The Most Popular way – Work a few months – Save your Money

We found over the years that many people work a few months throughout the year to have traveling money. This seems to be common to do and gives them spending money. They live cheaply, but this doesn’t mean that they go without. We have no bills- no credit card bills, and just a few bills for necessities – (insurance, cell phones, and my internet!). Other than that, we have no recurring bills. Usually what we do while we are working is pre-pay the bills so that while traveling – we don’t have to dip into savings for these things.  We try to spend on things only when we have income coming in and it’s on sale. We can’t do this with everything, but we do it quite often.

While working we also stock up on things that we need. We purchase extra toothpaste, shampoo, and other things that we will need while traveling. These things are small and can travel with us, while not taking up a lot of space.  While at stopovers- you can take the time to read the papers – see the sales, get coupons and take advantage of these saving.

Doing Odd Jobs:

Since when I am working – I do body work, when we stop for awhile and work – I will purchase a cheap project car to restore. I then fix it up, then take it to a car show and sell it. This can net me several thousand dollars profit that we can use to travel. While this is what I do,

Others will:

- do odd jobs in construction- building things for others, painting boats, RVs,

- fix things – one guy I know does electrical work on boats – he is always in demand.

- One lady does crafts and goes to craft stores and sells her things. Since she has limited room, she only takes samples and some few of the items to sell, the rest is special orders.

- One lady (and we do too) has websites that she gets residual money from every month. She gets money every month from advertisers whether she works on her sites or not.

- Several people we have met still eBay for cash. They will pick up things at thrift stores and resell.

- We have met people who write online and make money to have that extra cash.

-One lady writes greeting cards and sells them online

This is just a small sample of how people make money while on the road or boating that we have came across.

The one thing that they all have in common is that they live lives to the fullest, yet don’t invest in material things just for looks. While we all seem to spend money as necessary, the money is for us to travel and enjoy lives. Some don’t even own a car if they live on a boat, they have bikes.

So let me help you think of ways you can earn money on the road.  Here are some questions you can ask yourself about earning money while traveling. You won’t want to “bank on these ways, but instead use this money as bonus money”.

1. What is your Hobby? Can your hobby “travel” with you? (You may not have room for big equipment like a table saw)… Can you make money from your hobby? Are others willing to pay for it? Who could you sell your products to? (People who live in boats and RV usually won’t spend money on decorative things so you will have to find other places to sell those items, we will however spend money on useful things).

2. Do you like to write? You can write a book on your journey, sell articles online, make your own websites and earn money with advertisers; we have gone several weeks just from income from writing. One thing though – if you depend on it as a fulltime income, you could burn out. Sometimes it’s hard to get the creative juices flowing when you want to be out doing something else.

3. Do you mind selling, packing and describing things? You could buy things, and resell on EBay. This can produce good money for just a few hours of work each day. Make sure that you have the room to hold the items till you ship them. Some of the things that we have sold on eBay weren’t even ours. We sold them for others – and got a cut of the profit. One word of caution – always check out what they tell you about the item you will be listing against the actual item. It’s your name you’re using on eBay and your reputation.

4. What are your skills – like buying then selling cars? Depending on the amount of money you get from reselling used cars here and there, you could make this a fulltime income, with very little work. (well it could be allot of work, but it’s not a fulltime job – you can complete a car in just a few weeks).

5. Can you repair things? Maybe you’re a whiz at repairing laptops, radios and other electronics. You can purchase cheap things, and fix then resell.

Other ways to earn some money while traveling in your RV or boat. Are you staying a few months in one place? Maybe the campground or marina will need someone to clean, paint, or do some kind of work there. While working your fulltime job, you could do a part time work at the place your staying. We cleaned the bath house at one place we stayed; we didn’t get paid but got free rent while we did it. For us that was like getting paid.

So now once you figure out some ways that you can earn money on the road or boating, you will have to create a plan of action. You will want to maybe jot down several ways that you think you could make your “play” money while traveling. Then think about ways that you can do it.

HERE ARE SOME USEFUL LINKS THAT YOU MAY WANT TO CHECK OUT THAT WILL HELP INSPIRE YOU.

Writing and Get Paid –

Associated Content – You can write and get paid up to $20 for one article. It’s free to join, and easy to do. Write 400 words and more articles and they can pay you for it. You also can submit video’s and get paid. They will pay you with PayPal when you have articles approved. This is an easy way to earn extra money if you like to write.  You choose the topics and write! We use this lot to make money – they pay on Mondays and Wednesdays if they have approved and accepted our articles, we have been with them for 3 years now, and they have never missed a payday for us.

The Content Authority:  They will tell you what to write about then pay you for articles.

Blogs and Websites:

Start your Own Blog or Website. This site is an example of a blog. We update it frequently, and if you notice there are ads on the blog.  We signed up with Commission Junction, Ebay Partner Network, and Google Adsense. When someone clicks on an ad – or purchases something – we make a commission. It’s quite simple.  You write what you know about – and get paid when someone does something on your website that the advertiser wants them to do. Each one is different. The website costs us about $10 at a year, www.GoDaddy.com and web hosting is just a few dollars a month at IXWebHosting.Com:$3.95/mo – Superior Service with Excellent 24/7 Toll Free Support, Live Chat, and Email. Linux AND Windows packages!!! .  With the hosting we can have as many sites as we want.  So we have several sites that we have online and make commissions from them. We don’t have to update them daily, we have the all set up using WordPress (which is usually part of the hosting company’s features) and we can blog.

