Strategies for holding the line on costs

[tbutler]

Just a few ideas that we use to reduce our expenses while on the road.

1) When we are traveling from place to place doing sightseeing and exploring we simply want a place to park. For these stops we'll try to get the lowest cost campground closest to where our explorations will be. We save the fancier campgrounds for longer stays (not very frequent). When we stay longer in an area we look for a discount for a week or a month and take advantage of that break.

2) We have found some campground discount plans fit our travel style, others we just don't juse very often. We make the ones we have pay for themselves or we drop them.

3) We watch fuel prices carefully. Most truck stop chains now have on-line prices posted so you can check to see if the fuel you are buying is the best price you can get. With a 127 gallon capacity tank, we have great flexibility in where we purchase fuel. As we start a trip we look at the fuel prices across the area where we will travel. We'll try to fill up at the cheapest spot and if we need fuel where prices are higher we'll purchase only what we need to get to cheaper fuel. Translated that means that we generally fill up as we travel from the mid-west to the west or east and purchase only what we need as we travel toward the mid-west. There are exceptions to this rule and that is where the internet comes into play.

4) Always cross the border into Canada with a full tank of fuel. If it fits your travel and you have a chance and can stand the customs hassle to cross the border somewhere to get US fuel it will generally save you money.

5) Some grocery stores and Wal-Mart stores have a fuel station. You can get a fuel discount purchasing groceries at these stores or using their credit card.

6) We use several credit cards that offer cash back on fuel. One card offers 5% cash back. At $4.00 a gallon that is 20 cents a gallon discount! That can be used with the above mentioned grocery store discount to further increase savings. The best I see on the credit card market now is 2% but that would still be an 8 cent per gallon discount. Stores in Canada are more generous. Watch out for pumps that are impossible to access with your RV.

7) We eat in most of the time and pack picnic lunches when we are out and about during the day. This makes the occasional dining out more special. It is also easier to control our diet when we prepare our own meals. Nothing packs the weight on me like restaurant meals.

8) We have about 10 grocery chain discount cards. We fill out any application and end it with a do not mail message at the bottom to reduce costs for mail forwarding. The discounts with these cards are substantial with some chains and again, the fuel discounts are sometimes linked to these cards.

9) To reduce our costs for forwarding mail from our mail handler we actively reduce our mail volume by signing up for the no-mail list at dmachoice.org Stop unwanted credit card offers at optoutprescreen.com When we get advertising or catalogs we will either send back a postage paid return form requesting to be removed from the mailing list or call the 800 number and request our name be removed from the mailing list. Sign up to receive all your billings and statements on-line. You can also pay almost all bills on-line. We schedule all our regular payments to be paid automatically. Persist and you can get rid of most of this mail.

10) When it is convenient we will boondock. We follow FMCA's standards when we park. We have learned to look for quiet places to stop whenever possible but have spent many nights at interstate rest stops. There are lots of stores other than Wal-Mart that allow overnight parking. Stop and ask. If they have a big parking lot they might agree. We even got permission to park at a small strip mall in California about closing time one night on the condition that we would be gone before opening time.

[DoggyDaddy]

Some additional places to stay for free or low cost are the parking lots and RV Parking w/hook-ups

located at clubs and fraternal organizations that you belong to such as the VFW, American Legion, Lions, Moose, and BPOE (Elks).

In addition if you have a military ID Card (Active, Reserve, Dependent,Retired, 100% DAV, or DoD) you will find Military Campgrounds very nice. Their prices at the fuel pump are lower and the MWR Travel Office offers discount tickets to places in the area.