Hello all! I'm hoping someone may be able to help me. I've been considering the van dwelling lifestyle for years but now it appears that it's a necessity. Due to a seemingly endless string of unfortunate events (some of which were my fault, others not), I found myself homeless a few days ago. I thought I had a place to stay but I have discovered that it comes with some rather serious strings attached. In addition, I'm damned near broke and my new job doesn't pay much at all. I'm generally pretty much a loner...I have a few close friends but no one that can really help. No family as my brother passed away last January. The only place I have to live is a 2000 Jeep Grand Cherokee Laredo. Is this doable at all? I have no way of getting anything else and I'm starting to panic. Thanks in advance for any and all advice!
New and starting to panic
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CautionToTheWind
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Welcome Sailor! Absolutely doable; all dependant on your region = weather.
Gideon33w
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If it is your only option then it is 100% doable
I have lived in a chevy malibu in portland, oregon (years ago). so yes, a grand cherokee could be set up a as a palace! Showering and finding a nice tub to soak in were some things I missed. A gym membership is an option to hang out in, shower and use wifi
Keep us posted!
Keep us posted!
ainley53
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Welcome Sailor. Have a little faith and a lot of patience and NEVER give up. Many others have been in your boat and they survived. So will you. Read as much as you can on the drop down lists on this forum's home page. Tons of useful info. Prioritize: water, food, shelter, etc....
YOU CAN DO THIS.
YOU CAN DO THIS.
highdesertranger
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Welcome Sailor to the CRVL forums! To help you learn the ins and outs of these forums, this "Tips & Tricks" post lists some helpful information to get you started. We look forward to hearing more from you. highdesertranger
lenny flank
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It's doable, but you are definitely doing it the hard way....... no savings cushion, no exit plan if things don't work out, no planning, and winter just weeks away..... 
You are not on a van-dwelling adventure--you are essentially homeless. That changes all the priorities and goals.
Do the absolute essentials (food, and keeping warm) first. You are in survival mode--everything else can wait.
Good luck to you, and I hope things work out.
You are not on a van-dwelling adventure--you are essentially homeless. That changes all the priorities and goals.
Do the absolute essentials (food, and keeping warm) first. You are in survival mode--everything else can wait.
Good luck to you, and I hope things work out.
sometimesido
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yes doable. there are suv conversion videos on youtube, this site, the web, for ideas. If you are in Atlanta area, I can donate some plywood and 2x4's used to make "bed"
mpruet
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People are able to live in much less space. Yes you can do it.
You are somewhat fortunate since you live in South Carolina in that your winters are somewhat mild. Also while you may be near broke and your job doesn't pay that much, the fact that you have a job is positive.
There is a lot of information in Bob Well's site about how to live out of just about anything, including a car. The Grand Cherokee is a fairly good sized car, so you should be able to customize it fairly well for living. The key thing, of course, is to get a place to sleep comfortably and provide some form of privacy. Exploring CRVL should provide you with some ideas for that.
Depending on your assets and income, you may not be able to do everything to adapt your car at once, but don't worry about that. Remember it's one day at a time. Breath deeply and don't panic.
You are somewhat fortunate since you live in South Carolina in that your winters are somewhat mild. Also while you may be near broke and your job doesn't pay that much, the fact that you have a job is positive.
There is a lot of information in Bob Well's site about how to live out of just about anything, including a car. The Grand Cherokee is a fairly good sized car, so you should be able to customize it fairly well for living. The key thing, of course, is to get a place to sleep comfortably and provide some form of privacy. Exploring CRVL should provide you with some ideas for that.
Depending on your assets and income, you may not be able to do everything to adapt your car at once, but don't worry about that. Remember it's one day at a time. Breath deeply and don't panic.
Thank you all for the helpful and kind replies. I'm usually a lot stronger than this but it's been a tough year and I'm just feeling completely overwhelmed. A few of the reactions I've gotten from some friends haven't exactly helped either. I have to work this afternoon but I'm off tomorrow so hopefully I can get some things sorted out then. Thanks again everyone. It's a great comfort to me to know that there are people out there that understand.
frater secessus
Well-known member
Sailor said:
The good news is you have the interest and have been back-burnering the idea. You are way ahead of the folks who have to make the leap with no inclination or information.
Check out the car section on the forum, and the suv thread in particular.
