Minimalist/Living Conversion or Nomadic Lifestyle

Say you pay $900 in rent and $200 in bills. That's $13,200 a year, and $26,400 for a 2 year lease, and those are figures that don't include other monthly payments, so that number will be higher. What if you took a similar amount and put it into making your own custom home on wheels to avoid the rent, bills, and limitations that come with renting? If done properly, you can expect:

>rent to disappear
>most bills to disappear entirely, or be easily a tenth of what they use to be
>having the ability to travel where ever you want on a whim comfortably, and not have to pay hotels
>free wi-fi at times, and can still do crypto on the road
>saving money from losing the habit of accumulating frivolities and useless shit
>being able to change it however you wish whenever you wish
>the ability to be almost entirely "off the grid" if you pleased
>not being locked into a single location for years
>being able to follow job opportunities wherever they may be, rather than praying and hoping there are some within your immediate area
>if a college student or underageb&, you can entirely avoid on-campus prices for college, while still being close, or even on the property if they don't care, and then leaving college with much less to $0 debt
and I didn't even get to it being a stepping stone for saving to get a house for a family.


pic related is maybe 11 - 18,000, at MOST. Large busses are often converted with less than 25,000. If you reclaim materials like wood and get inexpensive furniture that you fix up or even repaint yourself (or find IKEA clearance), which isn't difficult at all, than you could significantly reduce the price of doing something like this.

Why aren't you giving yourself economic/locational freedom, Veeky Forums?

I like taking showers

people built societies so you don't have to live like an animal

because of social rejection and I want to get laid.

>thinks living in a shitty old bus is genious

well user, I....

>be me
>not poor
Problem solved OP. You no longer need to live in a car

?? almost all of them have showers. They aren't that hard to make.

and that very same society rips away your hard earned dollars with exorbitant bills and rent for years. It's the only logical step if you wish to save most of your money and get enjoyment from traveling. Your expenses would be incredibly low. Maybe your own internet, and propane every month. $100 or less a month beats $1400+ easily.

>giving a fuck what people think when you're saving thousands more than they probably are
>going into it alone

it ain't easy for all of us :] I'm on 70k a year, which isn't a lot of money, but it isn't a shit-ton either. I'll enjoy saving almost every penny.

>save most of your money and get enjoyment from traveling
why not join the navy

all true. also remember that you have about 2500 weeks to live. let that sink in.

The military isn't for everyone, much like bus living. I actually did consider joining a few years ago, but ultimately decided against it. I wanted to have the benefits of the OP without military commitment. Not a bad suggestion for those who hit rock bottom.

not exactly sure what the implication is. I assume it's that living in a bus forever will lower my lifespan? If that is what you're >implying, than I can assure you this lifestyle isn't permanent. At most, 4 years of mobile living so that we can afford a down payment to get a home built on land we eventually find. That's the driving factor behind it: ensuring economic stability for the future whilst enjoying our time when we're still pretty young. Some people say they will do it forever, and they buy pic relateds as "Tiny Houses" which don't seem so bad I guess.

However, there are places who sell these for some 50 - 60 thousand dollars, which is simply retarded. Inexpensive for a house, but you could do so much more with that money if even 35k or 40k of it were put into a high quality truck and interior. Basically a Class A+ custom RV for 1/4 the price with just half of the money for a Tiny House. To each their own I suppose.

>50 - 60 thousand dollars
you can buy bigly yuge old stone house for that money in eastern europe instead of that tiny cardboard crap on wheels.

my triggah

You're probaby a virgin or extremely cucked by materialism. If you don't think you'd slay pussy as a college student living in a converted van and preaching against the system, you must either be dumb or ugly.

but not everyone is part of the Russian Rape Baby brigade. I don't think I'll ever consider living in any of these things long term, but saving money for a few years would simply help a whole lot. Two incomes without the burden of monthly payments that come with a rental property will allow us to do so much more.

>if a college student or underageb&, you can entirely avoid on-campus prices for college, while still being close, or even on the property if they don't care, and then leaving college with much less to $0 debt
My co-worker does this. He bought a big van and plans on living in it when the semester starts.
Not sure where he showers though, and if you have a bathroom/shower, doesn't that also mean you need to find places to dump the tanks all the time? And refill the water too right?
Also, parking the thing can't be easy. Seems like people with RV's usually end up paying rent for a place to keep it.

