The Money Mustache Community
Learning, Sharing, and Teaching => Ask a Mustachian => Topic started by: marielle on February 17, 2017, 10:21:16 AM
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Inspired by the cheapest house thread!
Living at home with your parents or crashing on a friend's couch for $200/month doesn't count. Roommates sure.
Cheapest was a $385/month student apartment with 3 other roommates (each paid $385) and this included a private bathroom, furniture, internet, water, and electric. Could've had a house for similar prices, but without the benefits of the individual leasing and walking distance to class. Nearly the worst apartments near the area, but it was worth it. A nearby complex with the exact same floor layout was $550+ a month, but it provided a false sense of security to parents since it was gated I guess.
There was a 3 bedroom house for rent near my work for $460 a month, but tenant had to supply a fridge and stove. Wtf? Anyone here rented something that cheap and was it BYOA (bring your own appliances)?
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$335 in 1995 in one bedroom 500 sft.
Those were the days!
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$335 in 1995 in one bedroom 500 sft.
Those were the days!
$534 in today's money! Not bad, especially if you're in a big city.
https://data.bls.gov/cgi-bin/cpicalc.pl?cost1=335&year1=1995&year2=2017
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$325 per month in an off campus college apt (lived with 5 other guys, it was fully furnished and all utilities and cable TV covered)
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$450/month + utilities. Living in an unfinished bathroom. I'm buying a house and moving out next week!
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500.00 CDN a month for a three bedroom townhouse with a nice little yard that backed up to a greenbelt. Granted, it was in the middle of nowhere but it was just super lucky timing on our part and LL was renting at a loss to balance out the gains on some of his other properties.
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Half the rent in college was $325 ending in 2007. Living in a nice part of the East Bay area with a roommate until 2016 was $600, which was the envy of all who knew me. But currently I rent a ~900 sqft fully furnished apartment in a former soviet country for about $110/month. If you can speak the language, global arbitrage is very powerful.
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700/month all included in CT
It was a walkout in-law type 1 bedroom in a family's house on a lake. It had lake views from the kitchen and living room. Cheap and amazing....so lucky I found that!
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My dad once told me that for a while in college he lived in a 2 bedroom apartment with 5 guys including him. I don't know what he paid but this was in Nebraska and the split had to have been well under $200 in todays dollars.
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$250/month in 1990, had to pay a few extra bucks for the phone bill. No A/C, third floor apartment with a flat roof in the Woodlawn section of The Bronx. That was my hottest summer ever.
Looking at the pic, my room was the top left window of the middle building.
I moved from that to a basement apartment in NJ for $400/month. Utilities included, but it was an illegal apartment. I had a separate entrance, but no kitchen, just a bathroom. At the time, it worked.
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Twice I had summer jobs in college where I found ~300SF studio apartments for $300/month, in 2001/2002 (different towns in Oregon). One was in a cool old Victorian house converted to apartments. The other was in a slummy building over a barbershop.
It's kind of funny - I paid $500/month for a 1BR apartment in grad school. Now "my half" of the mortgage on our 3,000 SF clown house on half an acre is a bit less than that (PITI), and we've gained $135K in equity over seven years.
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Not the cheapest, but definitely the best bargain.
From 2006-2007, I rented this cute little house with a fenced yard in a walkable neighborhood for $600/mo.
http://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-detail/903-Wright-St-SW_Lenoir_NC_28645_M67880-32766#photo2
There are photos up, so I guess they tried to sell it recently? Anyway, it was a great little house for the price!
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I split $450 rent for a 2 bedroom townhouse with a buddy back in college. It was section 8 housing though.
Also split $800 rent with 2 friends my last year in college for a 3 bedroom split-level home.
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Third floor walk up studio apartment in a college town, $195 a month. However, I don't want to tell you what year this was (I was in college.) Let's just say that it would be a lot more in today's dollars.
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I paid ~$400 per month including food at a cooperative house during college in 2004. I guess that probably works out to about $250-300/month in just rent.
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Cheapest was $300/month large 1BR/1BA apt RIGHT on the water in Miami Beach. I could literally drop a fishing line out my window and reel them in.
Oh....this was back in 1992!
