Some RVers like to talk at great length about their finances, to the point of splashing out for all to see their balance sheets. I made a decision early on to gloss over this topic because I realised early on that full-time RVing is real life. Let me repeat that: full-time RVing is a lifestyle choice, not a perpetual vacation. Everyone’s reality and circumstances are different. I don’t see any value in going into any sort of detail about my financial portrait.

This issue has come up several times over the past few days. I’ve had someone comment that I ‘owed’ it to other RVers to explain how I get by day to day financially so that they could emulate me (!). Another person was appalled that I ‘steal’ from the thrift and free stores since I’m obviously well off, with a ‘nice motorhome and recent model car.’  Another doesn’t get the difference between being ‘tight’ (choosing not to do or buy certain things in order to do or buy other things) and being ‘broke’ (not being able to do or buy anything). If I lived a mainstream life, no one would expect me to pull out my balance sheet, they would understand how someone my age living in her own home and driving a recent model car might need to be frugal in other areas of her life, and they’d understand that not being able to do it ‘all’ is normal!

So far, the financials of my RVing life have been very cyclical. I have had periods with good cashflow and periods with bad cashflow. During the good periods I get caught up and during bad periods I try not to get behind. The goal is, of course, to balance out these periods and provide a steadier cashflow instead of one with gigantic negative and positive peaks. This summer was my first taste of this ideal cashflow vision and it has been lovely, but I am now heading back into squirrel mode, especially since I have a couple of big expenses coming up.

One thing to keep in mind is that I’m single with only cats as my dependents. That gives me a lot of freedom in how I choose to allocate my money. Once the bills are paid and I’ve put money away for retirement and emergencies, there is no one to care if I decide to buy a new toy and eat beans for a month. But if I were to put all of this on a balance sheet for the world to say, I’d have to erase a lot of comments from people with different priorities and values who think they have a right to tell me how I should be managing things. I might as well save them the trouble. 😀