So, as a recent college graduate, I'm fairly new to FIRE, but one thing has become quite obvious, quite quickly: I need to find a cheaper place to live.
Currently, I'm renting a room in a house in a gentrifying neighborhood of a major metropolitan center. It was the cheapest place I could find in the area, and rent and utilities currently take up ~$600 of my monthly spending of ~$1000.
Meanwhile, my work is in a middle to upper middle class suburb of the city. In bad weather at rush hour, I can end up spending an hour in traffic each way to get there. Obviously, there is room for improvement. A lot of improvement.
Now, ideally, I'd like to live close to where I work. I could then bike everywhere, not spend nearly as much on gas, and go full throttle on the high-deductible insurance. Problem is, the neighborhood my work is in is pretty expensive itself - I'd probably end up paying about the same living down there.
So, I've been thinking about alternative housing. I'm a pretty agreeable person, and I'm happy with a variety of living situations. If I could save a couple hundred on rent, I would happily live in an attic, garage, garden shed, or van in the driveway. I could split a bedroom, maybe set up camp with a nice canvas tent. The issue is finding someone who might offer such a situation.
So I'm wondering if any mustachians have experience looking for a cheap place to stay in a (fairly) unfamiliar place. I'm sure people are out there, but how do I find them?
