSSS!!!!!!! hehehe (I know there are other RVers here but she's the one that comes to my brain first....) DH and I recently talked about the possibility of RVing starting the end of this summer through next year when we plan to buy a house. It was a conversation-in-passing (as we were already out camping), and I'm not sure if he would actually go for it or not. anyway, I'll keep an eye on this thread for sure....
Susan, I am so happy to be able to offer any assistance I can. I believe Kris and I can offer you much advice and info. I am Timkelmom (Kim). We are full-time RVers and have been HSing for 4 years now. We live in a 40 ft 5th wheel and travel all over the USA. We have been to 28 states so far and plan on several more this year. My DHs work causes us to travel a lot and this is how it began, but now I can honestly say that I LOVE it and can't imagine any other life for us for a while. Me children are DS-13 and DD-10. They love RVing and HSing. I am happy to help in any way I can.
Hi, Susan, and welcome. My beloved husband and I have lived in various places, but right now we have our roots pretty deeply planted in the rich soil of Western Kansas; so I'm not much help on the RV side. Your post interested me, though. In order to avoid allergens, how will you know where to move? Will you research and plan your year according to seasons? Our youngest are twins, just about to finish up their sophomore year of homeschooling. They are a joy to teach!
I'm curious as to this, also. Personally, as far as RVing goes, I had the thought that it was probably cheaper once you figure in separate electricity bills, water bills, gas bills. Even when you add space rent, and even if you have to add storage place rent (in our situation we would), most likely it would STILL come out cheaper. Realizing it depends on credit etc, can anyone give me an idea of what monthly payments one of the LARGE, mobilized RVs would run? What about weekly/monthly site rental and hookups? How about laundry? When, where, and how much? TX has a state park pass. You'd still have to pay the per-day fee (usually around $3 per adult per day), but with that being the ONLY fee for it (the pass is $65 and good for a year)... I'm thinking this might be a frugal route for us within the next 6-9 months. Input, moneywise? How much storage space - especially for CLOTHES - is really available??
OK, I'll try to answer what I can, one at a time. Beginning with the purchase of an RV. This is a big step and can be very costly. Some RVs cost as much as homes and have loans that are like a mortgage. You can stop in and RV dealer and look around and ask questions, they are not like car dealers and will not pressure you. Also, check out E-Bay. There are lots of RVs on there and you can get an idea of what you might pay. We have bought 2 RVs from there and have had positive exeriences with both. As far as payment go, I'm not too sure because we payed cash for both of ours. I do that is depends on the price of the RV and length of the loan. I suggest people do a LOT of research and see exactly what they want. Size, type, brand, all of these are important factors. When we began, we searched for the best type of RV for full-timing. They were only 2 brands that we looked at that were truly made for what we do.
Now, as far as being cheaper after the initial investment. That depends too. It depends on if you stay weekly or monthly. You only have to pay electric if you are in a monthly sight. We have to pay extra for each child and our dog who travels with us. Don't forget the price of fuel. We do better here than some because our truck holds 85 gallons of fuel. Less stops, better gas mileage. Also the cost of living depends on your lifestyle. The refrigerators are much smaller, there is less cabinet space. You have to shop more often. I belong to Sam's club and can not shop in bulk and fill a chest freezer like I used to. When we are on the road there are other little costs incurred. Some necessary, some luxury. We pay for XM radio, Direct TV with TIVO, and satellite internet. These are important to us, but definitely not necessities. We do pay for a mail service to hold our mail and send it to us once per month. Laundry used to cost a lot, like $2.00 per load to wash and $.25 for 10 minutes to dry. I now have a washer and dryer of my own, so it costs much less. Just the cost of supplies. I don't pay for water and often don't pay for electricity. There are other costs incurred, I just can't think of them right now.
State parks can be nice, except they usually require you to move every 14 days. Most have a max stay time and they enforce it. That being said, if you can swing it state parks are nice, they often don't have the same amenities other parks have though.
