#81: RV Life and Meal Planning with Stacy Farley of Today is Someday

Stacy and Phil are the full-time RVers behind the YouTube channel, Today is Someday. Six years ago, they purchased an RV, sold their house, left their jobs, and drove off to explore the country!
Stacy is an avid Plan to Eat customer and in this episode, we talk about how she meal plans and grocery shops while living in an RV. You'll learn some helpful tips from Stacy for any small-living situation, but also some great pantry clean-out ideas for any house size. Check out Phil and Stacy on Youtube and enjoy this episode!

You can join them as they explore via their YouTube channel, Today is Someday, and website TodayIsSomeday.net.  

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Username: Today is Someday

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Transcript

Roni: [00:00:00] to the Plan to Eat podcast. Where I interview industry experts about meal planning, food and wellness. To help you answer the question. What's for dinner. 

Hello, and welcome to another episode of the planty podcast today. I have Stacey Farley on the podcast. She is a full time RV. Stacy and her husband, Phil decided to just make their travel dreams a reality. They sold their house and all of their things and bought an RV about six years ago. And now they have traveled through 40 States in the United States.

And they just live an awesome RV life. They have a great YouTube channel called today is some day. I will make sure that you can link to that in the show notes. And I got to talk to Stacey today, mostly about food and meal planning and how she manages. Small storage in the RV, [00:01:00] how she meal plans. She's actually a Plan to Eat customer.

She's used Plan to Eat since before they were RV-ers. And so she talks about how she uses Plan to Eat to make some of the things with related to food in the RV a little easier. And just kind of her process overall. So if you are interested in small living or RV life, this episode is definitely one that you should tune into.

And without further ado, here's my interview with Stacey.

Hey, Stacy. Thanks for joining me on the podcast.

Stacy: Hi. How's it going?

Roni: Great. Thanks so much for joining me. Why don't you start by giving everybody just an intro of who you are and what you do?

Stacy: Oh, okay. Sweet. I am Stacy. Um, I am a full time RV er. My husband and I sold all of our stuff, sold our house, hopped in an RV and set out to travel the U. S. about almost six years ago now.

Roni: Oh, wow. I didn't realize it had been that long. That's great. [00:02:00] What's the story behind wanting to be full time RVers?

Stacy: Well, we love to travel. That's always been a passion of ours. But, um, after my husband retired from the military, he served for 27 years. He came home and, I was working full time as a nurse practitioner. And after about six months, we realized we literally saw each other more on FaceTime while he was deployed.

Um, as opposed to when he got home and I was working the crazy hours. So we were trying to really figure out a way to refocus and make up for some of the lost time that we had missed out on with all his deployments and. The kids left the nest, so we were like, uh, why not give this a try for a year? And we've been doing it for almost six now and love it.

Roni: That's amazing. So did you retire at that point as well?

Stacy: I walked away from my nursing career and, uh, it was a difficult decision. I thought I would go back, but, um, obviously we started a YouTube channel that kind of took off on a life of [00:03:00] its own and, and here, here we are. And we, we just love the freedom that it's given us.

Roni: That's great. What do you feel like's the hardest part about full time RV life?

Stacy: There's, there are, you know, it's not all rosy. There are some difficult parts, um, the planning, trying to figure out where we're going next, which it's kind of funny cause it's the best part and the worst part all rolled up into one. So, I don't know. I think everyone's a little different. Not everybody is down for as much change as we have, um, really on a daily to weekly basis, cause we move a lot.

Um, but. It's, it's good. I'd love it. I love not knowing where we're going next. I'd love experiencing new things and new people and new towns. So for us, it's been amazing.

Roni: Yeah. Is there a, like a pretty good RV community? Like if you show up to places, are there other people who are doing the same thing?

Stacy: Well, we learned really quickly that the RVing community is [00:04:00] amazing. Like we've met some lifelong friends since we hit the road. We actually through our YouTube channel now we literally meet up with people everywhere we go. So it is a very tight knit, very social, welcoming, and just, Giving community. I mean, one of the things that our channel is known for is raising money for our veterans.

