How to Live in an RV or Motorhome

We have talked about this in episode seventy eight, but it is time to revisit it and explore it from some different angles. I couldn't be more thrilled because I think that this is an important topic to talk about

in something everyone should consider. Absolutely. So if you are interested in RV liveing, for minimalism and for gali, definitely check out our episode seventy eight because that's where we talk more like about that the concept of our V living, and today we're talking about kind of buying, renovating, parking pros, cons, stuff like that. So before we get into the nitty gritty, a word from our sponsors. Today's episode is brought to you by the Frugal Friends Workbook yes, so we are

hyped on this workbook. We spent all summer putting it together. It is sixty pages of practical guidance and advice with six week long challenges, so it's kind of gamifying frugality. So if frugal living is something that you want to get more into, um, but you are either stagnant, stuck, bore, don't know where to start, then the Frugal Friends Workbook

will really help give you a kickstart. Alright, so go to Frugal Friends podcast dot com slash workbook to learn more and use the code taco bell all one word to get ten dollars off that regular price. Do it also brought to you by loopholes finding the lesser known but far better solution. Like when the line for the restroom goes out the door and down the hall, but you remember that there was another bathroom on the second floor,

you snaky smart person. Or when your birthday falls on leap here so you're a good eight years younger than the rest of your friends. Loopholes. Just make sure they're not illegal. So fantastic, We're gonna talk about loopholes today, which is great. Living in an rv I I read through quite a few articles to find the ones that we are talking king about today, and um one of them was questions about like to a full time r V and and a question they get very often is

what are you going to return to real life? Though? Yeah, and they get a lot of like nasty comments from people are like, you're just avoiding the real world, but actually living in an RV is actually you are still in the real worldly enough, Yeah, you're just living a loophole life. Loophole life, Yes, I want so. And that is something that I do want to talk about briefly before we get into some of our headlines and articles,

which are also going to be great. But I think that there is this myth around how long you have to live in an RV for? And what I mean by that is, I think when we talk about tiny living, a lot of times people can think, all right, that's going to be the rest of my life. If I'm doing tiny living, I have to do it forever. This is now a new lifestyle that I have adopted, and

it can be it certainly is for some people. But I want to propose this concept of tiny living for a time for the purpose of getting at other types of goals. So when I said at the beginning of the episode, I think it's something that everybody should consider, I do. I don't mean that it is for everybody, but I do think it's a worthwhile consideration for a time that it doesn't have to be this is now

my lifestyle forever and always. It can just be I'm going to do this for a little bit to accomplish X y Z. And I think, especially right now with so many people working remotely. I know not everybody is, but there is a there's an increase in people working remotely, that this could be even more accessible for folks. There's st we a lot of things to consider, and we will go through some of those pieces um to to determine whether or not this is something for you, something

that you should actually maybe take steps towards. But it doesn't have to be this this thing that you do for the rest of your life. It can be for a time. If I were to write a book, it would be on that, by the way, is doing it for a time and how to do it for a time? Oh my god, yes, seasonal or something yeah, just tiny living for for a little bit. Yes, I think that that is a big barrier for people of like, I don't know if I can like just sell everything and

now adopt this lifestyle. And I do think that there has been this idea presented that this is now a lifestyle, and it is, but it's not. That's not the only thing. People can step into and out of lifestyles for sure. Absolutely thank you for that. Yeah, yeah, you're welcome. Um, let's talk about some of the struggles. Let's start there, right, yes, yeah, So this first article is from Insider, and it is the fourteen struggles of living in an RV that no

one tells you about. And I'm so interested to hear what you agreed with, what you disagreed with, and your thoughts on them. Yeah. So here's the thing. There's a lot of haters out there. Haters gonna hate with this idea, right, and I think what you were saying, Jen is a part of that, like, well, when are you going to come back to the real world and like you're just out gallivanting around or whatever whatever people want to say

or think. So, yes, you are gonna have haters. This article feels a little bit like that, even though it is written by someone who full time r vs. So that I just want to say that that it sounds a little bit like they're just raining on the entire parade. So there are a lot of things that I feel immediately defensive about. But that being said, I do think that we need to look at all aspects of what it is to live in a motor home, a camper, an r V of some sort, because it is not

like living in a house. I'm not going to try and paint that picture or an apartment for for you. You are living on wheels. You are living in some semblance of a vehicle. So so, yes, there are some downsides, and I do think it's worth identifying. Here's the downsides. And if you think that you can do this, my work, my goodness. Yes, let's let's take the next step. So there are some things that I do agree with, some things that I don't agree with. Um, let's just start