Storage space is all relative to the size of your RV. Ours has a lot of space, for an RV. The longer you travel, the less you will realize need. I took off with an entire kitchen full of stuff and closets packed as full as I could get them. I have unloaded so much over the years that I realized I didn't need. Don't forget we fit enough stuff for 4 into out RV. Clothes storage was fine, it was actually pantry space in the kitchen I had to get used to. If you are organized, you can actually fit quite a lot.
I hope any of this has helped. Keep asking and I will keep answering. If I missed anything, let me know. If I don't know I will ask my DH who knows everything. If you really want to know about loan payments and such, I can find out for you.
We already have DirecTV satellite (without TIVO :lol: ), and I'd wondered about that. Good to know. Could care less about the XM radio - it's on the DirecTV and we more often listen to CDs. How much does satellite internet run monthly? I've heard setup fees are outrageous.... Where do you hook up the washer and dryer?? We have our own already, but I just assumed we'd not be able to take them in an RV.... Does this just have to do with the RV itself? One perk of getting the really big ones? LOL Is it possible to RENT an RV for say, 6 weeks at a time or so? DH will likely be in San Antonio for 6-8 weeks at a time, then back in Austin for about the same amount of time before having to head back to SanA again. Likely this will be his schedule starting in June and going for quite a while.... So, we won't have a lot of driving, especially if we find one place where we can stay the entire time we're at that city. Do RVs these days have dishwashers? :? That's like my most major hesitation over the whole thing - having to do the dishes by hand for the next 9 months. Isn't that a crazy hesitation?? LOL We live pretty frugally as it is... but paycheck to paycheck. If our spot rental, RV rent/payment, storage rental, and other minor fees like the $3/day adult fee at parks would end up less than our $625 rent, $150 elec, $50 water, and $85 gas bill... what's that? Just over $900/mo... then it would save us money. There's satellite internet, but it would replace our current cable internet. There's a cell phone, but we have a TracFone and we'd probably see how long that would last us before deciding to go with an all-out cell, which again would just replace the home phone. And in addition to all of that, if we DONT do it then we WILL have to pay for dh to go back and forth at least every 2-3 days, because we only have one vehicle and it freaks me out to think we'd be here for 5+ days with no transportation whatsoever.... San Antonio is about 2 hours south of here, so around 180 miles. Gas got up over $3/gallon. Van gets around 20 mpg take or leave, so figure each trip is a tank and a half, two trips a week, so three tanks at $45.... That's an extra $360/month tacked on to our expenses. He'll get most of that back... so we might even be able to finagle a little cash out of his boss for spot rental or something instead of the gas we'd have used.... And now I'm completely thinking out-loud-in-type. LOL Just kind of a floating thought for me/us... and I just decided maybe I'd see if it might actually work. If we can't rent, the very first issue will be our credit. Totally possible we couldn't buy, and then it wouldn't matter! And if you read all of this... Wow, thanks! hehehe
Many campgrounds now days have wifi and generally speaking you can count on adding about $40-60 monthly to your satellite TV bill to have satellite internet and there are the usual latency, line of sight issues. The set up costs are contingent on how you intend to use it (Do you need a unit that will lock on to a signal as you drive down the road, or one you position when you have stopped). Many modern RV's have washer dryer combo units. They are very small and compact and one unit washes and drys clothes, but they are not large enough to accomodate large loads of comforters etc. RV Rental is not cheap at all. The one thing you may want to look at is to rent an RV Trailer and have them park it on a site for you, but even that will run around $360 weekly just for a small tent trailer. Rving is a fun lifestyle, but not inexpensive unless you can find a bargain on a used unit, and even then you need to be certain you have a nest egg set back for emergencys. You sure don't want to be stranded with your kiddos. We bought a used fifth wheel last year and an old beater pick up truck so that in the summer the kids and I could join d/h where ever he may be working over the summer months. He is on the road 15-20 days each month. We are both self employed so it is a total tax write off for us too, since I work from it when we are on the road. We have had some harrowing adventures and I have learned how much can go wrong when you least expect it. The biggest lesson I have learned is to always have a back up plan should the RV or truck die in the middle of our trip. The first month or two was an absolute nightmare, but as time has gone on, we've worked out the bugs and we actually have a pretty good rig, but what started out as a cheap rig, ended up with some costly repairs and since the truck and trailer are older, we know we could have more repairs at any time. One other thing you might consider is to search for actual campgrounds in the area and see how much it would be to rent a permanent park model and what amenities it would offer. I saw some nice ones in the Brownsville area for around $800 monthly that included cable, and was very nice. Good Luck!
