PISGAH NATIONAL FOREST, N.C. – Have you ever considered quitting your job, selling your home and hitting the open road? With skyrocketing home prices and rising rent, the trend of living in an RV is becoming more popular.
What You Need To Know
The trend of living and traveling in an RV is becoming more popular, due to skyrocketing home prices and rising rental costs
Beth and Rob Brewster sold their home in Washington and are traveling the country in a 45’ RV with their four dogs
Below, they describe how they save money and live every day while doing what they love
Beth and Rob Brewster decided to take part in the trend, traveling the nation with their four-dog family in a 45' RV.
“You don’t realize until you are doing something like this, how many great experiences you can have around the country that don’t cost anything,” Beth said.
Their travels recently took them to Pisgah National Forest in the North Carolina mountains. They spend each day hiking, mountain biking and going on adventures with their pups.
“I think people think RVing is like, this sedentary lifestyle,” Beth said. “We’re active pretty much from sun up with the dogs to sun down; we go hiking or mountain biking.”
At 52 years old, Beth Brewster says she’s one of three women in the world to have three of the toughest triathlon world championship finishes. One of those races, the Ultraman World Championship, is a 260-mile bike ride, a 52.4-mile run and a 6.2-mile swim in the ocean.
Her husband, Rob Brewster, retired at 54 years old after serving 22 years in the U.S. Coast Guard. His service helps provide their medical benefits today.
The pair stay in shape by using their surroundings as a gym, avoiding the cost of a membership. They set up straps around trees that attach to a bench press bar. Those straps are later used to tie down equipment or make portable bike stands.
The Brewsters planned for one year before selling their Washington home and committing to their RV adventure. To do it, Beth Brewster created a budget, covering their day-to-day expenses, along with savings for repairs and anything that could go wrong on the road.
For example, she forecasted fuel costs to climb to $9 per gallon, just to be on the safe side. They also have a back-up tool kit to do their own repairs, should any occur on the road.
“The first thing you have to do is say, 'how much are we spending currently? How can we pare that down? What’s the least amount of money we could live on as we live basically today,'” Beth explained. “Then you throw the RV mix into it, you know, fuel and that kind of stuff.”
Some of their other money-saving tricks include shopping at discount grocers, using a fuel card (which saves them 30 cents a gallon), staying in locations longterm for discounts and balancing out the attractions they go see. The pair also bought their own pet-grooming clippers, to save money on taking their dogs to groomers.
Instead of booking a spot at a busy RV lot, the pair do what’s called hip camping. That’s when homeowners rent out their land to campers.
Beth says, in December, they hip camped a location in Florida that’s a fenced-in acre of land by the water for $1,500 for the month with full hook-ups.
“Those places are out there if you look and can plan in advance,” Beth Brewster said. “That’s the thing. You have to be able to plan in advance, not everyone has that flexibility in their schedule.”
The duo has been on the road for eight months, and they don’t expect to ever go back to living life in one permanent location.
“You have that dream, if you want to do it, and if you want it bad enough, you can make it happen,” Beth Brewster said.
If this is a lifestyle you’re interested in, Beth Brewster created her own website and blog, breaking down the gear, how to RV with dogs, along with planning and money-saving tips.