What a month in a rig costs

Why the advertised rate is never the bill

Quoted monthly RV living cost in North Texas clusters between about $650 and $1,100, and at a glance the low end looks like an obvious win. It usually is not, because the parks at the low end are frequently the ones that meter water, charge for Wi-Fi, add a pet fee per month rather than per stay, or sit far enough out that you spend the difference in fuel getting to work.

The only fair comparison is the whole bill. So here it is, line by line, with our numbers where we have them and honest ranges where the number depends on you.

The site rate

Ours starts at $750 a month with a thirty-night minimum and a $250 refundable deposit. Water and sewer are included. Park-wide AT&T Wi-Fi is included. There is no separate charge for the bathhouse, the dog park, the fire pit or the six hundred feet of shoreline.

Waterfront rows cost more than interior rows, the same as they do nightly, and they are the first to go. If you want one, ask early rather than at the end of your first month.

Electric

On monthly stays, power is metered and billed separately. Almost every park in Texas does this, and the ones that do not have simply built an average into the rate – which means light users subsidise heavy ones.

What to expect, in a North Texas year:

• Spring and fall – the low-cost months. Windows open, very little running. Often under $60.
• Summer – the expensive months. A rig in a Texas July is a small metal building with a lot of surface area, and the air conditioning does not stop. $120 to $200 is normal, more in a big fifth wheel with two units.
• Winter – moderate. North Texas winters are mild, but a hard freeze week will show up on the bill.

Shade is the single biggest lever you control. We have real mature oaks, and in August that stops being decoration and starts being money. For context on the rate itself, the Energy Information Administration publishes average Texas residential electricity prices, and a metered RV site bills on the same basis.

Propane

Cooking, the water heater and the furnace. Outside winter, most people spend $20 to $60 a month. In a cold snap, if you are heating on propane rather than an electric space heater, a thirty-pound bottle can go in under a week. Many long-stay guests switch to electric heat in winter deliberately and let the meter take it, because propane runs at that point cost more.

Fuel, and the thing nobody budgets

If the rig is parked for the month, this is your car, not your motorhome – and it is entirely a function of where the park is. A site twenty minutes closer to your job is worth roughly forty minutes of driving a day. Over a thirteen-week contract that is real money and a lot of your life.

We are about twenty-five minutes from Frisco, thirty from Denton, and under an hour from downtown Dallas. Crews working Celina, Prosper and Frisco park here specifically because the alternative is Frisco hotel rates.

Laundry, and the rest of the small stuff

• Laundry – on site here, and recently upgraded. If you are staying a month rather than a weekend, this stops being a nice-to-have and becomes the reason you picked the park.
• Insurance – full-timer RV policies cost more than recreational-use policies. Tell your insurer what you are doing.
• Mail – the park does not take regular mail and the address cannot be used as a permanent one, so plan on a PO box at the UPS Store in Cross Roads or the Amazon Locker in Oak Point, both a few minutes out. A delivery option is being worked on; ask the office where it stands.
• Pets – two per site, leashed outside the dog park. No monthly pet charge here, but do ask that question elsewhere.

So what does the monthly RV living cost add up to?

For a typical single rig on an interior site, staying through a shoulder season: $750 site + roughly $70 electric + $40 propane, which lands around $860 before fuel and food. Through a Texas summer on a waterfront site with two air conditioners running, the same stay can reach $1,100.

Compare that with a one-bedroom rental in Frisco or Plano, where the rent alone is multiples of it before utilities, deposit and a twelve-month signature. That gap is why the monthly guests here are who they are.

Who does this?

North Texas is building faster than it can house people, and a lot of our long-stay guests are a direct consequence:

• Crews on the build. Celina, Prosper and Frisco are under constant construction. Park the rig twenty-five minutes out instead of paying Frisco hotel rates.
• Travel nurses and contractors. Thirteen-week assignments at the Frisco, Denton and McKinney hospitals. Full hookups, working Wi-Fi, and a gate code that is yours for the whole contract.
• Snowbirds. Mild winters and a park that runs year round. January to March is when monthly sites are easiest to get.
• People between houses. The closing moved, the build ran long, the lease ended early. Stay on the water while it sorts itself out without signing anything for a year.
• Anyone looking for an affordable alternative. A month in a rig on the water costs a fraction of a one-bedroom near Frisco, and you are not signing for twelve of them.

The rule that catches everyone

Lake Lewisville is ringed by Corps of Engineers and city parks, and almost all of them cap camping at roughly fourteen days in any thirty-day period. That rule is why none of them can hold you for a thirteen-week contract.

Waterfront Hideaway Ranch is private land on the north end of the lake. That one fact is why we can put a full-hookup site on the water, by the month, for as long as the job, the build or the closing takes. Long-term sites are booked by inquiry rather than online, so call or write to the office and we will confirm terms in writing before you arrive.