with the first one. They say you feel like you're a giant in a bathroom made for elves. Um, okay, maybe depending on how big you are and how tiny your bathroom is. I will say I can kind of relate to this, although maybe not entirely. I have felt like the bathrooms that we've had in our r vs have been sufficient all that we need. I will say that it depends on the type of r V that

you purchase. There are some bathrooms out there that are very, very small, but you can prioritize this when you purchase about purchase an r V of Hey, how does this feel? Is the shower big enough for me? Can I stand up inside of it? Um? So I'm not going to try and say no, it's luxurious. It's massive. Yeah, the bathrooms are tiny, but it also depends on what you

buy and how tall you are exactly. Um, my husband is six foot and he showered in both of our r vs. I mean, granted, it was nice when we went to a hotel and we enjoyed, you know, just a massive shower, but you get used to it, especially when you consider all of the money that you're saving with this lifestyle. And we'll get to that. So, yes, there are downsides. This next one I disagree with. The shower only stays hot for five minutes. Okay, this is

easily remedied. So there are some things on this list that I'm like, well, you just don't know all of the tips and tricks for how to live in an RV and I did talk about our hot water heater in episode seventy eight. So if you are taking the next steps and you want to figure out how to remedy this, there's answers for you. The shower does not have to only be hot for five minutes. It can be um, depending on how big your your tanks are

and your hot water heater system. Um. But there are systems that you can install that would keep that would give you hot water. But some people it's not a priority for them, so it's like, all right, I'll just learn how to take quick showers and that's no big deal. Um. But that doesn't have to be the scenario forever and always. That's good to know because if you're just having a camper for vacations, like it makes sense that you would design a camper too, maybe have a shower that only

stays half for five minutes. But if you're living in something you can upgrade, there are things available exactly. Yes, many of these campers and trailers are made for your seasonal camper, someone who's going to take this out for a week at a time or a few weekends. So yeah,

they're not making it functional to live in. But you can with some minor upgrades make it functional to live in that of course, and this is one of my tips, like side note not in the article that if you're considering living in a camper or an r V, to assess your level of handiness and or problem solving skills so ability to install some of these up grades or find somebody and and maybe budget for putting in some

of these upgrades. It can really I would say it straight changed the game for me in being able to live tiny, to be able to have some of these luxuries in the camper um. But it is worth considering, Hey, can I do this work myself? Am I willing to pay somebody to do this? Yeah? And factor out those costs. The cooking ones, to me, we're not true. You cooked so much, so I want to know how you feel

about these ones. Yeah. So they mentioned how it's impossible to cook anything on the stove and also that when you cook it gets very hot. So I want to speak to those things. I will say, Uh, the camper stoves and ovens are very small, so yeah, you're not going to be putting you're not going to be making a turkey. I don't know why that's always the baseline, like can you make up turkey in it? Like no,

first of all, who's making a turkey? Period? Like maybe one time a year, but usually that's like one of the family members, So like, let's get that out of the picture as far as like our standards for what fits into our oven. But that being said, yeah, a lot of times, and I don't know why we competition to these RV manufacturing companies. The ovens in particular are very tiny. Even for how much space they take up,

it's almost uh, it's baffling. So this was another thing that we replaced in our camper, and we replaced it actually with a toaster oven, which, believe it or not, the toaster oven fit more in it than the oven that came with the camper um. So we just used the same space that the oven was in and put a large toaster oven that could fit a twelve inch pizza, a nine by thirteen castrole dish. That was my standard

for what needed to fit in the oven. And let's face it, this camper fit two people, So no, we are not hosting. When when you're tiny living, you are probably going to go to other people's homes. So keep that in mind. Um, and I realized I only ever cook on two burners on the stove at a time, so I don't need to try to cram in three or four burners. So that was something that we replaced, as well as a two burner gas top. Um yeah, on top of the counter. I thought it was great,

and like I said, I'm cooking for two people. So of course this changes if you're a larger family, but usually if you're a larger family, you're getting a larger r V and the kitchens are larger. Uh. So I didn't find that it was impossible to cook anything. Um. Like I said, I used two burners at most at a time, usually just one, and I found a solution to fit a nine by pants. So I don't know what else you're trying to do in your kitchen. The thing about the RV getting hot when you cook, that

