how much income do you need to live?

http://pages.prodigy.net/jmiller.cb/s745.html found this site about self reliance, living as cheaply as you can.
When I took the greyhound bus back to NH, I had 2 1/2 small bags of stuff + my purse + small pillow that I could carry onto the bus with me. I crammed 2 pair of pants, 2 summer dresses, sandals, 4 pair of shorts, some shirts, crossword puzzle magazines,camera, address book, notebook, a ziplock bag with misc stuff....toothbrush, deodorant, nail clippers, dental floss, chapstick, hand cream, and tampons. and the small 1/2 filled bag was snacks...trail mix, fruit, gum, crackers and drinks.
I bought postcards, couple newspapers, coffee and a salad and a fruit & yogurt dessert at McDonald's and a baked potato from Wendy's on this trip, so I guess you can say I wasted a few bucks along with playing 2 arcade games at a bus station in NY.
Family members couldn't believe that I came across country with so little. Well I left a few boxes in AZ at a friends house mostly pictures, books, blankets, and some of my elephant collection. Everything else I gave to a thrift store or threw in trash.

 

It seems obvious to me that travelling light is the best choice, on both material and spiritual levels. A man usually needs even less things to carry than women do. Detachment is the key. Of course, you cannot use your food stamps while traveling, but you can buy all the food in the well-known local cheap store and bring it on the bus with you. That's what I usually do.

 

in the simplest possible terms, all we really need is food to eat and a place to sleep. "everything else is pointless fun." a wise person said that to me.


i think its true.

 

interesting site.... you can always rob people, earn that money for free, and buy some nice stuff.

 

Oh yeah, tell people to be a thief...someone to lazy to work for their own needed things....real good, NOT!

 

Great link, kudos. Americans over indulge. It's so easy to live cheap, it's just that people are dumbasses. Like lightbulbs. I have one 60 Watt lightbulb(sometimes a 40watt, sometimes 50) I use to light my whole room, all the time. I can see just as good as anyone else, and I don't need two extra bulbs spending up my dad's cash. AC, this is a big one with me. It's always either too damn hot or too damn cold. In the wintertime, I don't even turn the heat on till my dad gets home. I just close my bedroom door while I'm on the computer, it heats up my room just fine. If it gets too hot, I open my door and turn the fan on. All these people around here are bred to spend money, it's pathetic. They blow 5,000 dollars to put rims on a perfect good car, when they can't even pay their rent money. No priorities.

 

is from this Roman guy named Ovid who wrote liked to write mournful love poems. he said

Omnia mea mecum porto- I carry with me all my thing



"Baby Ifm a two bag man." is from some song i wrote. all the stuff I have came in a duffle bag a suit bag and a backpack when I came rollin in on the bus, and thatfs all Im gonna carry when I leave in two weeks.

 

I just hit the road again recently and found out I can still get by on $5 a day without depriving myself of anything. I'm traveling on a mountain bike that I fixed up after someone threw it away, towing a trailer I made out of a jogging stroller that I scored at a thrift store for $8.


Here's what it cost me to put my rig together:

Bike--free
Trailer--$10 ($2 for the homemade hitch)
Tent---$5 at a thrift store
Paniers--converted computer bags ($3 total)
REI sleeping bag--$2 flea market
Guitar (primary source of $$)--$5 dollars +7.50 for strings

That's the basics. Also scored all the tools I needed fro next to nothing here and there.

So far seems like anytime I need something there it is--for free or at least for cheap.

 

where the hell do you get a guitar for five bucks?

 

I got mine at the Goodwill. Hit the thrift stores, flea markets, garage sales--if God likes ya one will show up.