Whenever the topic is on saving money on camping you inevitably hear someone say if they can afford a motorhome they can afford to pay whatever the cost and should not complain.

Unfortunately they lump us all into one group, and that is far from the truth.

I have seen some people look at our rig and say boy, did you pay 200,000. for that? LOL Not hardly I tell them, and occasionally I tell them exactly what we paid. Not a big deal to me.

But for us we still have a home and travel about 3 months to 5 months out of the year.
We kept one motorhome that we loved for 13 years before finally deciding to buy a new one.

We have a mortgage on our motorhome, so there is a need for us to watch our costs. For some reason people seem to think you just buy the motorhome and don't get a mortgage.

I think sometimes that those who run campgrounds think that all of us who have motorhomes are just loaded and should never take costs into consideration.

Lately I have started to think that having this new motorhome might not be worth the cost to us anymore. We will wait and see. We love to travel, but when you consider the monthly costs, plus the insurance costs, gas cost,and campground costs it is guite expensive. Also costs for yard work on our yard.

I know if we decided to sell our home and go full time it would be easier, but with the costs of homes increasing so much, my concern would be buying another home if we decided to stop motorhoming.

I just occasionally get really annoyed when people act like we could not possibly have a budget to stay within. Anyone else ever feel like this? I even see it on this forum at times, calling people tightwads when they don't want to pay for one thing or another.

mosqui51> I sorta answered this in a reply to your other posting here on the site, but I'll be more specific this time.

Let me put you in the other person's shoes for a sec. Have you driven into an upscale neighborhood where the houses were twice the cost of yours? What is the impression that you got about the people who owned them? Would they perhaps disagree with your impression?

How many liberals do you know who would dearly love to rob from the rich and pay the poor based on an assumption that a certain target is indeed rich? It is unfortunate, and I absolutely don't want to get political on this forum, but this country has forgotten what the American Dream is all about. Working your ass off to achieve a certain goal and then enjoying the pleasure of having done so.

May I respectfully suggest that you take what appears to be a negative and turn it around? Educate those with a pre-conceived idea about us "loaded" people. Let them know that a minute handful can afford to buy a million dollar tour bus but our's was absolutely no where near that. Also tell them that we sacrificed to make the dream possible and we are still sacrificing to hold onto it.

If that doesn't work, then you can say what I have occassionally said..."Sir, I started out with a tent and a two burner propane stove. I've worked my ass off for this. May I show you the inside?"

As far as the "tightwads" comment...have a little tolerance. Your blood pressure will be lower for it.

Well said RLM. Those are also my initials, just in a different order. We all make decisions on how we spend our money and I think most of us tend to save money where we can. I see half million dollar MH's in Wal-Mart parking lot all the time. When we stay in campgrounds, I almost never see any jealousy. Envy sometimes and a lot of questions. I see that we all are taking big depreciations now as the market falls apart due to gas prices, consumer confidence, and mortgage mess. Our plan is to just keep on keeping on and go on shorter trips.

RLM, you seem fairly direct and mostly to the point I think you might appreciate this, What ever happened to how I got this and how much I paid for it is none of anyone's business but mine. I see one of these rolling estates and my only comment is that sure is nice and I'm glad I don't have to put fuel in it. Personally I think it's pretty cool if a person can afford to build a custom MH and how they did it isn't any of my business, I'd offer them a beer as I would the guy pulling the tent trailer.

As always just my opinion,

Rodman> You have a secure grasp and understanding of what I call TOLERANCE. The world would be better off if more people also had it.

Lindsey> Nice destinction between envy and jealousy. And once in awhile, I have been envious of the tent camper who enjoys the basics of our life style without all the expense. A.K.A a tent and two burner propane stove.

