Living In A Car To Save Money | How I Did It & Complete Guide

so i'm going to teach you how to stealth camp in any city in any vehicle i avoided the unreasonable cost of housing in san francisco by sleeping in a converted nissan mv200 i'm going to teach you things like how to find parking spots when no one will bother you how to apply for a job without an address and how you can not only save money by not paying rent you can even find a better paying job by living in your car by the end of this video you'll have an understanding of what this lifestyle can look like for you so let's get started van life has gotten so much attention over the years for its unique lifestyle of constant travel and life on the road but i adopted van life not for this nomadic lifestyle but as a way to live in cities that would not have been accessible with traditional housing i'm able to stay in cities for as long as i like without the pressure of being priced out and i can move to different cities anytime i want moving anywhere that's accessible by car no longer requires looking for housing signing a lease packing all my belongings or dealing with housemates i just pick a city and start driving with the stuff camping setup you can do that too you can stealth camp in any vehicle it doesn't have to be a van a sedan is possible but more challenging well an suv will be more comfortable there are many examples of clever campus setups in small vehicles so there's a lot of room for creativity as long as you can figure out a way to create a comfortable bed in your car and feel safe sleeping in it at night you have a car worthy of self-camping in here are some tips on how to make any vehicle more stealthy the first one is window tint on my van here i have 35 tint on these front side windows and 85 percent on my windshield if i was stealth camping in a passenger vehicle like the cr-v i would completely black out the back windows with a 5 little tint and 20 to 35 tint on the front windows i would also black out the rear windshield too with five percent tint and either seventy to eighty percent for the front windshields my next tip is to add dark colored curtains behind your driver and front passenger seat the combination of blackout tint and curtains will create complete privacy in the backspace of your vehicle my last tip is to add wind deflectors to your windows you want to keep your windows cracked open while you're sleeping for fresh air and to reduce condensation building up on the inside of your windshield these deflectors are great because they allow you to keep your windows open even when it's raining or snowing and most importantly they hide the fact that your windows are cracked open once you have a car that you feel ready to self-camp in try it out for one night in the city or on a weekend camping trip and see how it feels from there you can get a sense of what's lacking and figure out what you can do to improve it the best way to find a long-term parking spot is the first scout for locations using google maps there's really no limit to where you can find parking in a city it could be in a commercial zone residential or anything in between the goal is to find a spot where people pay little attention to your vehicle or just don't care if you're sleeping in your car here's a couple tips you can follow park on streets where other cars are parked at night busy neighborhoods or streets near apartment complexes are great because they're usually packed with cars and people living nearby don't mind seeing an unfamiliar vehicle it's possible to park in quiet neighborhoods but you want to avoid parking directly in front of a house instead park next to an open area or non-residential structure like churches or public buildings parking lots can be a great option too for example some training bus stations have large parking lots with free overnight parking with no limits in california there's usually parking lots near the beach so look for the ones with free overnight parking [Music] when i was living in san francisco in my van i eventually found the perfect parking spot every morning i would get up get dressed exit through the driver's side door then walk two minutes to the gym where i worked out and showered from the gym i would walk back to my van change my clothes then walk five minutes to the train station to commute to work i never had to move my van unless there was sweet sweeping which meant that i was saving on gas and keeping my car maintenance costs down i slept in the same spot every night in the middle of a neighborhood without any issues the only way i could have found a better spot was if i parked within walking distance from my workplace in downtown but i avoided that because car breakings were unfortunately very common in downtown san francisco so i chose to park further away and take public transit the ideal parking spot is where you can safely park your car every night and have everything within walking distance or a short commute away your eating habits will undoubtedly change once you start city camping what food you have access to what time and how much you eat will all fluctuate in the beginning when you try different things and food costs will likely become your biggest expense not having access to a kitchen while living in an expensive city will make it challenging to keep food costs down when i was living in san francisco i was eating out for all my meals and i was spending between eight hundred to a thousand dollars every month on just food my