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Sleeping Well on the Road: Tips and Tricks

15/11/03 at 6.40pm   /   by Jessie   /   0 Comment

We were asked recently about dealing with insomnia on the road by someone who is interested in RVing but has a history of insomnia while traveling, which impacts the energy available to actually enjoy the places they go. The reader asked if we’ve ever had this issue.

I love this question for many reasons: Jason and I both love good sleep; I can definitely relate to having insomnia; and professionally as an occupational therapist, I love the topic of sleep hygiene, as sleep is so essential to all of our other daily activities and to our general livelihood and enjoyment of life.

The importance of sleep for Jason and me cannot be overstated. Our moods and energy levels depend on consistently good sleep more than the average person. We’re both somewhat high-maintenance sleepers, meaning that we need certain things to be just-so in order to sleep well, no matter where we are. So, here’s what we’ve learned about sleeping on the road:

Insomnia Does Happen and It’s Okay

Over the past several years, I’ve struggled intermittently from insomnia, whether or not we’re traveling. The frequency and severity of my insomnia episodes have actually decreased exponentially this year. I think this is due to several factors: I have less daily stress, especially since we aren’t working this year; we spend more time outdoors in natural light and fresh air; we generally have busy, active days with a good bit of exercise built in; and I put less pressure on myself to sleep well because I know our days are mostly flexible (e.g., I don’t have to wake up at a certain time and perform at work all day). When I have suffered from insomnia this year, it’s usually been after long travel days when we’ve spent a lot of time sitting. Occasionally, it’s happened when we’re staying some place strange or noisy (more on dealing with this later), and sometimes, there’s just no explaining insomnia – isn’t that one of the wonderful things about this affliction?

But, no matter the reason or severity of my bouts of insomnia, I feel much less stressed about it now. The beauty of flexible travel and generally not having plans that we HAVE to stick to is that I can usually sleep late or take an afternoon nap (or both) if I sleep poorly one night.

As an aside, we’re fans of post-lunch family naptime. A short afternoon power nap can do wonders for me, regardless of how I slept the night before. We generally don’t let our daily plans or activities stand in the way of naptime if we really feel like we need it. Naps have happened in many places: on our picnic blanket, on a trailside rock outcropping, in the front seats of the truck (parked in a safe location, of course), or in the RV when we have it in tow – it’s one of the many advantages of a home on wheels.

A Familiar and Controlled Indoor Environment Helps

Home: Another huge advantage of a home on wheels (aka an RV) is that we have a consistent and comfortable indoor environment. We aren’t tent-camping or staying in different hotel rooms, rental houses, or guest rooms every few nights. We spend every night in our RV, which now feels like (and is) home. Compared to some full-time RVers, we haven’t done any major decorating or renovation projects, but we have made the space inside our RV ours and have turned it into a homey environment where we feel comfortable and relaxed. Simple things like sofa throw pillows can go a long way toward creating a homey atmosphere.

Comfort: A comfortable bed is essential to good sleep. We know RVers who have upgraded their mattresses, a worthwhile investment, especially if you plan to travel for long chunks of time. We decided to buy a memory-foam mattress topper (we bought the same kind we used previously at home, as our old one was worn out and needed to be tossed), which has worked great and allowed us to avoid investing in a whole new mattress.

We also use our good (read: favorite) sheets, pillows, and blankets, which are familiar and well-liked. It seemed silly to leave them in storage, and even on shorter weekend trips last fall, we made the effort of using these items in addition to our memory-foam topper from our bed at home (before we bought a duplicate). Yes, I told you we’re high-maintenance sleepers, and it was definitely worth the effort of moving the heavy topper into and out of the RV even for weekends.