is true. Like, I don't know what else to say. Um, yeah, it's tiny, and especially if you're cooking with gas, it's going to heat up. So crack the window open, or utilize insta pots or some of these alternative ways of cooking. Maybe get a grill for outside. There are alternatives to cooking indoors, especially in the hot, hot heat, if that's where you're camping for now. We did so much grilling

outside when you guys were at our house. And yeah, we don't even we try to avoid using the oven and stove in the summer, Like when it's hot outside, you don't want to have like hot, really hot foods. So we did a lot of instant hot and salads. So you're think about what you normally cook even when living in a house, and and it's going to be different based on the weather. Anyway. Yeah, I found I actually cooked a lot more when I was living tiny and and it felt I really enjoyed it. I described

it as everything was super accessible. I literally didn't even have to walk anywhere. I just kept turning around, Like you turn around and there's there's the refrigerator, and then you turn around and you can chop things, and then you turn around and you can wash your hands. Then you turn around again and you and there's your stove. So I learned how to cook super simple and the type of ingredients that I needed that could be used

in a variety of different ways. And like I've said before, I had one cutting board and two knives, and so I think I just enjoyed the process because it went quicker, I think, and everything was super close to me and simple. So I cooked a lot in the motor home. Another thing that they say related to this grocery idea and cooking and food is that you've got to go shopping quite a bit. And I will say that especially are cold items. I would agree with this. Usually r vs

have a lot of storage. It's phenomenal the amount of cabinets and storage and little kubi holes that you can shove stuff in. But still, uh, and I prioritized food storage over other types of strange to be honest, Um, but you do have to one get creative, and yes, I think shot more often and or think about the type of staple ingredients that you want to keep on hand. But I kind of switched my mindset from the American mindset to maybe the more European mindset, where you do

go grocery shopping more often. Um. Usually in Europe they go grocery shopping more often because their ingredients are actually fresh and they don't have a lot of preservatives in them, so they go bad more quickly a k A. They're healthier,

so and they sell things in smaller quantities. Were so hooked on bulk, but going shopping on a more regular basis, So you're you are buying maybe six eggs instead of twelve eggs, or your your smaller cartons of milk, you name it, and and just factoring that into your regular routine is that you're going to be getting groceries a bit more often because you don't have massive amounts of freezer storage. This, of course, I will say a caveat will get to this in our next article. It can

depend on where you're parked. If you happen to be parked um on a friend's property or family members property, and you want to work out a system where you're able to keep some things in a spare fridge, that's you know that. Of course, as an option, it's not the route we wanted to go. We wanted to be

as self sufficient as possible. Hence all those comments about you're not living really living in the real world probably connected to people thinking that you're dependent on others in order to live this life, which we're all dependent on others. So that's funny to even say, but it is true that sometimes this lifestyle can cause us to be super reliant on other things being accessible to us. But we'll get there. Yes, your fridge is smaller, and but you

can like have more shelf stable things. Just rely more on shelf stable things and like vegetables that can be you know, tomatoes and other things that you don't have to refrigerate, So that's an option too. Um. Then there's the privacy and noise issues. They're saying that you don't have a lot of privacy inside or outside of the camper, and it can be noisy. Yes, this is true, it's just true. What are you gonna do this? I think would be most something that you'd really want to think

about if you're planning to do this with children. Um, there's not a lot of ways to not make noise that won't be heard. I mean you walk around the camper and and the whole thing moves and think that's that's true. So if you're putting kids to bed and then you want to walk around or watch a show or keep cooking or doing dishes, it will be heard. Uh, there's it's going to be very difficult to silence things that being said. People on the outside of the camper

can't hear as much going on inside the camper. As one might think, it can feel as though, oh my goodness, they're going to hear our conversations, or they hear our music, or they hear me walking around. That's not true. Eric and I did do a test of like what what can you hear? On this episode of what you Hear? And it was kind of surprising, like, oh man, it seems like that would be so loud, but you can't

really hear it. But as far as inside outside privacy, I think what this article is saying is, you know inside you can hear everything inside. It's not as if you shut a door and you can't hear it, Like the whole camper is hearing you go to the bathroom. That is true. Uh, And then you walk outside the camper, And I think this depends on where you're parked. You are now outside of your home, So whatever might happen

outside of your home, you're you're exposed to. So, especially if you're at a campground and you've got a ton of other RVs next to you. Yeah, now you're in the shared living space essentially, so there is not a whole lot of getting away from one another. That is a question that We got a lot as like how do you and Eric get away from each other? And I don't know if we're unusual in that way. We we don't really need this like completely separate space from

one another. But maybe yeah, he could go outside and I could stay inside. I don't know if people are like asking like in our fights. We don't. I don't know how often people fight, but we figured it out. It was fine. It's not a reason to not do it unless you're fighting every day. But then you've got other issues to explore other than like whether or not you should live in a camper. Oh my gosh, how

was it like sleeping at night? Can you hear like outside noises if from like bugs, if you're in nature, from a campground. Yes. However, I would say it's relatively similar to the question of like if if you live in any kind of place that's close to people and you have windows in your house, maybe it is a little bit louder. I will say, Eric and I sleep to a sound machine, so we have gotten used to having some white noise in the background, and that really helped.

