My journey into the RV world started awhile ago watching HGTV and then spending hours on YouTube. I dig it… Really dig it.
I watch, no devour all of the “Tiny House” programming I can and love that movement as well.
So when I was able to pull the trigger and pick up my very first “New-2-Me-RV” this summer, in the back of my mind the clock started ticking on when I would go fulltime.
I’ve had a great start to RV living from the good.
To the bad.
I look at all of it as a learning process and I can easily see how folks do it. But as I research and learn more, I’m finding a majority of those who do go fulltime are retired or working from the road. Two things that one day may be an option, but that right now aren’t.
So this blog is more of a question/fact finding piece to those in the fulltime lifestyle now. It also starts with a couple of major questions:
1. How many are living fulltime in an RV, but still work at a “Bricks & Sticks” job?
2. Do you rent space somewhere near your job? Do you rent a spot in a local RV park? Do you rotate places month to month?
3. If your main home is the RV, do you still have fun living in it as opposed to just taking it out on weekends and vacations?
4. If you’re living fulltime what would you do differently as you move into and live fulltime?
5. If you’re primarily living in one spot with your RV fulltime, how often do you unhook and go off on adventures?
Bonus- What advice would you give someone really wanting to go fulltime, but had a job that you can’t work mobiley and might not be able to for a long time?
As you can imagine there are SOOOO many things to think about before pulling that trigger on a big decision like this. One of the things I love about the RV/Van/Tiny House Communities is that everyone is doing it differently and at the same time so many are helpful and have great advice. Right now YOU all have done it, so what better resource to tap into than you guys?
Can you help a young RVJedeye up?😊
We live in a 30ft toy hauler full time down here in Florida. I work in a call center and my husband does mobile home washing. We had to do some shuffling and adjustments for sure! First thing was I quit my job and got the call center gig. This is because the call center has 15 locations accross America. Even though im “fresh meat” and in no position to put in a transfer request yet, i will be able to after 1 year. The next thing is that my husbands job is disposable and unimportant to our plans, so he can quit anytime and pick up work anywhere we go. We dont have much more than a basic education level and dont make more money than the average lower middle class folk, but we are so so so happy! We live in an RV park right now thats a little pricey at $550 a month because of our pet cat. Coconut the cat is not allowed in most RV parks down here and thats okay because the rent is still cheaper than any apartment you could find in this area of Clearwater Beach. There is a cheaper RV park that we found and will be moving into after Coconut has lived his life….. but obviously we’re in no hurry for that to happen!
Since we’re on such a tight budget most of our weekend traveling is done boondocking on the Florida Water Treatment land….a tip we learned from the Wynns(gone with the wynns is our favorite youtube channel). Its absolutely fantastic to camp for free and drag our kayaks all across the Florida natural springs. My husband fishes alot and i love to explore the waterways! So yes, we do unplug and go on weekend getaways almost every weekend. Also, call center work has a lot of perks involved. One of those perks is about every 4 months i rack up another weeks worth of paid time off. I’ve gotten that weeks paid vacation time twice now. We use this time to travel down to the everglades and sometimes even the Florida Keys!! Even those trips are free because of having the toy hauler. We’re able to go unplugged for 4 weeks at a time and I have family down there that let us driveway surf. It will take a few more years to see all of this lovely state and then I will put in a transfer to Arizona where we can start the adventure all over again!
I do want to mention our “emergency plan” as well. This plan is in case I ever get fired as my job is the main support of our dream. We’re going to hit the road with what we have, cat and all. We’re going to head west and get into that sweet deal that amazon offers around Thanksgiving, i think the program called Amazon camping work force. Theres a great video about it on the Technomadias web page all about it. So we’ll work our fingers to the bone there for a few months, then utilize the workers on wheels web page to get into a paid workamping gig for the off season, or sometimes they’re called camp hosting gigs. Luckily nothing has broken on the toy hauler yet but if it ever does we’ll probably use a credit card and then slowly pay that off.
Things we would do differently is kind of a toss up…on the one hand we love our cat and he is a fantastic addition to the family. But on the other hand we’re paying an extra 200 a month in rent to stay in a cat friendly park. I secretly wish we never got him…..but i love him. Lol does that make any sense?
We definitely still have fun living full time in the RV park. Having the toy hauler gave us this huge open patio of about 7ft x 7ft and we have folks over for cookouts and bon fires all the time without crowding. A really cool thing we do is put a sign in the ground every thursday night that says “bring a chair movie time” and use this really cool projection box thing i got for my bday to play movies on the side of our camper that are about 76inches wide screen. Last week i just put on The Office from netflix and about 15 people came and went to laugh with us for an episode or two before moving on. Also the park has really nice facilities! These include 2 free pool tables in the club house, an honor system library packed full of worn out paperback classics(the best kind of book), a heated pool for year round swimming, dances and potlucks and this thing called wagon parades. Oh man i love wagon parades. All the retired snowbirds decorate their wagons around new years with lights and pack them full of home made mixed drink concoctions and parade around the park passing out free drinks and well wishes for the new year!!! They also have stuff like water aerobics every morning in the pool and bingo every wednesday. We dont really get into alot of the stuff they do because we’re younger and working all the time but its a great atmosphere. Also since we’ve moved in Coconut has gotten fatter lol. All the old ladies that love cats give him treats all day and put out expensive cat food for him to come visit. Lol lol its not uncommon to find him sitting under one of their awnings relaxing in an old womans lap. Also this park has quite a few pine trees surrounding it so even though its on a very busy road once you go through the entrance it still feels like you’re camping.
This is a glimpse into our awesome life!! Our best advise is to find things you love doing that are free or only a 1 time investment. Example is our kayaks. We bought them once and use them for free everytime we go out. Or how i really love to read, i bought a nook once and download my books for free from e-libraries. Also, think long and hard before getting a pet and make sure its the right choice for you. Oh!!!! And always ALWAYS have at least 2 spare tires when you hit the road. We do this every weekend and it has saved like 1000’s of dollars because we change them ourselves. And another fantastic tip believe it or not is to become a resident of South Dakota. Its one of the top 5 cheapest auto insurance states in the country and you do not have to live there or have an address in the state to become a resident. Just google it and look into that and i promise you’ll be amazed.
Good luck with your dreams!!!! Sincerely, Hash and Rich
Hash & Rich I love this! Thanks for sharing it is so interesting to hear from different folks as they fall in love with the lifestyle 😀