live. work. dream.

We’re done with workamping and back on the road this week. And now that our wheels are turning again, so is my stomach every time we fill up that tank. Today, the cost of B20 biodiesel in Santa Fe, NM is $4.46 a gallon. Regular diesel: anywhere from $4.17 to $4.34.

Like always, we swipe the card, fill the tank, and forget about it until the bill comes (it’s the American way!). While it’s painful, I try really hard to look at it as a cost of doing business; the business of living our life, seeing things we’ve never seen before, and having a good time. In light of the chaos happening in the world, I know that sounds like a truly schmucky thing to say. But for now, what else can we do except live our lives, one day at a time.

Without further adoo, here is our Live Work Dream Expense Report for April 2008.

My friend Coffeesister just can’t contain her excitement about Virgin Mobile’s cell phone service. Like us, she and hubby Rhodester are on a really tight budget. Yet, she has a phone that’s way cooler than ours, and a plan that costs about half of what ours does, for around the same amount of minutes.

She uses Virgin’s “Pay as You Go” option, which allows you to add minutes to your phone either online or at Target. Virgin uses the Sprint network, so coverage is good. One of the best parts about Virgin: no contracts, ever, even if you choose one of their competitive monthly plans.

When you start making plans to become a full-time road tripper, one of the things you’ll want to analyze before leaving is your current cell phone coverage. Do you have the kind of plan that will give you the flexibility you’ll need when traveling across the country? How much coverage does your current provider’s roaming network have?

I just learned that the town we’ll be workamping in this summer has terrible cell phone coverage. Since our antique phone will be sitting idle all summer, why should we pay our $65 bill every month when we’re not even using our minutes? Thanks to Coffeesister, we’re going to make the switch and save some money. I like that!

Let’s get one thing straight. I’m well aware of the damage that WalMart inflicts on local economies. Jim and I come from a town whose citizens actually kept WalMart from setting up shop along our waterfront. What a great moment it was, when Eurekans came together to stand up for their small businesses.

Because we didn’t have big box stores in Eureka, I shopped at my neighbors’ businesses. Sure, prices were a little higher than at big city chain stores, but knowing that more of my dollar stayed in the community was worth the extra pennies. At the time, Jim and I had a good income stream coming in, and although I made plenty of frugal choices, we could easily afford to shop local.

But once we hit the road, we came out of our Humboldt County cocoon. In most small towns around America, big box stores like WalMart are the only shopping choice. From Yuba City California to Fort Stockton Texas, most cities have allowed chains to come in and kill off many of their independent businesses.

(more…)

This post has no photos. That’s because our Canon Powershot S70 went kerplooey over the weekend. By today’s technology standards, it was an antique at a whopping three years old. Imagine: my old Canon AE1 film camera was almost 30 years old when I sold it two years ago, and still working!

Replacing expensive gizmos is one of those aggravating expenses that can put a dent in your budget. We almost spent $200 to $500 on a new camera, until I remembered; we had over 100,000 points in our American Express Membership Rewards account: enough to get Canon’s latest top of the line point-and-shoot G9 camera (a $500 value bought with 78k points).

If you’re going to hit the road, join a rewards club like this one. Sure, there’s a yearly fee, but if you put all of your expenses on the card each month like we do, points add up fast and make up for it. When you cash in, American Express has a huge range of items (from airline tickets to gift cards) that can save your butt in an emergency.

My financial hero Dave Ramsey is totally against using any form of credit cards, but if you exercise self-control and pay the balance off each month, rewards-based credit cards are terrific.

We’re anxiously awaiting our G9’s arrival. In the meantime, we have no shortage of New Mexico photos to publish and blog about.

The end of March marked the end of the first quarter of 2008. Back in the old days of running the business, I used to measure all of our accomplishments and setbacks by the end of the quarter. It was a time to celebrate or drown our sorrows. But this time, for the first time in years I’d totally forgotten that the quarter had ended. It feels so good to measure time in other ways now.

Regardless, budgets still have to be adhered to, if we want to keep moving. Happily, once again we are under budget. Even with higher fuel and food costs, and Jerry’s incredible vet bills, we are still doing pretty good. I feel incredibly fortunate. Without much futher adoo, here’s our Live Work Dream Expense Report for March 2008.

More good news from the Good Sam Club! I just learned they are offering two membership specials for the month of April. You can either get a free night of camping, or get one month free when you join.

  < - OR - > 

This is no April Fool’s joke … but it is only good until April 30, 2008. So if you’re not yet a Good Sam – as all fulltimers should be – sign up now and save! Consider it just one more thing to do when preparing your RV for Spring travel.

There is one good thing about visiting Los Angeles.

Aside from seeing La Familia, that is. OK two things … Oh, and the food. I guess that makes three things.

Anyway, access to the right tools makes working on your rig easy. And that can help you save a lot of money.

And believe me, El Jefe has all the right tools … and the shop, and the brain, which I picked to learn how to to pack the wheel bearings on our fifth wheel trailer.

(more…)

Well, our Workamping savings are a thing of the past, and February gave us a current reality check of what our expenses look like when we just play tourist and go out looking for all of the cool music, food and entertainment we want to experience.

Our biggest expense last month: fuel. We went over our budgeted amount for the first time ever. This is mostly because we went 1600 miles out of our way (round trip) for a quick trip back to California to visit my family. More on our L.A. experience later.

(more…)

I’m not one to join another RV club for the sake of getting a sticker to put on my rig. But I sure wish we had joined Passport America months ago!

We had seen the Passport America club signs at campgrounds but didn’t think twice about it until recently.

A fellow fulltimer explained how much we could save, so we went for it.

(more…)

Finally had a chance to run the numbers, and as you’ll see on our RV Road Trip Budget Expense Report for January 2008, we are still under budget, thanks to workamping. Our biggest expense was for the big ol’ truck: new brakes, a steering gear box, two tires at $220 each(!), and servicing. This appears to have put a fat dent in our monthly budget, but since we budgeted for truck maintenance and spread the cost throughout the year, we had it covered. We based our truck maintenance budget after reviewing the cost-of-ownership reports available free at Edmunds.com. We hiked up the average cost for our Dodge, based on the extra wear and tear we’re putting on it.

Now that we’re on the road again, we are beginning to feel the pain of high diesel costs and park rents. But it’s most definitely worth it.