What Can You Save?
Making the decision to downsize into an RV from an apartment to pay off debts faster was one of the best choices I ever made. It is unbelievable to me how much money we can waste throwing it away on an apartment or buying a house when most of the space inside is hardly ever used. Think about it! What area of our homes do we use the most?? Living room, kitchen, bedroom and bathroom are probably the most time spent in. The other parts are square footage space wasted and we are PAYING for that space! Our hard earned money is being wasted right down the drain!
Being in an RV full time has taught me a lot about the spaces where people dwell in their regular houses and how much of that space they do not actually need. I still find myself not utilizing all the space the RV has to offer. Looking back at the apartment life had me wondering just how much money I was throwing away in order to let society tell me how much space I needed to live in. Breaking it down I will show you just how much money I have been able to save or in my case right now, contriubute to my debt that I am working on subracting.
Note – The costs below will be an average and not an exact amount.
RENT
Located in Texas where everything may be bigger, I am not sure if prices per apartments equals to that. Having read about some outrageous costs of apartments in heavily populated cities and/or depending on locations or what is near by the apartments, I am sure will have factors on costs of living. Before I leaped into RV lifestyle, my monlthy average rent was $700 and due the first of every month versus where I am staying now for $600 every 28 days. For some reason their are RV parks or RV resorts that will charge an every 28 day rate. When it is all said and done, it is like paying for 13 months a year instaed of regualr 12. This will equate to $8,400 a year for the apartment and $7,800 for RV resort I am parked at.
UTILITIES
Finding a place to park my RV was fairly simple. Where I live, I can name about ten RV parks in a 30 mile radius. It was almost a no brainer when I researched one that INCLUDED most utlities. That was beautiful music to my ears! The utilities included in my rent space are hook-ups to city water, hook-ups to city sewage, Wi-Fi, cable, and up to 900kw of electricity usasge. (I will say that is very hard for me to go over to work up a charge, so I consider that included!)
While breaking down the costs of utilities at my apartment, I felt icky! To start with, my electric bill was averaging $60 a month ($720 yr) the city water $30 a month ($360 yr), and internet around $80 a month ($960 yr). All this added up to average an additional $170 a month breaking down to $2,040 a year for apartment living utilities.
EXTRAS
Every apartment is different. While some may have different fees and charges, most will require deposits. Looking back I want to say that my last apartment deposit was a $150 charge before move in and also a nice $200 extra for a pet deposit. I get it! Your cat might encounter some serious stomach virus and show everyone how bad it is all over the living room floor, and so they guys in the office NEED that money to clean up Sir Mittens mess upon move out!
Another extra charge could be parking fees. Maybe you want that covered spot as close to your balcony as possible? Ok no problem, that will be $40 extra a month. Or maybe you like that teeny tiny garage to park your teeny tiny car in? Sure thing! Go ahead and add another $80 to my bill each month! With those extras mentioned you are looking at an extra $480 – $960 a year. Luckily my vehicle parks on the same concrete slab as my RV and we can be share bears with no additional charge.
Trash pick up is being offered by more and more apartments. It is definitely a nice amenity to be able to leave your bag of trash by your door if it is raining and have someone else pick it up. BUT $25 tab a month is not nice at all and will equate to $300 more a year.
CONCLUSION
One of the reasons fulltime RV’ing caught my eye was because of the low costs of living that it had to offer. As you can see my total costs per year for living in my RV is about $7,800 VS living in an apartment for around $11,490 per year. Saving $3,690. Imagine how much more someone could save by simply downsizing from a larger home or even an apartment with rents being about $1,000 – $2,000 a month? If you are on a mission to get out of debt like myself then cutting cost anywhere you can is a victory in itself!
Please let the community know in the comments if anyone is on a financial journey to be free from debt and share your tips on how you are getting there!
CHECK OUT FREEDOM CHASER VIDEO ON APT VS. RV SAVING!
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