WE BOUGHT A CAMPER!

It's been a while, but big life update: we bought a new camper! It's a brand new, 2019 Happier Camper. Ever since I came across the Happier Camper on Instagram a few years ago I've wanted and been trying to think of ways to save up for one. It does come with a hefty price tag, but what really made it worth it for us was how light it is! Both of our cars will be able to pull it as it is only 1,100 pounds and made of fiberglass. We have a Honda HRV and a Subaru Crosstrek and we both bought our cars within the last two years so we were not looking to buy a new car for a while.

I've already started the process to list the camper on RVShare and Outdoorsy. I've seen similar campers making around $100 per night, so the income potential is very exciting! We'll use it every long weekend, but other than Memorial Day, 4th of July and Labor Day, I'm hoping to rent it out for some extra income!

It's pretty hard to find a Happier Camper for sale used, but we got lucky and found one on Facebook Marketplace in Atlanta, Georgia. After chatting with the seller, we decided this was the best bet for us and we flew down to check it out and pay for it. We paid someone to drive it from Atlanta to Denver for us as we couldn't get enough time off to drive it ourselves.

We haven't even pulled it behind our own cars yet, but we are planning a trip for the end of January! We want to use it ourselves before we rent it out to people so we can figure out the quirks. I was hoping to make a long road trip from Denver to San Diego, but with California being shut down, I think we'll have to adjust. We're now hoping to drive down to Taos, over to the Grand Canyon, up to Las Vegas, West to Moab, then West to home. I've listed our house on Airbnb for the dates we're going to be gone, so I'm hoping that will pay for the trip.

I'm so excited to have a new way to travel that is inexpensive. Staying at a campsite is cheaper than a hotel or Airbnb and we'll be brining in money to cover the cost of campsites, gas and food by short term renting our own house. This is also a nice way to be able to bring our dog with us. This camper also comes equipped with heat and air conditioning so that we can use it year round. The heat and A/C do need to be plugged into a campsite's electricity. We also have a sink that can be plugged into water, but has a five gallon tank as well. Lights, USB ports, the fan and 12 volt power are all solar powered from the panels on the roof, so we really could take it off grid and pay nothing for camping if we wanted to. We don't have a shower or toilet, but I'm sure we can make it work. Other people do it all the time.

We're so excited and we're really looking forward to getting our little family out of the house and onto new adventures.