Hey farm equipment, shouldn't you be working?

>>save most of your money and get enjoyment from traveling
>why not join the navy

being told what to do all day every day isn't my thing

Why not just buy an RV?

shower at your gym

first check van dwellers on reddit, second most ppl dont make past 2 years its not exactly comfortable living. third good luck finding any parking in any larger cities most have a no sleeping in cars laws if you can find a spot the cops wont be called on, nobody wants some bum in a van parked outside their house

The amount of customizability, space, and options you get out of an RV for the price I've mentioned will be slim to even impossible, and the whole purpose was to minimize living costs for an extended period of time.

Some people take this to an extreme and can make living quarters out of large cargo vans on a 10k budget, and they come out quite nicely. Some people even do it on a 7k budget. It's really incredible what people can do with these spaces. The 25k that I mentioned above is essentially the maximum in luxury that you can get from something like a big school bus, and that usually includes things like solar panels, moped storage for city navigation to work or whatever, a deck on top for chilling, fully modernized interior, hitch for a car in back, extra hull mods (like roof extension or other additions), high quality insulation, wiring and electricity controls by professionals, and the whole damn rodeo of other things.

It's common for people to pay 20/month for Planet Fitness gyms and make stops at them when they don't have a shower in their vehicle.

>It's common for people to pay 20/month for Planet Fitness gyms and make stops at them when they don't have a shower in their vehicle.

That's great but what if I wake up at 2am and need to take a shit?

how about you just make more money so you dont have to live like an anima, OP?

than your vehicle should have a composting toilet, user. they aren't expensive to install, and it would take almost no time to include in a build. Most vehicles I have looked at as examples of what to do and what not to do had one for that very reason. Even van people have them.

Going from saving maybe a thousand or two every month to saving 90%+ of my entire paycheck will be to the same effect.

>just find a higher paying job!
easier to do when I can relocate on a whim as well, but I'm sitting fairly good with 70k a year. You won't believe how much we can live without when space is more limited.

Instead of tiny houses or living in your van, how about this:

Someone (such as myself) builds a tiny apartment complex. It's like a green-living oasis for people that want to cut back on their expenses. We'll have solar panels on the roof, separate trash, recycle, and compost, and the rooms will be very small and affordable. My thought is that there is less stigma of living in a tiny place if you are doing it for environmental reasons and with a bunch of other people.

These apartments wouldn't be too small, just enough for it to cost less. I think it's more viable than selling tiny houses.

Sacrifices for saving in the long run. But!
Have a couple buckets with saw dust. When we go hunting in Fall, we go live in a dugout for a few days and shit in a bucket full of sawdust. Also to all y'all anons, I hope y'all parents and/or grandparents saved some funds, assets and/or property for y'all. I've been lucky to have a comfy cottage/man-cave in my grandparent's 11 acre property. Not all boomers suck. Just those who weren't frugal, spend like a fucking gold-digger and never had the foresight to help their offspring financially in adulthood.

minimalism is a dumb meme

>a tiny house apartment complex

but where will you get the money to do this. The whole point of the concept is to live freely and minimally. Being stuck in one area contradicts this. Not only that, but those who make vehicles and trailers into living areas are made that way because they're on wheels - they then do not have to comply with state regulations that constitute a home or cabin, which would need to be hooked up to utilities, have a certain square footage per room, a certain height, specific materials, property tax, location limitations.... you get the point. Being on wheels stops all of those regulations, and so you would end up fucking yourself by trying to make any for of stationary tiny house complex because of those regulations, and nobody in their right mind will switch off of rent to pay more rent for less when they can do it themselves with more benefits.

But, if you think there is a market out there that will find people like this who wish to pay rent for a tiny apartment, you go right ahead. Maybe it will work.

How so?

Minimalism is just a way to make you satisfied with shitty ikea furniture, tiny living spaces and over all lower quality of life.

Minimalist architecture creates these inhuman glass towers that no one in their right mind actually likes.

