For the last two weeks, we’ve been boondocking at Slab City near the stinky Salton Sea. With the free rent, warm weather and good peeps of Slab City, it’s tempting to ride out the rest of winter here.

But, we’re sticking to the plan, and will start moving to Texas, New Mexico and Colorado to keep looking for Jerry’s land.

Our new year is starting out with a low cost of living. Some highlights:

• Freeloading off relatives and friends in January helped us save on rent. Thanks, everyone!
• I want to reduce the $403 we spend on insurance every month, while still covering our butts. Any ideas on how to do this?
• Last November, we stopped contributing to a mutual fund, when I got tired of watching the value drop. But then I read Suze Orman’s latest book, her 2009 Action Plan, and she slapped me around, reminding me about dollar cost averaging, even during bad times. We are now contributing $100 a month and keeping the faith in the system.
• Each year I try to read at least a couple of finance books. I just started The Ascent of Money: A Financial History of the World, and it’s far more interesting than I expected, expanding my financial literacy by leaps and bounds. I highly recommend this book, along with the Suze Orman book, to help survive and thrive in this awful economy.
• When Jim and I are landowners again, we can live even more cheaply, once we nix the cost of rent, fuel, storage fees and California’s ridiculous insurance costs and income taxes from our expenditures.

Now, onto the business of the day. Here’s a PDF of our January 2009 Expense Report, as part of our continuing efforts to inform and help full-time RVers everywhere!