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About $140/mo with utilities (per person). 2012. Four people (two couples) in a 1 bedroom 500 square foot house. Crazy cheap living. Wouldn't move back there now, but it was an amazing opportunity at the time when we were all making very little.
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I paid ~$400 per month including food at a cooperative house during college in 2004. I guess that probably works out to about $250-300/month in just rent.
ketchup's post reminded me that this included all utilities and internet as well! Depending on how you want to count that I might just be winning this thread.
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During a rather interesting period of my life I lived in a 3/1 with six other adults, and my total monthly budget at the time was $250. My share of rent and bills was ~110, food and transportation ate up the other ~140. Lived there for about six months. Looking back it wasn't the worst possible situation, so much as some of the worst possible roommates.
When I left I moved to an efficiency that cost 200/month including all utilities, with a shared bathroom and shared kitchen. I really did subsist on monthly trips to the grocery store (Ramen, bacon, instant mashed potatoes, cheap canned fruit, canned veggies, peanut butter, multivitamin, milk) and rolled my own cigarettes. This was all in 2003-2004. I was also at my thinnest then, cause I walked everywhere.
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$0 from living at home post-college with generous parents for a couple years (do I win? /facetious)
$250 + utilities (~$45) a month while sharing a four bedroom apartment during college.
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$250 per person per month in a 4bd/2ba ~1800sqft house in 2012. There were perks to going to college in Indiana :)
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$90! Three-bedroom house with three roommates in Boulder, CO. It was two blocks from the university. But this was in 1978. What do I win??
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$90! Three-bedroom house with three roommates in Boulder, CO. It was two blocks from the university. But this was in 1978. What do I win??
Nothing because it's $335 when inflation adjusted!
Maybe I should have made this a poll. :)
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2006:
165 euros for a 18m2 room with 3 m2 balcony, shared other facilities in the apartment with 3 roommates as a student living in a college town. It was in an apartment hat had been shared by students since at least 1993 (found bank statements burried somewhere in a closet), we shared kitchen + living area + bathroom.
Average rent for a room (for a student sharing a house or apartment) was around 300-400 euros for something similar in the same town, so I got a pretty good deal.
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$415/month for a rented room in 2008, all utilities included.
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$90! Three-bedroom house with three roommates in Boulder, CO. It was two blocks from the university. But this was in 1978. What do I win??
Nothing because it's $335 when inflation adjusted!
Maybe I should have made this a poll. :)
Darn! Foiled again! Speaking of living cheaply, my dad spent $64 in ten weeks traveling all over the US back in 1938. He stayed with friends and relatives... hitchhiked and hopped a freight train or three. PA to CA and back.
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Cheapest rent was $125 a month for a 2 bedroom in a beach community. Since I shared with a roommate it was only $75 a month.
Of course this was 1971-74 so maybe not such a bargain (I had just gotten a raise to $2.50 an hour when I moved in).
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$350 currently living in my aunt's house. I have my own room and all.
Was going to move to a $700 all included apartment with a roommate, she quoted me that and I stayed!
My previous apartment with two roommates was $412 a month.
I'm amazed at how cheaply some here have rented. For me, it was $600 for a room in college and that was with utilities not included!
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$500 a month for 350 sqft studio in Baltimore in the mid-aughts. It was a crappy crappy basement apartment (think it had once been a boiler room) and didn't have hot water and only had a two burner stove but it was in a really nice and safe neighborhood.
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$795/month for a very nice 2 BR house right next to the Olympic Natl Park in Washington.
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$375 + utilities for 3/1 in 2002 - South Texas rented from a friend while building current home. Rent on that house would now be about $1,400
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$200/mo in 2010. central IL, smallest bedroom in $800/mo 3/1 house with 2 roomies, one of whom was usually out. In-unit laundry, internet was included, other utilities maxed at probably 80-85/mo in Jan/Aug.
After 2 years I moved into the larger room and we decided not to look for a third, so rent went up to 400/mo.
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$180 for half a room (split with another gal) in a 4 bedroom house (college, circa 2009 in Portland, OR).
I later moved into my own room and paid $310. What I would give for rent like that again!
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$200/mo for a shared 2/1 duplex in central Austin. The landlord had owned it for a long time and never raised rent. I also lived in a 1/1 apt in Houston for something like $150/mo while the owner was renovating the building. He was a jerk but it was well located in Montrose.