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Sleeping Temperature: We have a variety of blankets and comforters for different nighttime temperatures – everything from a lightweight queen-sized throw to a heavy down comforter. Having the house/RV at a comfortable temperature is essential to good sleep. This is often challenging in the RV, as we’re usually boondocking without hook-ups. When we have hook-ups, we can run the AC, a tabletop fan, and/or our oil space heater. When we’re boondocking, we do the best we can to regulate the temperature by using our roof vent fan or propane heater, which we run only enough to prevent frigid temperatures, as it uses a ton of propane. So, we mostly compensate and create comfortable temperatures by adjusting the amount and types of blankets and clothing that we use at night. We also compensate by adjusting our sleep schedule when needed; for instance, when the RV stayed hot until late at night this summer, we simply went to bed later and slept through part of the cool of the morning and napped in the heat of the afternoon.

Light: Another way we’ve always controlled our sleeping environment is by eliminating any obnoxious lights from electronics or appliances. We’ve continued this practice in the RV by covering lights on appliances (e.g., the fridge and carbon monoxide detector) with a small piece of electrical tape.

More Tips and Tricks to Compensate for Outdoor Environments Out of Your Control

While we have almost complete control over our indoor environment, we obviously can’t control our outdoor environment, which changes constantly. Everything from noise, light (natural and artificial), and overall “feel” is unpredictable and variable. Sometimes we’re stuck in loud campgrounds, noisy truck stops or Wal-Mart parking lots. Sometimes the moon or sun comes in the windows at odd angles. And sometimes a place just feels weird or literally stinks. For all of these possible circumstances, we control everything we can in order to compensate.

White Noise and Noise Blockers: Due to tinnitus, Jason has always been a big fan of white noise via a small wind machine. Historically, we’ve taken our wind machine everywhere we go overnight. When we’re plugged into shore power, we use said wind machine; when we’re not, Jason uses a white noise audio track that plays on repeat on his iPod or iPhone. I generally do fine without white noise, and I’m a pretty deep sleeper most of the time. However, when we’re at noisy truck stops or the like, I use foam ear plugs gifted to me last Christmas by my thoughtful and wise sister-in-law.

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Keep it Dark: Again, a dark sleeping environment is something we’ve always practiced, and it’s become essential on the road, especially when we’re parked overnight in public places or in campgrounds with bright bathhouse lights. My mom sewed room-darkening curtains for us for the windows beside our bed (we ran out of time to get them installed as planned before we left, but clothespins work quite well when we need the curtains), which have been invaluable. In really bright places, we go to even greater lengths: we cover up the windows above the sofa with our throw pillows and blanket (we call this “building our fort”), we hang a piece of dark clothing over the door, and we sometimes put the sink cover/cutting board in front of the kitchen window. We always keep the bathroom door closed at night to keep out light that comes in from the skylight and roof vent.

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Create Ambience: Sometimes places just feel weird; I can’t explain it. Or, actually, I can explain it when we’re parked at a truck stop or weird Wal-Mart, but sometimes even nice campgrounds have a strange sort of feeling. I’m definitely more sensitive to this than is Jason. In these places, I do what I can to create a nice indoor ambience. I close the blinds, play music, and sometimes simmer a little water and cinnamon on the stove – this trick also works well when camped in a rural area that smells like chicken manure.

General Sleep Hygiene and Other Considerations

Sleep Hygiene Practices: Keep your bedroom space clutter-free. In our RV, this generally means the entire RV since there is no real defined bedroom; no problem – it doesn’t take long to pick-up a 168 sq. ft. house. Remember that the bed is for sleeping. It’s tempting in a small space to sit on the bed to check e-mail, read during the day, talk on the phone, write, etc., but it can interfere with sleep at night. It’s important for your brain to associate the bed with sleeping and not much else. Avoid caffeine and exercise late in the day. Enough said. Avoid electronics or anything too emotional right before bed (e.g., the news). I make an exception for my Kindle app since we didn’t bring paper books with us, but I do keep the backlight as low as possible. Avoid sleeping in too late or napping too long during the day. A 20-30 minute power nap is usually the perfect amount.

Showering/Bathing: We usually shower at night because we’re sweaty and dirty from the day, but showering can also help trigger sleep. The warmth of the water temporarily raises body temperature, which results in the body working to lower its core temperature, which promotes a feeling of sleepiness.

