Use These 13 Budget Travel Tips to Save Money As an RVer

Most people love to save money anywhere they can, and we’re no exception! So today we’re sharing our budget travel tips in hopes that some of them might help you to save some dough. With fuel prices continuing to hit record highs, the more you save with our budget travel tips, the more money you’ll have to travel!

So, let’s go!

Prepare Your Own Meals

Prepare your own meals as often as possible. Eating take-out or dining in restaurants is okay on occasion, but doing so regularly can eat up a budget fast. Not only can we save money preparing our own meals, but we’ll also eat far healthier – and that’s a double win!

We enjoy grilling our food, and we do so often. So, we established a BBQ grill connection to our RV’s onboard propane tank. This has been a fantastic modification for us. Not only is it incredibly handy, but it’s also a money-saver as well.

Those little green bottles of propane may seem cheap at the outset, but when you grill as often as we do, they add up fast. Besides – we’re carrying a nice big propane tank onboard our rig. Why on earth would we want to store a bunch of small propane containers that’ll not only empty very quickly but also end up in a landfill?

For a tutorial on exactly how we connect our grill to our onboard propane tank, you can read the post linked above, and/or have a look at our video on the topic:

Don’t Waste Money on Things Like “Special” RV Toilet Paper

“RV toilet paper”. That’s what they call it, but is it really necessary for use in an RV toilet?

We like science, so we put our regular toilet paper to the test (Costco’s Kirkland brand), and we can tell you with absolute certainty that special “RV toilet paper” is an unnecessary expense. It’s a marketing tactic, and you don’t need to spend the extra money.

What you may want to do is have a look at our video on how to test for RV-safe toilet paper. Then you can test your own favorite brand.

Consider RV Club Memberships As A Budget Travel Tip

Consider joining some RV club memberships to help you to save money on RV parks, trip planning, and much more.

A great example of a money-saving RV membership is Escapees. Every RVer should belong to this club. Not only are there many great benefits to this membership in general, but there are many ways to save money.

One example is their tire savings program. RV tires are expensive, and Escapees RV tire discounts can really save you some dough.

For more information on Escapees and other RVing memberships, see our post on our 10 pro tips for RV newbies.

Use Trip Planners

Another great budget travel tip is to use trip planners.

Trip planners can help you find campgrounds, great boondocking spots, and wonderful sights and experiences throughout your journey. More importantly, they can help to ensure that you’ll have a safe arrival at your destination.

For more details, have a look at our post on our top 5 RV trip planner apps.

In this video, we share what we feel are the 5 best RV trip planner apps and websites that we use to plan our travels:

If you find yourself interested in any of the following, feel free to take advantage of these coupons to save you even more money:

The Dyrt PRO:

Roadpass Pro (Roadtrippers):

RV Life PRO (RV Trip Wizard):

Take Advantage of Campground Discounts

One thing you’ll want to do as often as possible is to take advantage of campground discounts.

The costs of campgrounds can add up fast, especially if you visit them frequently. We don’t, but we still enjoy saving money on them when we do.

Check out our post for our best advice on how to save money on campgrounds. You’ll find some great budget travel tips there, with information on each campground discount program, and even a couple of coupons to boot!

Enjoy Free Adventures and Activities

Once you’re out camping, there are so many wonderful activities and adventures that are cost-free but will leave you rich with experiences and memories.

Hiking, biking, fishing, swimming, kayaking, paddleboarding – even taking nice long walks in new places can be very enjoyable. And all of these are free unless you need to rent equipment.

Take advantage of nature – it has so much to offer and never charges you one red cent. What a deal!

Find the Cheapest Fuel, A Great Budget Travel Tip For RVs AND Cars!

This year especially, it’s important to find your way to the cheapest fuel you can locate. And when you find the least expensive fuel you can, be sure to fill ‘er right up. The last thing you want to have to do is buy fuel where it’s most expensive (and, unfortunately, the more remote and beautiful a destination is… the more expensive the fuel prices are there).

Fortunately, there are a number of apps that’ll help you to find the cheapest fuel for your rig. Visit our post and find yourself a good app to find cheap gas, and be sure to take advantage of it.

This summer, this just might be one of your best budget travel tips!

Keep Up With Regular Maintenance

RV maintenance can be a chore and a costly one at that. However, keeping up with regular maintenance makes it less likely that you’ll get hit with unexpected repair bills. Keeping your rig in good shape by tending to regular maintenance tasks is so important – we really can’t stress it enough.

