We Sold Our Dream Family Home to Live in an RV

Back in April 2024, my husband and I sold our 2,500-square-foot dream family home in New Jersey. It had four bedrooms, a pool, two air conditioning units, wrap-around front porch, a dream master suite with a double shower head wet room and jacuzzi tub, on an acre of land.

We had only lived there for two years before shocking our friends and family by deciding to sell up—and move us and our two children, ages 8 and 12 years old, into our 34-foot camper.

So many people questioned why. We had been so excited to move into our house. And now, here we were, swapping it for an RV.

But here’s the truth: We were completely and utterly house broke.

When we first bought our home in 2022, we could afford it comfortably. Our total gross income then was roughly over $140,000 combined. My husband works as an electrician in a refinery and I was working for a pregnancy center.

I was also homeschooling our daughters, so after about 18 months in our home, we made the hard decision for me to stay home with the girls in order to focus more on their needs, so I picked up a small job making reservations for campgrounds from home.

Then, our cost of living skyrocketed.

Our electricity bill doubled. We struggled to spend less than $300 a week on grocery shopping for a family of four. Oil, gas—all the prices were going up.

Over four months into life in the RV, I’m still seeing things happening financially in this world that make me want to vomit.

My husband and I were talking and thanking God that we got rid of our house when we did because we would have been drowning if we hadn’t sold up. Living in our camper has brought us so much financial freedom, so we’re enjoying it while we can.

We are currently not traveling in our camper, which helps to keep our costs down. We’ll have to move on to a new campground in October because our current place doesn’t do monthly sites through winter. But we’re stationary as much as possible.

In our previous home, we were paying $2,000 a month on our mortgage and roughly $1,000 a month in taxes. That compares to just $750 a month in our camper for our site, plus $320 a month for our camper loan, which we were also paying while we owned our home.

Our homeowner’s insurance was around $300 a month for our house, but it’s just $35 for our camper. Our home maintenance budget each month in our family home was $300 a month. Now, in our camper, it’s $150.

For electricity, we were paying close to $400 a month in our home. Now, we pay $156. And gas in the summer was roughly $160 a month in our old home—but in the camper, it’s just $25 for propane. For water we paid about $60 a month. But we pay nothing for water to our camper.

All in all, we were paying around $4,160 a month to live in our house. Now, in our camper, we’re paying about $1,436. That’s not including things like car loans, groceries, Wi-Fi, luxuries—we’re still paying for those just as before. The real saving is on the house.

Aside from the financial freedom, there are a bunch of other positives to camper life. We spend a lot of time outdoors, taking in nature, going on long walks. And we’ve had time to find new hobbies, such as freshwater fishing, which the kids love.

We get to meet lots of new people. Our two daughters make friends with all the other children in the campground and they have a lot of fun together, especially on the weekends when school and work is out.

While living in the camper we also get the benefit of having my husband home more with us. When our finances were strapping us, he had to take every overtime opportunity he could, even if that meant missing all the soccer games and family gatherings.

The financial freedom we are experiencing now allows for him to have a bit more flexibility in turning down that extra work time when appropriate.

But there are, of course, some challenges that come with family life in a camper, especially when you spend so much time in it. I still homeschool my two daughters, and I also now work remotely as a bookkeeper, so it’s my office as well as my home.

For one, not having enough space to get ready can become irritating. It’s tight quarters just to put on jeans. It’s tight quarters when I try to braid, blow dry, or curl my hair. I have to practically lean against the wall when I’m putting makeup on just to see properly in the mirror, not to mention me and my daughter fighting over getting ready in the bathroom.

We also go without a few conveniences, such as a dishwasher (everything is washed by hand, which my husband hates but I don’t mind); a decent oven for home cooking; a personal washer-dryer (we currently have to use shared laundry facilities); and our own private backyard.

Another issue is, when the weather is bad outside, my kids (and even me and my husband) will find ourselves bickering after being trapped in the camper all day. After hours of playing games and reading, there isn’t much else to do inside the camper. Most of the fun happens outdoors!

Previously, we’d find something to do, like a hobby or cleaning. I would escape to the gym in the basement, or my husband would busy himself in the garage. But we don’t have those options anymore.

Privacy is a problem. There is no getting some quiet time, or away from each other to your own space. You either have to kick the family out for a while, or I’ll go and sit in my car on the cooler days. Not to mention some privacy in your marriage, but you figure out ways to make that work.

Then there’s our dog, Oakley, a two-year-old, Fox Red Labrador Retriever. I can’t wait to be able to let him outside to run freely. He can’t really do that at the campgrounds we live on.

He has to wait until we take him to a family member’s home, or a dog park, though we worry about the stories of dog attacks we have heard, so we don’t really do that often. This means Oakley is often on a leash.

We love taking walks, so he gets walked very often. He used to get the “zoomies” when he had an acre to run on, but he can’t do that anymore at the campground.

The last problem we have is getting exercise. We used to have a home gym in our basement, but we don’t have that anymore, and I refuse to pay for a gym membership while we are trying to cut back costs. My only exercise these days is walking, which is fine, but I really miss lifting weights.

As for the kids, they love living the camper life; however, they are looking forward to one day having their space again. They enjoy running and playing all day with all their friends. They enjoy having way less chores! They enjoy the excitement of frequent bonfires and golf cart rides around the campground, and hopping between the lake and pool on the hot days.

We’re still looking for our next home, but we know that when we find it, it’s going to be a tiny little single-floor place with one AC unit and no pool.

One day we will be back in a home, but we have learned a few life lessons from our previous home and the desires that we once had. Our desire of having the biggest and most beautiful home has been replaced with desire for a slower-paced and simpler lifestyle.

Living in a camper has allowed us to fall in love with smaller living (with just a bit more space). We are looking forward to planting roots again until the kids finish school and move onto their adult years.

My kids enjoy playing basketball and soccer which is something we had to put on pause until we are settled into our next home.

My husband and I have talked about the possibility of doing this again, because I know once we are back in a house I will miss this camper life. We decided we would absolutely do it again, but it would look a bit different.

We would wait for retirement and travel the country this time, just the two of us, and truly experience all that camping and traveling has to offer.

Courtney Garaguso shares updates and insights about her family life in a camper on TikTok.

All views expressed are the author’s own.

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