We've raised over 170, 000 since we started our channel and it's not because we donated all that money It's because our community just rallies around whatever fundraiser we have and they step up and they really have made a huge impact

Roni: Oh, that's amazing. That's great. I love that you guys have that purpose attached to your channel. That's awesome.

Stacy: Yeah, for sure

Roni: Well, so the main reason why I wanted you to come on the show is because not only do I know you love plan to eat, which is awesome, but I'm interested in hearing about how you meal plan for such a tiny space and, you know, not very much storage.

So why don't you [00:05:00] give us an overview of what the food storage looks like in your RV? Because I know like some, some RVs are bigger, some are smaller. What's yours look like?

Stacy: So we have a 35 foot motor home. So, you know, it's definitely right in the middle as far as storage goes, but that being said, it is nothing like our pantry and our 3000 square foot house. So there are a lot of concessions that we make to live this life and to travel as much as we want. And storage is definitely one of the biggest.

So we do have one small pull out pantry, and I say small because it is one can wide, um, pretty much. And then I also have, uh, two very small cabinets. So for us, when we are deciding, you know, what our meal is going to be for the week, and I do plan, usually, typically, week by week, um, I really focus on what I have in the cabinet because, you know, we, we don't Costco shop, we don't buy in bulk, and we definitely don't even want to have multiples if we can help with it, [00:06:00] because that will really limit our storage.

So using plan to eat, now, mind you, we were using plan to eat, We've been using it for almost 10 years. I want to say it's right between nine and 10. And initially I used it as a way to get my husband to stop by the grocery store and the right home from work. Cause you know, I would prep it, put it in there.

I'm like, the list is in the app, go to the store. And so it made life really easy for us. So now I kind of do the same thing for us. With the grocery list, you know, I decide what we're having. I'll go through and eliminate everything that we already have on the shelves to prevent duplicates. And it's, it's really super fast and easy to go through your list and eliminate what you already have.

But more importantly, I use the app. So we cycle through products. So every six. Probably twice a year. I'll go through open all my cabinets and say, okay, what do I have that's been sitting and I will literally make a recipe or find a recipe for every item on our shelves [00:07:00] and we will empty everything out.

The freezer will be completely empty. The pantry will be empty and it makes sure we're cycling through food and nothing gets wasted

Roni: Hmm. That's a really good process. I feel like I could adopt that just in my own home.

Stacy: because you never know what's in the back of your, your cabinet.

Roni: Absolutely. Yeah. Do you, uh, how, I guess, how frequently are you going for like regular grocery runs? Are you just going once a week or are you having to stop more frequently for, you know, regular, like little staples?

Stacy: Typically it's once a week, most of the staples, you know, we already have it and I have all the normal stuff, like all the spices, I have a spice drawer, you know, we have the oils, flour, sugar, if we need any of that stuff. I do have enough storage for that, but I don't have enough storage for those really cool specialty recipes that I used to just kind of play with.

So if it's not something that I use. For most meals, I'm not going to buy that spice or that specialty food item. And frankly, I may not [00:08:00] even be able to find it because a lot of times we're traveling through really small towns. And so not only. Would I not find that item, but typically I may not even find my favorite brands or, you know, items that I typically buy if I was at home.

If I say home at our, um, in Texas where we used to live,

Roni: When you may, I know this has been quite a few years now, but when you were first starting, how did you go about figuring out How much you could actually buy and store in the RV. Was it a trial and error process or did you have somebody to kind of like help you figure it out? How'd that work?

Stacy: it definitely was trial and error because, you know, that mentality of space that you have in the house when you switch over, it is a big switch and not just for groceries, but for clothing and, you know, all of your storage items. So, I did overbuy in the beginning. So for us, I wanted our RV to kind of be like our house.

And in your house, you don't see, you know, [00:09:00] bottles of water under your kitchen table or your coffee table. So I didn't want that in my RV either. I want our space to be really clean. So it did take a couple of months to evolve, to figure out exactly how much will fit, how much I can buy and to make sure I'm using and following actual plan to eat menu plan.

