theboondork's RV blog

It's only money

3/31/2018

And from his heart a plant did grow and on the desert a seed bestowed another life upon this earth to replace the one hath been interred. Theboondork

Since I've never been one to weasel out of a little work, yeah right! I have put in a tremendous amount of time and effort to be able to accurately report my expenses for the month of March 2018. Even though every month is different March appears to be about an average month for me, as long as I don't buy another motorcycle or something like that, but in general I would say March has been pretty normal.

I have 10 categories that my expenses are put into. But since I'm not a picky person, or someone who keeps up with where every penny goes, even though I'm constantly berated by my accountant for my lackadaisical attitude towards money. I do keep up with everything I spend. its just not always put in the right column. For instance when I go shopping at Walmart and I spend $50 I put it all under groceries, even though there may have been a few dollars in that 50 that should've been under personal or even trailer. But I figure since most of its groceries I'm not going to take the time to sort it all out, because my time is valuable to me and I prefer to be doing something I enjoy..

So here are my 10 categories and the totals for the month.

CAMPING-- $118-- that included two days of camping with full hookups and 29 days of boondocking. Keep in mind that to me boondocking means no hookups even though I might be paying a small fee like I am at Escapees.

TRUCK--$ 0-- insurance is already paid, nothing broke, no problems.

FUEL--$219-- I've been traveling some because I'm slowly working my way back to Colorado.

TRAILER-- $373-- it was an expensive month for the Arctic Fox, I had to buy a new propane detector, a new carbon monoxide detector, and I bought a new twin rearview camera system which accounted for most of that expense. Normally my trailer expenses are almost nothing.

GROCERIES-- $285-- that's a fairly normal expense for my groceries for the month.

EAT OUT--$0-- my irrational fear of the Flu has kept me out of restaurants for the entire winter. Laugh if you will but I haven't had the flu.

UTILITIES-- $311-- most of that is my $180 a month Verizon phone bill, and my $75 a month storage room.

PERSONAL-- $41-- a lot of that is for entrance fees to get into various places like pow-wows, museums or anything else for my personal enjoyment.

HOBBY'S--$91-- this one varies widely from zero to thousands of dollars depending on how happy I am with my motorcycle, and whether Canon has come out with a new camera.

MISCELLANEOUS-- $381-- this expense also varies widely because I put things in this column when I'm not sure where else to put it, so in this case that amount is for property tax on some Tombstone property I own which of course is not a normal monthly expense.

So after all that my cost to live for the month was $1,819. Which I'm sure is a lot for some folks and not much for others. But for me it's about right. I don't feel like I suffer at all living on that amount, after all I'm not living like this to suffer. I do the things I want to do, and I go the places I want to go, my needs are few and becoming fewer over time. But most of all I'm happy and I know from past experience that spending ten times that amount wouldn't make me any happier.

theboondork

I was fortunate enough stumble onto the grave of Cochise's grandson. Cochise is a big deal around here after all Tombstone is in Cochise County, But it's hard to believe he lived to be 110 years old.

Visitors have left tobacco, money, and colored stones for the old Chief.

This grave is caving in and the beautiful tombstone is in danger of toppling over.

6 Comments

Tim

4/2/2018 01:48:56 pm

Tom,

Thanks for posting your expenses; it's great information and helps verify that the budget I'm setting isn't pie in the sky (thinking around $2500 a month after the initial purchases, but hope it will be less). Sounds like the biggest factor to keeping expenses down is the boondocking and keeping gas expenses down.

One great thing about living in the Arctic Fox is no rent or mortgage payment. That is by far my biggest expense and it was much worse in the house. Really looking forward to that.

I'm starting to plan ahead and am thinking about the solar installation. I've gone back and looked at a few of the photos on your website and have a few questions (if you don't mind). Where did you bring the wires from the solar panels down to the charge controller? I was thinking of bringing them down through the bedroom somewhere, but because the closet is on a slide, that doesn't look feasible. Also, I noticed in one photo that you have a Morningstar controller; have you been happy with it? I've toyed with the idea of getting a Victron because they have Bluetooth monitoring, but Handy Bob seems to really like the Morningstars. What size inverter do you have? Any other components you really like or wish you'd done differently?

