One of the biggest budget items people have is their home. Not only do you have a decent chunk of money tied up in the equity, but the real estate taxes and insurance are unavoidable (and real estate taxes are only going to increase as states and local governments *solve* their budget problems).
We plan to strike the home off the budget list by not having one. We are making our own RV from scratch and plan to camp out on public lands during part of the year, much like RV Sue and her Canine Crew.
One of the things I have noticed living in Seattle is I really appreciate the summers compared to when we lived in the southern USA. I also appreciate a sunny day more after two months of drizzle.
Based on this theory that you will actually enjoy comfort more if you are not always comfortable, we are thinking of varying our lifestyle each year, with 8 or 9 months of *roughing it* and 3 or 4 months of vacation style living.
On a $40,000 budget we may spend $2,000 a month for eight months while boondocking and then spend $6,000 a month for four months renting a nice waterfront house in the Florida Keys. Or spend 9 months boondocking at $2000 a month and $7500 a month in Costa Rica for three months.
I guess you could call this vacationing, but in the past when we have taken a vacation there was always the worry of leaving our home vacant, keeping it maintained, paying taxes and insurance when you are not using it, etc. In our plan we have everything with us and drive to the new area where we would be renting (preferably that has a place to park our RV, but we could put it in long term storage and cut the insurance back to just damage and theft which is only a few dollars a month).
Is this pretty common or fairly radical?