Hi Everyone. Well, after 15 years the RV-Dreams Community Forum is coming to an end. Since it began in August 2005, we've had 58 Million page views, 124,000 posts, and we've spent about $15,000 to keep this valuable resource for RVers free and open. But since we are now off the road and have settled down for the next chapter of our lives, we are taking the Forum down effective June 30, 2021. It has been a tough decision, but it is now time.
We want to thank all of our members for their participation and input over the years, and we want to especially thank those that have acted as Moderators for us during our amazing journey living and traveling in our RV and growing the RV-Dreams Family. We will be forever proud to have been founders of this Forum and to have been supported by such a wonderful community. Thank you all!!
I have posted our first years operating costs. Because others shared their information to help me make my decision, I wanted to pay it forward a bit. Tons of detail..probably too much lol. Anyways if interested you can check it out at
Trace and Dave, I am sure I am just one of very many that are ever grateful for the efforts you both put into your website and your candidness in sharing your budgets vs actual costs. For sure the "affordability" factor of hitting the road, is one of the biggest fears for most. Just like retirement and getting stuck in that "one more year" mentality. Eventually we all just have to take that leap of faith, and invariably as with most things in life, it all turns out good at the end of the day.
Thank you to both of you. Trace the way you say it how it is and you feel, adjust and compromise, is wonderful for perspective and Dave, it was kind that you shared those annual figures for 3 years as you did when asked by another reader. Bless you, there are more people grateful for that peace of mind in just knowing that someone else out there whilst living a little differently is doing it very comfortably on that figure.
Kudos to you both, for sharing in such a giving way. THANK YOU and happy and safe travels as always.
SD.
PS: It was encouraging to see on your blog Trace the thank you, you wrote to those supporting your Amazon links already. Wonderful news to read it's being effective already for you.
-- Edited by Someday on Sunday 10th of January 2016 02:10:16 AM
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Breathtaking Alberta. Her Mountains Draw You But Her People Bring You Back
PS: It was encouraging to see on your blog Trace the thank you, you wrote to those supporting your Amazon links already. Wonderful news to read it's being effective already for you.
-- Edited by Someday on Sunday 10th of January 2016 02:10:16 AM
It's been a few dollars a day but every little bit helps for sure, and its certainly helping me cover the cost of the blog website which is great :)
We have tried twice to do the Amazon thing and could never really figure it out so gave up. I sort of got it on the blog but it never really meshed with Amazon so we finally gave up. Good on ya for making it work, a few dollars a day is at least,,, well a few dollars a day LOL!!
Good post on your blog☺ Many times we've had the discussion on how our budget and lifestyle would change if my corporate job went away, and right now there is a definite feeling that my job might be off shored, we have had several what if discussions. While I have no doubt it would take time to regroup and change our lifestyle, it's helpful to review other people's experience.
With our expense tracking I keep trying to figure out how to separate expenses we incur because of my work schedule and Dale's art show schedule, places we need to be vs. Times when we're travelling because it's where we want to be. Hard to do and because we've now set our travel schedule based on both jobs, it's really hard to delineate where we could be spending less. Always nice to see someone's real life experience.
One change I made this year to our budget tracking was entertainment vs vacation. Entertainment included entry fees to parks, museums, etc. But this year we actually went on a "out of rig" vacation and splurged on a cruise. I'm now tracking vacations separate from entertainment and also added a category for family visits which aren't exactly either vacation or entertainment.