Thinking about the solar may be getting ahead of myself a little bit, but I'm thinking of getting my concealed carry again when becoming a South Dakota resident, which requires spending 30 consecutive days at the mail forwarding company, which also has an RV park (or some other local park). I'm thinking while I'm cooling my heels (after getting the RV from Minnesota), I'll get the solar install done (or at least started, all contingent on them allowing work on the RV there). That means I need to figure things out a little bit and get ready to place the order as soon as the 30 days starts, so there will be enough time.

Right now, I'm thinking: either 6 140 or 160 watt panels (which ever will fit, wired in Series-Parallel providing 24 volt to the charge controller), 4 lithium batteries (pricey, but I'm convinced it's the way to go), Morningstar MPPT controller (or maybe Victron). I have several other decisions to make (inverter, fuses, wire size, panel mounts, etc.), but that's where I'm at now.

It's hard to believe it's already April (although you wouldn't know it by all the snow we got today); September will be here before you know it!

Tom hudson

4/2/2018 03:21:02 pm

$2500 a month sounds doable, but you'll need some backup when you've got to buy tires, repair things, and buy a new motorcycle.

Yes boondocking is the key to living on the cheap and traveling at the same time. But you can live cheaper if you do what snowbirds do and stay in one place for long periods of time that way you don't spend much for fuel, and if you shop around you can find some pretty reasonable monthly or seasonal rates at RV parks. Maybe one day I'll consider that myself but right now it seems pretty boring.

Ask and ye shall receive. I made a junction box for all the #10 solar panel wires to go into on the roof. And then I brought the 4/0 positive and negative wires from there down the inside of a vent pipe for one of my holding tanks. If you remove a panel in the basement the vent pipes are exposed and I just drilled a hole in the vent, caught the wires and brought them into the basement. I then patched up the holes I made at the top of the vent pipe and in the basement.

Since the 60 amp MorningStar is the only good solar controller I know anything about and since Handy Bob recommends it highly, I think it's a way to go, and I've never had any problems with it. As for the Bluetooth monitoring, it sounds cute and it may provide some useful information in the beginning. But after a short period of time the only monitoring you will need will be the Bogart TriMetric on the wall in the living room telling you how many amps are coming in and going out. Because other than that my panels, my solar controller, and my battery bank are invisible to me and something I never think about in less something goes wrong, and when something did go wrong last summer the gadget on the wall told me everything I needed to know to fix it.

My inverter is an ExcelTech 1100 Watt and the biggest load it gets on it is the microwave and handles it just fine.

There are no solar components that I would like to do differently, for my life what I've got seems to work just fine. But for you I would also recommend getting a rearview camera on the Arctic Fox, I love mine. And tire pressure monitors for the trailer, mine have saved me a couple of times and I wouldn't leave home without them. And a telescoping ladder. I know you've already got a ladder on the back of the Arctic Fox but you will find it hard to deal with a little bit dangerous.

The concealed carry permit is a great idea, I've never needed to use my handgun but it gives me a sense of security. And the carry permit helps ease the tension you may feel when you have to go through immigration checkpoints in the Southwest, although that's never been a problem in my experience.

Sitting here in Lordsburg New Mexico in 80° weather it's hard to imagine somebody in the country is getting snowed on, it gives me shivers just thinking about it.

Barney Ward

4/2/2018 03:54:11 pm

Tim,
A standard 36 cell panel (12volt) puts out 17-18 volts so you need to revise your wire size calculations for the higher voltage. Check your exact panel to get the right voltage for your situation. The controller needs a minimum of 15 volts to be able to fully charge your batts. Both of my controllers are Morningstar and they have done what they promised.

4/3/2018 08:40:26 am

Tom - Thanks, I will have an emergency fund for those unforeseen events, such as buying a motorcycle off of Amazon at 3 am in the morning or my own personal tank to drive around. Actually, I've never owned a motorcycle, but will probably buy an electric bike to get around a little bit. I've been researching them and it's amazing how much pep and distance they have. I sold my hybrid and road bikes when I sold my house, just because I didn't really have anywhere to store them and knew the apartment was just temporary (well, and my knees aren't what they used to be).