How to learn how to make money with websites:

There are several good websites that I learned from – One is Keyword Academy. They have a 30 day trial to learn everything and it’s only $1 to get started. If you follow their directions, you will make money online using their techniques.  This site tells you exactly how to do it, and even a forum that you can learn more from.  They will give you ideas on what keywords to look for when you start a site, and how to set up a website. I have been doing websites for several years, and still I have learned much more from this site than I ever knew. It has helped me increase my money, no fluff, no bull, just straight forward information that works!

Ebay:

You have to have an ebay account to be a seller. You can get your ebay account here: Sign up with eBay

Selling Crafts :

Esty is one place to sell crafts online. If you can make your crafts quickly you can make them as the orders come in.

Selling T-shirts and other things with photos, designs and sayings can be sold at Zazzle, CafePress, and Lulu.com. You can make calendars, books, photo books, and even download full resolution photos and make money.  Why do we like this? You don’t have to have inventory. We upload our designs once and when someone orders they ship, print and do it all, and send you the commission! And we have online stores opened 24/7 with no maintenance. And it’s free.

Buying and selling Project cars:

You can find these cars on eBay, craigslist, or our favorite on the side of the road.  Buy them and fix them up, clean them up and then resell them for a profit.

Find Work From Home Websites:

Here you will learn how others are making money from home. Sure you won’t be able to do everything that they are because your mobile, but they will give you great ideas on how to earn money from home and you can adapt them for what you need. Many of these are inspiration for you.  There are many websites out there that you can learn from,

Learn how others work for themselves and make money at Entrepreneur Magazine Online you will be inspired at ways that you can make money, and it’s a great place to start when brainstorming to make money and still enjoy your freedom of traveling!

There are many other ways that you can earn money while being on the road traveling. Take time to brainstorm and you will find ways that you can earn additional money without hitting into savings for the fun things that you want to do without spending your bankroll.

Cooking-

Boats don’t have full kitchens in a sense. They have the basics but you don’t have a whole lot of space to spread things out to make a huge meal for people. It seems that we cook simpler on the boats than we did on land, in a huge kitchen. But most adjust to that well. You can’t have the hot water tank on when cooking without throwing a breaker, so you have to know where the breakers are so you can shut off the hot water tank to cook. It used to bother me, but now it’s normal. We do have a small cook top, 3 burners, and a convection/microwave oven.

Since everything is electric you usually cannot run both at the same time when you have heat or air conditioner on without tripping the breaker. Summers are easier to cook; we grill outside a lot with the neighbors. It’s great to be outside throwing some hot dogs and burgers on the grill, and everyone just grabs it off the grill, no plates needed and we have a great time eating with everyone at a casual dinner. In warmer months we cook outside more than we do inside.

We do have a semi-full size refrigerator. We replaced the compact refrigerator which was dorm sized and had the freezer which held like 2 ice cube trays with a small refrigerator that has a separate freezer. We can keep everything we need in there, but must shop weekly to keep the freezer filled; you don’t have much room for more than 1 week of food.

When we go shopping, the first thing that we do is remove the boxes from the packages. There simply isn’t room in the freezer for boxes; you can fit the items in, but not th bulky packages.

Small Kitchen Appliances –

Can openers, coffee makers, blenders, mixers and The George Foreman Grill are some of the items that we have. As you can imagine we have no counter space, these are all stored in a cabinet under the sink and brought out only when needed. I find that I don’t use the electric can opener as much as I use the hand held one that is in the drawer with the silverware. It’s just easier to use the manual can opener then to dig under the sink for the item that you need. That to us is a major pain, but we do it. Plus we are so aware of electric usage that we try not to use much electric so we don’t have to shut off other things. It’s common for us to just have on what we absolutely need.

Doing Dishes:

To wash dishes, you have to plan ahead. Since our hot water tank doesn’t stay on all the time, you have to give the water time to heat up. We know that it takes about 30-45 minutes to have enough hot water to do dishes. So usually after we are finished cooking we turn on the hot water tank to heat up water to do dishes. Since we only have 12 gallons of hot water it doesn’t take long to do that. And we usually don’t have many dishes to wash after dinner anyhow. We have the 2 full size sinks that make doing dishes easier and quicker.

While we may not eat big gourmet meals anymore, we do eat better. We eat more fresh foods, and lighter meals. We usually don’t go out to dinner anymore as we are more comfortable eating at home in our “cozy” little kitchen. We have only the things that we need here, we don’t have a lot of cooking pans, pots, and extras that were never used anyhow in a bigger house and we don’t miss them at all.