Um, whereas in the house frequently I would, you know, make a whole menu and decide, Eh, I don't want that today. I think I'll do this instead. And then you have those few odd ingredients that you purchase just for that recipe that just sit. So I can't really do that here or else, The coverage will fill up on items that I'm not using.

Roni: Do you feel like that's a, um, a good thing most of the time? Or do you think that there are times when you're like, Oh man, I wish that we could switch this up a little bit.

Stacy: I definitely think it's a good thing because I waste so much less now. Um, I'm very purposeful in how I buy and what I'm buying. [00:10:00] Um, we I mean our waste has greatly decreased not that we're perfect because there are times I'll plan stuff and maybe we'll go out to eat instead or whatever. So I really have to work hard to make sure especially fresh fruits and vegetables don't get wasted.

But I do spend less on groceries. Use, well, just using Plan to Eat overall, but I'll spend less on groceries and I waste so much less.

Roni: You see, you mentioned not being able to make some of those, you know, like specialty recipes or maybe recipes that are, uh, you know, like an Indian cuisine or something, if that's not what you normally eat, how do you keep variety in your meals? I mean, maybe you guys are, or maybe the opposite. Maybe you guys are really happy with not having variety, but I just imagine there would be times where you're like, well, we've eaten these same five recipes for the last, like three weeks and I'm kind of tired of it.

Do you, do you get that variety from going out to eat sometimes? Or do you try to make room for that in your meal plans?

Stacy: well, I do try to, yes, we do eat out because we're always exploring new places and you got to have the [00:11:00] best of whatever that that local place has to offer. So we do eat out, but I also try to, I try to vary the recipes, even though the ingredients are similar. So as long as it's something that I will use, I can, I can purchase it.

And there are so many great recipes online and we all know what plan to eat. All you do is click one button and boom, the recipe is in your planner and you can figure it out. So I think, I think with RV life, we have. Very few, um, things that I can use in the kitchen. Like I don't have 15 appliances, like I'm very limited.

So that limits how I cook to begin with. So I think the variety is really, uh, mixing it up a little bit. Like just last night, I made a chicken dish I hadn't made before. It was very simple. It was a one pot chicken dish, but it was delicious. And now it moves over to the, we'll make again pile because we'll, we, uh, we both loved it and so we'll make it again.

And it was simple five ingredients. And, and it was delicious[00:12:00] 

Roni: Was that a, a shift for you from going from, you know, living in a home to living in the RV was figuring what's like finding and figuring out how to make recipes that were not only limited ingredients, but limited. utilities as well.

Stacy: for me, a hundred percent because I would use my whole kitchen, every cabinet, every counter would be open and that's, it drives my husband crazy, but that's just how I was. That would be all over the place. And now, like, I barely have any counter space at all. I barely have, um, like mainly I'm using either barbecuing outside on the grill some way, or I'm using a one pot.

Um, way to make a meal because we are very limited, but, but it made me be more creative. It's made me look up more stuff and try to implement different ways. Like you said, so we don't get bored with the same thing over and over and over.

Roni: Yeah. I really like that you mentioned creativity in there because I think that oftentimes we look at [00:13:00] constraints on our recipes or our meal plans as constraints rather than an opportunity to look at it for like, how can, how can I be creative in this and find something that's new and different that we really enjoy?

And I like that you also mentioned that It then gets add like that new recipe then gets added into your like, yeah, this isn't our, this isn't our new rotation. And then I'm, I'm assuming in like a couple of months, that'll kind of like switch up a little bit and you'll have a different rotation. I like that your, your mindset on that.

Stacy: Yeah, and that's our family's always been like, okay, when I make something new, it's like, yes, do it again, or no, that one's out. So that's kind of how we decide if we're going to keep it in the rotation or add it to the list. And we've really been working hard to bring in more, um, fruits and vegetables into our diet anyway, and more variety into our, our diet where we've all heard the latest news about microbiome and vegetables and all that.

