Van life expenses
Table of Contents
2024 Travel Expenses
Since we are not working now, we will need to be more cognizant of what we spend. I have always been intrigued by finances and thought it'd be a cool idea to document what a lifestyle like this costs. If you have any interest in this kind of data, I will be updating this daily, with our expenses.
Monthly Spendings Bar Chart
Here is a chart that graphs the total amount we spend each month. We are budgeting for spending less than $18,000 for the whole year, which is $1,500 per month. If we can go lower, that is ideal, but this budget should allow us to live comfortably.
Monthly Expense Categories
Below are pie charts showing how much is being spent on each category per month. Each category has its own budget, which is defined here:
Activities - $100.00 - This can include anything from going to a state park to skiing to bowling
Dining/Snacks/Drinks - $100.00 - This is anything outside regular groceries. i.e., going out to eat
Gas - $500.00 - This covers fuel for the van and our motorcycles.
Groceries - $200.00 - This covers food we can make ourselves and toiletries
Lodging - $100.00 - This is for campsites or, if we ever need to stay somewhere other than the van
Maintenance/Tools - $200.00 - We like to do a lot of our own repairs, so this covers parts/tools for the repairs
Misc. - $100.00 - This covers anything outside these categories, like a souvenir, post card or gift
Utilities/Reoccurring - $100.00 - This covers our internet, cell phones and any other reoccurring expense for a utility
Vibe Related - $100.00 - Since I have decided to keep my car in storage (in case something goes very wrong with the van, and we need to use it instead), there are some expenses associated, such as storage unit rent ($30/monthly) and storage insurance
As we spend more time on the road and better understand our needs/interests, we can adjust these limits to make more sense, if needed.
Monthly Spending Pie Charts
January was filled heavy with maintenance and gasoline expenses. 30 miles into our journey of leaving Michigan, we got a flat tire and had to replace it (~$160). We also discovered on our drive that we had a leak in our power steering line. We were able to remedy it temporarily, by filling up power steering fluid, every time we got gas. However, when we finally got to our first major destination, we made the actual fix by putting in a new line (~$110). All that, coupled with traveling 1,400 miles, made this an expensive month for the van.
It is also important to note that this tracking was only done for the last 10 days of January (the 21st-31st). So, we will need to be smart with budgeting for future months.
In February, we ate a lot of food and went a little wild on snacks. We didn't have too much movement, as we left New Mexico and spent the remainder of the month in Northern Arizona. The gas that we did buy was mainly for the motorcycles because we used them as our main means of transportation. Doing this, we saved a lot of money in the gas category.
For March, we plan on buying less unnecessary food and using more of what we have - rather than stocking up as much.
In March, we spent a good amount on gas. We started the month in Arizona and ended it in California. Once we reached Nevada, gas spiked above $4 and has stayed that way since. Being that we have a 32 gallon tank, to fill up lately, it's been ~$130 minimum.
We seemed to go a little nuts on the groceries this month too - lots of Trader Joe's snack runs. Nonetheless, we still were below our threshold, which was nice.
In April, we spent a majority of our time in California, where gas is the most expensive. Luckily, we are pretty savvy about finding where it is cheapest (through using the GasBuddy app). Nonetheless, it was still near $5/gallon, most of the time. Maintenance proved to be a large, unexpected expense this month, as I found a lovely nail in my motorcycle tire and had to buy a new set.
We still have yet to learn our lesson on groceries, so we have a goal to eat up all our food before going grocery shopping again. Let's hope we actually stick to it.
Yearly Expenses By Category (Aggregate)
This chart is going to provide an aggregate of all the spending per category, across the months. Based off of my predefined category budgets, I have an idea of what will be the largest spending categories, but it will be interesting to see how it compares, over time.