OPINION: 'Cost of Living Forced Us To Live in Our RV'

Broke and desperate, the Garagusos gave up their dream home for a camper, but has life improved?

- COURTNEY GARAGUSO

IN APRIL 2024, MY HUSBAND AND I sold our 2,500-square-foot dream New Jersey family home. It had four bedrooms, a pool, wraparound front porch, a dream master suite with Jacuzzi tub, on an acre of land.

We lived there for two years when we shocked our friends and family by deciding to sell up-and move us and our two children, ages 8 and 12 years old, into our 34-foot camper.

So many people questioned why. But here's the truth: We were completely house broke.

When we first bought our home in 2022, we could afford it comfortably. Our total gross income was over $140,000 combined. My husband works as an electrician in a refinery and I was working for a pregnancy center.

I was also homeschooling our daughters, so after about 18 months in our home, we made the hard decision for me to stay home with the girls in order to focus more on their needs.

I picked up a small job making reservations for campgrounds from home. Then, our cost of living skyrocketed.

Our electricity bill doubled. We struggled to spend less than $300 a week on groceries. Oil, gas-all the prices were going up.

Over four months into life in the RV, I'm still seeing things happening financially in this world that make me want to vomit.

My husband and I thank God that we got rid of our house when we did because we would have been drowning if we hadn't sold up.

We are currently not traveling in our camper, which helps to keep costs down. We'll have to move on to a new campground in October because our current place doesn't do monthly sites through winter. But we're stationary as much as possible.

In our previous home, we were paying $2,000 a month on our mortgage and roughly $1,000 a month in taxes.