Unwind Before Bed: I prefer reading and/or journaling before bed. Journaling isn’t something I practiced regularly before this year but now I understand its benefits. For me, journaling helps me process the day and let go of it. Even just a quick 10-minute session can help tremendously. I don’t write anything profound; it’s usually just a record of our day’s events and our basic reactions.

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Don’t Risk Hunger: I have naturally low blood sugar, and Jason has a naturally high metabolism. He always has a small bowl of cereal before bed. I often eat some sort of small snack (preferably something with a good amount of protein) before bed depending on our activity level that day, so that I don’t wake up hungry in the middle of the night or super hangry the next morning.

Know Your Limits: Even when traveling full-time without jobs or other commitments, staying too busy and overscheduled, especially for too long, can lead to feeling stressed, burned out, and overly tired. For me, this almost always leads to insomnia. Know when to slow down the pace, take travel breaks (e.g., stay in one place for a few days without any expectations for sight-seeing, etc. and have some mandatory R&R and veg time).

 

Are you dreaming of deep sleep now? What tips or tricks do you use to promote better sleep either at home or while traveling? We’d love to hear!

 

Woulda, Coulda, Shoulda, and Did

15/07/23 at 9.00am   /   by Jessie   /   0 Comment

Over the last several months we’ve had many moments of clarity, some of which have revolved around our material goods, also known as our “stuff”. We’ve lamented over a couple of things we left behind, but probably to a greater degree, we’ve cursed ourselves for some of the unnecessary things we brought along. Hindsight is always 20/20, right? Thankfully, though, mostly we’ve been happy with our choices. We’ve given ourselves multiple pats on the back for many of the items we brought with us, which feels good because there was much deliberation in January and February as we packed, unpacked, repacked, and tried to predict our future needs for a trip for which we largely had no reference point. We’ve also parted with some money along the way to buy items that we didn’t initially consider or those that we said, “let’s wait and see”. As much as we hate spending money, we think we’ve made some wise purchases. We hope these lists may be helpful to some folks out there, and if not, then maybe you can at least get a good chuckle at our expense.

So, here are our quick lists of items we left behind, those we (unfortunately) did not, and those we couldn’t live without:

Things We Left Behind and Wish We Hadn’t

  • Soda Stream for making carbonated water (for me)
  • Metal slotted spoon versus the bulky plastic one we brought
  • A sleeping bags
  • Cold weather cycling gear
  • Good canvas tote bags (specifically, one large and one small, each from weddings of two of my best friends, and each the perfect respective size) – reusable grocery bags just aren’t the same!

Things We Brought and Wish We Hadn’t

  • 1/4 to 1/3 of our clothes
  • Small hand-weights/dumbbells, which we shipped back to my parents months ago
  • A small collection of hand tools, some of which were duplicates – also shipped back to my parents months ago (by the way, flat rate shipping boxes are the way to go)
  • Salad spinner
  • Small crockpot, simply because we aren’t hooked up to electricity/shore power enough to make it worth the weight and space it takes up
  • Coffee maker for the same reasons listed above

Things We Couldn’t Live (or Boondock) Without

This category includes items we initially brought with us as well as items we’ve purchased along the way.

  • 5 gallon water jug with spout for refilling fresh water tank with potable water
  • Sturdy hiking shoes
  • AllStays app
  • National Geographic Road Atlas – Adventure Edition
  • National Geographic Secrets of the National Parks book
  • The Complete Guide to the National Parks of the West by Fodor’sTravel
  • Down comforter
  • Telescoping ladder
  • Small propane grill
  • Multiple Nalgene water bottles in various sizes
  • Camelbak water bottle (for me) and Camelbak bladder
  • Peanut butter and jelly
  • Truck XM radio
  • Oxygenics RV shower head
  • OnStar and satellite truck phone
  • White noise track purchased from iTunes played on repeat on a nightly basis (for Jason)
  • Instant coffee (for me)
  • Lots of baskets and bins
  • Playing cards
  • Individual iPods
  • Kindle app for iPhone
  • Good kitchen knives, including a hybrid spreading, bread cutting knife
  • Small tabletop fan
  • One extra set of towels and sheets
  • One beach towel
  • Clothespins
  • 100-watt portable solar panel
  • Deep cycle batteries for the RV
  • Small single-serve size blender for making smoothies
  • Trekking poles (for Jason)
  • Day packs for hiking – we recommend ones with real hip-belts
  • Small oil radiant heater – though infrequently used, it really has saved us on a few occasions
  • At least one piece of good quality clothing for every season and every kind of weather (e.g., good rain jacket, a toboggan, a heavy coat, a swim suit, long underwear, pair of flip flops, etc.)
  • Mountain bikes

