My name is Jeff. First time poster, short time lurker. I am writing here and on this occasion to intro myself.
I do not now live in a van but i've been thinking about it for some time now. I saw those 100-120 sq ft houses, called Tumbleweed homes on trailers which some have taken to living in as a way to basically NEVER be unable to afford rent or lodging again. Of course, really, you may as well just buy yourself a small camper or RV and get three times the floor space for half the money. I wrote to the guy who (says he) "invented" the Tumbleweed house and asked him why someone wouldn't be better off just buying an RV or camper. Never heard back from him. As you can see in his 'Tube videos, he keeps a Tumbleweed house on his property right next to the normal-seized house he and his family now "live" in. I guess small living didn't work out for him.
I have read the blogs and watched the Youtube vids of those who have adopoted the ways and attitudes of "small living". The one thing i noted about all of them (with the exception of-no kidding-the tumbleweed guy) was that they ALL seemed content, if not happy. Just in general, not necessarily just with their new lifestyles/living spaces. Can't say i've sensed the same from those i know who live in McMansions. So that tipped me off to the idea that maybe they're on to something-short of joining a freakazoid, hard-boiled-edd worshipping cult- which is a way to find a genuinely more care free life in our modern times. Seems like they woke up and said "Waitaminutewaitaminutewaitaminute.........just who said i needed to be breaking my back and making the Man rich just so i can own all this S*IT?" They came off as peop!e for whom the light went on, and they stepped into it. Not that I ever had that much sh*t to begin with. And of course, there are probably a few out there who tried small living and crawled away from it humi!iated and defeated. I doubt they went on youtube to admit it didn't work out. They're probably back in the ranks of the rest of the hypocrites who live in houses with rooms they never set foot in yet asuage their hypocrisy by recycling their plastics. Whatever. Excuse me for wanting to be defined in the end by how i lived, not what i consumed. I'm into good food, so it's okay if you want to define me by what I've consumed in that sense. To have the words HERE'S A GUY WHO ATE WELL on my headstone would be fine with me. That's something worth saying about a guy.
Maybe i'm just not one of the Beautiful Achivers or whatever, but i've never been rich, or as into the "stuff" culture as most are. Most everyone i grew up with was. I despised most people i grew up with. Maybe my non stuffiness comes from that.
One major thing that has led me to this point is that modern-and real-fear........of hyphens. Okay well really, i mean homelessness, which is a side effect of that whole "not being able to pay rent” thing. Therds used to be this deal we had with society at large whuch wass that if you worked hard, you'd do well. Then it went down to "you'll do okay." Then it went down to "you'll get by." Now we're passing into "you'd better have two jobs or be married to someone who makes more thgan you do unless you wanna be waiting in line for six hours to take a shower at some men's shelter every other day". I am not joking about that either. So it would seem to me that, ironically, one way to solve tbe problem of potential homelessness is to just......make it so you don't have rent looming over your head. Strange. Unless you're into living with roommates-and i, for one, will mop floors at a Detroit peep show before succumb to that-, couch surfing, moving back n with one's parents or winning the lottery, or maybe you have a cave scoped out somewhere, vehicular dwelling is a viable option which deserves consideration.
I'm a 43 year old bachelor, no debts or assets. No kids (at least that i know of), little to nothing saved. I've got my health which means i can work. I used to be a locksmith but every place i ever did that for someone else the most i ever made was about $12 an hour. And that's with 15 years experience under my belt. That peep show gig would pay better. I ended up in a skill set that doesn't pay jack enough to live on. Not really. Pathetic when a skilled tradesman in afield like that can't even make enough to get by. Used to be self employed at it but no longer and am not going to be able to get back to that. To answer your next question: Nne of your damn business, that's why. Okay? We good? Moving on......
It takes a job with some benefits to speak of and which pays $15 an hour at 40 hr/wk for a single male to get by on. That's treading water. Rent in some place where you're not taking your life in your hands every time you open the door ("affordable housing"="damn ghetto"), and assuming your transportation is paid for. You'll be able to go to a movie now and then, eat okay and save absolutely nothing for a rainy day. Real, gainful employment starts at 17/hr, let's face it. So, based on the $15/hr scale, that's about 500 take home a week to have something that looks like some facsimile of a life. Plenty of people get by on that hourly.......but they'rd doing a 50 to 60 hour week. No one should be working more than a 40 hour week. That's just cutting into your right, your innate necessity, to see your families, your friends, to go to shows, develop and maintain a spiritual side, take the dog to the park, whatever so long as it's not work.