So I would just encourage people to utilize some sort of white noise or fan or something. UM, nothing stands out me as far as things being allowed outside of the camper while trying to sleep. Anything else on this list that should be pointed out or disagreed with debunked. So they talk about WiFi signal, and I think that this is relevant if you plan to actually travel. I know we'll get to this in the next article, but this is another common myth is that if you live

on wheels, you are constantly moving. And that doesn't have to be the case. You can just live on wheels just to live less expensively. But if you do plan to travel and you plan to work remotely, WiFi is definitely a consideration. UM. It's not guaranteed that you're going to find good or strong WiFi signals at all times. It's not guaranteed that the campgrounds you park at are going to have excellent WiFi where you can download and upload large file, So that is something to look into.

There are certainly tons and tons of r V forums that will talk about this as well as yeah, places to park and good places and amenities and all of that, and wife I might be something that you can look into. Of course, there are ways to hook up UM too. Stronger WiFi that takes a bit more of like an I T techie person. My husband did that for us and we were able to get great WiFi in the various places where we stopped and camped and parked um

And we talked about that in episode seventy eight. Of course, I wouldn't go to us to be the ultimate reference on that, but we did reference some articles that you can look into. But that is a consideration. Sweet. Yeah, they mentioned washer dryers. Of course you can find r vs that have washer dryers in them, but yeah, otherwise you're going to be going to the laundry mat or to a friend's house. So yes, these are all considerations before you get deep into it. But I would still

say consider it. Yeah, definitely. I think you bring a positive You bring a positive optimism to everything on this list. I think it's doable. I wouldn't consider myself like a super hardy individual able to take on all of the elements and like go to the bathroom in a hole. I mean, I can do that, but that's not the life I'm trying to live. And yeah, you can make r being really doable, especially if it's just for a time. Yeah, you guys had a beautiful space set up in there

and it felt very roomy. So and I mean statistics, I mean study statistics. Studies show that we only use maybe like a third of the space in our houses. Um, don't quote me on that statistic, is what I was trying to say initially. But um, yeah, I've seen the heat maps and it's a very small amount of space that you actually use of your house and the rest

is just storing stuff. So let's get onto our second article, which is about how to legally park and live in an RV, because that is probably the biggest like concern for getting an RV, other than like actually purchasing the r V, which I do want to ask you about after this article. Um. But yeah, so like, what did you think of these ideas and from your own experience, Yes,

so this is a massive consideration. I would say, absolutely, have a couple of plans in mind as far as where you're going to park before you purchase an RV. We know too many people who purchase an r V and then are like, oh, where do we put it? Um? Yeah, this is a massive component and you do need to be aware of what's available in your area. What are some of the laws and zoning considerations and all of this. Definitely do your research for your particular area. That being said,

here are a couple of options. The first one I just find a little funny, but I'll mention it your own land. So they mentioned if you happen to have the money to purchase land, you could park an RV on that land, which, okay, yes, this is true. I would say this is not your most cost effective way of living in an RV because you've purchased land, so you you now have to purchase an r V and land.

And usually if you're purchasing land, it's not guaranteed that there's going to be water and sewer and electric and so just going through the zoning and the installation of getting those amenities to the property is a big deal. So unless you're just planning on straight boon docking on land, and boon docking means not utilizing any of those resources. Maybe you take your RV somewhere, you fill it up with water, and maybe you're running off of solar panels.