Just a thought how many times has anyone seen a "half of a million$$$" rig in a true campground?? Yes I see them at Wal marts all the time but I hardly at all see any of them use a true campground and yes to agree with rodman be it a pup a TT a class A B or C or even a million dollar rig we are all the same and you can stop by anytime for a beer as I'll share with any fellow rver........I'm not jealous as I truly content with what I have and it's what works for me....Happy Trails

I have heard that comment many a time that I must have money. Yea right. Like that commercial, "I am in debt up to my ears". I sold my house and work as a volunteer to afford to be able to keep this motor home and keep on trukkin. Wish I could afford to throw it all to the wind and go site seeing like we thought we would be able to do. But in five or six years we will be out of debt and we can than enjoy ourselves and our little home. Than is if we can afford the price of gas by than. Have nothing else I can sell or get loans for to buy gas. LOL
When people say I must be rich I say yep, got a wonderful wife, a roof over my head, and wonderful children living in this country.
And if further comment is needed I said nope not really that the banks and credit card companys own everything we are just renting it from them.

I am about ready to give up. This is the 4th reply to this and when I get ready to post, it disappears. Each reply gets shorter and shorter so maybe you are the lucky ones

Anyway--we must remember that we have the rig we have because we want it and we can afford it. It does not matter what somebody else thinks. If they don't like it, that is THEIR problem.

There is absolutely no way to justify the cost of an RV, especially a high end one.

We have an RV to enjoy the lifestyle, not to save money.

When we walk out the door of the rig and go join our friends around the campfire, it does not matter if we came out of a pop-up camper or a high end coach. When we get to the campfire, we are all the same---just good folks enjoying the greatest lifestyle that there is.

Hopefully this will post this time

http://www.jerry-jurhee.blogspot.com/

I do not find myself envious of the tent camper in the hot of summer at the beach knowing the thunderstorm is rolling in. Then again I remember sleeping in the car too.

I remember my days as a tent camper. We had so much fun---but I was 30 years younger. We saved our money and bought a tent for $49.95 . After a while, the ground got hard and we saved our money and splurged for an air mattress. We took some great trips on a shoe-string budget. Once we left with $500 and had to be home by the time it was gone. We made it 2 weeks--to the Grand Canyon and back. Of course, fuel was not what it is now.

Then I got my first 5er--I think it was about 25' I thought I was at the Holiday Inn.

At the time I never dreamed that I could live in the luxury that I do now.

I am one that started with nothing, saved and worked my way up one rig at a time.

To the person who commented about the high end rigs never staying in a regular campground. We do--we are in one at this time---and it is not a very nice one! We have been on the road since February. For a while we were in an upscale resort, but most of the time just plain old RV Parks/ campgrounds. Tomorrow we are moving to a city park with no sewer connection. Most of us are just plain old good folks that are out to have fun---as I have said---walk out the door and we are all the same.

As I told a guy one time that comment on the fact that we were driving a Prevost---we all dump our sewer tanks the same old way as he did!! In lots of ways---RVers are created equal.

Just enjoy the life style and don't worry about what the other person has---or does not have.
Just visit with them, what ever kind of rig they have.
Jurhee

This is not one the original topic, but I did want to comment on Jurhee's disappearing post problem. The same thing happens to me on a regular basis. I solved the problem in one of two ways.

If it is going to be a short to medium length post I usually just click reply and type the message into the text box. BUT I copy the message about every 3-4 sentences so if I do lose what I've done I can just open another reply box and paste the message back in. If for some reason I haven't copied the message from time to time I ALWAYS copy it before I hit "Add Reply." That is when I seem to lose most of mine.

If the post is going to be pretty long I use my word processor (Microsoft Word) to type the entire message. Then I open the reply box and copy and paste the message into it. Then if I lose it I still have a copy in my Word program.

Yes, this is a bit more trouble than it should be, but it is better than the frustration of losing your message. Just thought I'd pass this along and hope it helps you.

I haven't had the problem you all are talking about.... I'm on DSL. But even at RV parks, I haven't had that problem.

JJ

Thanks for the tip. I had thought about something like this, but I never plan on getting so long-winded that it matters!!

The problem has not been with the connection but with the (*^)+(&*$^% computer. It is new, does weird things, and driving me crazy. I am not happy with it at all.

Jurhee