Travel and ecomomic times

[faye]

How has the economy effected your travels with the increasing price of gas and diesel. Would like to hear from all who care to comment or share.

[Plane nutty]

I just got into this about three months ago so near 4 dollars for diesel is my starting point so it hasn't affected me at all. Now pose this same question after I have been doing it for a decade and I might give you a different answer.

[Mr_D]

Been RV'ing since 1957. Fuel prices have definitely made an impact. Right now I work two weeks to fill the tank.

[Skip426]

No fewer trips, away from home , but I stay longer in one place, not touring like I used to, miles per year down. Price of fuel here in Canada, averageing $ 1.31 a litre X 3.78 to a US gallon = $4.95, so $4.00 isn't so bad. From my point of view that is.

[historyljc]

Diesel was $1.83 a gallon when I purchased the motorhome. I was still working full-time at twice what I am drawing retired. Fuel and other expenses have more than doubled since I retired. Of course this has affected how far and how often I can travel. But not nearly as much as my wife's stage 4 bone cancer. She is no longer physically able to make the long cross country, or even multi state trips. She still loves the motorhome and going in it. But we're pretty much limited to 4, maybe 5, hour travel days, no more than two days in row. We still feel really blessed to have the MH and be able to go in it as much as we do and especially to have the friends that we have made in the 6+ years that we've had the motorhome.

[Tony Lee]

In retirement, we have a fairly well defined annual budget.
We are full-time motorhoming.

So far the global economic crisis hasn't made any significant impact on our retirement earnings and prices here are relatively stable so our practices haven't needed to change.

If and when change is necessary to stay within budget we can do several things. First is to stay longer in any one place. This is happening naturally anyway as we settle in more and more to the notion that our lifestyle doesn't have to include travelling hundreds of kilometres every day. Since fuel is our biggest cost, reducing distance travelled per month is the easiest way to do that.
(on the current 10,000 mile trek, we paid up to $3.40 per Litre for diesel so your $4 per gallon doesn't look too bad does it. $1.60/L is about normal in Australia now)

We gave up the idea of using our skills while travelling because probably like the US, it is just a big expensive pain in the neck to get teaching accreditation in each state, and manual work doesn't appeal all that much any longer so all in all, there isn't any paid employment in our plans. However, it is very easy - especially with appropriate skills and experience - to get outback station (ranch to you) caretaking positions that might not pay much but do result in zero fuel and food costs plus of course the opportunity to experience a different lifestyle and get to meet different people and enjoy different experiences.

Another, perhaps less effective way of reducing living costs is to simply drive to a country where the living costs are way cheaper. Mexico, Morocco, Turkey are a few of the obvious ones, but some parts of South America and eastern Europe would also work. Obviously that is a bit harder to do from Australia, but there are obvious ways around it.

Even without going to such extremes, within any country you can dramatically reduce costs simply by being a bit more creative in where you stop your motorhome. It can be in a $50+++ a night RV resort, or a $10 a night USFS campground.

Anyway, regardless of the true position, we refuse to worry about the GFC and are quite happy to keep spending in a prudent way such as to (hopefully) ensure that the rate of burn of our money is reasonably similar to the rate of burn of our life expectancy.

[so47]

Originally Posted by Tony Lee

In retirement, we have a fairly well defined annual budget.
We are full-time motorhoming.

So far the global economic crisis hasn't made any significant impact on our retirement earnings and prices here are relatively stable so our practices haven't needed to change.

If and when change is necessary to stay within budget we can do several things. First is to stay longer in any one place. This is happening naturally anyway as we settle in more and more to the notion that our lifestyle doesn't have to include travelling hundreds of kilometres every day. Since fuel is our biggest cost, reducing distance travelled per month is the easiest way to do that.
(on the current 10,000 mile trek, we paid up to $3.40 per Litre for diesel so your $4 per gallon doesn't look too bad does it. $1.60/L is about normal in Australia now)

We gave up the idea of using our skills while travelling because probably like the US, it is just a big expensive pain in the neck to get teaching accreditation in each state, and manual work doesn't appeal all that much any longer so all in all, there isn't any paid employment in our plans. However, it is very easy - especially with appropriate skills and experience - to get outback station (ranch to you) caretaking positions that might not pay much but do result in zero fuel and food costs plus of course the opportunity to experience a different lifestyle and get to meet different people and enjoy different experiences.

Another, perhaps less effective way of reducing living costs is to simply drive to a country where the living costs are way cheaper. Mexico, Morocco, Turkey are a few of the obvious ones, but some parts of South America and eastern Europe would also work. Obviously that is a bit harder to do from Australia, but there are obvious ways around it.

Even without going to such extremes, within any country you can dramatically reduce costs simply by being a bit more creative in where you stop your motorhome. It can be in a $50+++ a night RV resort, or a $10 a night USFS campground.

Anyway, regardless of the true position, we refuse to worry about the GFC and are quite happy to keep spending in a prudent way such as to (hopefully) ensure that the rate of burn of our money is reasonably similar to the rate of burn of our life expectancy.

Well said, and echoed several thoughts in my sometimes functional head.

[Gary - K7GLD]

I started a similar thread nearly a year ago - and was quickly exposed to the reality - at THAT time - that MANY members here are pretty well-heeled - and therefore to a larger degree, isolated and impervious to high fuel and related RVing expenses - they are the sort using the "Damn the economy, FULL speed ahead" RVing philosophy.

SOME of that has changed - as the then pointed out FACT that not only will/has fuel costs - but ALSO related travel and daily living expenses have also risen, and must be taken into account!

Sure, it's great to "budget" RV travel expenses - but for many, OTHER higher priority rising living expenses - like regular meals, medical expense, home heating/cooling - and MANY more, all tend to eat into the "budgeted" RVing fund - it's not ALL purely related to fuel expense alone...

[RanCarr]

Originally Posted by faye

How has the economy effected your travels with the increasing price of gas and diesel. Would like to hear from all who care to comment or share.

We will still spend most of the winter in FL but as for camping, we stay closer to home.

[Davdeb1]

I felt the same way as some. I thought $3500 a month would be plenty to do the full-time lifestyle. I'm on oxygen, and have found that my medical insurance and prescription expenses will rise every year and eat into it. Our money is fully invested in dividend stocks, with a 5 year cash reserve. Hopefully these long time dividend paying stocks continue to do what they have over the last decade.

I will drive less than I thought, and stay longer in one place so we may enjoy our retirement.

[Ray,IN]

We made a decision. We purchased our RV for our enjoyment, it was expensive and well worth the investment. We just returned from a 14 week trip. We went with a caravan to Alaska for 2 months, then spent the rest of the time meandering through WA, OR, Northern CA, ID, WY, SD, IA, well you get the picture. Sure it was costly, but our experiences are priceless.
Our plan is for our retirement money to disappear just as they lay us in the coffin.
If we reach the point we cannot afford to RV, we will sell it, buy a place in FL for the winter, and rely upon our memories of days past..

[faye]

I think moderate income rvers have definitely felt the pench of the economic times, we have heard from some who say it is the high fuel prices and from some who are giving up on rving. We also hear that many are staying closer to home and staying longer in one location.