Category | Total Spent for Year | Monthly Average | Daily Average |
---|---|---|---|
all Vehicle expenses (gas, repairs, insurance, etc) | $6202.42 | $516.87 | $16.99/day
( $1.01/mile ) |
food | $1080.80 | $90.07 | $3.04/day |
everything else | $702.19 | $58.52 | $1.92/day |
Total Year: | $7985.41 | $665.45 | $21.88/day |
These are my total expenses for all of 2019 (365 days).
Here is a year-by-year summary
of my expenses for all my years in my van.
After my 2nd major breakdown (engine seized, and required a replacement),
a fund raiser was held at one of the van forums, and I received a total of 2,342.70 in donations, which made a huge difference.
Thanks to all who helped! :)
At the very bottom of this page, there are some "Metrics" including the oft cited "Unicorn" ones as well as some far more meaningful & Geek ones. :)
Category | Total Spent for Year | Monthly Average | Cost per Mile |
---|---|---|---|
repairs & maintenance | $4418.72 | $368.23 | $0.72 |
gas | $1263.99 | $105.33 | $0.21 |
van insurance | $464.98 | $38.75 | $0.0758 |
van registration | $54.73 | $4.56 | $0.0089 |
Total for Year: | $6202.42 | $516.87 | $1.01 |
Van expenses comprised 77.7% of all of my expenditures.
Total miles driven: 6133 miles
Of those miles, about 4246 miles
(69.2%)
were "travel"/migration miles between states,
the rest were local, mostly relocating and town supply/etc runs.
In 2019, I had one major breakdown (engine seizure/death) and three (3) smaller breakdowns, as well as one (1) routine maintenance visit (oil change) where they recommended a repair (u-joints replacement).
In addition, a GearHead GeekBuddy very kindly did some major inspections and repairs, initially for the cost of parts, though he donated significant parts & fluids and donated all of his precious time/labor/expertise, which was Beyond Awesome. :)
Note that I bought the van in late November of 2018,
and within one week had my first major breakdown.
Its cost was $2587.72.
I spent $1080.80 on food,
which was
13.5%
of my expenditures.
The daily average was
$3.04/day
(based on 355 calendar days (i.e. minus 10 days of gifted food)).
I plan to publish more details about my food costs, including at least one detailed sample week, as per several requests. :)
The total amount includes sales taxes:
food "sin" (soda, candy, fast food) tax that most states levy, and
grocery (i.e. regular food) sales tax that is levied by some particularly regressive states (MO,AR).
I do plan to stock up much more efficiently in states with lower or no sin/grocery taxes.
Note that I used more of my existing food inventory than I restocked, so actual costs were very roughly about 10% more.
Some food expenses were higher (mainly due to a period of urban boondocking) than I expect to spend in 2020.
Those two probably mostly cancel each other out.
I now have a better feel for planning, so expect to save modest amounts (I will post what I've learned).
I had expected that 2020 (my 2nd full year) would help clarify all of that, however the pandemic did disrupt that.
After my first three years it should be more accurate. :)
I calculated Daily Food costs using 355 days because I stayed at a Friend's home for 10 days, during which he supplied all food - he's an awesome cook/chef, so it was a great treat! :)
(He's the same Friend who donated several days of Expert & Loving TLC Repair work on Fawkes, which I'll be posting details of soon.
He is Beyond Awesome. :) )
Total cost of all my non van & food expenses was $702.19 (8.8% of my total).
