Friday, January 15, 2010

The Cost Of RV Park Life

Although RV Park prices vary, here is a synopsis of one scenario. At Florida Springs RV Resort in Bonifay, the fee pays for electric, water, sewer, wi-fi, and trash pick-up all right at your campsite. Cable t.v. is coming. The nightly rate is $33 plus tax, the weekly rate is $165 plus tax, and the monthly rate is $375 plus tax. Go to the Florida Springs RV Resort link for a nice slideshow of the park. There is a great RV club called Passport America. It allows for 50% off nightly rates! It costs $44 for an annual membership. You can join it at any participating campground and start reaping the benefits right away. Go to our link to check out the details of the benefits of joining. It's obvious that it quickly pays for itself. We're told that each RV park sets the nights that it applies to. Here it is Sunday-Thursday. The 50% discount does not apply to the weekly and monthly rate. When staying in a private campground, we learned that prices are negotiable based on how empty they are. There is a program called Workampers where people can prearrange to work off the cost of their campsite. There is a website listed as Workampers where people can shop for work opportunities in areas where they will be RVing. At Florida Springs RV Resort 20 hours of work pays for a weeks stay. That's not many hours out of a retiree's week, and I think it could be lots of fun. I was told by a person on the Workamper program that the jobs one is willing to do and the number of hours a day or week a person is willing to work is negotiable. As she told me, she doesn't clean bathrooms. That was good to know as that was my drawback to any interest in the program. Another campground fee saver is membership in the Good Sam Club. This club is $29.95 per year and offers many perks. It reduces the cost of its participating campgrounds by 15%. See our link for details. In shopping at Camping World we found that they offer an annual membership for $14.95. By joining the Presidential Club you get a 10% discount on purchases. Our first purchase discount paid for half the cost of joining! See our link to Camping World. We'll report on the cost of other camping arrangements as we encounter them.