4 ms·

It's easier to do if you're willing to live without a car and health insurance. I keep good track of what I spend, and live pretty frugally, so here's some inf

It's easier to do if you're willing to live without a car and health insurance. I keep good track of what I spend, and live pretty frugally, so here's some info on "what's possible" (assuming a single person living in the midwest US). I eat for ~$90 a month (oatmeal, fruit, beans and rice, peanut butter and jelly, spaghetti, chicken once a week, ground beef once a week). I pay: -$200/month for rent and utilities (live in a house with 4 others guys in midwest collegetown). And it's a decent sized place with cable internet, so you could probably get cheaper (though likely not on the east or west coast). -$30/month for cell phone plan. -Computer was homebuilt from parts and is 4 years old. -$200/year for clothes/toiletries. That comes to about $11 a day. Now, my expenses or higher because I opt to have health insurance, a car, travel, and go out every now and then. It's the health insurance, living in high cost-of-living places, car, going out, and travel that makes your goal difficult.

selectstar 13y ago
What do you do for fun? Are you active in the dating pool? How often do you socialise in situations that require spend? (Be that a trip to the cinema, or a coffeshop, or a bar or taking beer/wine to a BBQ.) As an aside, why I know this type of lifestyle is not for me and why I find it so alien... "-$200/year for clothes/toiletries" ...is blown in one quarterly trip to Aesop.
- bluedino 13y ago
  >> Are you active in the dating pool? How often do you socialise in situations that require spend? Chances are he would find a date who has similar interests - and there are lots of free things to do, walks, parks, bike rides, picnics (grab something from the dumpster at Subway before you leave)
  - gotrecruit 13y ago
    i've heard of dumpster diving, but honestly i always assumed that was either intended as a joke, or only homeless bums do it. i can't imagine eating out of a dumpster if you have ANY option at all not to. i mean, the smell alone...
    - Trano 13y ago
      My understanding is that dumpster diving to get opened food is fairly uncommon. More often it is getting sealed food that was thrown out because it has expired, has damaged packaging, or in some other way is less desirable. So the food that you would eat from a dumpster isn't exposed and probably doesn't smell like a restaurant waste dumpster would.
    - lightbritefight 13y ago
      Its apparent you've never tried it. Its a fascinating thing to leap into the trash to see what you can find. There is generally an odor, but you aren't there for things that stink anyway. Any bag that stinks you ignore. I used to look for likely working electronics, good looking/fixable furniture, and rarely, still sealed food. Some folk go further and will pull loose fruit/veg out. If you leave any rot behind and wash the food, you should be fine. You never pull cheese/meat out of a dumpster, however. Too risky. People are very wasteful. Just because something goes into the trash doesn't mean its without utility. It just means someone decided it didn't have any utility for them. Many perfectly fine things go into the trash everyday. Letting them rot in a landfill instead of being recycled seems way more distasteful than a smell that will wash right off. If you are going to try it, the first rule of dumpster diving is to leave the site in better shape than when you found it. If you make a mess, you clean it up. Its the decent thing to do, and helps keeps the neighbors calm. Its an oddly invasive act, as peoples trash is basically a story of their life, so anything that soothes people about you going into a dumpster is good. Personally, I did it largely for the sense of adventure. Its like a modern day treasure hunt. The fact that I was able to furnish my apartment very richly for nothing was a bonus.
Avshalom 13y ago
Pretty much. I spent last year saving for a car and my monthly expenses came to about 6-700 but I live in Austin so ~450 went to rent/utilities/phone plus ~70 for gas/insurance for the car I was borrowing. Once you've got housing/transportation knocked out to your satisfaction 400 a month is pretty much living like a god damn king.
altoz 13y ago
$30/month for cell phone? If you go pre-paid with a provider like ptel, you can easily spend less than that if you're not using too much data or using too many minutes.
- Avshalom 13y ago
  rubidium is not listing a thought experiment those are actual expenses not "the cheapest I can possibly find".
drbawb 13y ago
As far as maintaing cars on a budget goes, I feel I could offer some pointers. Going by the "$5000" figure I guess I spent about "$2/day per car." (My yearly maintenance costs are about $1,000 on years when I'm buying fresh rubber or doing large jobs. Significantly less than that on years that only require servicing consumables like brakes and fluids.) 0) Find a reliable car. This seems like a no brainer, but honestly some cars are just _built like tanks._ This is the toughest part as you'll end up spending more money since these cars naturally hold their resale value a bit better. Find something like an older Toyota with an S engine [Camry], or perhaps a Volvo, etc. My rule of thumb? If you don't get search results for "[Car in question] + 300,000 miles" -- you're about to buy the wrong car! My Mustang has 300,000mi+ on the clock, my old minivan had 240,000, and it's not hard to imagine my Camry making it to 300,000mi if I continue to maintain it. 1) Find an honest mechanic that's _willing to install customer supplied parts._ Sadly: all shops will charge [what I consider] an outrageous markup on parts. This is usually to "subsidize" whatever warranty they offer on their work. So be aware that you're effectively making a bet that the part you're buying isn't a dud. Otherwise you're going to find out why they charge such a ridiculous markup. (Hint: the shop won't make you wait 2 weeks while their parts supplier processes the RMA. -- They swap in a brand new part in 24 hours, and hope that the RMA goes through.) 2) Perform certain maintenance yourself. Here's how I see it. * You should be able to: rotate your tires, change your own oil, change air & cabin air filters, check the levels of all other fluids. * It's nice if you can: top off & change other fluids, replace belts, change spark plugs & wires, replace a distributor cap or similar component. (Only applies to older vehicles with a cap or external ignition control module driving the ignition coils. On modern vehicles you'll have coil-on-plug fired directly from the ECU.) * You're doing _really well_ if you can: change your own brakes [pads, rotors, drums, and shoes], swap out components on the accessory belt (anything pulley driven, like your pumps, alternator, etc.), replace _any_ suspension or steering components. Unless something goes _wrong_, nothing above really requires any specialty tooling. Air tooling is nice, but honestly I've gotten by for years with nothing but an electric impact wrench [for removing & installing wheels]... everything else can be done with a good set of wrenches, a breaker bar, and a dash of blood and tears. (As a precaution: the last category involves some _very dangerous jobs._ -- Improper installation of brakes will at best render your vehicle immobile, at worst it will endanger the safety of yourself and others on the road. As for suspension: those springs support a significant amount of weight. They are _incredibly dangerous_ if not handled properly.) --- To elaborate a bit on point #1 we will use a fairly recent example. I had a timing belt installed: I purchased the components [the belt, idler pulleys, water pump, various gaskets] myself for $90. These components have a 5-year/50,000 mi warranty on the parts themselves. (The shop offered a 2 year / 12,000 mi. warranty for comparison.) The labor comes to $375 because I have a mechanic that will install customer supplied parts. Total I spent: $465 for a job that costs $600-$800 in my area. If you want to know where the extra money comes from: let's look at the parts I _didn't supply._ I needed a thermostat & gasket, a power steering belt, an a serpentine belt. The thermostat and gasket were $25, the belts were $40 a piece, for a total of $105. I could've bought my own thermostat and gasket for $12, and I could've gotten _the same exact belts_ for $9/piece. (A savings of $75 dollars.) At this kind of markup: my timing belt kit would've cost $200+ instead of $90, which falls right in line with the $600-$800 estimate from other shops. If you're used to paying for parts through a garage: you're probably paying twice as much as you need to for parts. Finding parts is a cinch: you can either ask your local part store [and then source the parts there, or online] -- or you can use a parts catalog like RockAuto which has their inventory broken down by make, model, year, and engine. When it comes to car parts: it's worth shopping around to save money on shipping; auto parts can get quite heavy, and it makes a huge difference if you can get them shipped from a single warehouse.

