Originally Posted by
bikenh
The key secret to life...
If you don't spend the money, you don't have to make the money...
If you don't have to make the money, you have a lot more free time available to do the things you would much rather off be doing.
I'm single and I live by myself. Both of the past two years I have spent less than $4,000/per year. I don't have to make much money. I could drop that down under $3,000 a year if I wanted to without having to put up much of a fight. I figure I could live for $2-2,500/per full time traveling on the open road. Given everything I have stumbled into over the past few months, maybe quite a bit less than that even.
How to save money? Stop spending it on worthless crap that you don't need in the first place. Remember mankind use to live just fine before some idiot went out and flew a kite in the middle of an lightning storm. You don't NEED anything that runs off of electricity, you WANT it. To have it you also have all the bills that go with, gas, repairs, service contracts, replacement items, etc. You don't NEED any of it. Start keeping track of your expenses and see how much of your annual expenses is directly tied to electric goods/services. I gave up driving over 9 years ago and have watched my expenses tank by 50%+ as a result. I haven't had a TV at my house since before the 2008 Summer Olympics. I don't have internet access at my house. Generally during the summer months my electric bill is 3-4 kW a month. Between mid-May and mid-October last year I used 16 kW. All my electric consumption comes from winter heating, but thanks to a few new ideas that should tank like a rock this coming winter. I live in a 468 sq ft shack. I bought it both because of its size and its location. It's in a town with low property taxes thanks to many million dollar homes around town. I let the big home owner pay my property taxes for me. They want to build 10,000 sq ft log cabins, I won't complain, it just lowers my property tax bill. The small house limits my upkeep expense and it also limits my living in it expense..if I don't have the place to put the stuff I see in a store than I have no reason to buy it.
My single biggest expense each year is food, last year around $1700, with over 700 in junk food. The next biggest expense is property taxes at $900/year. Yeah, that means I spent only $1300 on all other expenses last year. I don't spend money
By not spending money I don't have to make a lot of money so I have tons of time available. I do odds and end jobs. I haven't had a real job in almost a decade now...I'm 46 years old and I don't live off the gov't...I just learn to do more with less.
I don't use panniers for bike travel, instead I go to the local dump and pick up kitty liter buckets for free and they become my panniers. Now I'm looking at a whole new concept that would mean me going back to using a trailer, a hammock trail...no need for trees or ski poles or anything else like that but I could still sleep in a hammock every night, even in the middle of concrete parking lot. Like I said sometimes you just have to learn to be creative.
I travel solo. No one else could tolerate my travel wisdom. I ride on the fly. I don't follow any kind of schedule. I decide from one day to the next where I am going to go and sometimes I change it up midday. No one could tolerate that kind of travel life so I ride solo.
Like others have said, start small and work bigger. Don't throw money at a problem. I gave up the car because I knew I didn't have the money to fix it or replace, so I just stopped driving and it has been the best thing I have did in my life. Yeah, I ride 30 miles roundtrip to the grocery store but it keeps me in shape and gives me an excuse to ride.
The only reason you can't go car free is because you don't want to, not because you can't. I knew of a guy that lived out in the Chicago area that use to ride 60 miles round trip to work each day and he did it all year long.
Again, if you don't have to spend the money then you don't have to make the money and you can have more time to do the things you would much rather off be doing. You say you still have to work though. Who says you have to work at the job you are currently working at...'Oh I love my job'. Ok go in tomorrow and tell your boss you are going to work for nothing from now on. You love the job so much that you will do it for free...do you really love the job or the things the job provides. Remember if you don't need the garbage in life than you don't need the job either.
Not to take this to a whole new extreme, but a while back I saw a link somewhere to guy over in England who went on the challenge to live for a year on nothing, no money at all. Look up the Moneyiless Manifesto(I believe that is the right name of the book he wrote). You can download it for free and watchsome interviews on youtube with him. Let that stir you imagination on how to make things happen.