At the beginning of January 2015, I posted about our plan to live rent free for a year. Now that the year has passed, I felt it was time for an update.
We started out last year WWOOFing on farms. While we were staying on the farms, we were completely rent free, and had some help with the grocery bill as well! After the great experiences at Thus Far Farm and Earthen Heart, we headed west to Crooked Creek Campground in South Dakota. While we were there, we also paid no rent, and we earned a salary, plus we had delicious free pancakes every morning. After South Dakota, we headed south to Texas where Amazon paid our rent (at a KOA campground) for three months.
So until a week ago, our rent was paid every day except for those in between jobs. In between each of our stops, we spent between eight days and two weeks on the road. The majority of those nights we spent “boondocking” – staying in parking lots or rest areas. However, we also enjoyed a few nights at state parks and we had a great time at a campground in Ohio with an indoor pool for Easter. Total, we spent no more than $200 on campgrounds while we were traveling. Now, we also paid $180 for the week of Christmas and New Years because Amazon stopped paying for our campsite on Christmas day and we decided to stay put for the holidays. Either way, I’d say that $380 of rent is still a good total for the year, especially when that also included our water, electricity, television and most of our internet.
Thanks to our lack of rent, we were able to pay off three of our student loans totaling over $9,000 this year. We were also able to put an additional $4,000 away in savings. Plus, we saw and did a ton of things like these:
We hiked waterfalls.
We climbed sand dunes.
We played on the shores of Lake Michigan.
We explored museums.
We visited wineries.
We visited nine national parks or monuments and countless state parks.
We explored caves.
We camped on the beach.
We experienced many different types of weather.
We ate at local restaurants.
We experienced four different library systems, and the amazing programs that they offer.
We were interviewed by a fellow blogger.
We visited with friends and family.
We met amazing people.
We made memories.
Now that our first year of RVing is complete, I’m sure you’re asking what’s on the plan for next year? Well as amazing as this year was, my sons are dreaming of continuity of friends, ie staying still for awhile. So we’ve taken a position just north of Albuquerque at a campground from January – September. After this we still aren’t sure, but it definitely looks like we’re going to have another rent free year!
