In an ongoing thread, the question is "How much does does it cost to snowbird"?
In retrospect, I am curious , and always have been, that when I read all these snowbird posts over the years, I am often quizzed by myself as to "How much do the snowbirds save by snowbirding"?
Roughly how much fuel, elec, water, tv cable, phone, etc,(or other cost) do you save by being away from your home, while snowbirding?
And do you have ideas that others could use to save a few bucks while doing it? Such as dropping the insurance on a car etc?
No, it doesn't save money. You still have to heat your house, your grocery bills will be about the same, you will be paying for the fuel to travel as well as the price of your winter destination. But that's obviously NOT why people snowbird.
We traveled south for the winter for twelve years and it was well worth the expense every single year. Escaping the cold & wet and getting relatively warm & dry. That's what it's about. Wish we could go now, but DH's health won't permit it.
2000 Born Free 24RB Class C
2002 Honda CR-V toad
Roadmaster Sterling A/T towbar
VIP braking system
Eddyline Merlin kayak
Folks don't snowbird to save money, except maybe fulltimers, they do it to save their sanity by escaping the cold winters. Like has been said, RVing is not a way to save money, it's a losing investment that folks choose to make.
If at first you don't succeed, skydiving is not for you!!!
As stated above the lifestyle alone makes it worthwhile.
As for savings we put the car into storage saving $70.00 per month for 5 months (350.00) Suspend the phone $40.00 x 5 (200.00) Turn down gas heat - nominal savings. Electricity savings - substantial - no plugging in vehicles. We figure our savings are around $700.00. We also buy a lot of meds in Mexico which saves us easily $2000.00 per year. Glasses & Dental every couple of years saves another grand or so. Fuel for vehicles about $1.00 per Gal cheaper. Our extera expenses in Yuma include Rent $1500.00, Fuel to get there $2000.00, Golf (really expensive compared to here but moot point because we can't golf during winter) $2300.00. Extended health coverage $1400.00. All told expenses $7000.00 and savings $3000.00. A 2 week winter vacation will set us back far more than the $4000.00 difference and we get to be out of the cold for 5 months.
Oh yea - a 1.14 of Scotch at home $40.00 - In Yuma a 1.75 is $13.00.
All figures quoted are approximate and yours will vary but I think you can see where I'm going with my rational.
Dave
I RV, I Golf - Therefore I Am.
'03 F250 Crew Cab 6L PSD
05 Cardinal 30TS - Custom Paint, TrailAir suspension & Pin Box, & lots more goodies
Onan Microlite 2.8 - with auto transfer
Mio C520 GPS Navigator
I don't save anything. I live on a working farm - I have to keep the utilities on at home AND pay someone to caretake the property and animals. Snowbirding isn't about saving money, it's about escaping the cold. Full timing may save over the cost of home ownership and the associated utilty, upkeep, taxes, insurance, and related costs. Plus, if you full time, your kids can't keep moving back in with you....
Turn heat down to 50 --- $90.00 a month
Very limited elect. use --- $60.00 a month
Cancel Newspaper --- $20.00 a month
Cable TV on Seasonal --- $25.00 a month
Home internet on suspend -- $40.00 a month
Phone on suspend --- $20.00 a month
Cancel Garbage pickup --- $30.00 a month
Cancel ins except comp 1 car - $45.00 a month
---------------
Total monthly savings $330.00 a month
Other possible savings:
Lower cost fruit & produce $40.00 per month
Dental work done in Mexico This can be huge
Lower costs for dining & entertainment. Significant
I personally feel that in our situation it costs very little more to snowbird than sit home in the cold.
But, we wouldn't be walking and bike riding up north as much as we do in FL. Maybe we save money on doctors????
FUEL- As far as heating an empty home, we set our temp. on 50. If it's 10 degrees and the wind is howling it wouldn't take long for the house to drop below freezing so we purchased TempertureGuard.
If the temp. drops below 45 degrees it calls 2 numbers and tells them the problem. We can also call the box and it will tell us what the temp. in our home is. This gives us peace of mind and saves A TON of money on fuel oil.
ELEC- We turn off the fridge. Have 3 18 watt fluorescent light bulbs on timers in different parts of the house. (I measured the wattage and they actually only draw 12 watts.) So, elec. bill is a lot less.
WATER- No water used so water bill goes down near 0.
CABLE- We use DirecTV and take our receiver with us with a portable dish so no additional cost.
PHONE- Bill stays the same. No savings.
Ed
[b/]2005 Sierra 2500 Duramax HD 4WD EXT Cab SLT
2006 Jayco Eagle 29RLTS
TTT Mirrors
Pullrite 16K Superglide
Garmin 7200 GPS
BrakeSmart
Mor-ryde Pin Box
60 gal. aux. fuel tank-toolbox combo
Porta-Bote- RV brackets on side of RV
and many more additions.
We would save lots of money if we stayed home all winter and occupied the house we heat 365 days a year, not to mention the $900.00 per year for medical travel insurance. We could count snow flakes instead of sand grains. Why do we do this? Because we can, for the time being anyway because it is not going to last forever.
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