After awhile you will get used to turning off hot water tanks to cook and it will become normal life to you too if you live on the boat or in a RV fulltime.Adu

What should your motor home have so that you can travel in Comfort? One of the things that you want in a motor home is a way to cook. You will want to make sure that you have a refrigerator and a stove/oven.  While you may be grilling outside, for rainy days and late night snacks, this is a must. Even if you don’t have an oven, you will want a microwave as a way to prepare food inside. You will need a working refrigerator to keep things cold, this is especially true if you have medication that will need refrigerated. But even if you don’t plan on cooking much in your motor home, you will still want cold drinks and your refrigerator may even have a freezer part, where you can make ice cubes.

Showers are another thing that you will want.  After a day of driving and sightseeing you will want to get a nice hot shower to help your relax and prepare for the following day. A private shower and bathroom will be a necessary thing in your motor home. You will want to make sure that you have a working toilet in your motor home, for long extended trips you will need it, and it will save you time from stopping along your route. Most of the RV parks you stop at will have a bathroom and a shower that you will be able to use, but after visiting some of them, and rating their cleanness, you will be grateful that you have your own private shower and bathroom in your motor home.

Sleeping areas are important also. You will want to make sure that you have ample room to stretch out and sleep. Since you will need a good night’s sleep to have a great trip, you will want to make sure it is comfortable for you. Make sure that before you purchase a motor home that you lay down and see that the sleeping area will be long enough for you, and that you feel you will be able to get a good night’s sleep.  You will probably be tired at the end of the day, this is helpful if you have space to have a bed already made up and you won’t need to rearrange your motor home to open up your bed.

Most motor homes or RV’s will have much more than just these basic needs. You may have a television where you can watch the weather channel in the area that you’re in, and maybe a stereo throughout the whole motor home. But you will want to make sure that before you get more than the basics. Nothing feels better than a shower after a hot day and some motor homes will even have tubs.
Before you go motor home shopping you will want to narrow down your list of exactly what you want to have in a motor home so that you don’t waste your time looking at RV’s that won’t fit your needs.

The answers to these questions usually are yes. Some states will require you to take a safe boaters course before you go boating, while some states have some laws requiring younger children to take courses. Each state is different with what courses you need to take.  There is really no boat license test that is general to take for most states, but some states do have laws about what you need to pass and learn before going boating.

While I have been around boats all my life, my wife hasn’t been. She was determined to learn something about boating before we bought a boat, so she took a course online that was free, that gave her the material and the questions that she needed and got a certificate for taking and passing the course. There was 75 questions that she had to pass to get the certificate. It was free, she printed off her certificate and she was excited about knowing something about boating after taking the course. It makes it easier for us to be on the water with her having a better understanding about boating laws, and safety around boating.  There was no boating school near where we lived, and doing it online was great for her, she was able to learn what she needed to know without attending to boating school.

This has everything that she needed to know to know the basics of boating. They give the courses in a way that she could take it from home and on her computer while still preparing for the boat purpose.

So you can take the online basic boaters education to get some background information on boating and even have a certificate that you can print to show that you passed the course. This is approved in several states so check out to see if you can benefit from it.

Of course there are other classes that you can take, some are offered at colleges, some are classes that give you actual hands on experience. If you have never been boating or sailing and think you would benefit from these classes then by all means sign up for a class that will give you hands on experience. This is great if both boaters are new at the sport and you will learn many great things, like safety, and it will help you be a safer, more experienced boater.

Even if you are a boater for several years on the rivers, and small lakes, yet you are thinking about taking a journey on a larger body of water, it may be useful to take a safety course prepared for your vessel. Sailing and boating are totally different with many aspects yet they are similar, you will need to know the differences to have a safe journey for you and your crew.

You may spend thousands of dollars on boating accessories, but none on courses and safety classes, while boating accessories may make your boat look great, it won’t help you much if there is an emergency that you need to know how to get out of a bad situation. Don’t underestimate safety when it comes to boating, just like driving a car, you need to know the rules of the waterways, and how to prevent accidents and get back to land safely.

To take the course that she took online that was free click here to go to that site and look over the course.

PR: wait… I: wait… L: wait… LD: wait… I: wait… wait… Rank: wait… Traffic: wait… Price: wait… C: wait…

How you can figure out what it will cost you to travel per month?

You can get a rough budget together to see about what it will cost you to travel for a month at a time. Then you will just have to multiply that by how many months you want to travel, and how much your budget it. Budgets can be very flexible, you can spend a lot or do it very cheap, this is totally up to you on how much you are and can spend while traveling.

The fixed expenses will be the insurance on the vehicle, the Motor Home payment, and certain bills like cell phones, satellite TV if you have that, and if you have a data card for internet access those are usually fixed expenses. These are usually the same amount every month. You may have other expenses that you have to pay monthly, such as health insurance, and other bills that you haven’t paid off. You will need to take all that into consideration and make that part of your budget.

Once you have the fixed bills figured out, then comes the tricky part of the budget.

The flexible costs of traveling.

