Full time RV living usually costs between roughly $1,500 and $4,000 a month, and the honest answer is that the spread is that wide because the biggest lines, where you park, how far you drive, and what your health insurance costs, are choices, not constants. This page builds the budget from sources you can check, and it names the categories where no honest number exists.
Say the quiet part first: full-timing is often not cheaper than renting. The site fee beats rent, then the rig gives the savings back through depreciation, repairs, fuel, and a loan payment if you financed it. Do this because you want to live this way. Do the math so you can afford to.
Site fees: the one line you control most
This is the anchor, and it runs from $0 to resort money.
Free, on public land. Dispersed camping on BLM land is generally free and limited to 14 days within any 28-day period, with limits varying by state and field office (BLM, verified July 17, 2026). The posted sign and the local field office beat anything a website says, including this one. Free nights cost you effort instead: water hauling, power generation, and a move every 2 weeks. Start with our guides to finding free sites and stay limits, and the state-by-state maps at /free-camping/states/.
Budget monthly parks. Published 2026 rates: Pensacola RV Park lists $675 a month plus electric (rates effective April 1, 2026). Birmingham South RV Park lists monthly sites from $700 for 30 amp and $765 for 50 amp, plus tax, with electric metered per kWh. Note the pattern: monthly rates almost never include electric. An air conditioner running through a Gulf Coast summer adds a real utility bill on top of the posted rate.
Resort tier. Belle Parc RV Resort, a 55+ park in Florida, lists 2026-27 monthly rates of $1,320 standard, $1,375 premium, and $1,750 lakefront, all plus electric. Big-metro and coastal parks elsewhere can go higher.
Fuel: arithmetic, not averages
EIA national averages for the week of July 13, 2026: regular gasoline $3.855 a gallon, on-highway diesel $4.796. From there it is your miles divided by your rig’s real mpg:
| Pace | Miles/month | At 9 mpg, gas | At 9 mpg, diesel |
|---|---|---|---|
| Parked all month | ~0 | ~$0 | ~$0 |
| Slow travel | 500 | ~$214 | ~$266 |
| Covering ground | 1,500 | ~$643 | ~$799 |
The 9 mpg is an illustration, not a claim; motorhomes and heavy tow setups vary widely, and your rig’s trip computer is the source that counts. The lever here is pace: sitting still for a month nearly zeroes this line, which is why slow travel is the cheap kind.
Connectivity
A phone plan you already pay for, plus whatever gets you internet at the site. Starlink Roam, the common full-timer choice, lists $50 a month for 100GB or $165 a month unlimited as of July 17, 2026, pausable between trips. Cellular hotspot plans vary by carrier and change often, so price them on the carrier’s own page. Details in our boondocking internet guide.
The lines we will not put numbers on
These are real, monthly, and unpublishable as averages. Get your own quotes.
RV insurance. Depends on rig value, full-timer status (a specific endorsement, not the default policy), driving record, and domicile state. Varies too much for any honest range; get 2 or 3 quotes for your actual rig before you buy it.
Health insurance. For most full-timers this is a marketplace plan keyed to your domicile state, and premiums swing enormously by state, age, and subsidy. For many couples it rivals the site fee. Price it at healthcare.gov for your intended domicile before committing.
Maintenance and repairs. A house that takes highway vibration daily. Tires age out and cost serious money in sets of 6, roofs need resealing, water heaters and slide motors fail, and engine work on a motorhome is truck-shop expensive. Set aside something every month even in the years nothing breaks; the years something breaks are why.
Domicile and mail. Full-timers need a legal domicile and a mail service in states set up for it (South Dakota, Texas, and Florida are the common choices). The services publish their own fees; the bigger cost is getting the choice wrong, because domicile drives your vehicle registration, insurance rates, and health plan options.
Propane, laundry, dump fees, food. Small lines that are not zero. Restaurant meals creep up when the kitchen is small and the town is new every week.
An honest low, typical, and high
Built from the cited components, with the unnumbered categories marked, per month:
| Line | Low (boondocking) | Typical (monthly parks) | High (resorts, moving fast) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Site | ~$0 (BLM, 14-day moves) | $675 to $765 + electric | $1,320 to $1,750 + electric |
| Fuel | ~$214+ (moving every 2 weeks) | ~$0 to $214 | ~$643+ |
| Internet | $50 (Roam 100GB) | $50 to $165 | $165 |
| Insurance, health, maintenance, domicile | not printed: get quotes | not printed: get quotes | not printed: get quotes |
The citable pieces alone put the typical monthly-park path around $725 to $1,150 before insurance, health coverage, maintenance, food, and any rig payment. Those unprinted lines can plausibly double it. If a budget you read online has no gaps in it, someone filled them with guesses.
Two ways to pull the number down: own the rig outright before you launch, and learn to be comfortable off hookups, which is what boondocking actually is. A host network membership and our solar calculator are the supporting pieces for that second path.
Sources
- Pensacola RV Park rates, effective April 1, 2026
- Birmingham South RV Park current rates, accessed July 17, 2026
- Belle Parc RV Resort 2026-2027 rates, effective April 1, 2026
- EIA Gasoline and Diesel Fuel Update, prices for week of July 13, 2026
- BLM Camping (dispersed camping stay limits), accessed July 17, 2026
- Starlink Roam plans and pricing, accessed July 17, 2026