Usually you can do that. I mean, I guess it depends on your water consumption, but most people would boon dock for maybe three to six days, and then you've got to figure out how you're getting more water. Uh and and you can't run electricity or I'm sorry, scratch that, you can't run a c off of solar. So there's

a lot of considerations there. So this isn't your best option, but it is an option by land park r V maybe if maybe, if you're building a house on that land and you want to do that for you know, a summer or a season. A lot of people do that, um to be able to live in a camp or we had when we were selling our r V, both of them. Actually they people reached out to us doing this very thing. Hey we're building our house, we want

something to live in while we're doing that. So yeah, that's a great a great plan, but otherwise it can have some difficulties to it. Mm hm. Of course you've got your RV parks and mobile home communities. I do think that these are great options, but again do your research because sometimes r V parks mobile home communities can be very expensive upwards of eight hundred to a thousand dollars a month to park your RV there. And at that point, if you are doing this solely to be

cost effective. It's not you can find apartments for that amount of money because you're also paying for your your camper as well. So I don't think that you know, yeah, I would find if you're looking to do this cost effectively, find your mobile home communities r V parks that are less expensive than that, and also look into whether or not it's only seasonal parking. So at least up North most places you cannot park there through the winter, so

that's a factor. Um, you could certainly park there for the other six to eight months that you're able to, yeah, park through the spring and summer and maybe a little bit into the fall, and then move the RV somewhere. Um, but keep in mind that a lot of places are only offer seasonal parking. Of course too, if you're talking full time r ving and you do live in the North, that's a factor. The reason that a lot of these play says up North our seasonal is because pipes freeze.

We'll get to that in the lightning round. But it's not easy to live in a vehicle in freezing temperatures, so you will either want to consider moving your camper down south for the winter or having a solid plan for being able to live in your camper through the winter. More on that later. And there are passes that you can purchase or memberships um to like campgrounds. It's like a passport sort of thing that can get you a

discount on different like RV parks and stuff. So if you want to do a lot of traveling, look into these like memberships, passports, whatever, um to see if that could be more cost effective. Yeah, if you are able to jump around a lot. Again, there's there's different ways of approaching it, whether you're going to be more stationary or if you are going to be traveling a lot, and based on that, there's some very different trajectories that

you're going to take. But yes, if you plan to move around a lot, great, there's tons of free parking that you can find discounted parking um and it can be an excellent way to both travel, see various areas and live inexpensively. Yeah. I was reading Heath and Alyssa, who are like big full time our years since like two thousand fourteen, and they do the moving around thing. You guys are more stationary and they do a lot

of moving. So in the winter they would stay in the South for like a month at a time, and then uh in the summer or like warmer months, they move every week. So that's kind of how they do it. Yep. Uh. This article also lists some tiny house options, so there are because this is such a growing movement, there are resources out there to solve this problem of where to park.

So they list out a couple of articles which would be worth checking out if this is for you on some of those tiny home communities and some of the solutions that they found. Last, but certainly not least is backyard living. So this is the route that Eric and

I primarily took. Uh is finding a friend or a family member that you can park in their backyard, park in their driveway, um, and certainly work out an amount that you can pay them, which is usually inevitably far less than what you'd pay at an RV park, but still nice for the friend and family member to pay a couple hundred bucks a month, and um pay for utilities and that kind of thing, and maybe even split

Internet while you're parked there. We also, Eric and I, when we were in this process, even put out something on Facebook market Place in search of a place to park, and we listed out all of our needs a hose and thirty amp hook up and and all of these different things, and the amount of money that we were willing to pay to find somebody who's property we could

park on. So even if you don't have friends or family members that you can park in their driveway or in their backyard, you can always do a search within your community and usually you'll find somebody. We had a plethora of people reach out. Um, so yeah, we were able to find something that way. Yeah, And do you happen to have some land and a hose and a

drain for you know, grand black water tanks. This could be a way to make some extra money is to let some full time our years stay in like on your land, you can make like, I don't know, five hundred bucks a month maybe, yeah, I'd say that that's on the higher end, but certainly a couple hundred bucks a month, And it depends on where you're at, depends on your location, the types of hookups that you have. Yeah, you can absolutely charge a couple hundred dollars a month

for this. And of course if you are traveling a lot, there are tons of resources. I'll list a few out in our show notes. Um r V share dot com, RV Parking dot com, road trippers dot com, Overnight RV parking dot com. Even Walmart lists out their different locations that would allow overnight parking while you're traveling. So rest assured if you step your foot into this community, you have a warm welcome awaiting you and lots of people

ready to help and share their knowledge. Yes, I definitely have seen it, and you guys made us like so interested in getting an r V and definitely want to talk about purchasing. But there's something else that I want to do first. It's the billow That's right, it's time for the best minute of your entire week. Maybe a baby was born and his name is William. Maybe you paid off your mortgage. Maybe your car died and you're

