| 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 | |