 

So How Much Does It Cost?

15/06/22 at 5.04pm   /   by Jason   /   0 Comment

A while ago I wrote about how we are able to afford this “gap year” (see that post here) and now, well over three months in, 12 states, 12 National Parks & Monuments, and 40+ different camp/overnight locations later, we have a good idea about how our planned budget is/isn’t working. We’d planned on spending about 3k/month, hoped for $2500 and were prepared for $3,500 (ugh). So basic math tells us that our travel budget for the 9-10 months we plan to be on the road is roughly $27,000-30,000. So far we are hitting the 3k mark on the nose with reasonable hopes of being in the $2,500 range in coming months. And if we really cut deep we could reasonably have a $2,000 month this fall if we find a cheap spot we’d like to stay for a few weeks.

Our monthly budget is roughly six items (details on each category below):

Fixed costs:

1) This includes various insurances, RV and truck payments, cellphones, and our storage unit rent-$1,000

Variable Costs (and they can vary a lot from month-to-month):

2) Fuel/Gas/Propane-$600

3) Groceries-$350

4) Entertainment/Dining Out/”Fun” Fees (think kayak rentals, tours, museum entrance fees, etc.)-$200

5) Everything Else (think laundry, medicines, sunscreen, bug spray, camping gear, clothes/shoes, bike gear, etc.)-$350

6) Camping Fees-$550

Fixed Costs:

So, let’s talk frankly about fixed costs. Yes, we bought a brand-spanking-new truck and RV and financed them both at very low interest rates. We negotiated a once-in-a lifetime-deal on the truck and a very fair deal on the RV. We also made fairly sizeable down payments on both. Could we have paid cash for them and still done this trip? The short answer is yes, but we decided we wouldn’t be comfortable with our come-back-home-cushion when we finished our gap year. This is arguably the most questionable part of our financial plan. But we don’t have rent or a house payment. The truck and Moby (the RV) ARE our house. That said, we could pay them both off tomorrow and still continue our journey.

The other questionable fixed cost we have is our health insurance purchased through the Affordable Care Act (ACA) Healthcare Exchange. We’d initially planned to purchase a high deductible, catastrophic plan for roughly $100 per month and call it a day. But as it turns out, according to the great minds that lead our country, I’m too old to qualify for this type of plan under the ACA. So, we faced two options: buy the catastrophic plan we wanted, pay for it 100% out-of-pocket, and pay a penalty at the end of the year for not having the “right” coverage OR purchase a more expensive plan with much better coverage and receive a monthly subsidy to help offset the cost. Guess which one we picked.

There are many, many strange things about the ACA. Perhaps the strangest is that eligibility for a subsidy is based solely on your annual Modified Adjusted Gross Income (MAGI). When you apply for ACA coverage, you estimate what your MAGI will be for the year; thus, for us, we estimated our MAGI for 2015. The law doesn’t to take into account money in savings or other assets. So, essentially, you can be a billionaire and if you keep your MAGI under say, 25k per couple for a given year, you can get “free” or significantly reduced-cost, via subsidy, health insurance. Weird. Anyway, we are living on our savings for the year so our MAGI will be very, very low for 2015. Hence, the subsidy. I guess this is what you get when you merge the health insurance companies and the IRS. Government, go figure.