happy to not have to pay that bill anymore. That bill Buffalo Bills, Bill Clinton, this is the bill of the week. Hi, John and Jill, This is Jacqueline from St. Louis. I love your podcast and I actually have two bills to share with you today. One was extremely unfortunate and actually happened while I was listening to your episode on saving money on your car, because I actually hit my sister's car with my car and ended up with a bill of round a couple of thousand dollars for that

was a little unfortunate. But the happier bill that I want to share with you, um is that Frend showed me to today how to set up a recurring check from my bank account so that I can switch my monthly giving to charities to check from PayPal, which means that I will be paying the same amount, but they will be getting more money because they won't be losing the fees that PayPal deducts. So that makes me really happy because my money goes further and but I'm actually

paying the same amount. So I love you guys. Thanks so much for the podcast. Jacqueline sad about that first one, but it's very cool about the second. Great follow up. Oh man, you hit your sister's car with your car. Oh it made me chuckle a little bit, but I am so sorry for that misfortune. Were you thinking about

hitting your sister's car theoretically is that when you were chuckling? Yeah, just like the way that she said it, my sister, I like, I hit my sister's car with my car, like like not, I didn't hit it with a baseball bat. I hit it with my car, wasn't out of anger. Promising, But yeah, that's such a great point about paying things through PayPal. If there is a way to send a check uh to your favorite charity or small business small businesses as well that take payment through PayPal, definitely try

and see how you can. Um look for alternatives that do not charge that nonprofit or small business the same fees. So that's great, Jacqueline awesome. A thoughtful bill and a sad bill. Love the combo. If you want to submit your bill of the we visit Frugal Friends podcast dot com slash bill. Leave us your bill, whether it's sad or thoughtful or any other kind of emotions that it might bring to us. Make me feel something. And with that, it's time for so. Um, I've had something down else

down here, but I'm going to change it last minute. Um. Yes, I We're gonna chat a smidge about purchasing, how to purchase an RV, what to look for, and then we are going to disclose r V nightmares, legit nightmares. So, Jill, if I have listened to this episode and I'm like, alright, I want to do this, I'm gonna go out and buy an RV tomorrow. It's time Saturday. Let's do it. Um, what are the top things I should know? Okay, wow, I'm so excited. So there's Oh, there's so much to consider.

First of all, you should know what type of r ving you want to do and how many people you want to put into this RV situation. So you need to consider type of RV. You need to consider size, you need to consider what you're going to do with it. So, referencing back to our earlier conversation, are you going to travel a lot? Are you going to keep it parked? If you are going to travel a lot, I would recommend a motor home, where it is the vehicle and the home all in one. You've seen these, you know

what I'm talking about. If you are going to be primarily stationary with maybe a little bit more travel, a camper like a poll behind, something that you would attach to your vehicle might be the route that you want to go. Of course, you can go either route for either one of these things. These are just my suggestions. I do think that for road tripping more often it's better to just have like the vehicle all in one. UM, pulling a camper cross country seems like a risk I

wouldn't necessarily want to take. And the wear and tear on your vehicle is a thing. Uh, So what you're going to be doing with it is important to consider how many people you have and whether or not you have pets, so that would play into the size of what you're going to do. If it's just two people, you can go as small as a Class B or a Class C motor home UM, a tiny lightweight camper.

Of course, if you're a family of six, you might be looking into a fifth wheel UM or or a Class A motor home UM, something larger, something that will be able to accommodate everybody UM. But again that is a factor with traveling and how easy it is to get in and out of different you know, parking spots and national parks and all of that. So consider those things, and then you want to consider the reason for doing this.

Are you stepping into a motor home because you want to explore and you want to experience that life and cost isn't really a factor, or are you doing this because you want to save money and you want to do this as cost effective as possible. If the former is your option, then sure, go to a motor home sales warehouse and buy yourself a brand new motor home

and call it a day. If you are doing this to save some money, I am going to recommend a used camper motor home RV UM and to check out Facebook mark at Place, or to go to some of these m r V sales sites and look for their used pre owned UM motor homes and negotiate with the with the salesman there. For Eric and I, we were doing this to save money, so we bought used and

we bought directly from the owner. So we went through primarily Facebook market Place to look for UM our camper and our r V and we found some great deals. That being said, I if you are going that route to save money and you're buying pre owned, to get a team around you of people who know what they're looking for and what they're talking about. So you want to you want somebody who understands campers or motor homes, whether you have that in a friend group or that's

something that you can look for online in a community. UM. Certainly somebody who is mechanically minded or a mechanic themselves, especially if you're buying a motor home like a vehicle, get attached to it, um to make sure that the engine is good, so having another set of eyes on it, to be able to look to know what you're looking at the systems of the thing. Um, certainly you're you're low hanging fruit. Are Has there been leaks in the