So we've been working really hard to do that. And that's where some of the creativity comes in. Like, how can we pull [00:14:00] this veggie in and, and how can we make this work? So I, I think planting between plan to eat all the numerous recipes there is online, it really does make it easy to do all this.

Roni: I would think too, with the rise of people doing either RV life or van life, there's a lot of people who are out there kind of like catering to you as an audience for recipes of, you know, what's easy, what's, You know, cost effective, space effective, that kind of stuff.

Stacy: Yeah, I think the days of buying in bulk and buying a lot of stuff have kind of gone away and we're all trying to live a little more simple, um, a little less, you know, causing a little less waste, um, which is, you know, the biggest thing for us.

Roni: Yeah. Yeah. So what does that look like? I, I know very little about RV life. Um, when you guys do have, you know, food waste or things like that. Are there any places that you've come across where you've been able to be like, to like [00:15:00] compost things? Um, like are those available at RV stations or not?

Stacy: No, we haven't seen any of that and we're surprised to actually find a lot of recycling in a lot of cities are, it's actually going away. So, some cities aren't even recycling at all anymore, so that was really surprising. And compost, I've only seen compost a couple of times in a couple of locations.

Roni: Yeah. That is unfortunate. Yeah.

Stacy: I know, it, I was really surprised.

Roni: Is there anything that you feel like is actually easier about cooking now living in the RV? You know, we talked about the constraints of not having, you know, space and not having your different things, but is there anything that you're like, this is actually easier in a smaller space?

Stacy: The only thing easier would probably be the fact that, um, we've kind of consolidated. Like I said, we have less ingredients. We have less things, less going on. So yeah. I'm not trying to, uh, cook for the world, and I'm not trying all this fancy new stuff. So I think the simplicity of it really is [00:16:00] what we've, what I've kind of honed in on is getting back to the basics.

Roni: Yeah. I want to kind of slow grow back to your YouTube channel. What, what prompted you guys to get started with a YouTube channel in the first place?

Stacy: Well, mainly it's because, um, I'm used to having something to do and I needed a creative outlet. So, I wouldn't drive my husband crazy while we were on the road. So, um, we just started the channel. We, we never dreamed it would get to where it is right now. And, we're, we're just having a blast. It's been so much fun.

We've met so many amazing people through our channel. So we really love it.

Roni: Are you self taught as far as all of the recording and video editing and everything goes?

Stacy: Absolutely. I I'm a nurse by trade. Um, not a lot of video editing in nursing. So, so yeah, I just, I just kind of jumped in and, you know, I've always had some kind of creative outlet, um, you know, since, since I was a kid, really. So this was just that for me, [00:17:00] it was fun. It was something different and it showed our kids where we were going.

And. You know, five years later, we've really grown and it's been really amazing.

Roni: I love that. So you guys mostly travel in the United States. Right. In the RV. Where's your favorite, place or state that you traveled to?

Stacy: Oh my gosh. It, that is such a difficult question because there are so many places that we love, but we love for different reasons. For example, we sat outside Yosemite in California for a couple of weeks and absolutely loved it there. We were unplugged at this campground where we watched the bears come through and, um, sitting right outside, you know, looking at the mountains through the RV.

It, it was amazing. But then, you know, we hit some small towns in Colorado or even big cities. So it's really hard to pick one when we've been to so many amazing places.

Roni: Do you, how long do you guys normally stay in one spot or do you just vary it [00:18:00] depending on if you really like the place or not?

Stacy: We vary it. And that's, that's the freedom of it. So if we really love somewhere, we might hunker down and stay for a couple of weeks or, you know, if we feel like, okay, we're, we're good here, we'll stay as short as three or four days. So, um, it really varies and it varies if we're meeting up with people, if we're doing family events, um, all of that stuff.

So, the flexibility that it's given us is what's really cool. And the freedom to just, you know, come and go as we want to.

Roni: Yeah. That seems like a good sales pitch for the, for the RV life.