These costs can vary greatly, and you may even have an emergency that will cost more than you expect. You may have a breakdown that will cut into your budget that you didn’t play for, and may cut your vacation short. The flexible spending part of your budget can be thrifty if you want it to be. We budget higher but try not to spend as much as we budgeted for. This part of your budget can make your trip longer or shorter depending on how much your flexible part is.

The items that are part of the flexible parts include food, eating out, entertainment – park entrance fees, sightseeing, gas, fuel, and maintenance, costs of parks at nights, incidentals, souvenirs, shopping and other unexpected expenses. As you can see this really depends on your personal preferences. Maybe you decided to go cheaper, and won’t go out to eat nightly; this will decrease your budget. You may want to go see movies but go during the cheaper matinee rates and sneak in your own popcorn so you don’t have to purchase it. There are many ways that you can cut your expenses here.

How we do it cheaply

We don’t go out to eat very often. Maybe once a month we will order pizza, other than that, we cook ourselves or eat at friends. That cuts down our food budget part. So we figure what we usually eat every week, made a detailed list of what we need to purchase monthly and add about 15% to that total so that we are covered for food. If we stop somewhere and find things on sale, we usually stock up if we can, and if room allows us to do that. Usually we stay under our food budget. While traveling you will probably find yourself eating fewer meals and eating lighter than you did at home. Some nights we are tired and only eat a bowl of cereal. We have a menu for the month with the items we need to purchase which then doubles as our shopping list. If we do eat out – we find specials, and eat buffet during the daytime hours where it’s cheaper. Usually we don’t eat at fast food restaurants, we found that they don’t fill you up very well, and they are expensive. We may stop at subway where we can save part of the foot long for lunch the following day.

Saving money on groceries

When we stop somewhere, I look up the store and see what they have on sale from the parking lot sometimes. Then I look online to see if there are any coupons that go with that product and print the coupons off online. This helps save money at the store. We eat very cheap, simple meals so that helps saving money on groceries. You may want to shop at a warehouse club once a month and get all your items, we stock up whenever we run low. There is no set times we go shopping.

Fuel costs:

This is very unpredictable. We have a set limit on how much we can spend for fuel each day. The key to this is being flexible. Someday we don’t go as far as we wanted to because we didn’t budget for the extra cost of fuel, those are the days where we seem to find the best places to visit. We don’t have a set schedule of where we need to be day to day, so being flexible can also help you budget your vacation. You will also want to take in consideration that going up mountains will use more fuel, so make that part of your budget too. We could put more fuel in on the days where we are near or over budget for fuel, but instead we choose to stop. The other option would be to take from somewhere else in the budget and use it towards fuel.

Campground costs:

we try to stay free as much as possible. If we are stopping for the night, we will try to stay at rest stops, Wal-Mart’s, and other store parking lots. Truck stops are good to stop at with plenty of spaces to park for the night. We usually only stay at campgrounds and RV parks if we are staying somewhere a few days. WE always ask for discounts when staying at an RV park for more than a week. They will usually have a weekly rate and a monthly rate. It never hurts to ask for a discount. Especially if it’s a mom and pops RV park, you may get a discount. After all, it’s all about saving money when traveling.

Maintenance:

This includes belts, oil changes, and other items that we will need to maintain the motor home. We carry extra parts such as belts, fuses, and other things we think may break and we would need to replace. We also carry enough oil and supplies to do 2 oil changes if necessary. This doesn’t take much room and gives us peace of mind. This part of the budget would also include getting the vehicle repaired if necessary. We try to keep things up on the motor home to avoid repair costs, but sometimes things happen.

About Health Insurance:

This is a personal choice for us to carry health insurance. I’m kind of a klutz. I can hurt myself doing the simplest things. So we carry it. We carry the insurance just for emergency; we don’t have doctor visits that we would really use, because of the higher co-pay on that. If we have to visit a doctor, we just have to pay cash when we go there. We also have to pay for prescriptions which make the insurance affordable for us. We actually only carry it for the major catastrophic medical part of it. You may feel comfortable without medical insurance; this is a personal choice that you will have to make.

AAA

We do carry AAA for the motor home, this is incase we need towed in somewhere and this will cover it for the most part. This is inexpensive and due yearly but gives us peace of mind. We also carry sea-tow for the boat for the same reason. We use our AAA card to get discounts at places also.

Internet costs:

Since I work online I need reliable internet. This is a must for us. We have a data card that runs us about $50 a month. But with that card, I can get online just about anywhere I can get cell phone service. This is something that you don’t have to have, but if your need your internet, you will want to add this into your budget.

Satellite:

You can get satellite TV that you can take with you on the road. This cost would vary depending on your package. We choose not to get the Satellite, we watch what we want to online at places like Hulu.com, and others and we have a cable that will hook up to the TV and we watch it on the TV. Usually when we watch TV shows online, we will use the connection of where we are staying and try not to use the card for this. For us the data card doesn’t work very well for streaming video. This is one way that you can lower your budget by not getting TV, and watching what you need online. Many times local newstations will have their whole newscasts broadcasted live.

Other things that you may want to budget for:

Entertainment costs: How often will you go out and have to pay entrance fees? Will you go to Amusement parks? Movies? Shopping? Take all these into consideration when making your budget.

