how to live on $600 per month

Van Living Forum

Help Support Van Living Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
we are completely off topic, we aren't discussing Canadian citizenship we are discussing living on $600 a month. Further off-topic posts will be deleted.
Bob
 
My friend gets about the same as you from his social security. He lives quite well. Our town has several food banks, and he gets food stamp assistance. He doesn't spend any money on food and gets to eat a great variety of good food.  The property tax here is quite low. I pay about $800 a year for a 1.200 sq' home on two acres. You may be better off to sell your land, and buy some where the winters are milder, (Like near the pacific ocean).  

The way it works where I am, in a divorce, the spouse with a higher income has to support the other for a period of time that equals half of the length of the marriage. Ask him if he would like to treat you better, or give you half of his income for years.

I don't know if Canada has food assistance, but look into it.
They may even have low income housing assistance.
There is no disgrace in accepting help when you really deserve it.

Insulation goes a long way to reduce heating bills. You can get quilts from second hand shops pretty reasonable, and make window covers out of them.

When I lived on a boat I used an electric heating pad to heat the bed when I got into it. Only took an hour before I had to turn it off. you can really lower your space heat that way.

Canada has a lot of wood, Maybe install a wood burning stove made for boats. They are quite small and work well. Just have it installed by someone who knows how to do it safely.

If you are handy with a needle and thread, get a space blanket, (silver on one side), and sew it up into a house coat or jacket. They also work well between the blankets. (the silver side faces you).  You can get them at any camping store.

 

During the day, park with your largest window facing the sun. place something dark, (like water jugs painted black), where the sun can shine on it. Before the sun goes down, cover the window with insulation. If you do not have space inside, set the black water jugs outside in the sun, and block them from the wind as muck as possible. Bring them inside before the sun starts to go down. You can also make reflectors for the side of the jug that does not get sun. Again, the good old space blanket and cardboard or whatever. Speaking of cardboard it makes good insulation when placed against walls. You can layer them with white glue. Just keep them away from water and fire. Paint them with latex paint if you like.  Also free are old political advertising signs. They are made out of layered plastic with an air space on the middle. they take paint quite well as that is what they are used for, (advertizing) Here is a web site that can give you ideas for them.   http://www.elkinsdiy.com/stationary-shelters/homeless-shelter/

When camping this is how I heat my shower water. I get a pump up sprayer about the 2 gallon model and put a spray nozzle on it from the kitchen sink department at the hardware store, (the kind of nozzle you squeeze to rinse off food from dishes). I paint it black and set it in the sun. I need to shower by 5 pm, but that is OK with me, (after 5pm I am not going to work up a sweat).



Good luck.
 
Haven't bothered to read through all of this thread so I don't know if it's been mentioned yet, but for the cold, have you considered moving to a warmer part of Canada? Vancouver perhaps? There are quite a lot of van-dwellers there (at least it seems that way from the Justin Credible youtube channel).

EDIT: I see that it's been mentioned on page 6.
 
Top