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

Post by [deleted] » Mon, Jan 05, 2015, 1:30 PM UTC

csallen wrote: post #19

patio11 wrote: post #11

Pick a college town and rent an apartment, optionally with a roommate. In much of the American midwest this implies an all-in rent & utilities expense in the $500 range. 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 o…

> I feel that optimizing sub-$500 expenses is not the best use of one's time versus figuring out how to make money 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…

Post by rmc » Mon, Jan 05, 2015, 3:15 PM UTC

gexla wrote: post #68

patio11 wrote: post #11

Pick a college town and rent an apartment, optionally with a roommate. In much of the American midwest this implies an all-in rent & utilities expense in the $500 range. 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 o…

For sure. Even Mr Money Mustache lives on around 24K per year. One of the problems with a focus on living cheap is that the rest of the world is still expensive. You can find ways to live super cheap, but medical is still outrageous. Traveling to an expensive city will still take a large chunk out of a small income. Your focus should be on increasing options. That's probably making more money. You can make a decision…

Post by hawkice » Mon, Jan 05, 2015, 4:04 PM UTC

andyjdavis wrote: post #69

patio11 wrote: post #11

Pick a college town and rent an apartment, optionally with a roommate. In much of the American midwest this implies an all-in rent & utilities expense in the $500 range. 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 o…

>If you wanted to try something more exotic, you can do the digital nomad thing and rent somewhere in Thailand for ~$100 a month, I feel like I should point out that getting something that cheap in Thailand is difficult and certainly will not be pretty. I have previously lived in Thailand for just under a year and then gone on to be a digital nomad for three years and counting, mostly in south east Asia. Its pretty t…

Post by notahacker » Mon, Jan 05, 2015, 5:52 PM UTC

andyjdavis wrote: post #69

patio11 wrote: post #11

Pick a college town and rent an apartment, optionally with a roommate. In much of the American midwest this implies an all-in rent & utilities expense in the $500 range. 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 o…

>If you wanted to try something more exotic, you can do the digital nomad thing and rent somewhere in Thailand for ~$100 a month, I feel like I should point out that getting something that cheap in Thailand is difficult and certainly will not be pretty. I have previously lived in Thailand for just under a year and then gone on to be a digital nomad for three years and counting, mostly in south east Asia. Its pretty t…

Post by Beached » Mon, Jan 05, 2015, 6:41 PM UTC

induction wrote: post #62

delbel wrote: post #14

I've been able to do this after re-arranging my life over the past 5 years. I bought 7 acres of bare land for $35k and built a 200 sqft tiny house for $4,000. I homestead as much as I can and my bills are approximately $40/DSL, $40/Electrical, $35/Car insurance (I drive a 90s Honda), and approximately $30 a month in property taxes. I spend about $40 in propane for heat in the winter and my air conditioning bill is an…

You're living my dream. I haven't been able to do what you're doing because remote work is hard to find. Because remote work has been so difficult to find, I've been hesitant to go all out like you have. I scouted all sorts of places and have not been able to get the variables to all work out. I hang around the outskirts of cities and cobble together a living, and I go into the city for meetups. If I were doing what…