Imagine having a kindle instead of a bookshelf...how boring and lifeless that would be.

Minimalism often just means finding objects that can fulfill more than one or two purposes. And even if it does it's probably more expensive than buying 2 purpose built objects instead

>not minimizing your crypto

why not just live with your parents??

Cuz dying

I know some people who do this, but winters are hard and you need to cook/shower in shit conditions.

I'm frugal as fuck and what I did is just used the fact that I have a huge social circle of people that enjoy or tolerate my company and I've been living rent free for the last years, just spending a few days with each people.
Gf and grandma are 50% of my nights though.

>lower quality of life
>being able to save more money than ever possible to contribute to retirement or pay off debt or to do things you may not have been able to before, like a down payment for a future place to call home
>visiting many states and seeing what this country has to offer, which most people could only dream of
>everything listed in the OP

user, when it comes to "minimalism" I was not referring to any other minimalism than the one that comes from removing unnecessary things for life on the road, which is technically minimizing and streamlining our belongings. People like me that refuse to pay these useless bills just strive to be more free to do what we wish, when we wish.

fucking kek

I hear the same. Winter, especially for van dwellers in northern states, is rough. Proper insulation and storm awareness can help significantly though. Small wood furnaces are usually enough for big vehicles like busses, just to avoid having to use up electricity when it isn't particularly sunny.

Sounds like Agenda 21 to me.

In my experience, prices communicate information.

In other words, there was a time when I'd complain about the price of rent because I was a fulltime wagecuck and I was frustrated by the lack of any hope of economic freedom - people would regularly say things like "Move out to the outer suburbs! Move out to the country and buy a $500 home!" etc. The issue is - property prices and hence rent are reflective of the choices of hundreds\thousands\millions of people. If property is cheap to buy or rent, there's usually a reason - for example the main thing is, you pay more to live closer to the city, but this also means you're closer to easily accessible shops and services, to public transport, etc.

So the idea of minimalism like "live in your car bro and shower at the gym" are basically fantasies in defiance of awareness of this reality of pricing systems. There are costs in terms of lifestyle to living in a car. You have to pay to park a van\bus for example, except in rarer cases. You're more open to the elements. You're going to have to deal with maintenance, etc.

Anyway SOME people can sacrifice certain lifestyle factors and can enjoy that life - but the idea that "living from your car" is any type of general solution to large numbers of people is silly and a waste of time.

Yes, I pay lots and lots of money for rent that basically goes nowhere, but at least in theory this allows me to save many many hours and work in decent conditions, have constant access to highspeed internet, run a computer with the ability to play games, and also better able to make money (or shitpost on biz).

I'll just sleep in my suburban. Comfy and stealthy.

Good luck passing q background check with a motor vehicle as your residence.

So use someone else's address.

You speak from the grand scale of the general population, but I, and I assume many other bus/truck/or van travelers don't really want millions of people living in a vehicle, custom made or not. It's not meant for everyone, but for me specifically it's an escape from the hell that is bills, rent, and limited mobility. So yes, it is defiance against the system, and the reality is why I decided to get started on vehicle conversion.

That money that "basically goes nowhere" is very important to me.

story time?

The idea is that most people who go all tiny house/live in your van, they tend to move into a regular place after 2 years. Why do they only last two years?

The problem with living out of your van, you need to worry about where you're going to shit and shower. Some expensive RVs have showers and shit tanks, but now you have to worry about emptying your shit tank. And the biggest problem is that you have to park it somewhere. That means living in sketchy Walmart parking lots or trying your luck with random locations around town. Yes you can move anywhere, but that's both a blessing and a curse.

And these won't be that tiny. It will be billed as a "green living oasis" before it's a "tiny apartment". A lot of places already have mini-apartments, but this will be a sustainablity project.

Some of us actually like the environment

Who the fuck wants this thing parked on the sidewalk outside of their house?

what do you mean user, that IS their house. I think they usually take them and buy a peace of land to have it sit on. It is a tiny house in the literal sense. Not something to be frequently taken on the roads, but it can be very easily relocated to pretty much anywhere if they so pleased. I don't really like them, but if it works for them than it's all good.