Our Story: RV Life Edition
Hi friends! We have gotten so many sweet messages about our choice to live in an RV full time, as well as so many questions! So to make it easy, I wanted to answer all of those questions in one spot as well as share some of the details about why we chose RV life (again)!
Whether you’ve been thinking about becoming a full time RVer or you’re just curious about why we’ve made this decision and how we’re making it work for us, this post should answer some frequently asked questions. 🙂
Pssstttt.. Thinking of doing an RV renovation yourself? Download this handy checklist to make sure you avoid missing these common RV mistakes!
Alright, go grab a cup of your favorite beverage (iced coffee for me!) and get comfy as I share our story: RV Edition!
Wait, Again??
That’s right – this is the second time Mike and I will have lived in an RV!
When we first got married in September 2013, Mike was working in North Dakota during the oil boom. Housing and rental prices were 100% ridiculous due to the influx of out of state workers in the area so we decided to purchase a fifth wheel to live in.
By choosing to live in an RV we were able to put our money toward something we owned instead of throwing away rent each month. Not to mention the payments for our RV were WAY less than anything you could find to rent in the area. Like thousands of dollars cheaper!
We purchased a 2014 Cyclone fifth wheel the day after we married and lived in it for a little over 2 years.
During that time we realized that living in a fifth wheel wasn’t nearly as hard as we thought it would be and actually really enjoyed it!
We eventually sold the RV and rented an apartment once rental prices were more reasonable. And then when Mike was transferred to Bozeman, Montana we ended up buying our first home.
Had you told us then that we’d be going back to RV life 2 years later, we would have thought you were crazy!
Why We’re Going Back to RV Life
After living in our first house together and turning it into a home one DIY project at a time, we’ve fallen in love with DIYing and remodeling. We dream about someday turning that passion into becoming house flippers but at this moment in our lives, that’s just not in the cards.
Instead we feel that God has been quietly nudging us toward something a little different. So we are saying YES to the unexpected!
There are a few reasons why RV life makes so much sense for us right now.
Here are the big ones:
Debt Freedom
Ever since we’ve been married, one of our biggest goals has been to achieve debt freedom. So we’ve decided to make a drastic change to our lifestyle and finally accomplish that goal!
Live like no one else now so later you can live like no one else.” – Dave Ramsey
Living and working in North Dakota allowed us to pay off over $70K in student loans and for that we are so thankful! Since then our only debt has been our mortgage and we are finally saying goodbye to that by choosing RV life. ?
We purchased and renovated our RV with cash and once our house is sold will be officially DEBT FREE!
Related: 12 Awesome Budget Hacks That Actually Work – How We Went From 2 Incomes to 1
Moving Closer to Family & Friends
We’ve always wanted to end up back in Oregon (where Mike’s from) to be closer to family & friends, but it never made sense while Mike had a good job that he enjoyed in Montana. However since starting this blog, we’ve been able to turn it into a business and today both of us work from home blogging full time! (You can read more about us and what we do here!)
With both of us working from home, we are now free to live where ever we choose (as long as there’s wifi ?). It’s truly been a dream come true!
(If you’ve been thinking of starting a blog of your own, I recommend downloading my free blogging guide: How to Start a Blog in 5 Easy Steps.)
Related: 10 Lessons Learned in My First Year Blogging
By living in an RV we are able to move back to Mike’s hometown to be closer to family while still accomplishing our goal of being debt free.
Simplify & Live With Less
I’m not gonna lie, I am reeeally excited to use the RV as an excuse to simplify.
After moving into our first house I felt the need to fill each room with stuff so that the house didn’t feel empty. But as we’ve been purging and getting ready to downsize, I’ve realized that we have so much stuff that we don’t need. And because we had the space to store it all, I didn’t even notice!
Will I miss having a giant dining table to host dinners around? Sure!
Will it be hard not having an extra bedroom dedicated to guests? Yep!
But ultimately, those things barely got used and I know Mike and I can get by with so much less. I’m excited to strip our belongings down to the basics and truly embrace living with less!
Whether you’re downsizing or not, I strongly encourage you to take an honest look at the things you own and ask yourself if each of them is useful. You’d be surprised how many items you could live without!
Here are a couple of decluttering posts I wrote and highly recommend if you’re getting the urge to purge: Ditch the Clutter for Good and How to Keep Your House Clean and Free of Clutter – My Tried and True System.
How Long Will We Live in the RV?
Right now our goal is to live in the RV for 1-2 years.
We hope to use that time to save up to buy a piece of land (or a fixer upper!) with cash. But we both know all too well that plans change, so we aren’t making any definite timelines.
We’re just along for this crazy ride called life! It’s more fun that way right??
Where will we park it?
Like I mentioned earlier, one of the reasons we are moving into an RV is to be closer to our Oregon family & friends. And thankfully we have the BEST friends ever who are letting us park our RV on their property! They own a few acres and graciously said yes when we brought up the idea of putting an RV pad on their lot. (Right after they got a good laugh and said, “Wait, you’re serious?” ?)
So we went ahead and put in a full RV pad with hookups on their property and will be parked there full time for now. We can’t wait to be next door neighbors with our best friends and truly couldn’t do this debt-free-rv-thing without them!
I know they read this blog so, thanks guys! 😉
Details about our RV
We purchased a 2005 Park Model RV that is roughly 400 sq ft.
We chose a park model because they are a little more roomy inside and since they’re meant to be parked (hence the name), they don’t have any tanks or normal RV-type appliances. Since we don’t plan to be mobile, this was a great option for us and gave us the ability to find a layout that worked well for our work-from-home lifestyle.
We were able to turn the front bedroom into our home office and still have plenty of living space as well as a private bedroom and bathroom in the back of the RV. We will be sharing the full reveal on the blog as soon as we are finished remodeling, so stay tuned for lots of before and afters!
Until then, you can watch our ‘Before Tour’ here to see what it looked like when we bought it.
We look forward to sharing more about our RVing journey. If you have any questions, leave a comment below!
Here’s to our next adventure!
Have you considered moving into an RV, camper or tiny house? Or maybe you already have? If so we would love to hear about it in the comments!
For more full time RV living inspo, checkout this post.
