April | On the Road | Overbudget…Again

We are happy to be back on the road this month after spending the first half of the month at home base, finishing up some projects and getting ready for the travel season. The plan is the East Coast through mid-July, then heading out West and let Fall/Winter chase us home, based on jobs and family plans. Our goal this year is to travel slower, spend at least 2 nights at a stop, when we can, and at least a week in an area. That should help keep us from being overbudget again!

We’ve had all the seasons this month, so propane was on budget, plus we’ve had hookups, so avoided additional fees for utilities. We spent a couple days in Savannah at Creekfire (check out Staying at Creekfire blog here), then onto Asheville to visit friends (blog coming out Sunday May 4th). We made a quick a visit to Mount Airy, the town Mayberry is based on and home of all things Andy Griffith (blog coming out mid-May). We had planned to stay at a friend’s in Virginia this week, but after issues getting parked, we had to pivot and ended up in Pennsylvania for the week (blog coming out mid-May). To get the blogs to your inbox when they go live, be sure to subscribe below!

Camping: $761 (budgeted: $300)
Propane: $22 (budgeted: $35)
Dump/water fees: $0 (budgeted $10)
Laundry: $0 (budgeted $10)

With the goal of moving slower, we are planning our travel more strategically, aiming for long travel days to be no more than 350 miles that day, and staying longer. We are also using our Open Roads membership to save money when we can–this month was nearly 10%! If you’re a diesel vehicle and want to save, check out our savings page here. We use the Open Roads app to find stations along our route, and we also have both a Love’s and RaceTrac membership that gives us reward points and incentives, too!

Travel miles: 1,184
Fuel/Def: $615 (budgeted: $750)
Open Roads savings for the month: $68.51

Before leaving, we had a few more things to take care of, these will finally be lower after this month and we can start replenishing this fund. We hit 100k miles on the truck, so had to do that maintenance, an oil change and tire rotation (check out the Maintenance Time,100k miles! blog here). We also got the bunk room modified for our growing teenager to be more of a flex space, which has been great with a bunch of teenagers hanging out and playing video games this month. We also added one more pet gate to our set up to give us a good space for Luna and our outdoor space. All that added up to another big month, but will level out for the year on budget.

Maintenance: $718 (budgeted: $200)

It’s been a healthy month, so no doctor’s trips for us meant no additional expenses, other than bills from last month and a visit to our favorite chiropractor before leaving. Ms. Luna needed her monthly food prescription and some replenished treats, and Lou grew AGAIN and needed some new shoes and clothes. Otherwise, a low-key month on this line item, for once.

Medical/Health & Life Insurance: $331 (budgeted: $360)
Personal Care: $45 (budgeted: $100)
Pet care: $123 (budgeted $150)

Just like everyone else, we are seeing food expenses go up, but we’ve also been making changes and experimenting with different things on my Celiac journey, as we try to find gluten free substitutes and healthier options. That has meant buying several types of ingredients to experiment with, better quality items, and an increase in budget as we narrowed things down this month.

Groceries/household items: $1014 (budgeted: $800)
Dining out: $254 (budgeted: $200)

We are using our annual passes as much as we can, or choosing things that are free, so this month we enjoyed a trip to Bok Tower in Lake Wales, FL, the North Carolina Arboretum in Asheville, as well as some hikes to waterfalls. We volunteered while there, filling donation boxes for ABCCM, and spent an afternoon at the Retrocade playing video games. We also enjoyed some time in Mayberry/Mount Airy and finally making good on a trip there from Luther’s birthday TWO years ago (the Andy Griffith Museum was the ONLY thing we paid for)! We also used our passes for the Hershey Museum and the Botanical Gardens while in PA this week. We had to replenish the toll pass, and we added some more music to our iTunes collection for that travel playlist.

Entertainment/Tolls & Parking: $159 (budgeted: $200)

No real change in the recurring expenses. We still have a surplus of items to restock blessing bags this month and no birthdays, just graduations this month! We did donate time this month at Asheville’s ABCCM, filling food donation boxes. We had 5 of us serve for 2 hours, so 10 hours of time to the community for the month (6 for our family).

RV Loan $939 (budgeted $939)
Technology $417 (budgeted $417)
RV/Truck Insurance: $327 (budgeted $327)
Donations/fees: $0 (budgeted $100)
Volunteer hours: 6
Gifts: $20 (budgeted $100)

Yes, we’ve noticed that we’ve been over the monthly budget every month in 2025 so far, but we think we are still on track for annual spending for maintenance. Camping expenses and food are the area to see if we need to do some budget adjustments, but will see how travel season plays out in the next month.

2025 March expenses: $5745 (budgeted $5039)

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