Toll Roads: You may have to spend money for tolls.

Hobbies: You may have a hobby that you will spend money on.

These are just some things to consider what you will need to budget for.

The best advice we can give you is to overestimate on repairs and maintenance, leave room in the budget for the unexpected, and have a few months’ savings as a cushion all the time. Make a budget, figure your costs, and just do it. You will not regret it, and you will have the time of your life.

To get more space on your boat or RV invest in some storage bins. You can buy these in many different sizes and with the lids, they can become water proof to a certain extent and are great to hold paperwork, clothes that you aren’t wearing and other things such as food.

We use storage bins for storing food. We have the shoebox size storage bins for storing things like rice, spaghetti, and other things that you don’t want left opened to spill. We take everything out of the box when we get it inside, and place many of the things in plastic Ziploc bags then into the storage bin. The shoe box size containers are clear, and I tape a note card to the front of it so that I can see what is in the container not only by seeing through it, but by what is on the card. These are perfect size for spaghetti noodles, lasagna noodles, and other pasta products. You can fit quite a bit in each box. When traveling in your home away from home, these products are safe from spilling and stores nicely. You can fit many things in these shoe box size storage bins.

The next thing that we use for storage is shelving units. We added some shelving units in the storage locker, and on the storage shelves we put on more storage bins, here we use the storage bins for makeup, medicine, and other personal items. Again with the bins being clear we can fit a lot in and see what is in there. Moving around doesn’t scatter these items and makes it really easy for keeping everything in its place.

Bigger storage bins – We use bigger storage bins to hold clothing we’re not wearing at this time, and extra clothing that we need. To can fit a lot of clothes in a storage bin, no matter what size if your roll the clothes and stack them. Folding them takes more room then rolling them. You can also use storage bins to hold papers and documents. These again come in different sizes and shapes. Always find one with the lid so that it stacks better.

Storage bags – These are great for bigger fluffier items like pillows, comforters and blankets and sheets. We use these to place the items in then suck out the air to make them flatter. Sometimes we are successful and can store them right under the mattress, and still sleep on them without ever noticing. Our maps and charts are sealed in storage bags and slid under cushions inside when not in use. The plastic bags protect the items and they are always handy when we need them. You don’t have to purchase storage bags – you can use garbage bags, and with a hose from a vacuum you can suck the air out with the same results. While the garbage bags won’t be as durable as the storage bags, for many things it works just as well.

Kitchen Storage

Items in the kitchen can present a challenge. You need to get to most of the things in the kitchen frequently, and you probably don’t have much space in the kitchen anyhow. So you have to usually take the items out of the boxes and containers and have them stored in different ways.

When you open the cabinets in our kitchen you will usually see hooks on the doors inside. These are for cleaning rags, and we hang long utensils there. They don’t get in the way of closing the door, but these items don’t really fit anywhere else. We have spices on a spice rack that we have hanging on the inside of the door. While it doesn’t look real pretty when it’s opened, it’s stored for easy access to using the items.

Rubbermaid and Tupperware storage containers.

Tupperware and Rubber maid have some great storage solutions. We have cereal containers for the cereal that will keep food fresh. We use these for rice, and other things, such as instant potatoes, flour and sugar. There are ways to get these containers cheaper by recycling. We drink a lot of grape juice and other juices that come in nice plastic containers that have lids. These can be reused to store items such as sugar, and flour also. They will again not look real pretty but are very useful.

If you want to repackage things in Ziploc bags, then use a plastic storage bin to hold the stuff in. When I take out my Mac and Cheese, I place them in a Ziploc bag and put in the cheese sauce pouch in the same one, then lay them in a plastic storage container. They stack nicely, and even if I buy the noodles with the sauce mix already in, I do the same thing. I mark the outside of the bag with a marker showing the date and what the item is. If I need the directions to cook the item, I place that in a smaller Ziploc bag and put it in the bigger Ziploc bag with the ingredients. (Which is what I do when I repackage Bisquick).

Inside the cabinets

If you have to have coffee mugs add hooks to the top of the cabinet so that you can hang the cups and not take up extra room.

We have several bowels with lids that are stackable. These were picked up at the dollar store and work well.

We hang some of our pots under the sink, they are lined up along the side walls, and the skillet doesn’t take much room, but the pans, we have the smaller one inside the bigger one and that saves space for us.

We have a storage shelf inside one of our cabinet for cans. We can double the storage of cans by doing it that way. Since we have no counter space to speak of, all of our items are stored under the counter. This would be the toaster, George Forman, and other things. We also use the oven to store some things.

Most of our food is stored out of site in the storage closet in the plastic bins.

When we are on the boat and need to mix something up, we use the trick that Bisquick make us aware of. They have the pancakes in the plastic bottle that you just add water. We bought one of them, and then just reuse that container to mix up a lot of things. It has a pouring spout and you put in your dry ingredients, then add water and shake. It is easy to do and cuts down on the mess. It’s a great idea that we use on the boat.