selectstar 13y ago

What do you do for fun? Are you active in the dating pool? How often do you socialise in situations that require spend? (Be that a trip to the cinema, or a coffeshop, or a bar or taking beer/wine to a BBQ.) As an aside, why I know this type of lifestyle is not for me and why I find it so alien... "-$200/year for clothes/toiletries" ...is blown in one quarterly trip to Aesop.

bluedino 13y ago
>> Are you active in the dating pool? How often do you socialise in situations that require spend? Chances are he would find a date who has similar interests - and there are lots of free things to do, walks, parks, bike rides, picnics (grab something from the dumpster at Subway before you leave)
- gotrecruit 13y ago
  i've heard of dumpster diving, but honestly i always assumed that was either intended as a joke, or only homeless bums do it. i can't imagine eating out of a dumpster if you have ANY option at all not to. i mean, the smell alone...
  - Trano 13y ago
    My understanding is that dumpster diving to get opened food is fairly uncommon. More often it is getting sealed food that was thrown out because it has expired, has damaged packaging, or in some other way is less desirable. So the food that you would eat from a dumpster isn't exposed and probably doesn't smell like a restaurant waste dumpster would.
  - lightbritefight 13y ago
    Its apparent you've never tried it. Its a fascinating thing to leap into the trash to see what you can find. There is generally an odor, but you aren't there for things that stink anyway. Any bag that stinks you ignore. I used to look for likely working electronics, good looking/fixable furniture, and rarely, still sealed food. Some folk go further and will pull loose fruit/veg out. If you leave any rot behind and wash the food, you should be fine. You never pull cheese/meat out of a dumpster, however. Too risky. People are very wasteful. Just because something goes into the trash doesn't mean its without utility. It just means someone decided it didn't have any utility for them. Many perfectly fine things go into the trash everyday. Letting them rot in a landfill instead of being recycled seems way more distasteful than a smell that will wash right off. If you are going to try it, the first rule of dumpster diving is to leave the site in better shape than when you found it. If you make a mess, you clean it up. Its the decent thing to do, and helps keeps the neighbors calm. Its an oddly invasive act, as peoples trash is basically a story of their life, so anything that soothes people about you going into a dumpster is good. Personally, I did it largely for the sense of adventure. Its like a modern day treasure hunt. The fact that I was able to furnish my apartment very richly for nothing was a bonus.

