The Money Mustache Community
General Discussion => Share Your Badassity => Topic started by: canzaman on November 30, 2016, 09:57:12 AM
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This is just a story of bad-assity I want to share: My DH is the most frugal person I know. For 15 plus years before I met him, he lived in a...shall we say "small warehouse" without central heat, no stove/oven, and semi-handmade plumbing. In a northern American city. The space was meant for storage/band rehearsal and NOT legally habitable, but he lived there for around $500/month. It was 2K sq ft and he had a music studio there with at least 100 instruments and recording stuff. He constructed a plastic bubble over the studio that he heated with a few space heaters. His living quarters were spartan to say the least- also heated with a few space heaters. Mattress was from a fold out couch (do not recommend/springs). He cooked on an electric wok & crockpot. Shower was a hose, shower stall was a plastic storage container. Sink was a slop sink and it was nasty. Things were gross overall but RESPECTABLE b/c he did it to have the ability to house and play all his musical instruments (aka- do what he wanted to do with his time). Shower and sink water was stored in a large drum downstairs and pumped out weekly in the middle of the night into the sidewalk gutters. Toilet "worked" but was iffy. For #2 the local supermarket bathroom was the best bet. This guy was a hardcore dude and I almost shed a tear sometimes in mourning when I see him snug as a bug in our centrally-heated, totally normal house with 2 usable bathrooms and regular people kitchen.
On our first date, I was carted about in an ancient Volvo without working windshield wipers. The car was obtained for $200 and that spray stuff that causes water to bead and run off was applied to the windshield with a rag in the "there, I fixed it" vein. Second date conversation involved him proudly telling me about fixing a sewer pipe "leak" in his basement by dumping copious amounts of concrete on top of the leak and hoping for the best (this fix lasted until and perhaps beyond the day he moved out 2 years after the incident). I'm not condoning these particular practices, and I admit they were both extremely fascinating and sometimes also immensely repellent, but I had and continue to have a ton of respect for the guy.
This all really challenged my idea of what we really need, and taught me that essentially, you get used to ANYTHING. Especially if you're doing it so you have more control over your time and can do what you want- in his case, music. Oh, and he had a regular job and has several hundred thousand in savings.
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People . . . this is How Artists Live.
Read Patti Smith's autobio "Just Kids" for her account of the "piss factory" where she lived/worked.
All of the art/literature/music you love has a pretty good chance of originating from someone who spent at least some time, or their entire lives, living close to the bone.
Artists are the original badasses.
We must learn from them.
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People . . . this is How Artists Live.
Read Patti Smith's autobio "Just Kids" for her account of the "piss factory" where she lived/worked.
All of the art/literature/music you love has a pretty good chance of originating from someone who spent at least some time, or their entire lives, living close to the bone.
Artists are the original badasses.
We must learn from them.
So true. There's a Todd Snider song -- Statistician's Blues -- that has a line in it about him being on a plane and not having anything to read but the magazines in the seat pocket -- the Continental and Sky Mall. "Folksingers can't be foolin' with no Sky Mall."
I'm a writer and my husband quotes this whenever the subject of luxury good comes up. 'Writers can't be foolin' with no Sky Mall."