The PROS & CONS Of Living In Your Car

hey guys marmalade here with marmalade outdoors and you know before I get into the pros and cons of living in your car I thought well I probably I've got a lot of new subscribers lately welcome aboard I appreciate you coming on board because a few of my um my uh videos about living in my car have kind of hit and grown so I want to explain to you probably are wondering why I'm marmalade what does that mean well uh it's a nickname I got I'm a long distance remote Backpacker and I attempted the hype the whole Pacific Crest Trail in 2019 which is 2653 Miles and I made it about 900 miles and got hurt and over the last five years I've been trying to complete it actually four years and this year will be my fifth year hopefully I'm going to be done with it I've been doing large sections every year but the fires and this year at snow have been slowing me down hopefully this year I'll finish it but anyway on the trail you get a nickname I had a big giant orange backpack so thus I got marmalade so I thought it was apropos because most of my content until recently has been about backpacking and gear on the outdoors but as I've been living in my well let's talk about this car um actually I've been in two cars since I started Living in my car it's been a little over a year and I thought why not go make a video about the pros and cons about this because I think you know everybody romanticizes about it or whatever but it's good before if you're thinking about getting into this to know the pros and cons or just some of them and I put the ones that I've experienced or the way I see things and maybe this will help you decide to do it but um my end goal is to do van life someday and I don't want to work for other people I want to hopefully grow my channel enough that I can make income off that I have other ways of making income too or maybe even have a partial job where I work remotely but I want to be able to travel the country I want to have adventures and experiences and bring them all to you so most of it might be outdoors and backpacking but my everyday life on the road I want to show you I don't know it could be historical sites or old gold mines it could be anything but I want to bring it to you I love the art of creating something like a video and bring it to you and it inspires others so that inspires me to inspire you so with wanting to do van life I thought it might be wise to try living on the road first to see if I even like I think we romanticize about van life but just like a car there's a lot of things that are good and and tough about it so I thought well if I can handle living in my car for a while and once I get a van it'll feel like a mansion so that's the premise of this it's also to save some money it helps fund my uh my through hikes so that helps by not having rent so that's it I think we should get on we're going to do the pros first and if you haven't already consider you know hitting that like button if you enjoy this video subscribe of course and hit the notification Bell if you want to be notified but let's get on with number one of the pros all right under the pros category is number one was probably the most obvious one is you're able to save money you're not paying rent you're not paying utilities on an apartment or a Home things like that so obviously there are some cost to living in your car that you might not have if you live at home but you are able to save a lot more money one of the reasons that's helped me a lot is I just mentioned I'm a long distance hiker you know when I go hike if you're doing the Pacific Crest Trail if you're doing the whole thing you have to take it takes about five or six months to finish it or complete it now I've gotten hurt so every year that I've gone back I'm doing like a month or two like this year hopefully I'm going to finish it and I'm gonna take about two and a half months off well in that two and a half months I'm not making any income so it's really important that you know I have other ways of saving money so I've minimized my life or minimalized my life to uh basically everything in my car and I have a storage unit and that's it so I don't have a lot of stuff and I have a I do have a storage unit payment but besides that I live pretty minimalistic all right number two of the pro category is just having the freedom to be mobile to have the excitement to create and do Adventures that you may be not able to do as much when you're locked into a mortgage or somewhere where you've got to be and you've got to pay rent you can't just pick up and leave I love that I'm mobile I can take uh very often I take two or three days off and just go hike and go in the wilderness it's my happy place it's great exercise it's where I love to be so that's very hard to find and in my case those Adventures happen to be camping hiking and backpacking I like other things too but that's my main passion right now so the freedom allows me to do that all right number three kind of goes along with number two but uh this lifestyle actually kind of teaches you that you you can exist and be very and Thrive and be very happy with less uh what's helped me personally is um I'm doing this reverse of most people but I've been long distance remote backpacking like I said for a long time well you'll learn that you only need what you care in your back I have everything on my back that need to exist and when you when you live that lifestyle it just it seems like an easy transition in the car the car I have way more than I ever do backpacking so it just it makes you rethink about you know where our priorities in life and I used to be in the corporate world for 25 30 years and making