Stacy: It is now, you know, that's one of the definite benefits. There are some negatives, like, like it's a lot of work. Imagine packing up your house, um, and moving it every few days. You got to break it down. You got to set it up when you get to the new place. So there is some work involved. So that's kind of the negative aspect of it, but.

It brings you so much more than, you know, that hour you spend packing up, um, you know, causes you to have to do.[00:19:00] 

Roni: Well, and is the hour packing up really any more than you would spend, you know, mowing your lawn at home or, you know, things like that?

Stacy: The maintenance. Absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah. So you're just kind of trading one for the other. There's pros and cons everywhere you are. You just have to decide which ones you want to live with and, and which one brings you, bring you the most joy.

Roni: So, clearly we're going to recommend your YouTube channel for this, but aside from your YouTube channel, do you have any other resources? If somebody was looking to get into RV life that they could go learn more about it?

Stacy: Oh my goodness. Yes. So of course our website, we do have a, uh, a blog and, uh, with a ton of information on there, but. It's you can find stuff on full time RVing all over the place. Just throw it into Google and you're going to get videos and blogs. And there are so many people with so much knowledge who've been doing it as long, if not longer than us.

So it really is. You won't be surprised how many people [00:20:00] are living this crazy lifestyle, even though it's kind of off the cuff and Um, our, our parents were not thrilled when they heard what we were doing because we were selling our house. It's, it's definitely not mainstream, but it is a lot of fun.

Roni: Yeah. Do you have plans to, are your plans to continue RVing for years to come or do you have plans to settle back down again in the future?

Stacy: Someday we'll, we'll buy a house. We just don't know when that someday is. So, um, we're really enjoying our lifestyle right now. And. It seems like the more things that we mark off the list, the more things we add to the bottom that we want to go see. So it's not getting any shorter. It's definitely getting longer.

So, I'm not sure when the end will come. Um, we just had our first, uh, grandbaby. He's about a year and a half. So we are definitely drawn to go hang out with him more. Um, but, but we still, you know, are hitting the road and traveling as well.

Roni: Well, congratulations. That's an exciting thing

Stacy: Thank you. It is very exciting.

Roni: Yeah.

Is there [00:21:00] anything that, um, you want to talk about today that we missed? I feel like we, we covered a lot about meal planning.

Stacy: The only other thing that I would, um, that I would say is, I've had some people follow us that have joined plan to eat. So if you want to make it more of a community with your, your meals, if you want to share with friends and family, you can with plan to eat.

We do have people that follow us and we, I go and scope out their, their meals when I'm looking for something new or their recipes. So that's another easy way to broaden your meals or even share things back and forth. Because I made, we've made things for potluck. Just like, Oh my gosh, I want that recipe.

And it's so easy just to say, follow me on plan to eat and you can see it all.

Roni: Oh, that's awesome. Yeah. We'll make sure I'll make sure that I put your username in the, in the show notes. So anybody can become your friend if they really want to learn some more about your RV recipes and stuff.

Stacy: Very cool.

Roni: Yeah. So why don't you just, remind everybody what your YouTube channel is and where they can connect [00:22:00] with you guys.

Stacy: All right. If you want to check out our crazy RV life, you will find us at today is someday on YouTube, and you'll also can find us at todayasomeday. net, um, which is our website, which is also loaded with a lot of info.

Roni: Awesome. Perfect. Well, thanks for your time today, Stacy. It was really good

Stacy: Thank you. Yeah, it was nice to actually see you today.

Roni: Yeah.

As always, thank you for tuning in to today's episode. There are links in the show note to Phil in Stacey's YouTube channel. Today is someday as well as their website and their username in plan to eat. If you want to connect with them as friends and be able to see their recipes and saved menus.

If you are loving the plan to eat podcast, please share it with a friend so that they can get acquainted with the podcast and leave a rating and review on Apple podcast, Spotify, and Audible. Thank you for listening. And I will see you again in two weeks. [00:23:00]