Thank you for taking the time to check out the site after seeing us on the NBC Nightly News! I want to give you the info you are looking for all in one spot. I will share our life and the posts that will answer any questions you might have.
Who Am I?
First I am Danielle aka The Frugal Navy Wife. I have 2 sites the main one is TheFrugalNavyWife.com. This is a frugal lifestyle site best described as a way to save money on every aspect of your life. Recipes, DIY, homeschooling, travel, parenting, and a few oddball ways to save money and even earn money!
Our Roaming Hearts is probably the reason you are here. This site covers travel, our journey on the road, and living in an RV, this site captures it all!
My husband is a 10-year US Navy veteran, and we have 4 kids. We also have a rescue dog who was a big scardy cat during filming!
Why the RV Lifestyle?
Why NOT the RV lifestyle? We travel and get to see things many of you have on your bucket list. If we don't like our neighbors, we can just move. We can head south and follow the warm weather in the winter and head north and follow the cool weather in the summer. This past July we were in Bar Harbor, Maine in the heat of summer we had 76 degree days! Did I mention NO YARD WORK?!
Our real motivation was to find our forever home once my husband got out of the Navy we didn't like the area where we were in, but we didn't like our hometown either. With family spread out, we had no idea where to start. Then I stumbled upon a blog of a family of 12 kids living this life. I joked with hubby about it and said if they can why can't we? A few weeks later he was having a horrible day at work and said for me to do a budget and see what the numbers would be. We started our research a month later made the commitment and were on the road within the year!
Many people have asked questions about the RV lifestyle, and we answered! The biggest question still remains how we make money on the road. We do save money from being in a regular stick and bricks house and share all that in the RV lifestyle post.
I also recently shared a post of the behind-the-scenes living in an RV, from when my house isn't perfect, and let's face it no family is 100% of the time! I share what we love, and what we hate.
Regardless, the travel is still the fun part. Even though we have only been up to the East coast so far we have seen everything from the Florida Beaches to the Great Smoky Mountains, and up to the Maine coastlines. You can't beat the experiences!
What about school?
We had homeschooled before we got on the road, so that made the transition a bit easier. But you can start homeschooling when you make your choice to travel too. We use Abeka Academy for our 2nd and 1st graders and ABC Mouse for our Pre-schooler.
I will state we are looking into another curriculum not because we don't love Abeka (because we do!) but because they use DVDs and a TV and we only have 2 TVs and next year we will have 3 in school, we won't have room for 3 or 4 kids worth of books, not to mention cost, OUCH. So we are looking into something else. We will be going to two homeschool conferences in March looking for a new curriculum and talking to other parents. Right now we have our eye on Alpha Omega Switched on Schoolhouse since it's a CD curriculum. We can't do anything online based due to the limited internet.
Workamping and Amazon Camperforce
What is workamping? Workamping (work camping) is a job where you work in exchange for your campsite and possibly a small wage.
We are currently in our 2nd year of workamping with Amazon Camperforce. We were in Murfreesboro TN (just outside Nashville) last year, you can read our experience here. This year we are in Haslet, Texas (just outside the Dallas/Fort Worth area).
Here are the basics of the program. You work with Amazon during their holiday rush, and the program starts mid-September but you can pick a start date, and it runs until Dec 23rd. Amazon Pays for your campsite, you pick from their approved list. They pay for the campsite, electricity, water, sewer, etc. Plus they pay you $10.75 an hour.
You are required to work 40 hours a week until Thanksgiving it's 50 hours a week with overtime being paid time and a half. You work 10-hour days so 4-5 days a week. If you stay until the end of the season, you get a bonus of $1 for each hour worked.
Many campgrounds offer workamping spots, in exchange for your campsite you work in the office or on the grounds for 20 hours a week. National Parks offer this too. Many amusement parks offer a form of working camping, like Dollywood.
Keep in mind you will be stationary (in one place) for a few months while workamping so if you want to move weekly or monthly make sure you find spots that work for you.
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Some of our most popular travel posts:
25 Free Things to do in Orlando Florida
33 Amazing & Free Things to do in Nashville Tennessee
20 Ways to Save on Roadtrip that Saved us $900
Top 21 Things to do on Your Nashville Vacation
Aquarium Restaurant in Nashville Tennessee – An Underwater Dining Experience
The Frugal Navy Wife
The Frugal Navy Wife is the main site that I started back in June of 2010 right after my daughter was born. I was getting packs of name-brand diapers for $1 or $2 and my friends kept asking me how. So I put it in one place instead of repeating myself over and over. They shared it with their friends and so on and before I knew it I had a bunch of readers I didn't know.
The Frugal Navy Wife then moved into a deal blog. I was posting 20-30 deals a day, coupon match-ups, and more. It was tiring! At the end of 2013, I started to transition The Frugal Navy Wife into more of a frugal and how to save money site. By 2014 we were posting the content, you see now.
I help my readers (and hopefully soon you!) save money on everything from home decor to their groceries. I share money-saving recipes and frugal DIYs.
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(This is separate from our travel newsletter)
Follow The Frugal Navy Wife on Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest. Some of our popular posts on The Frugal Navy Wife.
45 Ways to Earn Free Amazon Gift Cards
7 Items to Never Buy at the Dollar Stores
Copy Cat Chick-Fil-A Chicken Salad Sandwich
How to Have Your Dream Wedding for Under $1,500 – Properly Planning
7 Things we Stopped Buying and Started Making to Save Money
Please list any questions you have below I'd be happy to answer them!