I agree with the others. Totally doable. If you have any kind of vehicle then you have a place you can live in and figure things out. Making a major life change is always a challenge. You can do it. Then as you get used to it and hopefully are saving money you can put yourself in a better position later on.
blmkid
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Find Your Local Food Bank. Here's a link: http://www.feedingamerica.org/find-your-local-foodbank/?referrer=https://www.google.com/[/SIZE]
Find a Local Food Pantry. Here's a link: https://ampleharvest.org/find-pantry/[/SIZE]
Homeless Assistance. Here's Link: https://www.voa.org/homeless-people[/SIZE]
You could find a local church that does bingo. buy 1 $1.00 play card. Then mingle. Address your problem with a church person(s) after the bingo game. Just an idea.
Oh Yeah. Welcome.
Find a Local Food Pantry. Here's a link: https://ampleharvest.org/find-pantry/[/SIZE]
Homeless Assistance. Here's Link: https://www.voa.org/homeless-people[/SIZE]
You could find a local church that does bingo. buy 1 $1.00 play card. Then mingle. Address your problem with a church person(s) after the bingo game. Just an idea.
Oh Yeah. Welcome.
VanLifeCrisis
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definitely doable. You job may not pay much but at least your expenses will be low now. Direct it to the essentials, a bed in your jeep, a way to store stuff, cook food, privacy, a way to use the bathroom and shower.
bed: you can get an air mattress real cheap at walmart, like 8-15 bucks. Find some discarded plywood or buy a sheet of 'top sheet' osb plywood for $5-6 bucks at lowes (these are off pieces they use on top of the nicer wood to protect them, usually completely painted on one side and stacked outside). See how much room you have for bed, folding seats down and moving front passenger seat all the way up. Have them cut the board for you. you can cut it into smaller pieces and buy cheap hinges to make it fold up when not in use.
Bathrooms: Use public for now, shower at truck stops. If its still warm there you can grab a 10 dollar solar shower from wally and go to a park to use it. Upgrade to a gym membership when you can. Id get a pee bottle for emergencies, kitter litter bottle at DG for 3 bucks with wide opening work good. Get some baby wipes too for freshups between showers.
Food: I lived for 4 months on essentially 250 bucks once, it wasn't fun but I found spaghetti with chucky sauce (no added meat) is really cheap and stretches far, and the sauce keeps for a long time. Eggs can last 2 weeks unrefrigerated, bag of potatoes.
-Grab a cheap camping stove. Go to a park and grab a picnic table to make meals. Enjoy nature while being frugal. The less you eat out the more you can budget for other essentials. Hit up a dollar store and grab 2 spray bottles, fill one with soapy water with some rubbing alcohol mixed in, and plain water in the other for cleaning dishes, your hands, your bum whatever You probably already have a frying pan and a pot but if not, thrift stores are a good place to go.
Privacy: Go to dollar general to the section with posterboards, and there is a black foam board there. Buy enough of it to cover all your windows. Cut them to match the window but slightly bigger so they need to be pressed in. From outside it will look like tint at casual glance. for the front windshield, just a sun shield which isn't too out of place.
Longer term goals: Get a $40 roof top luggage bag for your jeep. They hold a surprising amount of stuff and will really clear out space for you and wont look too out of place on a jeep. after you have the essentials start sacking away money, even if its only a little at a time. This will give you more options for an upgrade. Maybe a small cargo trailer to pull behind the jeep.
bed: you can get an air mattress real cheap at walmart, like 8-15 bucks. Find some discarded plywood or buy a sheet of 'top sheet' osb plywood for $5-6 bucks at lowes (these are off pieces they use on top of the nicer wood to protect them, usually completely painted on one side and stacked outside). See how much room you have for bed, folding seats down and moving front passenger seat all the way up. Have them cut the board for you. you can cut it into smaller pieces and buy cheap hinges to make it fold up when not in use.
Bathrooms: Use public for now, shower at truck stops. If its still warm there you can grab a 10 dollar solar shower from wally and go to a park to use it. Upgrade to a gym membership when you can. Id get a pee bottle for emergencies, kitter litter bottle at DG for 3 bucks with wide opening work good. Get some baby wipes too for freshups between showers.
Food: I lived for 4 months on essentially 250 bucks once, it wasn't fun but I found spaghetti with chucky sauce (no added meat) is really cheap and stretches far, and the sauce keeps for a long time. Eggs can last 2 weeks unrefrigerated, bag of potatoes.
