/poverty/ - Poverty & Thrift

Depends where you live

I live off of $20 a week, I only drink water and eat mainly canned foods, fruits and soups. Water is 35c a gallon where I live in Nor Cal and generally most of the canned food is $1 each. I eat about 2 or 3 cans a day and ALL my money earned is from me picking up and recycling bottles, cans and steel on my bicycle from the sides of the street. Although I have a place I can go to every now and then, I mainly stay out in our local creek in a tent so I have no rent to pay. I wash my clothes in a local laundromat and charge my electronic devices there as well. I love the way I live.

>>986

Sounds fun. What do you do when it rains though? And how do you bathe? Your tent good enough for rain? How about your sleeping bag in the winter?

Personally, I'm too lazy to do the cans and bottles thing. All I did while I was homeless was sit in a café and steal food and Wi-Fi, had a gym membership for a couple months for showers, but after that I used lockable bathrooms to clean myself. Didn't have a tent, and only a light sleeping bag, but I found a nice indoor fire escape at these nice apartments that I crashed at for a few months. Managers weren't too happy when they found out I was camping there and almost called the cops. After that I started sleeping behind a whole foods next to some vents that spewed out warm air all night from the parking garage below. I also washed my clothes at a local laundromat.

All in all, it was a fun experience.

Why don't you apply for gibsmedats stamps, it's almost $200 a month for homeless people to spend on food.

>>987

I have a pretty nice tent, it was gifted to me. -an "Alps Mountaineering Mystique Tent" and its pretty cozy for just me and its waterproof. When it rains hard i'll pack up all my gear, put it in a plastic bag and hang it to keep water off, or I'll backpack around with all my gear on if I get worried about someone taking it while I'm gone from my spot for a long time.

I shower in the local creek nearby, "Stony Creek" is the name of it. when it gets super cold I'll heat up water over a fire in a pot and use it sparingly to wash just my face and hair until a nice weather break allows me to go down to the creek and take a full one.

I don't really want to be in the WSIN police network, so that prohibits me from a lot of things. I don't have an ID, or birth certificate (stolen) which means I can't sign up for a lot of programs. since I don't have a birth certificate I can't even get my SS card or ID.

luckily before I ended up out at the creek I was able to get some decent gear to help make it easier for me. a lot of homeless aren't even able to get basic equipment. The creek is a sanctuary for the homeless out here; being homeless in the city is scary, cold and stressing I'd imagine.

>>989

>I shower in the local creek nearby

Ouch. Can't stand cold baths, myself. Would rather sponge bathe, which is what I ended up doing. Pretty difficult to wash long hair in a sink, but I managed.

>I don't really want to be in the WSIN police network

Uh, how have you managed not getting on police radar? Even I was stopped a few times by police and I was barely ever outside, save for walking to and from my little campsites and sleeping there.

>I don't have an ID, or birth certificate

How old are you? You can probably get help from your parents on this one, which can get you the rest of what you need. You'll want gibsmedats, it makes a huge difference, not to mention the fact that if you ever actually want to become a wage slave again or something, it'll become an option for you. I'm actually fairly happy working at jamba juice, I get all the free smoothies I want and free fast food since I make them smoothies too in return.

>The creek is a sanctuary for the homeless out here; being homeless in the city is scary, cold and stressing I'd imagine

It's also fairly illegal and eventually the police will close up shop there. It may take months or years, but it will happen. I would never stay at an encampment for many other reasons as well. For one, it's filthy, secondly, I don't trust anybody, not even for five minutes, let alone while I'm sleeping. And yes, being homeless in the city is also a bad idea, mainly because you're on the cops shitlist just for existing there.

Only reason cops don't bother encampments is because out of sight out of mind, but as I said, it will eventually happen. I lived near one, if not the largest one in the country and it got shut down (San Jose), was all over the news for awhile too.

Always have a plan b.

>>990

I've never been stopped by the Police for anything so far, I've been lucky. Doesn't mean that it'll never happen, cause it will eventually. I really hope that time is a while from now.