I'm working at a big box hardware store retailer whose name rhymes with Gnome Peepk and the pay is $9.50/hr. I'm part time because tbe only kind of hiring going on anywhere anymord is part time. So when the labor department says the economy created X number of jobs.......? What they really mean is they created that many HALF jobs. The usual BS. I don't trust the government to predict the weather, let alone tell the truth about the economy. Pretty soon I'll have another job as well making 11/hr at another place, in my new, genuinely professional field, working as a ...who really cares..let's say i'm a kaboobleybop maker. The pay at both of these jobs is considered to be pretty good. Relatively, that is. Because if we collectively admitted that anything less than $11/hr for ANY job is just having your mouth pissed in, well, there'd be a violent workers uprising on the streets and that'd be too much bother. Our spare time would be spent making Molotov cocktails, printing flyers, finding a beret that fits well, etc. It's just essier to kick back, open a cold one, switch on Game of Thrones and pretend itisn't really that bad out there. Even though it is. No really, i'm not kidding. So that's what i make, for this day it's about the best i and millions of others are stuck making. Or at least it's what I'll be able to count on making for some time to come. And even both of those jobs were fou d after a LONG period of unemployment whuch wassn't the rsult of being very picky about finding anything that paid an honest buck. Or at least one that would get me less than 6 months in county. The weird thing about prison is that suddenly, they give you a job, food and a roof over your head. (whispers, Brando-esque) The irony......the irony.
That dollar amount isn't enough to live on, not if you're single, need your own transport, roof over your head, etc. In other words, if you're ME. Most would fall into despair thinking there is no way to avoid eventual "life" on the streets, and these wimp-assed quitters would be right, at last in their cases. But we, brothers-and shut up, because we are all guys here-have embraced the idea of or are already living in a new, sustainable way: vehicularly. I've done the numbers. I have many questions to ask about asctual dollar amounts and budgets-as well as how to get out of the habit of using so many hyphens-but the numbers don't lie:i can live in a van, afford all my expenses and even have money left over to both spend just because i want to (Burning Man tickets, anyone?) as well as....EEEK!!!.....save! The very DEFINITION of making enough is when you have some to save. Know anyone who can afford to do that anymore? Anyone not in our little club, that is. Anyone? Come on, people, show of hands! (hears dull roar of crickets) Thought so. So it's either be a renter/lessor, sweat the real threat of homelessness and tben have ZERO to my name when and if that happens.... or embrace van living and maybe get some real JOY back in my life before I'm taking a friggin' DIRT NAP.
My name is Jeff. You now know why i'm here. Thank you for your attention and future help and input.
I do not now live in a van but i've been thinking about it for some time now. I saw those 100-120 sq ft houses, called Tumbleweed homes on trailers which some have taken to living in as a way to basically NEVER be unable to afford rent or lodging again. Of course, really, you may as well just buy yourself a small camper or RV and get three times the floor space for half the money. I wrote to the guy who (says he) "invented" the Tumbleweed house and asked him why someone wouldn't be better off just buying an RV or camper. Never heard back from him. As you can see in his 'Tube videos, he keeps a Tumbleweed house on his property right next to the normal-seized house he and his family now "live" in. I guess small living didn't work out for him.
I have read the blogs and watched the Youtube vids of those who have adopoted the ways and attitudes of "small living". The one thing i noted about all of them (with the exception of-no kidding-the tumbleweed guy) was that they ALL seemed content, if not happy. Just in general, not necessarily just with their new lifestyles/living spaces. Can't say i've sensed the same from those i know who live in McMansions. So that tipped me off to the idea that maybe they're on to something-short of joining a freakazoid, hard-boiled-edd worshipping cult- which is a way to find a genuinely more care free life in our modern times. Seems like they woke up and said "Waitaminutewaitaminutewaitaminute.........just who said i needed to be breaking my back and making the Man rich just so i can own all this S*IT?" They came off as peop!e for whom the light went on, and they stepped into it. Not that I ever had that much sh*t to begin with. And of course, there are probably a few out there who tried small living and crawled away from it humi!iated and defeated. I doubt they went on youtube to admit it didn't work out. They're probably back in the ranks of the rest of the hypocrites who live in houses with rooms they never set foot in yet asuage their hypocrisy by recycling their plastics. Whatever. Excuse me for wanting to be defined in the end by how i lived, not what i consumed. I'm into good food, so it's okay if you want to define me by what I've consumed in that sense. To have the words HERE'S A GUY WHO ATE WELL on my headstone would be fine with me. That's something worth saying about a guy.
Maybe i'm just not one of the Beautiful Achivers or whatever, but i've never been rich, or as into the "stuff" culture as most are. Most everyone i grew up with was. I despised most people i grew up with. Maybe my non stuffiness comes from that.