biggest design regret for my van was not including a dedicated cooking setup i can cook out on my van but to a limited capacity there can be a lot of creative solutions to keeping food costs down you can cook outside of your car using portable stove ask a friend to use their kitchen to meal prep once a week personally intermittent fasting is a great solution i eat one big meal a day and that cuts my food costs roughly in half there's also many studies about the health benefits of fasting however you do it managing the cost of food will be a huge way of reducing your monthly expense now the most important thing to keep in mind when thinking about food is to prioritize eating healthy over reducing cost i know the premise of this whole video is about sleeping in your car to save money but saving money isn't life's greatest purpose your health is more important covert revealed to many people the fact that they didn't have to physically be in a workplace to get work done for some working from home was as effective or even more so than working from the office and even if you don't currently work remote a growing portion of the jar market is opening up options to partially work remote or completely remote this means that it is easier than ever to find a online job now instead of working a remote job from a home why not take it a step further and work from a van you could be on the road traveling and recreating while still maintaining an income to support that unique lifestyle it has never been easier to be a digital nomad remote work is ideal for this type of lifestyle but having a job where you commute to a workplace is still feasible with car camping when you look for a non-remote job you might want to consider looking in dense or affluent cities because the wages in those communities are typically higher for example the minimum wage in san francisco is always a few dollars more than they stay average so working in san francisco would guarantee a higher wage than other parts of california and because you're reducing your overall expense by eliminating rent you get to benefit more from that wage increase and pocket more money this is how you find a better paying job by living in a car if you don't have a permanent address what do you write on the address part of any tax form like an i9 or w4 the first thing you can try is putting a friend or family member's address that's fine with you doing so if the address is obviously not within commuting distance from the workplace you can ask your employer if it's okay to use an address of a house you don't reside in this is not a strange question so don't worry about what your employer might think but if your employer says no there's another solution the other option is to use a commercial mail receiving agency or a cmra these agencies function just like a post office box in that it's a service you pay a monthly fee to have your mail be receivable from a temporary address the important difference between a cmra and a po box is that the address you are given by a cmra has no clear indication that it's a temporary mailbox it looks like a regular address that could be a home this is unlike a po box in that it has the letters po next to the address there is actually no restriction on using a po box on an i9 or w4 but if you don't want questions asked from your employer and want a temporary legitimate looking address you should use a cmra dealing with extreme temperatures in the winters and summers can be the biggest challenge someone will face while living in a car in california the weather is temperate year-round that's why you'll find so many people doing van life here the climate is especially mild along the california coast where many homes within a mile or two from the beach don't even have air conditioning but that doesn't mean you won't deal with uncomfortable temperatures in california you'll still find nights where it's in the low 40s or days above 100 along the coast which is a recent phenomenon no matter where you live in your car you'll have to face extreme temperatures so knowing how to handle them is necessary now my van is not equipped with an auxiliary air conditioner or heater the only thing i have that helps manage the temperature in my van is my rooftop vent and fan this fan will pull air through the side windows and through the top and can drop the temperatures in my van by 10 degrees in 5 minutes during a hot summer the majority of my experience living on my van has been spent near the coast so hot days come seldom my biggest defense against the heat is basically something i do almost every day which is not be in my van unless i'm sleeping most days out of the week i'll be at work or when i started doing youtube full-time at coffee shops all day long where it's air conditioned so overall the heat doesn't impact me that much the cold on the other hand is more of a problem in awareness i've slept through some chilly nights with the coldest night i've slept through being 38 degrees fahrenheit there have also been weeks where it's consistently in the low 40s i can use a propane heater but it's too much of a hassle to store and i'd have to spend money on propane so instead i will layer up with warm clothing wearing a base layer and a jacket then sleep in a low temperature rated sleeping bag but let me make this clear i honestly don't mind sleeping in this cold i don't even dread cold mornings where i have to wake up and get ready in the cold it's not pleasant but it's tolerable i know i deal