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In 2022, we’ve seen a historic rise in gas prices, housing costs, and record inflation. We have also turned a page and are currently seeing the travel rates for healthcare professionals dwindle from the record highs we’ve seen at the peak of the pandemic. As a result, travelers are currently facing difficulty maximizing their income while facing a challenging housing market, fear of student loan interest rates kicking back up, and many other challenges faced during an economic downturn.
One popular option many healthcare professionals are adopting is RV Living versus previously hopping from one AirBnB or hotel to another. Living in an RV while on assignment is one way to maximize your travel nurse housing stipend. However, this lifestyle is not for everyone.
As a travel nurse, the majority of your paycheck comes from tax-free stipends, mainly your housing stipends. Maximizing your stipend is key to being a successful travel nurse (whether you go with mobile or traditional housing options). By choosing the RV lifestyle and staying at campsites can offer a much cheaper option than renting an apartment, Airbnb, or hotel.
Examples of Saving Money With Campsites
Travel nurses and healthcare professionals who choose to maximize their stipends by living in an RV will encounter a major lifestyle change that will require constant creativity and flexibility when it comes to traveling in their homes.
Book Campgrounds Early
Avoid Metropolitan Areas
Consider Monthly or Seasonal Bookings
Weigh Campsite Utility Options
Watch the Weather
Although RV living can be a rewarding and cost-effective experience, there’s still additional costs that travelers should be aware of before deciding on this route for travel nurse housing.
Maintenance Concerns
Save on Gas
After dipping her toes into the full-time RV lifestyle over the past 4+ years, travel nurse Tina Nault can honestly say she wouldn’t still be in travel nursing if she couldn’t live in an RV. However, the number of challenges she would face choosing this lifestyle was truly underestimated. As you can see, RV living really does have many pros and cons. It is truly not for everyone. Extensive planning and having multiple backup plans when choosing assignments are imperative. Considering weather conditions, ways to save on fuel while traveling and maintenance costs will all be deciding factors in choosing if the RV life is best for you and your travel nurse career.
But for people like Tina, there is no better way to see the country and follow her dreams of being a travel nurse than living full time in her RV!
Tina Nault is the face behind @thervtravelnurse and the author behind her own blog. She has been an ER nurse for over 7 years now and has spent the last 4 and a half years traveling the country as a travel nurse. After setting out on her travel nurse journey in 2018, she and her fiancé bought a fifth-wheel RV to call home for them and their cats. She began her journey when travel nursing and RV living was a less popular concept. Since then, she has traveled around the country and absolutely thrives on the lifestyle, and offers advice to others. She has started her own blog, thervtravelnurse.net where she shares travel nurse tips, helpful resources, tips for living in an RV, and some of the amazing destinations she has been.
