As you may have noticed, I haven’t updated this in awhile. Well, this exercise in timeshare management has finished. I came in at $1000 below budget (not including the associated fees of a timeshare)! Proving that it is possible to stay full time in a timeshare for less than a moderately equipped 1BR apartment.
I think, all things being equal, and my employer permitting: I would rather spend the $15,000 a year moving around the country and seeing this great land of ours. There is more to say, but this isn’t the time, maybe next month.
The goals of the journey were twofold:
#1: Simulate living in timeshares for a year < $15,000 – Accomplished.
#2: Stay as close as possible to the Mid-Atlantic Region of the USA – Accomplished.
Blue: 1st Leg – Headed West
Red: 2nd Leg – Going back East
Green: Third and final leg. Meandering around the Middle Atlantic area.
The cost comparison apartment:
1 Bedroom running around $1000 per month. I also calculated apartment utilities at $250 per month. This comes out to $15,000 for the year in lodging.
The Timeshare:
I tried to stay with 1bedroom timeshares as much as possible. I also wanted to stay as close to Virginia that I could, and still see some country. All but 5 weeks were spent in 1BRs (3BRx1, 2BRx2, STDx1, HOTx1). The total cost of lodging in the timeshare was $11,477. Three thousand dollars below our goal. The cost of driving from one timeshare to another (I charged myself $0.55 a mile) was $1,898, I also had to stay in Hotels ($125 a night) for five nights, bringing the total repositioning cost to $2523. Now, throw in the associated fees with time-sharing, $804 and that brings the yearly total to $14,804. Still under budget.
Average timeshare Lodging: $956.39 /mo
Average Repositioning cost: $158.17 /mo
Averaged Hotel cost: $52.00 / mo
Averaged Timeshare Fees: $67.00 /mo
| Month | Lodging | Reposit | Total |
| 2014 | |||
| March | 1245 | 50 | 1295 |
| Feb | 996 | 405 | 1526 |
| Jan | 851 | 0 | 976 |
| 2013 | |||
| Dec | 764 | 48 | 813 |
| Nov | 995 | 33 | 1028 |
| Oct | 796 | 0 | 866 |
| Sep | 796 | 352 | 1273 |
| Aug | 1085 | 276 | 1361 |
| July | 1076 | 93 | 1294 |
| June | 1076 | 216 | 1417 |
| May | 1120 | 323 | 1443 |
| Apr | 676 | 33 | 709 |
Time spent by location:
Virginia Beach, VA – 11 Weeks
Williamsburg, VA – 8 Weeks
Kitty Hawk, NC – 7 Weeks
Horseshoe Bend, AR – 6 Weeks
Duck, NC – 5 Weeks
Crossville, TN – 4 Weeks
Farminton, MO – 4 Weeks
McGaheysville, VA – 2 Weeks
Westminster, SC – 1 Week
Surfside Beach, SC – 1 Week
Atlantic Beach, NC – 2 Weeks
Myrtle Beach, SC, 1 Week
A soft copy of the journey can be found here.