yes most campgrounds have the wifi but it's not the best. I have been at only one who had the best of all the places we have traveled. I would say go another way if you can. washers and dryers are builted in most rv's they are small but work. most campgrounds are looking for work campers not all might want to do that for rent. But, watch it some will use you I mean use you. monthly rate is the best way to go if you can if not let them know you are in the area for work and most campgrounds will work with you. if you aren't a member of rv club join one you get discounts on gas, campgrounds and lot of other things. Good Sams is one club to join. like Kim said there are alot of ways to go around it if you can pay for your camper out right that is the best way to go and yes Kim is right the camper places are really nice and will work with you in every way they can. My thing is to enjoy it have fun it's alot of fun. When we travel and go to alot of neat places like museum and other attraction they will work with you.May places took my girls under there arms and did so many neat things with them. I love it and when it comes to the time we are done I am sure we will all miss it.
Just wanted to say hi Susan! I'm Tiffany from just barely north of Houston. I just finished my first year homeshcooling my two dd 4 and 10. I know nothing about RV'ing just wanted to say howdy neighbor!
Hi! I'm Jen in OK and all I know about RVing is I would probably have to throttle someone after about 3 days.:lol: Actually, it might be fin for a while, but I don't think dh would like it. I have one ds 2 and we are planning on hs'ing him and any others that come along!
Wow! Thank you so much for the warm welcome and all the helpful information. I have read your posts and there is much to be re-read and properly digested . We welcome your continued thoughts, input and suggestions. What a lovely, caring e-group! In the earlier posts, a few asked about avoiding allergies and how we believe we might do that while RV'ing. Well, this is one of several areas we continue to research and seek to understand. Maximum health for us is a case of strictly avoiding food allergies (for example, nuts, dairy) and limiting our exposure to environmental allergens or triggers as much as possible (such as, dust mites, molds, cockroaches, pet dander, cigarette smoke and seasonal pollens like ragweed). This makes traditional travel by car, plane, or train, restaurant and hotel extremely challenging. However, we feel travel is so beneficial to learning, greatly desire to show our children more of our world and wish to make wonderful travel memories together. We have found our food allergies are best handled by preparing our own meals and snacks. In an RV, we believe we could continue to do this while traveling. It would require carefully stocking up the pantry and refrigerator, restocking along the way and the right kitchen set-up. As for enviromental allergens, we have found that keeping the allergy and chemical "load" on our bodies as low as possible to be most healthful. For example, in our home we use pillow and mattress covers, have hard flooring, use a HEPA vacuum on the upholstery & dust regularly, filter our air and water, keep humidity levels as close to 40-45% as possible, and clean with "green" cleaners. (BTW, doing this has meant no allergy or asthma meds when once we were "fully loaded".) In an RV, we believe we could do much of the same...use pillow and mattress covers (especially if we have an RV where the beds could be kept made up), have flooring that is non-carpeted, filter the water, use a portable air filtration unit, clean with the same cleaners we use at home. How to keep humidity low is one challenge we still are investigating and I am wondering if anyone has conquered that. Also, I am not certain how the vacuuming would work. We are also finding renting in order to try it before investing in owning to be difficult and welcome ideas there, too. Another way we might be able to avoid environmental allergens is to travel when seasonal allergens are low. For example, don't go to Michigan (where we have family) during ragweed season. As well, we could leave Houston during ragweed season .