-Grab a cheap camping stove. Go to a park and grab a picnic table to make meals. Enjoy nature while being frugal. The less you eat out the more you can budget for other essentials. Hit up a dollar store and grab 2 spray bottles, fill one with soapy water with some rubbing alcohol mixed in, and plain water in the other for cleaning dishes, your hands, your bum whatever
You probably already have a frying pan and a pot but if not, thrift stores are a good place to go.Privacy: Go to dollar general to the section with posterboards, and there is a black foam board there. Buy enough of it to cover all your windows. Cut them to match the window but slightly bigger so they need to be pressed in. From outside it will look like tint at casual glance. for the front windshield, just a sun shield which isn't too out of place.
Longer term goals: Get a $40 roof top luggage bag for your jeep. They hold a surprising amount of stuff and will really clear out space for you and wont look too out of place on a jeep. after you have the essentials start sacking away money, even if its only a little at a time. This will give you more options for an upgrade. Maybe a small cargo trailer to pull behind the jeep.
Hello Sailor! and welcome to the forum. There is no time for panic now, maybe later, and later you will see things under a much different perspective. Safety is a priority now, get your basic needs taken care of, such as food and shelter (your car now). Take it one day at a time, and have faith and confidence that you can, and will make it. Things will fall into place, they always do. Just don't let fear paralyze you, let it be an incentive to keep moving. You need a clear head now to plan and take care of yourself. Thanks for reaching out.
RollingOm
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Some practical tips to live in your SUV/car:
- 1. Take full advantage of the Social Safety net in your area, both public and private. Get every kind of Public Assistance possible and then go to food banks, pantries, churches, wherever there is someone trying to help those in need. That is the normal way for humans to live--taking care of each other. The extreme independence of our day is abnormal, unhealthy and disgusting.
- 2. If I saw your car, what I would do is experiment with it, trying every possible combination to get a flat are long enough to sleep in. That's the most important thing you need. Every car is different so I can't be more specific.
- 3. The best thing you can probably do is take out the passenger seat, that will free up a lot of space and allow you to use 2x4's for legs and plywood to make the longest bed you can.
- 4. Then I would look for a way to remove the back seats. Sometimes it's impossible but try.
- 5. If you don;t remove any of the seats, lay them all down and see if you can lay a piece of plywood with short legs of varying height to make it level and give you storage under them.
- 6. I think a backpackers self-inflating pad is your best bet for a mattress for comfort and warmth and folds away to nothing. Thermrest and REI make the best ones. Expensive but worth it.
- 7. You'll need privacy so I recommend Reflectix for the windows. One side leave silver the other spray paint flat black. Show the silver side during the day and at night switch them with the opposite side window so the black is facing out. A cheaper but not as good option is to use cardboard in the same way but cover one side with aluminum foil. They can both probably be cut slightly large and just compression fitted into the window.
- 8. Put a travel curtain road between the front and back to put up a black divider curtain.
- 9. Organization will be critical and for that I recommend duffel bags because as you empty things they get smaller. They are also much easier to fit into odd-sized and shaped places saving critical space. But plastic boxes and drawers can work as well, just a preference.
- 10. For a stove I recommend this one: http://amzn.to/2mxtVR7 It's tiny, well made and uses both propane and butane. You can cook inside if you have room and if not it will be easy to go to a park and cook.
- 11. If you'll be in the city, get a gym membership for showers.
- 12. You'll need a pee pot so you can pee in the car. Getting in and out to much will make it obvious you live in it. A 2-3 gallon bucket for emergency pooping in the van. Most of the time you will use public restrooms.
- 13. A small wash basin and wet wipes for cleaning in-between showers.
- 14. You can get a box at the UPS Store to get your mail. You'll also need a resident address but you can just keep using your old address but change the mailing address to the UPS Store. Anything that accidentally foes to the old address will get forwarded.
- 15. While you are still in a home, get a passport and copies of all your documents if they are missing. You'll need your birth certificate and Social Security card.
- 16. If you don't already have an Enhanced Drivers License, get one now while still in a home. After you are out it will be much harder. Just use the UPS Store as your mailing address.
- 17. If you are boondocking you'll want to set up an outside camp to give you some space to breath. A table, camp stove and chair will greatly enhance your life. If you are stuck in a city they can still be used at a park to get out of the car.