motor home? I wouldn't say that that is a definitely don't buy, but it is a big red flag depending on the type of link leak, whether or not it's been fixed. Um, But definitely water damage is the biggest thing that you want to look for in some of these pre owned vehicles. But I can't say enough about just bringing a team of people into that process, because you can buy like you might find a lemon if you don't know what you're looking for and you're just like,

let me do this thing. Another word to the wise. I know it's trendy right now, but I just want to say this. Buying a school bus and making it into an RV, buying a van and fitting it out, those are really really cool things. And do it if you if you have the skill set and you think it's awesome. It is not going to be your most cost effective route though, UM, A lot of times people think I'll just buy a van. I'll put some different

things in it that will be super cheap. Not necessarily, when you are starting from ground zero, putting in plumbing, putting an electrical making sure you've got all the hookups for these various campsites, it's expensive and you are usually better off just buying a camper or an RV already

pre owned with all of the systems in place. So be aware of like the trendy cool hip Instagram vibe that's happening, especially if you want to save money, because guaranteed you will not if you're trying to start from ground zero. Did that answer your question? That was long round, But there's as far as how old should or new should be r v B when you're looking at used ones, stay within ten years. A couple of reasons for that resale value. R vs continue to drop in price unless

you put some really great UM upgrades into it. You might be able to get out of it what you put into it, or even sell it at a profit, which thankfully Eric and I were able to do. It. Takes a sleuth, I will say. So That's why I say the team around you but to be able to get the money that you put in out of it, you want it to be within the last ten years. Also, a lot of campgrounds won't let you camp there if your motor home or r V is older than ten

years particularly for year round parking up north. They want to be sure that your systems are up to date because they don't want you causing problems in their campground if you have issues with the various systems in your camper, and they are more assured of that if you have a newer RV. So UM, Yeah, definitely purchasing a motor home that is no more than ten years old would

be recommended. Yeah. So so maybe if you want to live in an RV for three years, you get something that's five years old, and then you sell it when it's eight years old. It's gonna be easier to sell it at that point. So definitely keep that in mind, UM, And with that we can transition to our r V nightmares us. Tell us how bitter you are about this, um. So. I have never lived in an RV full time, but I was very interested in flipping one UM after seeing

Jill and Eric's first motor home. UM and then following some r vyers on Instagram, primarily the flipping nomad UM. If you're on Instagram, look her up. She just does fifth Wheel renovations and they are flipping gorgeous, No pun intended, They're just freaking gorgeous. Fifth As are massive and they do feel like homes with vaulted ceilings, so yeah, you can do a lot with them. Yes, So that was what I was interested in, and at the time we were interested in flipping homes, but I wanted to get

something in between. So we got a fifth wheel UM and spent what we thought would take like six to eight weeks to renovate, ended up taking us over a year, like every spare weekend UM, and every time we opened one thing up, two things were wrong with it UM and I went in there was a lot of things I didn't know. I thought we got a good deal, but for what we got, I realized it was not a good deal UM after we opened it up and

solve all the problems. My first mistake was that it was UM two thousand eighteen and we bought a two thousand five, so already it was twelve years old. UM. So when we did finish it after a year trying to sell in two dozen nineteen, I was thirteen years old, and it was very is much harder to sell. We made it look beautiful, Um, it did really look nice when we got done with it. Yeah, you did a good job, but it was hard to sell because it was so old, and so we ended up selling it

for We went through a kind of broker. It was called Pop r VS and they reached out to us and they also do yachts like they have like a marketplace and they just take a commission for the sale. But they are who ended up selling r r V to somebody in Texas site unseen. So that was nice. And it happened literally the day I was giving birth. Um, I came out of the operating room and back to my room and I was signing something on my phone.

