Full timing on a budget

[Wanabee FTer]

My wife and I are both recently retired early at 52 years of age. We did not retire wealthy or even close. We put money away in our 401K, but we have been used to spending money whenever we wanted to. Sure we could have been more prudent and saved more money, but since we have never suffered financially throughout our lives it just didn't seem important to us.
Well now we are ready to live on a budget for the first time since we were first married.
We rented our house to our oldest daughter and sold all of our "stuff".
Of course she went through and picked out all the good stuff first. Sorting was a painful thing for both of us, deciding what we absolutely needed or just wanted to keep. Fortunately we were able to put the items we could not bear to get rid of in the 3rd car garage. I feel that we will be able to go back later and get rid of a lot more stuff after we have been away for a while!
I would have never thought letting go of some material stuff would be so hard. It has been a long and difficult period for both of us, but we are finally ready to hit the road this morning. It took about 4 months to sell most of the things we no longer needed, often times realizing the items were not worth anywhere near as much money as we thought, but it's all done. (Well except a few things in the garage)
Today we embark on our journey. No long thought out plans. Just day by day living. We will decide when and where we want to stay whenever we feel like it. First we will be going to Laughlin NV, then to Quartzite AZ to see the sites. After that, who knows...

[bdpreece]

At least you are not paying to store anything. Several years ago we put everything in storage while we built a house. After paying storage for a year we pulled it out and wondered why we saved most of this junk. Got rid of a lot of it rather than take it to the new house. It's amazing what we accumulate and think we need.

Good luck on your journey, time to relax and enjoy.

[RickO]

Congratulations John!!! You're going to have to change your screen name now.

Getting rid of a lifetime of "stuff" is the hardest part. We still have a 10x10 storage unit but after 15 months on the road we're finding we probably didn't really need that etiher. Big power tools and photos of grandma are about all that's in there and we could probably find a better option for those.

I know what you mean about the transition between spending whatever you want to having no income. It is a transition but one that we all make.

Although we're lucky enough to not be on a highly restrictive budget, but we do track our spending very closely to make sure we are always in control of what we're doing. The easiest way we found to do that is by using Quicken. EVERYTHING we spend goes through one of three channels: 1) our Visa card... 2) our debit card tied to our checking account... 3) cash we draw via our debit card.

At any time, we can go on line and Quicken will download all transactions and after you've been using it a little it will even put them into their proper categories such as "groceries", "dinning", insurance, etc. This allows us to know how much we're spending and where we're spending it.

After taking a year long loop around the country when we started FT, we're now slowing down and spending more time at each place we stay. Monthly rates are often only half of what daily rates cost... plus that means less fuel burned.

Best of luck to you both.

Rick

[phxmtngirl]

Congrats this has been the best thing we ever did. We are young also (47 & 55), we boondock ALOT to save money, as we are not rich either. We are slowly traveling, we don't need to see the entire US in 1 year, we want to take 10 or more years and at the rate we are going it will take us that long.
On rv.net under the full timers area is a budget worksheet (excel) that is great for tracking expenses. We use that (cheaper than quicken, even tho I use to love quicken) we have found food is our big expense, so we don't eat out very often anymore, shop at farmers markets, and eat at home
Good luck on your dream, and hopefully we can hook up down the road, we will also be going up to Q, maybe we can meet there.

[Vegasdan]

Congrats on making the leap. We sold everything we didn't want to take with us and gave away the good stuff to our kids. We now enjoy spending the winters in AZ for free (it's nice to have a relative with plenty of land). We also put up at my son's place that has an RV pad and hookups in Las Vegas for free. So for us, we use campgrounds for about 5 months out of the year.

[FATMANAR]

The hardest thing I had to get rid of were all of my tools. I gave my son my mech. tools and my soninlaw my woodworking tools. The rest was easy. Like you, I always had money to spend on what ever or when ever I wanted too. It's hard to get use to staying within a budget, but you will get use to it. Good Luck and Happy Trails...

[Wanabee FTer]

Thanks to all of you all for the kind words,

Funny how getting rid of all my stuff now feels so liberating, I have not traveled this light since I was a teenager.
As far as watching the budget, Quicken sounds good to me, but since DW does most of the accounting, I think I will take phxmtngrl's advice and download a budget sheet. DW thinks computers are only for FB. She is all about paper and it drives me crazy but hey, she's the boss right? At least that's what she keeps telling me.

RickO, as far as changing my screen name, I think it still fits because my rig is not the typical full timers set up. I think I look more like someone that is going to the beach for a weekend outing at first look, but thanks to all the tips I've gathered from this forum I have turned this vacation rig into a truly useful coach.

Drove through Q today and could not believe how many dry campers are scattered about. It literally looks like a mobile city
I will be looking into dry camping as soon as I become more confident in my rigs abilities. Like Vegasdan, I have a lot of family scattered throughout the states to visit and should have limited hook ups available there.

This morning we had full intentions on being in Laughlin NV by evening, but I guess I wound up dilly dallying too much today. We found a space in Parker CA on the Colorado river for the night and will continue on tomorrow to play around in Laughlin for a while. So far, I am thinking I can get used to this life style real quick.

[RickO]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Wanabee FTer So far, I am thinking I can get used to this life style real quick.

Just wait...

Enjoy

[Barbaraok]

Tell your wife to join the 21st century and get everything on a computer. It will make life so much more enjoyable - - that last thing you need to lugging paper around. In fact, you should be doing everything you can on line.

Barb

[Lorna]

Give her a couple months of having to deal with paper in a small area. She'll be singing a different tune! You both will have to make adjustments. Some of which you haven't thought of. You will not be able to buy lots of "souvenirs" of the places you visit so you had better get a digital camera and a personal website to keep them on.

[Wanabee FTer]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lorna You will not be able to buy lots of "souvenirs" of the places you visit so you had better get a digital camera and a personal website to keep them on.

I have that part down alright, even have a domain name that is perfect. Today I am searching for a wireless solution. Staying at the Avi Casino in Nevada for a week and using their free wifi. Seems they have a speed limit of .5 mbps download speed. Snail slow even at the access point. Thinking about getting a cell phone modem but I am stuck with AT&T for the moment, so not sure if that is an option. Thinking about getting a wifi antenna booster, but not sure if that will help either.

[Lorna]

We ran free wi-fi all the way out here from NC. With the help of a wi-fi antenna, we could pick up open networks from many hotels and restaurants.

[WheelingIt]

If you're thinking of a cellphone modem take a look at Millenicom. They offer a 20Gb/mo no contract deal that runs on the Verizon network (best coverage by far). If we weren't already in contract with Verizon that's what we'd chose. You can always chose to boost the signal with an external antenna and amplifier down the line. Nina

[Jim Stewart]

We stored 8,000 lbs of "stuff" for 12 years at $210.83 a month. We fulltimed for 3.5 years and got bored and started another business. We were too busy to bother getting it so there it sat. This past summer we wnt back to the storage facility and gave it all away except for 6 boxes. Seems like such a waste, but a relief to be rid of it.

We currently have house (under contract), RV Lot in the Keys, MH and a new condo! We wanted Internet wherever at a low overall cost. We have a Virgin Mobile Mi-Card (uses sprint 3G network), we get unlimited internet for $40/month with no contract. It cost $129 for the card and you activate on the internet (connects itself). It comes on once a month and tells you it's time to pay again. We use it wirelessly with 2 laptops and a wireless printer. We use it at home, the Keys and in the MH when we travel. The signal is fairly good and we have not had trouble using it anywhere we have been. It is a little slow at times, but then again, so am I!

Good luck on your adventures!