My rent today is eye watering. The monthly HOA fee alone is ten times those figures.
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Cheapest is what I pay now.
$550 (my half) of a nice 1 bedroom apartment, includes a giant fenced backyard with fire pit and BBQ, electric, water, heat, lawncare, internet.
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$346 a month (each), share house with five people. That was in 2013-14 (it was more expensive at first when there were four of us).
House was a bit of a dump, but hey, it was cheap and close to public transport.
There was a 3 bedroom house for rent near my work for $460 a month, but tenant had to supply a fridge and stove. Wtf? Anyone here rented something that cheap and was it BYOA (bring your own appliances)?
In every rental I've lived in, the tenants have been required to bring their own fridge and washing machine. I've had my current fridge for six years and it's gone through three moves :)
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$117 per month for a cute 2/1 house with a large yard. This was 1998/1999. The whole rent was $350 split 3 ways.
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$286 in Berkeley in 03/04. This was for my portion of a rent controlled apartment (had 2 roommates), and was about 40% of rents at the time. It had been passed down for years by people who went to my high school. It was a foul hole (there was a mushroom/mold blob of sorts that grew out of the window sill periodically until beaten back with some bleach) in a great location. It was very fun.
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2011-2012 I shared a pretty shitty duplex with a roommate in a small town in Minnesota that defined LCOL. My portion of the rent was $220.
There was a lot that didn't agree with me about that place. The cost wasn't on the list, lol! I miss that rent.
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From 1997-2004, I was paying $200/month to rent a furnished room in San Francisco. Considering price and location, that can't be beat.
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$400 for a basement suite in Vancouver in 2005. It had no kitchen, and my landlords had to walk through it to get to their storage locker. I don't miss those days.
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I use to pay $300 a month from 1988 - 1998 for a little two bedroom house on 10 acres of land in Lakeside, California (East County San Diego). Those were the days.
My mortgage today is $2,100 a month for a 15 year fixed.
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$530/month currently in a 2 bedroom 2 bath 920 sq feet on a lake. I had free rent in college when I was an RA though - does that count??
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$135 for a bedroom, plus utilities in a 6 bedroom house in about 1986. I moved to a larger room in the house after a year and my rent was around $165.
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$625 for a 1-bedroom basement apartment in an owner occupied house. including all utilities, Internet and cable in a nice Toronto neighbourhood (Leaside) in 2006. It would have been $575 if there was only one of us.
Even then that was way below market. The ad was one line with no pictures but given the neighbourhood I checked it out anyway. So glad I did.
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$400/mo for a small 1b/ba in my rural college town in 2011.
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700/month all included in CT
It was a walkout in-law type 1 bedroom in a family's house on a lake. It had lake views from the kitchen and living room. Cheap and amazing....so lucky I found that!
Not bad. Around 500 for a solo 1 bdrm you can basically expect mold, in CT. O_o
Mine is what I pay now - 437.50 with a roommate. For CT, that's so low I'm not worried about not having equity until the landlord raises rent. He lowered it once in our half decade here and that was it - we're overwhelmingly his most stable tenants.
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You guys aren't even trying. $8 a week - so $34 a month (Australian) for a four bedroom house on enough land to have a humongous vegetable patch. It was a while ago, 1982, but it was in the middle of Melbourne (which is well known as having very expensive house prices). There were 4 of us sharing it, so it cost $2 a week each. The place is worth about $1.1million now according to the real estate estimators. It had a roof, and it didn't let in the rain, and some rooms had electricity, and it did have a reasonable kitchen and bathroom, unlike the previous house we lived in which was $12 a week for 3 bedrooms. Someone else had wanted to move in, so we looked for somewhere else and found a better bargain!
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160 a month for my portion. I lived in a 3/1 for about a year with one of my best friend's and his girlfriend. I had been introduced to Dave Ramsey but hadn't stumbled on MMM yet. I did pretty good killing my auto loan. Definitely wish I had a situation like that again. Could be saving some bigger bucks if that were the case.
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Currently my share is $110/month. Live with my partner in a 2 bedroom unit with a decent sized yard.