I still can't even believe that because I wanted to get I wanted to be rid of it so badly. It was such a stain on the last year before I gave birth, Like I could have been doing so many things. I feel like I wasted that last year. Um, I learned every failure teaches us something. Yeah, so if you are going to get an RV to renovate, Um, you want it, you want it to be even newer, like you would love three to five years. Like, don't get something you're going to have to completely It's not

a house. It doesn't increase in value that much through a renovation and start small. Yeah, I think that that was another thing. It was so massive, it was old, it was massive, So yeah, getting rid of it just I mean, it took up so much of your backyard and it took a special person to even be able to haul it away. So yeah, just but some learning, learning happened that you can now share with everybody, lots

of lots of learning. And then I'll have to wait, you know, twenty years to get my life back, so I can redo that last year before children, Um, as soon as my children leave, and I'm gonna hold it over their heads forever. My RV nightmare was the multiple times that are pipes froze. I mean it really didn't end up. Nothing catastrophic really happened. It's just the nightmare that is living in the north and especially doing it

in a tiny, little lightweight camper. I mean, we did the best that we could with putting heat tape around the exposed um pipes, the hose going from the hose bib to our r V, all of these things. Eric did an excellent job, but inevitably there are some spots even within the camper that we're a bit more exposed to the elements um and it's a trial and error.

Luckily we were able to find it quickly enough to be able to thaw it out and get the pipes working again, but it's it's one of those things that comes with the territory of living in an RV that there's so many things that can go wrong at any given moment, which is why I recommend being relatively handy if you're going to do this, or at least having some decent problem solving skills and some people in your back pocket that might be able to come and help

with this. But it's definitely not for the faint of heart. You don't have to be the most hardy person, but you definitely do have to have a degree of grit to do this, particularly if you're living in the north, which is why we brought our camper down to St. Petersburg floor in February, March and April, because yeah, it's pipes would still freeze up North in those months, and we loved it, and we loved it so much that we moved here and we bought a house. But yes,

be aware that bad things can happen. But you leave the water just trickling in some of those when you I mean, you're you're so much more connected with the elements when you're living tiny like this. But we would just keep an eye on the nights that the attempts were supposed to drop below freezing, and we would keep our water trickling and that would keep the pipes from freezing. So there are solutions. You just are a lot more connected with with everything that you're doing, which I would

say I'm grateful for. There's so much that I learned about consumption and simple living and minimalism that, oh, I wouldn't trade those lessons for the world. That So I hope that if this is something you've been considering, this has been a jam pack value episode, and so I hope that it's going to help you get on your feet,

get on your wheels on whatever. A camper you know, has those little things that go down into the ground, they have wheels do But and I love talking about this, So if you're interested in this I mean definitely reach out and our Fugal Friends community group on Facebook. I've had a couple of people do that already, which is so special to me. So yeah, I feel free to

reach out. I can definitely be a resource. Awesome. All right, Well, thank you so much for listening, and thank you also for your kind reviews like this one on iTunes from Davish to Frugal Fun. It's from break b RK run uh and it's she says glad I found this podcast. I couldn't handle some of the podcasts about money and the jedgy tone. This podcast has helped me steal my resolve to keep working towards Michaels. I love that. Thanks for that review. We also want to thank our friends

who share these episodes on social media. So when you hit when you share the latest episode and tag us on Facebook or Instagram, we're adding you to our monthly drawing. For every five tags and reviews we get each month, we're going to give away a copy of the Frugal Friends workbook. You know that actually comes with multiple downloads,

so you're welcome. So keep leaving us reviews on iTunes or Stitcher and send the screenshot to Frugal Friends podcast at gmail dot com and then don't forget to tag us on social at Frugal Friends podcast. See You Next Week by Frugal Friends is produced, edited and mixed by Eric Syria. Did I tell you that Allison Baggarly just got an RV. No, I'm inspired budget her family she renovating it or living in it or camping in it, or they're camping with their boys, and they love it.

They are obsessed. It is a great idea even and we didn't even mention this in the episode, but it's awesome for vacation, especially in the age of COVID, when yeah, getting on planes or staying in hotel rooms is less ideal less ye deal. So yeah, And and it's an expense, it's an inexpensive way of packing, especially if you have kids, packing your family in a camper, but yet still getting a hot shower, exploring. I think it's great. Nice. Yeah,

that's what I was thinking. We wouldn't live in one now, but I think if our kids were at that, you know that good age like Allison's are. Uh, it's great. Yeah, there's so many like uses are ways of approaching this from just for vacation, or to live in long term, or to live in short term, or to flip and make a little bit of money, like Eric and I talk about that. You know, if there's ever a time that we need a little bit of influx of cash, then renovating RV and flip it. It's not it's not

that easy as you've described. As you made it sound, you didn't make it. We just thought that we were more capable than we were, and in the end we were capable. It just took us longer because there were more problems. I think you've you've learned now what to look for in the future. You might take some time to lick your wounds, but it still is probably worth trying again with your newfound knowledge. No, but I hope that we have Maybe our story has maybe saved somebody

else from wasting a year of their life. That's true. Okay, Bye,