When it comes to storage, you have to get creative and learn how to store things in places that may seem crazy if you living in a house but on a boat or in a RV it just works for these places. The easiest way to get things stored is to buy plastic storage bins and storage bags and start packing things away.

She went through the clothes and chose enough clothes for 2 weeks, and then she added a few extra shirts. The rest of the clothes went into a storage bag that she could suck out the air and condense down and was able to store on the boat. This was a solution that she still had different outfits to wear, and even though she has more shirts than dress pants she still has the variety of clothes to wear. She added a second rod in the locker so that she could hang her shirts on top, and her pants on the bottom under the shirts giving her “double” the space that she had. This not only gave her more room, but also she didn’t have to iron every day. She found that when she had to iron, it not only took extra time, but something had to be turned off and that irritated her after awhile. Now after she does laundry, she hangs the clothes and it doesn’t need ironed, maybe just a quick touch up.

She had a shoe rack built that comes up a few levels and that is what the pants-rod hooks into, so under the shirts, she has the shoe rack, and then the pants and skirts right beside the shoes. This gives her half of the locker more room to store her work clothes. And gives me my space back. Since my job I can wear jeans and Tee shirts daily, she didn’t care if my clothes were cramped, but hers is a different story. She does have her “play” clothes slowly taking over my side but it’s not as bad as it was. I still have room for my stuff.

On the boat we have an opened box of Arm and Hammer in there to capture odors that moisture can produce. When we go during the day we open the locker doors slightly so that air circulates during the day. We found that it keeps our clothes from smelling musty from it being damp and colder at night. Since our lockers are in the side of the boat and the only thing that protects it from the outside is just fiberglass.

Other options that we have seen on other people’s boats and RV’s is where they added an extra rod over a spare bed that they hung their clothes on, to us that just looks messy and it would drive us both crazy seeing the clothes out all the time, we found that we wear the same clothes all the time, whether to work or on weekends so the rest were occasional clothes that we have in storage bags and we can still get them when we need them, but for the most part them are out of the way from everything else.

Creative storage on the boats or RV’s is a must. Some things just aren’t in logical places. We are fortunate that we have an extra room that once was a second bathroom that has been converted into all storage. We have our small freezer in there, and we added some shelves which gives us nice walk in  storage area. We could add rods in there for extra storage, but with the things that we have in there, there just isn’t enough room for the rods. We keep food in there that don’t fit in the kitchen cupboards and extra cushions when we’re not using them. One of the best things that we have is a plastic bin with a lid. This keeps all our papers, books and documents dry and moisture free. It’s packed in such a way that we crammed a lot of things in there, but they are not crumpled. To move that plastic tote, we would have to unpack it first, as it would be too heavy to move with it packed. But it keeps what we need safe from damage. If we really had to we could put this outside when we are tied up or stopped for a few months. Since it has personal information, we don’t want to do that. But we could if we had to.

The one thing that we found that we absolutely need is the plastic storage bags. These can be shaped to fit in odd spaces and removing the air can make some of them flat and stackable. They must be clear so that you can see what is in them and you would be surprised at how much you can fit into each bag.

Doggy Day Cares, Kennels and Boarding

Maybe you feel the same way, accidents can happen on board, or in an RV and there is no one to help them get out in case of emergency. For what we pay for doggy daycare, it’s worth it to know that she is not alone and someone is taking care of her. Some towns don’t have doggy day cares for your pets, so we have her boarded at a local vets office. For $8 a day, she is being watched and taken care of. We drop her off in the morning on the way to work, pick her up on the way home.

Animals,  like children love to explore new places with their parents, but if they are left alone, they get anxious and nervous and start to worry that they were abandoned. Our dog loves to be with us, and ever since she was a puppy we never really left her alone. She doesn’t like to be alone. Now she does like to be left alone at times but she has to be able to see us when she has her alone time.  We did try to leave her alone once on the boat while we went outside, and she managed to escape and swim across the marina to where we were at. So that was the only time we tried.

Making arrangements to board your pet at a kennel or doggy day care can easily be done with the search of the town that you are in, and where you will be staying. Even if we want to do something for a day that she can’t go with us, we call ahead of time and find a vet or kennel to keep her for the day. Mostly though, we plan our activities around places where we can take her with us.

Dogs and Boating: Making Potty Runs

While we are out boating, and not near land for a few days, we use puppy training pads for her to use the bathroom. We did try the artificial grass for her to use the bathroom, but that was messy and didn’t work well for us. we found the puppy pads are easy to clean up and easy for her to use. We don’t use them in the RV since we can always take her out, but boating is different. Sometimes we anchor out for a few days and can not get her off the boat. so we have to find alternatives for her to use the bathroom. We found that these are the most easiest way to solve her potty problems.

Cats are easy to take along with you. They have no problems using the kitty litter box, but with dogs, you have to take the time to train them to use the potty pads. It didn’t take our dog long to learn to use it. After all she may like boating, but she doesn’t like water, so she doesn’t have much choice when we anchor out.