six figures and I was miserable and stressed and worried and I also worked a million hours I couldn't even get a three-day weekend off so you know I made money but my quality of life wasn't there and I owned a lot of things I'd buy things just to try to make myself happy but I realized in the long run for most of us that owning a bunch of stuff doesn't make us happy and it's actually freeing because you know having having connected all that stuff you know you have to have a place for it and some things you have to take care of and like um I literally have like I said I have what I have on my car and I have a small storage unit that's it all right those were just a few examples of Pros now we're going to go over the cons and I just noticed there's more cons and Pros so I don't want that to skew in any way I think it's just good to be honest with what uh what what the the good and bad things are or the tough things about living in your car and you can decide for yourself but um let's go for the first one so I'm looking at my notes here so one of the toughest ones that I found when I started was I had to get over what other people think because people can be very judgmental this is a kind of Counter Culture and it's against social norms that live in your car right it's easy if you're not in this lifestyle to just judge somebody and think well there must be a loser or they're unsuccessful things like that or they got problems because they're living in their car there are many people that um have very high up jobs actually live in a car event I have two jobs one is a retail type of job I got out of the corporate world like I said a while back and it was too stressful it wasn't worth the money and I was working all the time so I decided to try to trade time for money so I got rid of money as much money and I have time so with that said I have a regular retail job but then I also doordash on the side and that way I can work for myself I make more in a week of doordash than I do at my actual job so when you combine those that's what helps me save to go hike for two months and get away and not not earn money so I save up for about 10 months so I can get away for two months so um the other thing in terms of this being judgmental is I've seen that since uh I've been doing this uh it's hurt my dating life and I haven't actually I kind of haven't actually pursued dating very strongly but I've noticed you know I'm on a couple of dating apps and uh every once in a while kind of dabble in it and I'm just forthright on my profile and I say that this is my dream this is what I'm doing right now I'm by choice living on my car I'd love to do van life if it's not part time but maybe full-time and I would love to find somebody that's into that but you know I look at it as you know dating or dating apps you're not there for the numbers I want to find one great person so I feel like there's got to be one person out there that doesn't have a problem with the way I look at things when it comes to where I live so but it's definitely hurt me because again I've been judged and criticized on dating apps because I live in the car and that I want to live in a van and travel and things like that although there's so many men and women doing it right now especially younger people but uh yeah it's just weird but um like I said I've I've learned to not let it bother me at all because if they don't understand it or they criticize me or judge me then they're not the right one for me anyway they don't understand this lifestyle all right number two is pretty obvious but the lack of physical space I happen to be tall which is counterproductive for a car at least have an SUV and not like I see some people live in a Prius I couldn't do that but I have room to spread out in the back when I sleep so that's good but yeah just having um basically it's your eating place your sleeping place your office you talk to on the phone or you know watch movies it's everything in one space so it's just cramped and like I said being tall is not great but um I just think for everybody it's just such a small space case all right number three is hygiene and a lack of amenities that you would normally have like in apartments a house like just a bathroom you know 10 feet away where you can wash up and you know shave and do all that stuff you need to do um it's not available in a car of course so for me it's not as big of a deal I think because man it's easier I have a pea bottle so I can pee um I will always kind of pick a place to sleep with nearby of like a 24 hour place like a gym or a gas station or a store somewhere has a bathroom I have had a couple nights in the middle night and you have to go and you just have to go and so I've had to get up in the middle of the night and drive to a store or gym go and then come back so it really breaks up your sleep but that happens but it's very rare for me yeah so for the most part um a lot of times I sleep in many places but I'll sleep by places that have a bathroom so it's not an issue all right number four is the interesting one lack of community kind of socially isolated you know when you're in your car you're by yourself and I'm a social person I'm lucky because uh my main job that I go to um is a very I have to be very social it's who I am but I have to be very social I have a lot of interaction with people so I kind of get my fix and what's funny about that although I am a very social person uh you know I'm an only child I I've been alone most of my life you know I had a single parent and got out of my own when I was 18. I just been by myself forever so I'm a mix of wanting my alone time and then needing some interaction so my job gives me