I could see being at a place for a couple of weeks, but there is so much I want to see that I'll probably want to move around quite a bit, especially in the first few years.

Going through the holding tank vents is a great idea. There were two things I was having trouble visualizing: One was how to get that wire down to the basement and the other was trying to figure out how a transfer switch works and how to wire it. Your posts answers the first question and I've been reading and watching videos and have the transfer switch figured out now.

Oh, I was also wondering how to temperature monitor the Battleborn batteries (which is what I will probably get as well), but I read the manual for them and it says that the BMS on the batteries handles that and not to use temperature compensation from the charge controller; that really will simplify the install.

I agree with the Morningstar 60 amp MPPT controller. If I run the solar panels in series-parallel, I could use the 45 amp, but will probably go with the 60 amp just in case I decide to go pure parallel instead, add more panels, etc. The Victron bluetooth would mean less wires to run, but I like the dependability of the Morningstar and that big heat sink just make sense to me.

Definitely agree on the rearview camera and the TPMS. I can't imagine how I'm going to back this thing up by myself without cameras. Ford has a camera package that includes 7 cameras around the truck, including one that goes on the back of the trailer and another one mounted high on the cab pointed down on the hitch. That's on my list for the new truck. The TPMS is also a must.

When I had my concealed carry before, I never carried, but it made purchasing firearms a lot easier. In South Dakota, they have an "Enhanced License", which requires taking a class, which I might do. I've taken two classes before and kind of like taking them.

Barney - Thanks, that's great information and glad to hear that your Morningstar controllers are working well. I've been plugging numbers for the wire sizes into some online calculators, but will double check the numbers before purchasing anything and will err on the side of bigger wires. All other things being equal, my understanding is that as the voltage increases, the amperage deceases, and the wire diameter size can also decrease (although I'll probably go as big as practical). Does that sound right?

4/3/2018 08:30:27 pm

Sorry it took me so long to get back to you but I met up with Barney, the Old Fat Man in Deming New Mexico today and we spent a lot of time discussing, and solving the world's problems. We got a lot done but the world's a big place and there's still more for us to do.

The only temperature monitoring I have for the battle born batteries is a wireless thermometer transmitter laying on top of them that tells me the temperature on my main thermometer in the kitchen and I've mainly got it there to get a baseline for what the temperature under my bed is under normal conditions and if it's suitable for the Battle born batteries. And like you say the batteries monitor themselves so I don't give them very much thought anymore.

Even though my original four 140 watt panels didn't require a 60 amp controller I was glad I bought it when I decided to add two more panels. Also I read, maybe from Handy Bob, that the controller will last longer if it's not running at its maximum capacity all the time. So getting the 60 amp just makes sense.

That sounds like a great camera set up for the new truck. When you're pulling the trailer you need as much visual information as you can get. It may sound odd but for me backing up is normally not something I use the camera for. If I'm backing into a campsite, which by the way I avoid if at all possible, I get out of the truck and look at where things are in the camp site and once I know that then my side mirrors tell me everything else I need to know. Sometimes I have to get out of the truck a couple times and look things over but hey, I'm not in a hurry.

Taking carry permit classes is a good thing because laws change and of course states have different laws so I have no problem taking the classes and consider them to be beneficial.

Tom

4/4/2018 08:35:45 am

Hi Tom,

No problem. All my questions are for the future and I'm just mulling things over, so no rush. I've been working my way through RVSue's blog now, but when I get caught up on it, I plan to start reading Barney's blog. I could sense yesterday that the world was a smidge better place, so your talks must be helping already.

I didn't have cameras on the Class C and that's what I had to do on the rare occasions when I was backing it by myself - I would just get out a couple of times and check on where I was backing (but it was much easier to back than a trailer, once the toad was unhooked). It'll be interesting to see if I use the cameras for backing on just for checking traffic while driving.

Another beautiful week here in the Northeast. After all the snow, it was rainy and cold. This is actually the worst time of year for me up here; in the winter, you expect it to be cold, but the cold weather usually drags on until May. Really looking forward to being in warmer weather this time next year.

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.

It's only money

Leave a Reply.

Archives

CONTACT THEBOONDORK