Food:

We always carry dog food with us, since both of our homes are movable, we solved the problem of food being thrown everywhere out of her bag. We usually purchase 20 pounds at a time of her dog food, which will take her about a month to eat. Well she won’t eat it if it’s stale, and we solved both of these problems by putting it in gallon size Ziplock bags. When we get her food home, we automatically divide it up into Ziplock bags and seal them so that she will always have fresh dog food, and we no longer have the problem of food being scattered when the vehicles are moving. We also keep a gallon of water in a jug just in case of emergencies for her.

Taking your pets with you for the Day:

We have a little doggy pack that we take with us when we take her out with us. While we are prepared to go for a day, many people don’t think about preparing their dogs for the day of sight seeing, and traveling. Dogs need water during the day too. while you may pack water for yourself, do you think about taking it for your dogs? In her doggy pack, we have a copy of her recent vaccinations, rabies shots, and emergency contact numbers (which are our cell phones in case she gets lost).We keep paperwork in a Ziplock bag.  Her dog tag also has our cell phone numbers on incase she gets lost.  We freeze water for her before we go out, and pack that in her pouch, we take her dog food, and a collapsible dog food bowl, one for water and one for food.  This way if we can’t get to water for her, we always have cold water for her as the day goes on, the ice will melt and keep it cold for her.  We take her medication and some emergency supplies incase she gets hurt. It usually isn’t much, but some sealed medication in case she gets bit or something cuts her. We have never needed to use this, but her little doggy pouch doesn’t take much room in our backpacks and gives us peace of mind.

Taking your pets with you will make everything better. While they may keep you from doing certain things, we would be lost without our dog. Before taking your dog on your trips, think about what modifications you will need to make to make the trip more comfortable for them also.

Ahhh.. The 30 amp dilemma. With only 30 amps you can’t run everything at once. You can only run a few things at a time without popping the circuits. So you have to choose. We have 2 electric heaters on the boat and a heat-pump. If we tried to use them all at once it would pop the breaker. So we invested in a propane heater and since that doesn’t take electric at all we can run it when we have the electrical stuff on. Works well. The propane tank is outside and we run a hose inside to the little heater. We choose the Mr. Heater propane heater, where we can use the 1 pound propane cans if we need to take it outside with us and can’t bring the big bottle of propane with us.

Electric heaters and electric usage

Electric heaters use a lot of power. So while some nights when we have both of them on, (we very seldom use the heat pump that is on the boat) we have to turn off other electrical appliances. The heaters and the microwave cannot be on at the same time.  So when we are cooking both heaters have to be off. The hot water tank can’t be on when the heaters are on.  The hot water tank has to be off to use the microwave. So it’s just a matter of learning what you can run at the same time. We have become very aware of what appliances use the most electric and adjusted our living to work with that fact.

We also have to keep in mind which side of the boat has what plugged in. You don’t want everything plugged in on the same time on the same side. We can’t plug both the heaters in on the same side of the boat; it too would blow a circuit. Heaters have to be turned off to use an iron, or a hair dryer if you are using the hair dryer on the same side of the boat. (Learned by experience).

During the summer we have the same problems with the air conditioning on, you simply cannot run everything at the same time.  But we very seldom cook inside during the summer months. So cooking inside has been a learning curve. Living on a boat is a huge learning curve. We have everything that we really need and it’s really not a problem for us, but when you move onto a boat from a larger house, you realize all the things that you don’t need. We have the basics that will keep us happy and we’re fine. We don’t have electric blankets anymore, but we have enough heat to keep us warm. While the floors of the boat get a little cold, nothing can’t be corrected by putting on a pair of socks.

But winter on a boat hasn’t been all that bad. Once we got the heat working well to keep us warm, it’s just like living on a boat during nicer weather. With the colder weather we do start the engines more to make sure that everything has been working well with them.

Why don’t we use the heat pump more? Well its an older boat, and repairing major things that go wrong will be expensive. So instead of taking the chance to have it go bad, we choose to just not use it, and instead use electric heaters that will do the same job. The electric heaters heat it well, and with the propane heater it keeps all the cabins warm enough for us. Now if we could only figure out how to keep the propane from running out in the middle of the night we will be set.

The electric bill:

Our electric is included in the slip rent. So we really don’t know the total bill for electric. But with using only 30amps at a time total and we’re gone the majority of the day where we turn off everything except the refrigerator, we don’t think it is much per month.

So what can you run at once with 30 amps of service?

Our refrigerator is always on, the battery charger is always on. Those things never change.  Then we have my computer which is a desktop here, and we have the cable modem on too. We have 2 electric heaters, 2 TV’s one cable box on most of the time usually. We can run small appliances like a can opener when these things are on.

If I need to turn on the hot water tank, I will need to turn off one of the small electric heaters till I turn off the hot water tank. If I need to use the microwave/oven I will need to turn off the hot water tank and both heaters if they are on. Now while the oven is on, I can run the can opener for about 30 seconds before it blows the circuit breaker, but you really don’t need to run it longer than that anyhow.

Believe it or not with only 30 amps of service at a time you can run a lot of electrical things without blowing the circuit breakers. We know when we hear the buzzing sounds from the circuit breaker box that we have too much on and that it’s going to blow the circuit so we hurry and turn something off.