Our other fixed monthly expenses are pretty boring and include: monthly rental of our storage unit (because we’ll head home at some point and need something to sit on), cell phone bill, and truck/RV/life/disability/car insurances (we left our Hyundai sedan with Jessie’s parents).

Feeding “Earl” (our truck):

Gas expenses increase as we get further out west since everything is more spread out and we have to drive longer distances (especially in Texas). So far most gas west of Texas is 85/86 octane so we have to buy “premium” gas to get 87 octane. We’d probably be fine with 85 octane but we aren’t interested in experimenting with new gas while towing our 6,000+ lbs RV up 10-14% grades in the middle-of-nowhere Utah. Earl also requires some basic maintenance and we don’t ignore this. Oil changes and tire rotations aren’t neglected. We also anticipate we’ll need a brake job and maybe some tires before we make it home.

Feeding Us, Cheap:

We buy and eat a lot of groceries. We are doing a lot of hiking so we burn a lot of calories. We prepare almost all of our meals rather than eating out, so buying good groceries and eating well are big priorities. We shop almost exclusively at Wal-Mart and Aldi, with an occasional Trader Joe’s or local farmer’s markets thrown in, though these latter options are much harder to come by. We know by now which stores have the best prices on which items (e.g., nuts and chips are significantly cheaper at Aldi and Trader Joe’s, so we try to skip these items at Wal-Mart and wait to purchase them during our next Aldi/Trader Joe’s trip) and we regularly have several shopping lists going, one for each store. Alcohol is rarely on a list. We also have virtually zero food waste. If something is going bad or we are sick of eating it, we eat it anyway.

Feeding Us, Expensive:

We eat out very rarely and try to limit it to special occasions, times when we need a morale booster, times of utter desperation, or to enjoy local/regional fare, like beignets and oysters in New Orleans. When we do eat out, we try to order on the cheaper side, we never pay for beverages, and we often split a larger entrée. We do tip well for good service, as our servers shouldn’t suffer because of our frugality. It’s not that we don’t enjoy eating out – we just prioritize other things. For the price of one meal out, we can usually buy groceries for 2-3+ days, pay for a night or two of camping, or cover the cost of visiting a cool museum. In short, eating out is a really big deal for us so we savor every-last-bite.

Entertainment/”Fun” Money:

Prioritization is also key when it comes to our entertainment/fun money. Do we want to pay for museum admission or for a ranger-guided tour in the next national park? There are no right or wrong answers here, and these are easily the toughest decisions we make on the road. It takes compromise, critical thinking, and some planning/thinking ahead. There is SO much to see, and we’d love to see and do it all, but we simply don’t have limitless funds or time. The good news is that hiking is free and we do a lot of hiking. Seriously, A LOT.

Camping:

The price of camping varies greatly. With the exception of camping at the 4-H campground during our two weeks with Habitat for Humanity Care-A-Vanners in Florida, we’ve paid for camping exclusively at state or federal parks, including national parks/forests. Prices range from $8/night to $43/night, with our average cost running at about $15/night. At state parks, this price usually gets us water and electric hook-ups, a nice campsite with some shade, a spread-out and quiet campground, access to nice bathhouses with flush toilets and showers (should we choose to use them), and cheap no-frills laundry facilities (though the presence of washers/dryers varies pretty widely among state park systems); rarely, state parks will also have wireless. Federal parks (Army Corps of Engineers and National Forests) sometimes offer hook-ups, nice spread-out sites, and decent bathhouses. National parks rarely have hook-ups or bathhouses with showers (they typically have only pit or flush toilets); basically, these campgrounds are without amenities except for a fairly spacious site with a picnic table and fire ring/grill, potable water, and dump station (usually) – you’re paying to stay at the park, which is quite enough for us. So far, our experience is that there are sometimes third-party concessionaires that run more full-service campgrounds within the national parks, or just outside them, at a premium price. We skip those.