20, but the reason I don't want to get an ID is merely for the fact of my stored information. -I don't have bad intentions but to sum it up I just don't want 'them' to know about me. Although they probably do.. :/

And about the Police sweeping us out; there are 5 camps out there where I stay, Including me. I know that 2 of the other campers actually have clearance from the Army Corps of Engineers to stay out there on the land. I don't know how that works but it sounds good for them at least. Everyone isn't too worried about a sweep because of the whole "out of sight, out of mind" thing. but a couple times the Police have been out on occasion to investigate high school parties that have gotten too crazy. Idiots were firing guns drunkenly. -The kids were way too close to my camp, luckily didn't discover me.

I trust all the other campers except one. If I need firewood, a can of food, water or pretty much anything I can yell out to these chill old dudes pretty close by that've been out there for years. They 'took me in' per say. although they use meth, they are genuinely nice guys.

As for plan b, I need to think of something…

>>986

>>989

Yeah I can't live like that.

>>995

It sounds a lot harder than it really is. It's actually pretty stress-relieving, at least in my experience. You answer to nobody but yourself and every day can be drastically different if you want it to be.

>>995

A couple times while I've been out there, I've had some crazy run-in encounters with transients and mischievous high-school kids. Since my camp spot is farther away than the others out there, I tend to get a lot of solo foot traffic by my spot.

The scariest times out there are at night, and it's not the other campers I have to worry about. its the transients that come and visit at all hours of the night. The main path is about 15ft away from my camp and it goes right past me.

Anyway one night I was at my friend Jeff's camp out there and we were smoking bud and telling stories when this convoy of 4x4 trucks -8 of them, drives by as usual. They usually like to drive at night and all around the creek to have fun but this time was different. All 8 of them stopped and parked by my camp about 50ft away. I told Jeff I had to go and walk back to my spot to make sure everything is okay.

When I got up to my entrance bush at my camp, some of the trucks turned their lights on full blast and they were pointed right at me. I froze for a split second then ran into my camp and hid. When they drove back by, They were shining flashlights into the bush my camp is in, looking for me as they drove past.

Cant say that didn't scare me, too close for comfort… I now have a Shotgun out there to keep me company :)

HOME - $1000/mo

Mortgage, taxes, home insurance, basic maintenance, home improvement savings

UTILITIES - $300/mo (actual, average)

electricity, water, heating oil, sewer bills, garbage stickers; most utilities on a budgeted payment plan

ENTERTAINMENT - $160/mo (actual, average)

Cable, Internet, XBox Live, Dropbox, WSJ subscription

TRANSPORTATION - $300/mo (budgeted)

oil changes, fluids, regular maintenance, brakes, tires, gasoline, insurance, AAA membership, etc.

FOOD - $100/mo (budgeted)

does not include junk/fast food

OTHER - $10/mo (budgeted)

American Express, fees, "couch cushion"

DISCRETIONARY - $800/mo (budgeted - minimum over the last 6 months)

smokes, booze, junk/fast food, and other completely unnecessary bullshit

TOTAL - $2670/mo

If I were to quit smoking and drinking, cut out my bullshit spending, practice smarter grocery shopping, try to conserve my water/electricity/etc., and halve my home improvement savings, I could easily live comfortably on about $1700/mo.

>>997

Update from this last post I made; -had to test fire the shotgun I made and It worked fine the first time. but the second shell I fired off blew up. The end cap I had welded and threaded on the firing tube part blew off the back of the tube and blasted a hole in my sweater. the wad and bird-shot propelled out the back end of the gun and snagged my sweater on its way out after the steel cap blew off. I got really lucky; didn't get injured and I still have my hands. I wont be trying that again lol. We took video of me firing it off. I'll post it if any of you are interested I guess.

>>1000

I'd be lucky to even make $1000 a month.

Cost of living is impossibly high these days.

live on for how long? A month? a year? ten years? After a point deferred expenses become impossible to ignore. Car maintenance, medical and dental bills, occasional moving expenses, and so forth are inevitable. And eventually I'll be too old to work, so there's retirement savings.

Ignoring long-term needs, $800 per month. Considering long-term needs, $1300 per month.