a lot of interaction and honestly when I walk out those doors after eight hours of dealing with the general public I'm ready to have alone time so for me it's a great mix you know also I'm good with when I backpack whether I backpack with other people I mostly backpack alone but but sometimes with others and I'm a talker by nature but I've learned to be to be okay with quiet you know and not talk when I live by myself and I don't let's say I don't have a work day I almost don't talk at all the whole day and it's kind of neat I've kind of had to be okay with it and learn how to be comfortable with it all right number five is a tough one when you live out on your own and that is an address for legal matters such as your car registration or filing taxes things like that anything that requires an address even like a bank or credit card um I happen to I still have not you know I told you I'm gonna eventually be out traveling the country where it's going to become more problematic but now I work and I where I live and sleep is where I work so I don't travel very far so I'm lucky to have somebody that's let me use their address as my address so I have no problems with that um and once a while I'll go pick up my mail if I do Amazon things like that you can send your packages they have stores like in my area there's a Ross address for Less store and they have bins or locked Lockers in there so Amazon can send them right to those lockers so I don't even have to send them to my address to go pick up the other way you can do that is is PO Boxes but that can be problematic because um you can't show when you use an address that it's a PO Box so you have to use uh some of these Postal Services they are a PO box but what you do is your user the the business's address and then where your PO box number is actually like an apartment number so it's like number 50 instead of you know you instead of number 50 you put apartment 50 things like that but that's how you can get around that but um yeah it is a tough one um sometimes and then if you travel around the country if you get mail I'm in Southern California if I get mail here and I'm in the east coast it's going to be problematic right so um it's something that so far I haven't had a problem with but I may have to deal with once I travel all right number six is what probably all all nomadic people have dealt with which is car problems and normally you know car problems are always a bummer anyway even when you have a house I've been a homeowner before or an apartment but um you know we rely on our cars right but imagine if it's your home and it's happened to me but almost all nomadic people have dealt with that um hopefully have good insurance and good coverage but honestly it's going to be a normal thing because of the amount of wear and tear you put on your car because you're using it all the time I can give you a personal experience that I had uh I've had this car it's a 2022 I got it in the summer but I started uh sleeping in my other car before this at the start of 2022 and it was a very expensive Ford hybrid car and I think I got a lemon because I had nothing but problems with it and it was electrical it was very frustrating I once had my car driving down the street at 50 miles an hour just stopped working and come to a stop right in the middle of the road with major traffic so you can imagine how scary and terrifying that was and um so one time what happened was imagine this this is your house okay and you have everything you own in your house your car and it was a hot summer day and I had my windows down instead of rolling the air condition and I jumped out to do something in the store come back in I turn my car on I cannot get any of my windows up so now I can't I literally can't go go to anywhere go to the store I can't sleep on I can't do anything because I can't get my windows up so I had to drive to the Ford dealership one of the things I do is I pay the extra to get an extended warranty and I have warranties that cover everything to a certain amount of miles on my car and literally everything and um so I I drove it in there thinking the car drove but there were so many bells and whistles going off there was all kinds of things wrong and so I took it in there and one things you want to do on your insurance is have either reduced or completely covered a rental car in there in case your car breaks down or you're gonna have to pay for a rental car every day so I have that but what's good about Ford is under my um repair plan I have complete coverage for a rental car so then it was problematic because they drive me from the dealership I leave my car there uh drive to a rental car place pretty close by and I'm picking out the cars and they're they normally just give you a car you know and you take whatever and it's all going to be covered except for my gas and uh but I'm in the back seat looking and they didn't know why but I was trying to see if the seats would fold down if he's semi-level for my air mattress in the back so I could sleep in it because it didn't end up taking it took two weeks to get my car repaired so then it was like I had to drive the rental car over to the dealership and then load my stuff but remember I had everything that I lived through and some things are used every day some things I don't but I kind of need everything in the car but then I had to pick and choose okay what I can't bring everything into this rental car so what do I need so it was really hard you know my work clothes and my hiking stuff and a box of hats and then this and that it was like really hard to do so I picked out what I needed sure enough I missed a few things but I couldn't get back in my car