We’re learning to take advantage of free “camping” as well, especially when we’re traveling from one destination to another or visiting cities where our interest isn’t tied to enjoying a park. Unless city ordinances state otherwise, most Wal-Mart stores allow overnight RV parking (not camping, don’t get out the grill and lawn chairs); you simply walk in and ask for the manager’s approval. We spend quite enough money at Wal-Mart, so we don’t feel the least bit guilty taking advantage of this for an occasional night. We also found that many casinos out west that allow free overnight RV parking, with no permission required. Overnights at truck stops have happened a couple of times in rural areas, though this isn’t our preferred option due to noise, as many truckers idle their engines all night so they can run their AC. The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) allows free camping at hundreds of locations across the west. Some of these locations are in semi-established “campgrounds” but most are available as “dispersed” camping along BLM roads and recreation areas. Most of the time these locations are amazing but do be aware they can attract the rough-and-tumble crowd and there is rarely a campground host or park ranger to enforce rules about noise or generators, etc. That said, we’ve very much enjoyed all of our BLM camping thus far.

We use an Iphone app called AllStays that we paid roughly $10 for, which shows most free overnight parking options along our route. As a side note, it also shows rest areas, camping and RV stores, some propane dealers, most gas locations, and tons of campgrounds, along with various other useful stores; users regularly write notes or reviews for overnight locations, which is super helpful. In short, we love this app and it saves us a ton of money.

We’ve also used the Harvest Hosts program a couple of times for overnight camping/parking, which has been easy but variable in terms of overnight road noise. We paid less than $50 for an annual membership, which gives us access to park on the lands of farmers, ranchers, and other business or venue owners (e.g., museums). There is an online directory available to members where we can find locations and contact information. We then call ahead to the owner and ask for permission to stay the night. Generally, it’s understood that you arrive during operating business hours, park wherever you’re told, and buy a little something produced at the location (e.g., a bottle of wine, a museum admission pass, etc.). While not exactly free, it’s a good way to save money, see some things “off the beaten path”, and meet local folks while traveling.

Stuff:

Perhaps the least fun category we’ve spent money on is ongoing start-up costs and stuff that needs replacing. Our start-up costs are generally behind us now, but over the first 8-12 weeks on the road we realized we needed new hiking shoes (our treads were more worn than we realized), a few pieces of warmer/cooler clothing, trekking poles, new camp chairs, a few RV items, some more decent water bottles, etc. Many of these items get a lot of tough use and simply wear out over time. We know things will pop up (like broken dishes when a cabinet door flies open in transit) and we’re prepared, just not excited about them. Thrift stores can help take the sting out of this category if you don’t mind wearing someone else’s hiking shorts.

We also need many of the same unsexy items we’d need at home like laundry detergent, soap, toilet paper, gallons of sunscreen, new underwear (not a thrift store item for us), etc. These are not fun items to shop for but very necessary. Laundromat expenses also go in this category. We spend about $30-40 a month at the Laundromat generally doing laundry once a week. Could we stretch it further, sure, but we sweat a lot and our clothes stink and we generally don’t have A/C in the RV and it’s roughly 160 sq ft. Anyway, you get the idea, so we do laundry at least once a week.

So there you have it – our rough but pretty accurate monthly budget and a glimpse into some of our decision making (warts and all). Thus far it’s safe to say that the money we’ve spent on our gap year has been some of the best money we’ve ever spent. As some of the more famous RV bloggers like to say “we are enriching our lives, not our bank accounts”.

We are comfortable with the decisions we’ve made. They might not work for everyone, but they work for us. If you have questions or tips about how we might save money please feel free to drop us a line. We’d love to hear from you.

 

“So, how exactly does the money work?”

15/05/10 at 3.24pm   /   by Jason   /   0 Comment

We’ve been at this RV adventure for a little over two months, so it seems like an appropriate time to begin to answer the question some have asked directly and others have hinted at: how does the money work?

What I think people are really asking are two things: (1) how can you afford to take a year off? and (2) how much are you spending each month? These are pretty involved topics, so in this post we’ll chat about item number one and save item number two for another time.

