What's the cheapest living situation possible that still has basic utilities?

If you wanted to try something more exotic, you can do the digital nomad thing and rent somewhere in Thailand for ~$100 a month, but honestly as a programmer I feel that optimizing sub-$500 expenses is not the best use of one's time versus figuring out how to make money in a stable and hopefully increasing-over-time fashion.

I understand the aesthetic appeal of going off the grid but if you wouldn't get a job as an electrician or day laborer which paid $400 a month then you shouldn't take on any major construction project to save $400 a month.

Speaking as someone with a solar installation, I wouldn't screw with solar if I were worried about cost. Live like you are on solar and you will buy $0.30 of electricity a day from the power company.

Your limitation is going to be fast enough internet, that will keep you close enough to be under cable tv or a benevolent telecom.

and

> I'd be curious if I could set myself up with a basic home for $40,000 or less

As others have mentioned, it's not too hard to build an off-the-grid small house. If you want to go with new, that's certainly an option.

Since you don't mind being a couple hours from a major city, may I suggest spending a bit more and buying used? You can buy yourself a decent one family home within that distance span. Add some solar panels and you're good to go.

You can also buy a two-family, rent out one of the units, and actually make money. Lots of options in real estate if you don't want to spend a ton.

If you're lucky enough to have startup capital, then you can reduce your recurring expenses to practically nothing. You can find a trailer for a few grand, for example, and functional houses can be found for less than $20k in many American cities. You can probably find parks charging only a couple hundred a month for lot rent, if you go the trailer route, and property taxes will be minimal on houses in the described range, if you choose that, instead.

If you don't want to invest anything up front, you can still find housing for around $350/mo in the worst parts of the Midwestern city I live in. (But you shouldn't expect a very hands-on landlord.) You might even find weekly- or daily-rate housing that's cheaper, but I've never personally looked into that sort of thing.

Obviously, there's a reason that these areas are so inexpensive, but I've optimized only for cost.

Second this. You can only save so much, but there's practically no upper limit on how much you can make.

Plus making money is more fun than saving it. Saving generally requires sacrifices that decrease your quality of life. And there are diminishing returns, so you'll need to make ever-bigger sacrifices as continue to decrease your spending.