Coleen

Some schools hire through temp staffing agencies. With those, you work for the agency, not the school district. Use a national agency, and it cuts your paperwork immensely. They also, I believe, issue one W-2, that covers multiple assignments.

Yes, substitute teaching is one of the things working RVers do. The requirements for being a substitute are quite lax. Since you have teaching credentials and experience, you are already ahead of the pack. You'll likely need to have background checks done, but if you are an upstanding citizen, that shouldn't be a problem. Once you are set up with a school district, you may be able to spend time in various communities, all within that district. For example, in the Kenai Peninsula school district (in Alaska) the district includes Seward, Soldotna, and Homer--it's about 165 miles from Seward to Homer, with those two towns being on opposite sides of the peninsula. The biggest problem that I've heard about is that substitute teachers are in such high demand that the RVers tend to end up working more than they intended. As to campground costs, some RVers combine substitute teaching with doing "work in exchange for an RV site" deal, so they aren't paying out of pocket.

I'm thinking that most park owners, as well as most RVers, don't know what a "physical rehab specialist" is, or what one does, or what kind of services one would provide, or what would be entailed in having those services done. Does it require a certification or license? Does it require a doctor's "prescription" or referral? How is a "physical rehab specialist" different from a message therapist or a private trainer? Do customers/clients typically contract directly with the "physical rehab specialist" or is it usually done through an agency? Is the rehab something typically covered by insurance? If you were to offer your services at a park, what would you need from the park, such as a room to meet customers or special equipment? Who would be your target customer--are they people who would be on the road, frequenting RV parks? A lot of RVers are out there doing work that they've been told they couldn't do. A lot of people say something can't be done, because they can't do it. So, take any negativity with a grain of salt, just as you would any comments that blindly tell you to just go for it. I think one of your biggest hurdles is clarifying to yourself, to parks, and to RVers just what exactly the service is that you want to provide and how it would benefit those involved.

We use real dishes, glass stemmed wine glasses, and ceramic mugs. We stack the plates and bowls, just like we did when living in a non-moveable home. We do not put any kind of cushioning or liner between them. We slip each wine glass into a sock, and nestle them fairly snugly into a plastic box, so they can't jostle around much during travel. We put hooks on the wall, and we hang our mugs on them; they sway during travel, but have never fallen off. I stack glass casserole dishes and their lids, and baking pans, but because they are various sizes and shapes and don't stack at neatly, I layer wash cloths between them--which also solves the problem of where to keep extra wash cloths that I seldom use but think I need to have with us.

Temp agencies can provide high paying, short-term jobs.

We have all sorts of info on our website, from working as a casual longshoreman in Alaska to doing gate guard work in the Texas oil patch, from working for specialty temp agencies to substitute school teaching. I don't know what would be suitable for you, but there sure are lots of options out there!

What kind of work are you hoping to find?

I have a drawer full of spices and seasonings. And, those that don't fit in the drawer go in the kitchen cabinet, along with the dishes. Sure, I could get by with just a few basic seasonings. But, we like to experiment with our cooking and eating, so we use a lot of different seasonings. I prefer to keep them in a drawer or cabinet so that they are not in the light, and so that they are not near the heat and moisture from the stove top or other cooking appliances.

I forgot the coffee pot! Not sure how I could do that. It gets used most every day. And, canisters for dry goods.

One medium-small stainless steel saucepan, with a cover. One extra large (soup pot) stainless steel pan, with a cover. A large cast iron skillet. A cast iron Dutch Oven, with a cover. A standard size slow cooker. We recently added an electric pressure cooker, which we are using quite a bit. Two casserole dishes, one medium and the other large, with covers. An electric fry pan. A Vita-Mix. A set of four real dishes -- dinner plates, bowls, and mugs. Two wine glasses. Four place settings of silverware, plus a couple tablespoons. A paring knife, potato peeler, cheese slicer, flat grater, wire whisk, can opener, large slotted spoon, large spoon, two silicone spatulas/scrapers, a cork screw, two pancake flippers, a four-cup glass measuring cup, a butcher knife, and a bread slicing knife pretty much round out the rest of it. That gets us through months on end of boon docking or staying in resorts with full electric. We also have a food dehydrator that we often use, but I wouldn't consider it essential for most people. Our RVs have all had a three or four burner stove top and an oven. If we have a microwave, we use it some but when we didn't have one for a year or so, we it wasn't a problem to be without one. When it comes to fixing the Thanksgiving turkey, I buy a disposable aluminum roasting pan -- RV ovens vary, but I've done 21 pound turkeys in mine.

We use a large cloth napkin as a tablecloth. We set a basket of fresh produce on top, which weighs it down, and keeps it in place during travel. In most RVs we've had, it just rode there, and didn't go anywhere. In our current motorhome, we have the basket hooked to the window frame with a snap swivel and a short piece of clear fishing line, which are invisible unless you really search for them.

I think that is an excellent place to start! Of course, I don't know how it will be for you. But, I can tell you, that our expenses went down in every budget category when we moved into the RV full-time. Things changed within the budget categories. Examples: In "communications," we no longer had a home phone bill to pay each month, but there was the cost of mail forwarding. In "utilities," we no longer had a city water bill, but we did have hot water and electricity expenses at the laundromat. For us, RV insurance was significantly less than our home-owners insurance. RV maintenance and repairs for us come in considerably less than traditional-home maintenance and repairs. In some budget areas we only saved a little, while in others, we saved a bunch. As for quality of life, ours increased when we moved into the RV full-time.

We like the bed-in-a-box memory foam mattresses that come rolled up tightly in a box. They are easy to get into the RV and not too difficult to get out. They can also be cut to size with an ordinary kitchen knife. They are available in various thicknesses. We've ordered our online, and they were delivered right to the door. I speak of plurals here, because we have the same kind in both RVs and our cabin.

There are a lot of full-timers out there spending less than $2000/month -- and they are living very comfortably. When we went full-time, our expenditures dropped in every budget category, including fuel and vehicle expenses. Since we started FT in early 1992, we've had a variety of RV sizes and configurations. What suits us now is a 24-foot Class C. It has plenty of room for the two of us, a medium-large dog, and two cats. The motorhome is short enough that we can reasonably drive it to the grocery store, sight-seeing, and the other places we normally go, so we don't need to drag along another vehicle. The more you research full-timing, the clearer it will become that there is no one right way to do it. RVers, RVs, and RVing budgets come in all sorts of shapes and sizes! Have fun sifting through the info, while trying to figure out what is best for you. Oh, one more thing to keep in mind, the RV you start with won't necessarily be the one you want to keep forever. (I'd spend much less than $40,000 on my first RV.)