All because I chose to work as a teacher in a small, rural town. (Our incomes are about $75k & $95k per year, so theres not tooooo many down sides of loving in this small town).
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I was always good at jumping on the housing deals...
$340/month for a one bedroom apartment in Salt Lake City (2002-2003) Tiny basement apartment only a block from my work. The stairs were so narrow that I moved most things in through the windows. And the bathroom door was narrow enough that you had to go through sideways.
$305/month for a one bedroom in Provo (2007 or so). I was supposed to be responsible for utilities, but the utility company didn't have record of it existing. I still don't know who was paying my electric bill the year I lived there.
$250/month for a one bedroom in Provo, renting an illegal MIL from a friend (2009 or so)
$400/month for a two bedroom in Provo, (2011-2014) Loved this one... It had a hallway that got narrower as you went down it. Totally trippy.
I'm trying to help a friend find such an apartment now, but the pickings are as slim as always.
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$250/mo in college. I lived with 6 other guys in a 6 bedroom house and was one of the two in house who had to share a room for cheaper rent. As I recall, rent was $1900, those two sharing paid $250/mo and those in their own room $280/mo.
Even more impressive, but probably not fair to this discussion was after college when a business partner and myself bought a fixer upper duplex. Our mortgage was $1300 and we rented out the other unit for $850. So we split the remaining $450 for a cheap living arrangement of $225/mo.
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250 eur/month for a 10 square meter room in a house (utilities included) between 2004-2006
350-400 eur/month while sharing various houses (utilities included) between 2007-2014
half of $500/month for a one bedroom somewhere in the south (2014-2015)
I now live in NoVa which is a tad more expensive, but then again our housing is sponsored (generous employer), so my out of pocket is not that much more than what i have written above.
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$475 in 2002 for a 2 bed/2bath in KC MO. Only roommate was my husband, so that was the total bill.
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220$ for my portion of a 3 bedroom basement apartment that 4 of us shared (my BF and I shared our room). This included everything (heating, internet, etc). Apart from the river that ran through the length of the apartment in the spring when the snow melted outside and came in through the walls, it was all good :p
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$250/mo in 2010 for a one bedroom apartment. I don't think it gets any cheaper than that! Seriously, $250/mo, no roommates! Although I did live with my partner, so we could even call it $125/mo/person.
This was a small, backwater town in the rural midwest. There are plenty of reasons I don't live there anymore, but the cheap rent isn't one of them!
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I paid $125 (my half of $250) in 1993 in Boone, NC. Later, my roommate moved out and I had the whole place to myself for $250 (it was a basement apartment). I stayed there until 1997, so it was a big help to have that cheap rent as I paid my way through school. My landlady never raised the rent on me. The apartment was a five minute walk from campus and a two minute walk from the grocery store where I worked. It was kind of perfect.
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$200 month+ utilities (friend bought a foreclosure)...lasted 4 months, it was brutal! ha
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125/mo for a "room". It was an office converted to an apartment but it did not have a kitchen. It was private though which I liked. I bought a small fridge & microwave. I learned to do dishes immediately there because all I had was a bathroom sink. First day I went to brush my teeth in the morning and the sink was filled with dishes. :) These were 1987 dollars.
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College in the mid 80's. I paid $65 a month during the fall-spring quarters and $45 a month for the summer quarter. It was pretty run down but clean, close to campus, and unbelievably cheap.
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I paid $430 per month for the master bedroom of a 3 bedroom apartment. This was in 2015. I live in a fairly LCOL area, but still much more expensive than the surrounding rural areas around me.
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$120/mth plus utilities. It was the early 2000's (maybe 2002-04) and my 2 friends and I had found a *great* student apartment. It was close to the school, grocery store, laundromat and, most importantly, the bars. The only problem was there were 2 large bedrooms and 1 TINY bedroom. The monthly rent was $600 for the whole place but nobody wanted to get stuck in the small bedroom (if you put a double mattress in the room, there would be no room to open the drawers of a dresser). We hemmed and hawed and then I suggested we NOT split the rent equally and whoever took the smallest room would pay less. It was a winning idea but my roommates (who have TONS of stuff) were still leary of the small room so I took it.
