"I live in a van down by Duke University"

Provided it's true, this is an interesting story of a resourceful young man.

Living in a van was my grand social experiment. I wanted to see if I could -- in an age of rampant consumerism and fiscal irresponsibility -- afford the unaffordable: an education.

I pledged that I wouldn't take out loans. Nor would I accept money from anybody, especially my mother, who, appalled by my experiment, offered to rent me an apartment each time I called home. My heat would be a sleeping bag; my air conditioning, an open window. I'd shower at the gym, eat the bare minimum and find a job to pay tuition. And -- for fear of being caught -- I wouldn't tell anybody.

Living on the cheap wasn't merely a way to save money and stave off debt; I wanted to live adventurously. I wanted to test my limits. I wanted to find the line between my wants and my needs. I wanted, as Thoreau put it, "to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put to rout all that was not life … to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms."

Comments

[JorgXMcKie]

When I started to graduate school, I was known as "Downer . . ." because I lived in a basement bedroom in a boarding house. I paid $400 a year [!] and had access to both a bathroom and a kitchen. I made 650/mo as a GA [10 month appointment] and out of that paid SS, taxes, and health insurance. I owed them 20 hours/week.

I had a 77 Plymouth Fury II old police car that got me around, and bought no new clothes for two years. I got a cheap pair of new sneakers each Fall for the first two years.

I usually had 2-3 part-time jobs. When I got married I borrowed the 4000 the govt set as the limit and used it for a honeymoon in Jamaica, among other wedding related things.

I shopped at Sav-U-Mor [no Walmart in town at the time] and got cheap cuts of meat, beans, pasta, tomatoes, and spices. Cheap, in season veggies, plus canned #2 veggies [just as healthful and nutritious as Fancy Grade A and way cheaper, if you know where to find them.] No tv. [Well, I won one later in a raffle I evidently entered when I thought I was just contributing to a charity.] No phone. No music. No movies.

One of my profs asked me [since I had previously had a real career] how I managed to live on 650/mo [he made around 80K/yr], and I said the main thing was that I couldn't give charitably as much as I once had. He said, "You give to charity on 650/mo?" in amazement. Sure. There's always someone worse off.

When I graduated the 4K was pretty much all I owed. I had a friend who graduated owing [undergrad and grad combined] at least 75K and I have a friend now, who is still paying off [I hope] student loans after 15 years.

Living cheap is not hard, you just have to pay attention.