with the cold better than the average person so just layering up and sleeping in a warm sleeping bag might not be sufficient for you so here are some tips on how you can keep your car at a comfortable temperature tip number one to keep your car warm only invest in insulating your car if you have a heater insulation alone will do little to nothing to keep your car warm you need a heater for insulation to actually have a purpose tip number two in the winter park where the sun will hit your car early in the morning this will help warm up your car in the morning as you're getting up and in the summer park in the shade of big buildings or trees for as much of the day as possible to keep your car cool all right so tip number three is to consider getting custom magnetic window covers for your side windows now if you want to get them i would recommend getting ones with a reflective backing this one doesn't so let's just pretend this black side is the reflective side so in the summers you would have the reflective side pointed outwards so you can reflect the sun's heat away and in the winters it would be facing inside so you can reflect the heat from let's say heater inside your vehicle back inside [Music] long-term car camping can be mentally exhausting because of the lack of a secure home base but having a routine centered around spaces outside of your vehicle will provide the stability that will make this lifestyle sustainable here are some tips on how to do that take advantage of public spaces like libraries parks coffee shops and gyms build a weekly routine by doing something by yourself in these spaces for example you can read a book in a coffee shop or library every sunday morning or talk to a friend over the phone while walking to a park after work you can also journal on a notebook exercise listen to music or a podcast be able to list the things you like doing in public and these activities will help anchor you in this new lifestyle when you live out of a car you're stripped of the basic amenities that a home has running water electricity internet but living within the bounds of a city means that you have access to all those amenities public restrooms hot showers at a gym free wi-fi and electrical outlets at a local library the issue is that they're not convenient to access this is obviously the greatest downside to living in a car but this drawback brings new opportunities with it i have to go to the gym every day in order to get a shower but i might as well work out beforehand because i'm already here i have to go to the coffee shop every day to charge my phone and laptop but i can interact with friendly people each time i'm there but none of these opportunities were granted to me i can walk into a gym to only shower and never touch a treadmill or wait i can walk into a coffee shop and the only words i say to someone there is my coffee order the actions i take will impact what will and will not happen in my life [Music] back in 2018 after finishing my van conversion my first and only plan was to drive to santa cruz california it was a city i had fallen in love with during my college years and i was eager to move back i didn't have a plan for what i would do there i was just gonna see what it'd be like just to be there again when i realized i wanted to stay for a while i went and found my first job while living in my van at a local photo print shop i was slowly getting used to living in a van and i was building a routine after work i would go to the same coffee shop that stayed open late i had friends that worked at this coffee shop so i would see them whenever they were on shift and eventually i knew the names of all the baristas and had friendly interactions with them every time i saw them i had a group of people that knew my situation and some offered me a place to park my van and even a room if i ever needed it seeing these people every day and knowing that they cared about me was profound this routine i built in the early days of my van life would later transform into the current way of life i have now continuously seeking and surrounding myself with community the reason why i stay in one city and don't travel around in my van is because i enjoy staying close to my community i saw a familiar face every single day i lived in my van and for me that's what makes living in a van with it [Music] so i've shared with you what van life looks like for me i've learned to adapt the pros and cons of living avocad to fit my needs but if you were to adopt this lifestyle it would probably look a little different from how i do it now the beauty in this lifestyle is that it's so flexible you get the shape and mold it in a way that will help you achieve what you want so is this lifestyle right for you you won't fully know unless you go try it out but whatever you decide to do i hope you find the best path forward thanks for watching and take care [Music] you

Channel: Stories From a Van

Views: 1,768,659

Keywords: car living, how to save money, how to live in a car, living in a van, van life, small van conversion, stealth camping, nv200 stealth camper, nissan nv200 camper, van life vlog, life hack, how to camp, how to camp in a car, nv200, nissan, saving money tips, how to travel for free, how to be a digital nomad, how to, travel and work remote, how to work remotely, remote work, saving money, gas prices, how to save gas, how to stealth camp in a car, living in a car

Id: g4i1FpcGzvU

Length: 16min 41sec (1001 seconds)

Published: Tue Mar 08 2022