First-things-first: No, we didn’t win the lottery; we didn’t inherit anything; and we aren’t receiving financial support from long-lost or close family members, except for help in storing some items and giving us a temporary launching and landing point when we go “home” at the end of the year (although we may decide to hit the road for a bit longer in 2016 – all options are on the table). Now, if you’re a long lost relative looking to support us, we are TOTALLY open to this, so drop us a line and we’ll help set up the trust fund. Moving on…

We’ve been married for almost five years, but our fiscal frugality began well before we married. We chose to have a very small wedding and a modest honeymoon. In fact, the total cost of our wedding, including lodging for all family and wedding party members, was about what most people spend on photography and flowers alone (based on national averages). We used the rest of our wedding budget, graciously provided by Jessie’s parents, for graduate school expenses for Jessie’s first year of school. Jessie chose a well-ranked, competitive, and respected, in-state grad program to help mitigate the expenses of graduate school. Could she have chosen a private or out-of-state school? Sure. And she’d still be an M.S., OTR/L making exactly the same money. The therapy world cares about your license, experience, and competence, not where you went to school (in most cases). Point being, we made some short-term choices that paid big long-term dividends for us in the form of significantly lower student loan amounts.

It is important to note that these decisions were not solely based on financial frugality. Our decisions and choices also directly reflect our personal values and desires. For example, we genuinely wanted a small, intimate wedding, and Jessie attended her first-choice graduate program.

Once Jessie finished graduate school and began working, we lived on one income (much more on this in a later “money” post) and prioritized how we used the second income. Priority number one was to pay off all student loan debt*. I had some left over from my two graduate programs, and we did have to borrow some to pay for Jessie’s final year of grad school. All together, we paid off roughly 30k in student loan debt from our various graduate programs in just over a year. It is important to note that we are both fortunate and eternally grateful to have parents who were able to pay for our undergraduate educations.

Priority number two was to save, save, save. We had several “pots” of money we contributed to each month. Generally these were: RV travel savings, retirement, investment/stock, general savings (for our return home), and down payment for our next house. After paying off student loans we clearly focused on travel savings while trying to not neglect any of the other accounts.

Priority number three was to sell the two properties we owned in Burlington, NC. Now you may be thinking, “Oh, so that’s where you made your money?” Wrong, so very wrong. All told, after selling both properties, we spent roughly 15k to unload them. Showing up to a closing with a substantial amount of money (to us) on the selling end of a real estate transaction is a very, very bad feeling. And those losses don’t account for the sweat equity we put into both properties, which was roughly 20k. Point being, we lost money; thanks for nothing, “Great Recession”. This was a painful and expensive process. But, well over a year later, we still believe we made the right call. The properties we owned had very little potential for significant appreciation, and the carrying and maintenance costs (one of the homes is nearly 100 years old plus we were looking at new roofs and HVAC systems in the not too distant future) would have continued to chip away at our savings even after accounting for tax breaks.

Believing in our financial decisions is really point of all of this. We’ve made decisions that have worked for us. They wouldn’t work for everyone, and the financial gurus out there might disagree with some of our decisions. But we’ve made a plan that we’re comfortable with, and it’s working for us.

So, as of February 15, 2015, we had no student loan debt, no mortgage debt, mid-five figures in various savings/investment accounts (not including retirement accounts), we were moving out of our rented townhouse and jettisoning utility bills. We moved into Jessie’s childhood home for about two weeks to finish up our RV prep, and we hit the road on February 26th with sincere hopes that our educated guess at a monthly travel budget would be on target. This is where things get really interesting, so be on the look-out for a future post or two on our monthly budget and some frank conversation about fixed and variable costs while on the road.

It is our sincere hope that we can help those who are considering this or something like this. Feel free to email us or post a comment. We are truly happy to help in any way we can. Thanks for reading! We look forward to your questions, comments, and feedback.

*a lengthy rant on the economic cancer of student loan debt is sure to follow in coming months

Let’s Meet Moby

15/04/02 at 9.30am   /   by Jason   /   0 Comment

We’ve had several requests to actually see more detail about the RV. So here is 13 minutes of it. Popcorn optional. Expect more (much shorter videos) along the way.

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