One major thing that has led me to this point is that modern-and real-fear........of hyphens. Okay well really, i mean homelessness, which is a side effect of that whole "not being able to pay rent” thing. Therds used to be this deal we had with society at large whuch wass that if you worked hard, you'd do well. Then it went down to "you'll do okay." Then it went down to "you'll get by." Now we're passing into "you'd better have two jobs or be married to someone who makes more thgan you do unless you wanna be waiting in line for six hours to take a shower at some men's shelter every other day". I am not joking about that either. So it would seem to me that, ironically, one way to solve tbe problem of potential homelessness is to just......make it so you don't have rent looming over your head. Strange. Unless you're into living with roommates-and i, for one, will mop floors at a Detroit peep show before succumb to that-, couch surfing, moving back n with one's parents or winning the lottery, or maybe you have a cave scoped out somewhere, vehicular dwelling is a viable option which deserves consideration.
I'm a 43 year old bachelor, no debts or assets. No kids (at least that i know of), little to nothing saved. I've got my health which means i can work. I used to be a locksmith but every place i ever did that for someone else the most i ever made was about $12 an hour. And that's with 15 years experience under my belt. That peep show gig would pay better. I ended up in a skill set that doesn't pay jack enough to live on. Not really. Pathetic when a skilled tradesman in afield like that can't even make enough to get by. Used to be self employed at it but no longer and am not going to be able to get back to that. To answer your next question: Nne of your damn business, that's why. Okay? We good? Moving on......
It takes a job with some benefits to speak of and which pays $15 an hour at 40 hr/wk for a single male to get by on. That's treading water. Rent in some place where you're not taking your life in your hands every time you open the door ("affordable housing"="damn ghetto"), and assuming your transportation is paid for. You'll be able to go to a movie now and then, eat okay and save absolutely nothing for a rainy day. Real, gainful employment starts at 17/hr, let's face it. So, based on the $15/hr scale, that's about 500 take home a week to have something that looks like some facsimile of a life. Plenty of people get by on that hourly.......but they'rd doing a 50 to 60 hour week. No one should be working more than a 40 hour week. That's just cutting into your right, your innate necessity, to see your families, your friends, to go to shows, develop and maintain a spiritual side, take the dog to the park, whatever so long as it's not work.
I'm working at a big box hardware store retailer whose name rhymes with Gnome Peepk and the pay is $9.50/hr. I'm part time because tbe only kind of hiring going on anywhere anymord is part time. So when the labor department says the economy created X number of jobs.......? What they really mean is they created that many HALF jobs. The usual BS. I don't trust the government to predict the weather, let alone tell the truth about the economy. Pretty soon I'll have another job as well making 11/hr at another place, in my new, genuinely professional field, working as a ...who really cares..let's say i'm a kaboobleybop maker. The pay at both of these jobs is considered to be pretty good. Relatively, that is. Because if we collectively admitted that anything less than $11/hr for ANY job is just having your mouth pissed in, well, there'd be a violent workers uprising on the streets and that'd be too much bother. Our spare time would be spent making Molotov cocktails, printing flyers, finding a beret that fits well, etc. It's just essier to kick back, open a cold one, switch on Game of Thrones and pretend itisn't really that bad out there. Even though it is. No really, i'm not kidding. So that's what i make, for this day it's about the best i and millions of others are stuck making. Or at least it's what I'll be able to count on making for some time to come. And even both of those jobs were fou d after a LONG period of unemployment whuch wassn't the rsult of being very picky about finding anything that paid an honest buck. Or at least one that would get me less than 6 months in county. The weird thing about prison is that suddenly, they give you a job, food and a roof over your head. (whispers, Brando-esque) The irony......the irony.
That dollar amount isn't enough to live on, not if you're single, need your own transport, roof over your head, etc. In other words, if you're ME. Most would fall into despair thinking there is no way to avoid eventual "life" on the streets, and these wimp-assed quitters would be right, at last in their cases. But we, brothers-and shut up, because we are all guys here-have embraced the idea of or are already living in a new, sustainable way: vehicularly. I've done the numbers. I have many questions to ask about asctual dollar amounts and budgets-as well as how to get out of the habit of using so many hyphens-but the numbers don't lie:i can live in a van, afford all my expenses and even have money left over to both spend just because i want to (Burning Man tickets, anyone?) as well as....EEEK!!!.....save! The very DEFINITION of making enough is when you have some to save. Know anyone who can afford to do that anymore? Anyone not in our little club, that is. Anyone? Come on, people, show of hands! (hears dull roar of crickets) Thought so. So it's either be a renter/lessor, sweat the real threat of homelessness and tben have ZERO to my name when and if that happens.... or embrace van living and maybe get some real JOY back in my life before I'm taking a friggin' DIRT NAP.
My name is Jeff. You now know why i'm here. Thank you for your attention and future help and input.