The rent we ended up paying in the 2 years we lived there ended up being even less because our landlord (who was SUPER nice with us and always sent someone to fix thing *immediately*) didn't always ACCEPT our rent money. We would contact him when the cheques weren't cashed, offering to resend new cheques (minus cheque cancellation fees) and he always just said "No, this is my fault. Don't worry about it, I need to learn my lesson!".
Coincidentally, there was a biker gang that was more or less running part of our town at the time and my landlord was often seen with some of its members... my roommates and I now just assume he didn't care about our rent because that building was likely used for money laundering purposes.
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$210 for one third of a three bedroom apartment during my sophomore year of college in 2004. Crazy looking back at how many hours I had to work to pay for that...
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$205/month for a room in a house with 4 roommates. I had the concrete basement room but managed to keep the spiders out most of the time. Had to kill a couple every time I wanted a shower though (they always snuck in from the garage in pairs!).
I lived there for about a year and a half right after college during my first couple of jobs. Saved enough during that time to buy a used Camry and pay off all of my college loans before getting married.
It really was not a great place to live though and I'm glad I got out of the roommate situation. I moved closer to work (really close) in a studio condo but that place was $750/month and that was actually cheap for the area. Still, it was a lot safer and my car never got broken into there.
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During a rather interesting period of my life I lived in a 3/1 with six other adults, and my total monthly budget at the time was $250. My share of rent and bills was ~110, food and transportation ate up the other ~140. Lived there for about six months. Looking back it wasn't the worst possible situation, so much as some of the worst possible roommates.
When I left I moved to an efficiency that cost 200/month including all utilities, with a shared bathroom and shared kitchen. I really did subsist on monthly trips to the grocery store (Ramen, bacon, instant mashed potatoes, cheap canned fruit, canned veggies, peanut butter, multivitamin, milk) and rolled my own cigarettes. This was all in 2003-2004. I was also at my thinnest then, cause I walked everywhere.
Were you my room mate? I lived in that same situation only I paid $75.00 a month for my share of the rent. You were ripped off my friend This was in Tacoma in Hilltop in the late 1980's
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$285/mo - 4 years ago
San Cristobal de las Casas, Chiapas, Mexico
:)
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$88/month from around 2000-2004 while going to university. All utilities included. Shared bathroom and kitchen... and routine inspections.
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$0, in 2008-2009, when I was homeless. Lived in old dongas (portable miners accom), field camp, side of road, out of my car, on my office floor. It wasn't by choice, economically homeless. I don't recommend it.
I love camping, stealth camping (have done a huge cycle tour that took nine months, 20 something countries), etc. But choice is everything.
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For the last 9 months $0. I took a job traveling for work, gave up my apartment and live in the hotels provided. In between assignments, I extend my stays with the hotel points I earn, or travel a bit and crash in my car. It was an absolute blast at first since I love being mobile. Not gonna lie though, this has gotten old and a home base is preferable. I just signed a lease for $515 on a 300 sq foot studio, not bad, but not 0.
At one point there was a journal in here about a 50 year old guy living in his Chevy Volt... I think it's gone now, but he was a total badass!
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$325 for a 2 bedroom townhouse across the river from Wheeling West Virginia. Recently remodeled, one of the nicest rentals in the area. I thought it was a steal but others that where actually from the area seemed to think it was expensive (I'd just moved there for work-stayed about 6 months. In 2000)
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I'm currently paying $500 a month for a really cute 1 bedroom duplex. 500 square feet, quiet neighbors, nice neighborhood and walking distance from downtown. It's great.
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$450/month + utilities. Living in an unfinished bathroom. I'm buying a house and moving out next week!
Been paying same, $450/month but utilities included for last 8 years with a roommate. We are also living with an unfinished bathroom (only the tub is now usable after several weeks...we've been down to the sink in the kitchen and a toilet in the basement, showering at gyms). But I am moving out and just rented a place for $650/month. Totally worth it to have my place after so many years and all this time of living so cheaply has set my savings on a great foundation.
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1994-1997 $300/month 2 bedroom with one roommate so $150 per month rent. Top floor was condemned.
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US$60/month for a 300sqf studio in Siem Reap, Cambodia, 2006. No aircon which kept utility bills low, but in hot season the sweat was nonstop morning, noon and night. The landlady would give me fresh jackfruit from the garden when I paid rent :)