“Well, that’s it then, we now officially live on the road!” exclaimed Tre, with a big smile. “We Out Chea!!” shouted Tee, as we drove off from our traditional sticks and bricks home, in our new Coachman Concord RV.
Off to a life of adventure and possibilities. Our excitement was all over our faces, yet a bit of fear and worry lingered in each of our souls. We looked at each other with joy and excitement, what was ahead of us? One thing for sure, we knew what was behind us, and we’re more than ready to leave.
Driving away from life in AZ, was hard but necessary. The kids are grown and living on their own, and happy being productive adults.
We kept working and paying into this home we just didn’t need anymore. We spent the majority of our time, when home, in our bedroom. We had a large bedroom with a large bathroom connected. Our kitchen was just outside our room, around the corner. Since the kids are grown and work a lot, I rarely cook big meals,we mainly eat sandwiches and quick meals, so a big kitchen isn’t useful for us.
The more we looked at our home life the more we realized we are paying for a 1320 sq ft home and using 300 sq ft of it. So we decided that was a waste,since we enjoy our freedom to travel, don’t require a large living space, and our kids don’t need us, we could live mobile! Mobile life is a great idea for our lifestyle.
We began our mobile life quest, by getting rid of a majority of our belongings by: A. selling things B. Donating things to charity C. Giving things to friends and family D. posting things for free online E. throwing things away. We went through all our belongings and decided what we had/needed/wanted to keep in our 5x5 storage unit. We picked the smallest unit we could find, to make us continue to prioritize our “prized possessions” , by doing this we quickly realised how many things we didn’t need. It was a freeing experience to get rid of things we felt we had to have or needed to live.
Now that we got rid of things,we had to get rid of the dwelling, our home. Thank goodness the area was in demand, because we sold our home quickly. We didn’t make a big profit because we had so much debt on us. We did make enough however to put a nice downpayment on our new home, and get our monthly “mortgage” payment down to $700 per month. Versus our home mortgage of $1500 per month. So we are VERY happy and excited. One thing to keep in mind though, is no Adult can live comfortable for free, so you do have to pay things to live nicely. With mobile living though, you can go as cheap as you want, to as expensive as you desire, depending on your situation and needs. For us, we are paying monthly: A. $700 RV note
B. $300 gas C. $125 insurance D. $200 for food E. $50 cell phone F. $30 storage unit, monthly basic total of $1400 per month. For us to get out of debt we needed to cut our monthly living expenses. With our kids grown and gone, we just had each other and our little dog. So sacrificing our big life for a downsized more affordable life is perfect. We also needed this time as a couple to explore who we are without children and stressful jobs distracting us. Something most people don’t get to do until they retire at 65-70 years old. That’s too far off for us. Waiting until your life is almost over to find your life’s joy,purpose, love,etc. We couldn’t wait that long. We figured since we raised the lives we brought into this world to be good productive citizens we were safe to go off and find our life joy. A lot of couples spend their union taking care of normal day to day life and never stopping to remember what joys, plans, dreams they had before becoming a couple. We didn’t want to be those people. We decided to give ourselves a 24 month sabbatical and see who we have grown into over the years.
Mobile life to us, is RV life. We wanted a medium sized RV that had slides so it could be bigger when we needed it to be. We also wanted a motorhome opposed to a pull behind, so we can always have our home with us. We intended to work while on the road. I wanted to work online, but fell short of finding a online job in time, so instead I opted for seasonal work,contracting work, and part time jobs. My husband is a craftsman, he can fix things, build things and create with his hands, so he always finds odd jobs or day jobs or self employees. So we would be travelling in 3-4 month routes, we pick a place, pull up, work, enjoy the area, save money and move on. I feel like we have Gypsy souls and are flowing through our sabbatical. This may be our lifestyle permanently, or just for this season. We will know when we know.
As of today we have been living the RV Gypsy lifestyle for about a year, we have been staying near family in VA,AZ and UT.
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