Breakdown by sub-category:expenses that are roughly equivalent to "sticks & bricks" Utilities | |||
PO box | $76.00 | ||
storage unit | $190.00 | ||
Communications | total: $149.13 | cell phone ("GoPhone") | 108.75 |
hotspot data card (a Friend donated more cards) | 40.38 | ||
Consumables | total: $54.41 | butane (bought 2 cases of 12 canisters each) | 46.20 |
propane (one pound bottle as emergency backup) | 3.47 | ||
water | 4.74 | ||
expenses that are personal or long-term gear | |||
Personal expenses ("budget-limited") |
total: $135.56 | hygiene (supplies, laundry, showers, etc) | 53.89 |
luxuries (non-food, see below) | 49.64 | ||
medical | 19.10 | ||
etc | 12.93 | ||
Gear/Equipment (mostly one-offs) |
total: $97.09 | universal laptop DC charger | 25.90 |
DVD-RW discs (for backups and transferring data) | 22.99 | ||
Fire 7 tablet (split cost between "work" and "luxury" categories, see additional notes below) | 16.23 | ||
lights (USB powered LED bulb, 3 battery operated lanterns) | 15.98 | ||
car charger inverter, 150 watts (this allows me to use several AC powered devices, including a crockpot, AA battery charger, a "portable power pack") |
13.99 | ||
crockpot, one quart size, used (thrift store) | 2.00 |
For butane, I started tracking consumption mid-year, and averaged 11.5 cooking days, 16.0 calendar days, per canister.
Originally in 2019, I had intended to cut out all luxuries, but quickly came to my senses, and merely set a sub-limit of $10/month.
In the past I had not set any sub-limit on that or any other sub category within my "personal" expenses budget.
Doctor Who, the complete Matt Smith years DVD set (I definitely feel guilty about buying this, however it was a phenomenal price for 3 complete seasons.) | 21.09 |
Fire 7 tablet (I genuinely needed something to access non-cybersafe websites, tried out a Library loaner Chromebook then an old Fire 7 tablet, found both satisfactory, so waited until the new Fire tablets went on sale in late November. I split the total cost ($32.46) equally between "work" and "luxury", since I intended to use it partially for entertainment, mainly for Library ebooks.) | 16.23 |
Library non-resident card :) (This was a fabulous value, and I was able to borrow all but one recent movie/TV-series that I had wanted to watch. After I drove South, they acquired that movie, so it was top-of-my-list for summer 2020. This winter, I've already borrowed five audiobooks, and several ebooks.) |
5.00 |
camp stove Toaster (Saw this in a hardware store the same day I saw English Muffins on sale... I blame "Abnorm" for questioning my Toaster Cred. :) Here's my review, complete with lots of "porn". :) ) | 4.21 |
female to female 3 RCA connector (This was an experiment to see if I could connect an old Roku streaming gadget to my portable DVD player. It worked, but was "suboptimal" performance. The Fire tablet is a much better means to stream (news and an occasional TV show).) |
2.11 |
really cool Loon throw pillow I saw in a thrift shop, while searching for a crockpot :) (As well as being esthetically pleasing, it's genuinely very handy, both to wipe condensation off my back windows, and to hold my back curtains in place (otherwise there's a gap) ). | 1.00 |
I classify any portion of restaurant (i.e. fast food) meals over $2 each as a luxury.
I spent a total of $39.28 on such, which is already included in my food costs above.
My total luxuries for the year were $88.92 (non-food 49.64 + food 39.28), averaging $7.41/month.
I was $31.08 under my limit for the year, and yes,
I was sorely tempted to buy the Doctor Who complete Peter Capaldi years DVD set,
but resisted. :)
I decided to reduce my luxury budget to $5/month for 2020, mainly to discourage me from buying fast food. :)
Note that I do regularly buy chocolate & other candy (always inexpensive types like dollar store 6-packs of Almond Snickers bars), and do not treat those as "luxuries". They're Brain Food. :)
My budget for luxuries is $60 per year ($5 per month).
I spent $49.64, which was
$10.36
under my limit for the year.
Unicorns: | ||
miles driven | 6133 | |
States camped in | 6 | |
National Forests camped in | 4 | |
Reality: | ||
breakdowns & tows | 4 | |
Geekery: | ||
Lines of Computer Code created/modified (yes, over twenty seven thousand Lines of Code in about 7 months) | 27 K | |
National Forests in which booted Linux and did at least one Build :) | 2 | |
cup-o-noodles consumed (approx) | 64 | |
HotPockets consumed (approx) | 4 |