Avshalom 13y ago

Pretty much. I spent last year saving for a car and my monthly expenses came to about 6-700 but I live in Austin so ~450 went to rent/utilities/phone plus ~70 for gas/insurance for the car I was borrowing. Once you've got housing/transportation knocked out to your satisfaction 400 a month is pretty much living like a god damn king.

altoz 13y ago

$30/month for cell phone? If you go pre-paid with a provider like ptel, you can easily spend less than that if you're not using too much data or using too many minutes.

Avshalom 13y ago
rubidium is not listing a thought experiment those are actual expenses not "the cheapest I can possibly find".

drbawb 13y ago

As far as maintaing cars on a budget goes, I feel I could offer some pointers. Going by the "$5000" figure I guess I spent about "$2/day per car." (My yearly maintenance costs are about $1,000 on years when I'm buying fresh rubber or doing large jobs. Significantly less than that on years that only require servicing consumables like brakes and fluids.) 0) Find a reliable car. This seems like a no brainer, but honestly some cars are just _built like tanks._ This is the toughest part as you'll end up spending more money since these cars naturally hold their resale value a bit better. Find something like an older Toyota with an S engine [Camry], or perhaps a Volvo, etc. My rule of thumb? If you don't get search results for "[Car in question] + 300,000 miles" -- you're about to buy the wrong car! My Mustang has 300,000mi+ on the clock, my old minivan had 240,000, and it's not hard to imagine my Camry making it to 300,000mi if I continue to maintain it. 1) Find an honest mechanic that's _willing to install customer supplied parts._ Sadly: all shops will charge [what I consider] an outrageous markup on parts. This is usually to "subsidize" whatever warranty they offer on their work. So be aware that you're effectively making a bet that the part you're buying isn't a dud. Otherwise you're going to find out why they charge such a ridiculous markup. (Hint: the shop won't make you wait 2 weeks while their parts supplier processes the RMA. -- They swap in a brand new part in 24 hours, and hope that the RMA goes through.) 2) Perform certain maintenance yourself. Here's how I see it. * You should be able to: rotate your tires, change your own oil, change air & cabin air filters, check the levels of all other fluids. * It's nice if you can: top off & change other fluids, replace belts, change spark plugs & wires, replace a distributor cap or similar component. (Only applies to older vehicles with a cap or external ignition control module driving the ignition coils. On modern vehicles you'll have coil-on-plug fired directly from the ECU.) * You're doing _really well_ if you can: change your own brakes [pads, rotors, drums, and shoes], swap out components on the accessory belt (anything pulley driven, like your pumps, alternator, etc.), replace _any_ suspension or steering components. Unless something goes _wrong_, nothing above really requires any specialty tooling. Air tooling is nice, but honestly I've gotten by for years with nothing but an electric impact wrench [for removing & installing wheels]... everything else can be done with a good set of wrenches, a breaker bar, and a dash of blood and tears. (As a precaution: the last category involves some _very dangerous jobs._ -- Improper installation of brakes will at best render your vehicle immobile, at worst it will endanger the safety of yourself and others on the road. As for suspension: those springs support a significant amount of weight. They are _incredibly dangerous_ if not handled properly.) --- To elaborate a bit on point #1 we will use a fairly recent example. I had a timing belt installed: I purchased the components [the belt, idler pulleys, water pump, various gaskets] myself for $90. These components have a 5-year/50,000 mi warranty on the parts themselves. (The shop offered a 2 year / 12,000 mi. warranty for comparison.) The labor comes to $375 because I have a mechanic that will install customer supplied parts. Total I spent: $465 for a job that costs $600-$800 in my area. If you want to know where the extra money comes from: let's look at the parts I _didn't supply._ I needed a thermostat & gasket, a power steering belt, an a serpentine belt. The thermostat and gasket were $25, the belts were $40 a piece, for a total of $105. I could've bought my own thermostat and gasket for $12, and I could've gotten _the same exact belts_ for $9/piece. (A savings of $75 dollars.) At this kind of markup: my timing belt kit would've cost $200+ instead of $90, which falls right in line with the $600-$800 estimate from other shops. If you're used to paying for parts through a garage: you're probably paying twice as much as you need to for parts. Finding parts is a cinch: you can either ask your local part store [and then source the parts there, or online] -- or you can use a parts catalog like RockAuto which has their inventory broken down by make, model, year, and engine. When it comes to car parts: it's worth shopping around to save money on shipping; auto parts can get quite heavy, and it makes a huge difference if you can get them shipped from a single warehouse.