because it was in the in the work work bins uh getting worked on so yeah so just think about it have a backup plan and catch your pre your car breaks down I'm lucky because it broke down it didn't break down but the windows stopped working and it was local so I could just drive to the dealership but you know it's a whole nother problem of course if you need to be towed or you have some problems like that okay number seven is a big one it's a little bit easier for men than women but is going to the bathroom so obviously a man can use a pea bottle to go number one um number two is the same for both of us but um yeah it could be problematic also privacy privacy and you know like I dress a certain way and then when I get to work I have to dress a certain way so I actually changed my car so I have to I have to park somewhere private so you know where I works pretty public there's a lot of people around so I have to just kind of be careful but for me the Privacy is not a big deal but sorry it's somebody talk to me um so like I said for ladies it's going to be more difficult but I always try to park now it's going to be harder when I'm out on the road traveling but when I'm I'm living where I work uh I try to always stay very close to my my gym that I'm a member at that's 24 hours uh there's a gas station or two that around where I like to stay that have are open 24 hours and a couple stores that are open 24 hours so I always try to park very close if not very near them all right number eight is finding a safe close and free spot to camp in every night or to park in um it can be very tough sometimes like I I have my spots and one of the things I do you know I told you I do doordash so one of the things I do is I have my spots that I always Park in if I start to lose those spots or maybe they tighten the restrictions and if you can park there or not so what I do I I have a backup plan so if you're doing what I'm doing which is wanting to maybe live in your carpet where you live and where you work what I do is when I'm doing doordash I'm actually looking for places I keep my eye open for really good neighborhoods or good places to park a couple things I'm looking for signs to see if you're not allowed to park and if there's looks like there's privacy I really like when there's no not many uh street lights so you can kind of Park in the dark also when I see a spot I kind of really like I actually immediately look at my phone to see if there's service there in case you ever had emergency you could call out or even just for simple things like using your phone or watching Netflix things like that but yeah sometimes you know if you're on the road you get into a town but you may have to drive another 15 30 or even more minutes to get to where you can find a good spot at the park so it takes a lot of energy and effort sometimes to think of okay where am I going to park do I feel safe I know it's a little bit more problematic for women too just to feel safer um but I've been in a few places even as a man I didn't feel safe at all you know and so it most time I just you I try to listen to my inner voice and and take the time to move and just be okay with it all right the ninth and final one is just you spend more money on wear and tear in your car things like tires I go through tires pretty fast because of my two jobs one of them is doordash which is a lot of driving um tune-ups oil just general maintenances just things wear more when you're in it all the time and so just count on that that's an expense that you don't think about when you just drive your car back and forth to work and do normal things but when you live in it you know things break and wear out much faster all right so obviously there's some benefits to living this lifestyle there's also some tough parts of it and it's all trade-offs right so you have to decide if if maybe the pros outweigh the cons or not I gave you this time I'm not sure why more cons than Pros but um I really love it I mean I personally I don't have too many negatives I mean for me one of the hardest things is just the physical space you know um if I have a day off or I'm not going to work that gives me where I get to move and talk and be with people sometimes when I'm off I like not being off and having a day off but I usually always do doordash in the morning when I'm off to make extra money but I'm in the car a lot and and remember so I try to go to coffee shops uh maybe friend's house go do a hike do things so I can move and stuff but I do have a day once while where I'm almost in the car the whole day and it's very strange you know um but anyway I hope this helps you if you're thinking you're on the fence about maybe living in your car SUV hopefully this helps and lastly um once again I appreciate all my new subscribers thank you for coming on board share this video with people if you think it'll help somebody else that's thinking about doing this please consider subscribing and liking this video If you enjoyed it those two things are free and even hit the notification Bell in the upper right if you want to be notified every time I have another video coming out I just created a whole list of about 10 things for this topic for um living in your car SUV life and things that might help you in the future so please please consider subscribing so you won't miss any of those videos I'm going to start to make them out and crank them out pretty quick now so that's about it I'm marmalade thanks for watching and we'll see you down the road bye

Channel: Marmalade Outdoors

Views: 4,583

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Id: en8xa5Bv31g

Length: 20min 38sec (1238 seconds)

Published: Mon Apr 17 2023