RV Life was too expensive for me

RV life was just too expensive for me and I almost quit just five months in find out the one change I made to make RV life affordable next welcome to the channel I'm Liz I'm a full-time rver I've been on the road almost five years but I almost quit just five months in in this video I'm going to share with you how I afford RV life and in fact I can camp for an average of less than two dollars a night now I started this life in a camper van and I wintered in Florida and I found myself faced with two problems right away the first one was the fact that my only Transportation was my camper van so if I wanted to go anywhere whether it was sightseeing or to the groceries I had to break camp and the other problem was how do I afford these campgrounds campgrounds are averaging about sixty dollars a night so that's eighteen hundred dollars a month right there yes you can go cheaper if you stay weekly or monthly but sometimes there's electricity on top of that and that cuts in to travel for me I tried boondocking I was staying in Walmart parking lots and some skin Yeti Parks but I just found I didn't like it I was moving too much I was worried about money too much and I was worried about my safety too much and then someone told me about Thousand Trails Thousand Trails is a campground membership where you have access to 82 campgrounds across the country I bought a membership that allowed me to travel from campground to Campground staying up to three weeks at a time Since I no longer had to worry about nightly Campground fees I was able to sell my camper van for a fifth wheel now I had bigger and better living conditions and a way to explore without breaking Camp I have stayed in 34 of the 82 campgrounds and like I said they're across the country most are gated they have pools horseshoes pickleball some have a lot more like a campground store they'll have potlucks Bingo and other activities such as movie Nights concerts all of them have Water and Electric and most have sewers some of their campgrounds are huge like Lake of the Springs I stayed there it has its own Lake it has its own store they did Saturday and Sunday breakfast they had potlucks where I am right now is Bend Sun River it's 400 Acres it has its own little river running through it and you could float down it or go kayaking I love staying at Chesapeake Bay in Virginia this Campground is huge it has water access there's a boat dock there are several ponds where you can fish most sites are wooded I ate ice cream from the store I played Bingo and I relaxed in their huge hot tub now another big plus of Thousand Trails that it seems like not enough people talk about is the community if you're full-time and you're traveling to different Thousand Trails you'll make friends at one Campground say in Washington and meet the same people months later in another campground say in Wisconsin I think this is one of the many awesome things about Thousand Trails is that you can travel together as a community or you can go into a Thousand Trails and see people that you haven't seen for a while and you feel like okay there's family there's my people there are my friends now the cheapest way to try out Thousand Trails is to get a camping pass this is an annual pass that ranges from 670 if you just buy one year or you can pay for four years and it's 570. this will give you an access to one of five regions now the regions have anywhere from eight to Twenty Thousand Trails campgrounds now in that region by the way you can add regions for a small fee if you want but in that region you can stay for up to four nights and then go on to the next Campground and stay up to four nights and by doing that you can camp 365 nights at Thousand Trails that works out to about a dollar fifty six a night or you can camp up to two weeks and then you need to be out of the system for seven nights before you can go back and Camp another two weeks now just looking at that two weeks if you times 14 nights by sixty dollar a night average you're looking at eight hundred and forty dollars so right away the camping pass pays for itself now where I am right now at Ben Sun River it's 6 68 dollars a night if you were to come in without being a member so that's even more money that you would save now there are a couple downsides to the camping pass number one you don't have access to the whole nation and if you're a full-timer you probably want to travel and see the country so you want to get the full 82 campgrounds and number two is the booking window is only 60 days that means you can't make a reservation more than 60 days out that could be a problem if you're going to try and stay on the Oregon coast say in the summer or in Florida in the winter so to get a longer booking window and to get National access you want to get a full Thousand Trails membership this is something that you'll want anyway if you're going to be full time now it's kind of expensive up front it's like joining a country club you have that big Initiation fee but once you pay that fee then your annual dues are really reasonable in fact they're only like 600 a year I bought my Thousand Trails membership four years ago I bought an elite basic I paid forty six hundred dollars what I did is I bought a used membership on the secondary market now that forty six hundred dollars I spent if you divide that by 365 nights that's twelve dollars and sixty cents a night for the first year now the second year my dues were around six hundred dollars so my nightly expense was under two dollars a night if I spent all 365 nights in a Thousand Trails which I could getting a full membership allows you to stay longer in each Campground with an elite I can stay up to three weeks and then I can go directly to the next Thousand Trails Campground after that I don't have to wait seven days and I could book 120 days out which gives me