We’ve got an 18-year-old rig here to prove that regular maintenance pays off. We’ve been living, working, and traveling in this motorhome for darned near two decades, and honestly – you could easily mistake her for a rig that’s only a few years old. We take good care of our home, and regular maintenance is a big part of that care.

For more information on how you can take optimal care of your rig, see our post on RV maintenance. In that post, we’ll show you 7 annual RV maintenance tasks that you can do yourself. It’s a good feeling to take care of your own RV, and it saves you a whole lotta cash.

For more ways to care for your RV and keep it looking and performing like new, check out our video on our annual RV maintenance and spring cleaning tasks:

Save Money on RV Tire Replacement

Our rig has eight tires. That’s a lot of tires to replace. And the tires for our 43’ diesel pusher are BIG. 295/80R22.5 to be exact. And big means expensive!

So, when it’s time to replace our tires, we save money any way we can.

In addition to the Escapees tire program we mentioned earlier, we’ve saved some big money with the FMCA RV Tire Savings Program, and we got the job done right.

For more information on how we’ve saved the most money on our big rig tires, check out our video on saving money on RV tires:

Use Tire Covers

Another way to save money on your tires is to keep them in optimal shape for as long as possible. One way we do this is to use tire covers religiously. And that’s not difficult, because our favorite tire covers are very easy to use.

Good RV tires provide UV protection and protection from the elements. They keep your tires looking good, and extend the life of your tires based on the protection they provide. What’s not to love?

For more on why we believe in using RV tire covers and why we love ours, read our post and check out our video on how to save your RV tires and how we save ours!

You can pick up a set of our favorite tire covers on Amazon (they come in different sizes, so be sure to get the set that match your tire diameter)!

Use Washable Rugs

This may not seem like a budget travel tip, but you can bet your bottom dollar it is.

The carpeting in your RV is expensive to replace and would also be a very big job. One way to avoid having to replace the carpeting in your rig is to use washable rugs in high-traffic areas. Then when they get dirty or dingy, you simply toss them in the washing machine!

And if you’ve got a rig with floors made of wood, laminate, or tile, that’s great too, but you’ll still want some washable rugs. To keep the RV warm and inviting, and to keep the floor protected in high traffic areas, throwing down some washable rugs is the way to go.

Our favorite washable rugs for RVs are My Magic Carpet rugs. We think you’ll love ‘em too, especially since you can save when you buy them!

And our two all-time favorite budget travel tips for RVers…

DIY as Much as You Can!

You were probably expecting this one from the DIY guys, but hey – there’s really no better way to save money than to DIY repairs, maintenance, and upgrades to the greatest extent possible. As a bonus, it’s a great way to get to know your RV!

We’ll share a few examples, and encourage you to check out our YouTube channel and blog and subscribe to both. The blog will give you five articles a week, many of which teach DIY maintenance tasks, repairs, and upgrade projects.

In the way of a few examples, once again here are 7 DIY RV maintenance tasks, along with the RV tool kit every RVer needs.

You can also check out our post on RV skylight replacement and follow along with our guide if yours needs replacing.

Or how about a few videos…maybe one on RV window replacement? Talk about saving money!

Or instead of buying new blinds, fix yours for cheap!

Can you imagine looking at a $1,000 bill for fixing a failed RV power door awning, but instead doing a DIY repair on yours for free? We did!

We’ve got tons of money-saving DIY projects like these throughout our blog and our YouTube channel. If you’re not already a subscriber to both, we invite you to join us. We’re likely to save you some money along the way!

And our final budget travel tip (and a favorite)…

Do More Boondocking!!!

This is one way to save big, big money, especially if you’re a frequent camper. In fact, one of the best budget travel tips you could aspire to is boondocking.

For those who’ve never tried it, it can be intimidating. But it doesn’t need to be!

Start with our video on breaking your cord addiction gently:

Next, take a look at our 27 boondocking tips to extend your trips off the grid. And we’ve got even more tips in our post on Class A RV boondocking.

For your money-saving pleasure, here are the 7 best free camping apps for the avid boondocker, and the 11 best ways to find RV boondocking spots!

If you’ve got a long drive ahead and want to break it up, you could park overnight in a Walmart parking lot or a Cracker Barrel to catch some good zzzz’s and hit the road in the morning. There are lots of free overnight RV parking spots everywhere!

So now you’ve got no more excuses! Get out there and boondock. Even for one night. Once you’ve got a night or two under your belt, the world of camping is your oyster and it opens up wide!

Share Your Favorite Budget Travel Tips

We’d love for you to share your favorite budget travel tips with our readers. Got some more great money-saving tips? Shoot us a comment – or several!

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