So we have learned that even with 8 inches of snow on the ground we can still be comfortable inside and nice and warm. Would I want to do this every winter? nope I don’t think so. I don’t like getting on the dock from the boat knowing that it’s icy, but as long as it doesn’t last long on the ground, it will be ok.

Well we have an older boat that will have to have every inch gone over before we make such a long journey. We don’t plan on staying in marinas on the bay most nights so we have to rethink electric options if we don’t want to run the generator all night, and then we have other things to get ready.

The first thing we are doing is planning the provisioning of food. So what’s the easiest way to do that?

What we found was to write down what we eat on a normal month. We want to have about 1 month worth of food, even though we will be able to stop and get groceries, we can plan better if we have a list. Plus we want to buy as much as we can before we go. We don’t plan on eating out, but making our meals on the boat. We know that we do need to get a new grill as ours is on it’s last leg.

First thing we figure out is how much of non-food things will we need? Deodorants, shampoos, toothpaste etc. Then we start stocking up on these things now, and store them. This way we have what we need when we are ready to go. Since I love the dollar stores, we can get name brand items cheaper doing it this way. I frequent these stores often. I can stock up on alot of the items I need just from the dollar stores.

We won’t get the actual food till closer to departure time. But we have the list. If there is something on the list that goes on sale, yes we will buy it. We will stock up on Ziploc bags though now, so that we can store the food in. Also at the dollar store I have started to stock up on clear boxes with lids, these are shoe box size that will fit neatly in my closet that I can put the ziploc bags in after I take them out of the packages. I am usually able to fit quite a bit in these bags and not worry about the added weight on the boat.

Since we have the freezer we have researched what we can buy that will freeze. Most cheeses you will be able to freeze if you are baking or cooking with them. Sliced cheese that are wrapped will keep in the fridge for many months.

Food and provisioning the boat is only one part of the preparation to get ready.

We want to get inverters for the fridge and the freezer and get them hooked up. Since we will have so much food, we want them running during the travels so that food don’t spoil. I would also like to have the inverter hooked up to the computer and the TV so that we don’t have to run the generator at night. So we are researching this to find the proper size that we need and then get that hooked up. Since we will be doing everything ourselves, we need to start a few months in advance.

Next we need to get some upholstery work done. And our central A/C unit went out. So that needs fixed before we go. Then there is the engines. We need to replace things on them, get them ready to go. We also have arrangements to pull the boat out of the water in February so that we can get the bottom painted. We also have to do some work on the dinghy.

So as you can see there are many things that you need to do before taking a long boat journey. Since we will be living on the boat while doing this, we are going to stay on during the winter months and get done as much as we can so that we can leave in the spring.

We don’t plan on staying in marina on the bay so we need to get the books and charts that we need to find the best places to anchor out each night. Since we have had some medical problems this summer we had reduced pays due to being out of work for weeks at a time after surgery, so we are going with a limited budget.

If you have to go with a limited budget, you will learn that living on the boat is cheaper for most people, and giving you more opportunity to save more money for your trip. Planning ahead will also allow us to save money while going for the summer. We don’t want to have to spend all the money as we will want to come back with a kitty. We will pay up our bills for the summer before we go, so that we don’t have to have the monthly bills. The lifestyle that we lead so far means that we have no credit card debt, or other monthly debt outside of insurance and cell phone bills. This makes it easier for us that we don’t have to worry about income for a few months.

So how are we budgeting for the trip?

We figure our biggest expense will be fuel. We know how much we want and can spend on fuel each week. This gives us an idea of how far we can go each week. What happens when we use our fuel budget up for that week? We will probably stop and wait till the next week, who knows.

Do we have any plans or pressing engagements that we have to be at? Nope, we pretty much have an opened schedule.  If we have to stop and stay cause of weather, not a problem for us. We have DVD’s and Internet service (thanks to the Data Card) that we don’t care.

While we only plan on taking a month’s worth of food, we will have staples that we will take that we will only have to purchase some food along the way. Once you take the food out of the packages, you will be able to store a whole lot more food in very little space.

So the breakdown is:
Fuel- Food- Marinas. If we find a cheap marina on Chesapeake Bay, we will probably stay at that place a week or 2 then go explore. We know that we can’t do many things because we have a dog that limits our exploring.  But the Bay is halfway between our families and we will be able to have visitors come and visit with us. We will have to walk places or rent a car, but with a dog, again we’re limited to what we can rent as many places won’t allow dogs in their vehicles. So we won’t have to worry about that added expense.  If we want a vehicle, one of our family members can bring a vehicle to us. we will be storing the vehicle at their house.

While many people would be nervous about not having definite plans on where you will be every night, we look at it as an adventure. We know that we are grateful that we don’t have to go to work everyday and instead we can have fun for the whole summer no matter where we are.

So while we are getting ready for the journey, we learned that you do need lists, backup plans (we were going to do this over the past summer till one of us got injured and had to have surgery).  We would be lost without the lists, this is what makes sure that your boat journey or other vacation is fun but most of all safe. Without safety, you won’t be able to have fun at all.