plenty of time I've never had any problem now a new Thousand Trails membership runs between nine thousand to about seventeen thousand almost eighteen thousand a used membership is going to be about half that so you have some options you can try Thousand Trails by just getting a camping pass or you can get a full membership you can buy that full membership new or used and there's pros and cons to each way so pros of buying a new membership are number one you get financing which is a big help number two you can use that membership right away so that is awesome because on the secondary Market that membership has to be transferred from the old member to you that can take one to three months and when I bought mine four years ago it did take the full three months I couldn't even make a reservation if you buy new your annual dues get locked in at age 62 which is a big deal and when you buy new you get some extras some goodies courtesy cards and that kind of thing now if you buy on the secondary Market you are going to save a lot of money but don't buy on eBay definitely know who you're buying from I purchased through Campground membership Outlet I talked to Kim I highly recommend her now there is an add-on to Thousand Trails called Trails collection this adds over a hundred campgrounds to choose from is only 370 a year these campgrounds work a little differently with a shorter booking window of 60 to 90 days out and depending on your membership of 14-day limit to your stay some of these do charge an extra fee of like 20 a night but it can be worth it particularly if you're going to be wintering in Arizona or wintering in Florida because it really opens up your choices it gives you a lot more campgrounds to choose from now Thousand Trails is not for everyone so here are the downsides number one you have to want to go where they have their campgrounds so definitely look at a map you can see there's really only one Campground kind of in the middle of the country and that's the one in Colorado there are plenty of states where there are no Thousand Trails at all if you're full-time and you're thinking of crossing the country it's pretty much impossible to do that and stay in Thousand Trails much easier if you take the southern route but still there's no Thousand Trails in New Mexico now if you're going to cross the country on the Northern route you're going to say goodbye to the Thousand Trails in Eastern Washington at little diamond and not see another Thousand Trails until Wisconsin another downside is that some of the campsites can be close together some Thousand Trails have great big private sites and some Thousand Trails do not but listen if you regularly camp at private campgrounds they're all like that every private Campground owner is trying to maximize their land and get as many sites in as possible so it just depends where you are if you are camping on the beach which is a high dollar property they're definitely going to put the sites in closer together than if you're out in the middle of nowhere where the land is kind of cheap for example Long Beach Washington that's the tightest I've ever are seeing it those campsites are small but we're right on the beach I love that Campground even though the campsites are small I'm right there on the beach there's an eight mile biking trail I've been there twice and I absolutely would go back but if you've only been in National Parks or state parks where you've had a huge site and you can't see your neighbor then Thousand Trails is probably not for you now I belong to a Facebook page the good and bad of Thousand Trails and like any social media there are a lot of people on there that complain what I have learned since being a Thousand Trails member for four years now is to see the campground for myself before making a decision there are some people on that page that will tell you oh don't go here or don't go there and I'll go to that Campground and be like well I don't know what they were talking about so what I've learned is that everyone has different criteria for some people they must have a nice playground for other people they need internet for other people they I need an Open Sky so their starlink Works other people have to have shade so the best thing to do if you join Thousand Trails is to just go out and check out the campgrounds for yourself and make up your own mind one of the other things that Thousand Trails lets me do is because I save so much money it allows me to splurge and stay at a campground outside of Thousand Trails that I normally wouldn't for example last year I stayed at Fort Wilderness in Florida at Disney World which is kind of expensive it's over 200 a night this year I'm going to be spending a month outside of Glacier National Park that was not cheap either but I was able to afford it because of Thousand Trails if you're interested in a new membership contact Eric Benson he has some add-ons and goodies for you just tell him that I sent you I've been working with Eric for over three years and he'll definitely take care of you if you're interested in a used membership on the secondary Market don't go on eBay contact Kimberly at Campground membership Outlet I have worked with her for four years now she's awesome she'll definitely take care of you okay so I told you that I have gone to 34 of the 82 000 Trails campgrounds but I haven't gone to any of the ones in the northeast or any of the ones in Texas if you have let me know how you like them just leave a note in the comments and if you've enjoyed this video please like subscribe and share as always these are exciting times to push past fear build confidence and live amazing

Channel: Liz Amazing

Views: 155,797

Keywords: RV life, Fulltime RV living, thousand trails, trails collection, camping pass, affordable, campgrounds

Id: CiPtWwnHAHk

Length: 12min 8sec (728 seconds)

Published: Fri Jun 23 2023