Share your Mustachian or Unusual Living Arrangements!

[babysnowbyrd]

I've notice a few people here have done some interesting things to save money housing-wise. Another member posted about living in his Volt and a few other others have chimed in about living in their cars (past and present).

I'm currently living under-the-radar in a tiny office I pay a very small rent for. I work a graveyard shift outside of it, so it helps to add to the illusion that I'm NOT living there and that I go "home" every night. I might post some pics someday, but not comfortable at this time giving too many details just in case my landlord or other business tenants here are secret mustachians.

I'm sure I'm not the only one curious about what other people have come up with and how they came up with it!

[babysnowbyrd]

For me, I was walking down a street one day and noticed a business had an "office for rent" sign up. I have a home-based business and thought it might be nice to have an "official" business address that would make me more "legit." I'm still building the business, so I worked graveyards at a hotel to keep my day time free to work on it. I inquired inside and the one they were renting was too big and expensive for me, but they had a tinier room in an odd location in the building with a weird layout (very old building that has probably been renovated a dozen too many times.) They offered a very low price for it, so I said I'd consider it.

Due to some of the unique features of the building, I figured I could probably swing living in it, so I took the plunge. I've had some close calls with being discovered but it's been a year now and still going strong. My family thought I was crazy at first, and probably still do but are used to the idea now. The only thing that's still tough is what to say when people ask where I live or when I need to fill out my address on forms. For most casual encounters, I'll say generic things like the general neighborhood. I rarely have issues when filling out my address on forms but if someone does happen to know the area and asks about it, I usually say something like "I'm going to be moving soon, so I'm taking mail at my office."

[Fresh Bread]

This is great! I have no interesting stories but my dad lived on his boat when it was out of the water in a maintenance yard. Hooked up a composting toilet and away he went.

I would love to hear about the close calls you had!

[Classical_Liberal]

Awesome story babysnowbyrd!!

I was inspired by this badass story:  http://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/journals/living-in-a-volt/

I gave up my apartment a month ago.  I've been traveling regionally for work, generally about 2-6 hours drive time from where my apartment was.  Since I'm getting free hotels about 80-90 percent of the time, It didn't take too much effort to take the plunge.  I followed dagiffy1's advice and got a storage locker and UPS mailing address.  When I'm hotelless, I sleep in my car & shower at truckstops, sometimes use my hotel rewards points for a few days of travel or visit friends & relatives in other cities who, so far, are happy I'm coming around more. Total monthly "housing" costs are; $85 storage locker, $20 UPS mailbox, and averaging about another $100 for misc new expenses (truck stop showers, more data on phone for mobile hotspot, less home cooking, etc).  I should be able to regularly hit 80-85% monthly savings rate in this arrangement. Could probably boost that to 90 if I really pushed it. I plan to keep it up until at least November, then my travel area may change a bit and ill play it by ear from there.

[dilinger]

For a while, my wife lived with housemates in a place that was supposed to be office space.  It had been modified to have hidden beds.  One room had climbing holds on the wall; you climbed up and then could get into a bed.  My wife's bedroom was a 4' tall crawl space above a bathroom.  There was a bookshelf next to the bathroom, and the top shelf was basically the door for the room.  There was a sandwich shop (I forget the name; some chain other than Subway) next door, and their vents ran through that crawl space; she tapped into that, so she was able to get climate control for the room (smelled delicious, too).  She was paying around $200-$300/mo for that room, in the center of Boston about 100ft away from a T station.

When we first started dating, my first test was finding her bedroom..

[babysnowbyrd]

Wow! Do you have any pictures?

I have so many questions about this arrangement:

1. How did they nab the place? Who came up with the idea of the hidden bedrooms above walls??
2. Was the "normal" part of the office used as a regular office during the day? Or was it an elaborate front to the whole discreetly-living here thing?
3. How were these hidden bedrooms constructed? And without other people knowing?


You gotta give way more info!

[YK-Phil]

Three years ago I accepted a great job in Yellowknife as the director of a small environmental agency, on a 3-year contract. I had spent decades in the Arctic but after selling our Yellowknife home in 2010, we did not feel like moving back so it was simpler for me to relocated alone. The moment I walked into my office, I realized this was going to become my ideal bachelor pad: it had a shower, a top of the line espresso machine, microwave, mini-fridge, a nice comfy couch in a loft next to the washroom, an empty and locking credenza to store my clothes and personal belongings, a walk-in crawlspace to store my bike, tools and other stuff, and lots of privacy after 5 pm and weekends. Considering the high cost of housing in this remote city ($800-$900/month for shared accommodation, $1300 minimum for a bachelor in a crappy apartment building), my natural anti-conformist tendencies, and most importantly my frugality, it was a no-brainer. So for about a year or so, I became an office hobo. Nobody except one or two close friends had any idea I lived there permanently. I got caught once, a few days after "moving in", by the cleaning lady, who barged in at 3 am, singing at the top of her lungs with headphones on...Luckily I was in the loft and retreated quickly in the washroom in my underwear before she saw me, got dressed, introduced myself and told her I was working late on an important project...needless to say, she was as surprised as I was to see such a hard working guy in the middle of the night...The next day, I told the building superintendent that we would no longer need janitorial services at our office...

About a year later, a lady who works at a remote mine site on a 2-week rotation practically begged me to house/pet sit for her. She was desperate to find someone to stay at her house (it is an insurance requirement for all homeowners here to ensure their house is not left unattended in winter for more than 24 hours), dog and 2 cats while she was at the mine. The deal included finishing whatever food I could find in the fridge and freezer, and the use of her SUV, gas included. Too good to be true, but this time it was true...

So for a while, I shared my time between my office pad and her home, but I realized the potential if I could find another similar house-sitting gig, so I put an add in a local website. It did not take long and a few weeks later, I started to house/pet-sit for a charming young couple who are both working at a remote mine on an exact opposite two-week rotation. After having experienced too many issues with expensive pet-boarding and house-checking services, they were also desperate to find someone reliable and serious to take care of their dog and house... So for the past two years, I've been moving every two weeks from one place to the other with my backpack, and have not paid a cent in rent or gas, and practically nothing for food.  I haven't calculated my savings but I wouldn't be surprised if they were in the area of $10K per year.

[Stachey]

yyc-phil you are my hero!!

I've done the housesitting thing and whenever a gig was coming to an end I would always look wistfully around at the office space and think...surely there is a way.  But I've always worked in multi story office buildings with many cleaning staff and security personnel so it just wasn't possible.

It always burned my mustachian butt though that renting a room in a house shared with two other roommates ended up being comparable in size to my cubicle.

[HomeSweetLab]

Great posts so far everyone! I'm a long-time lurker but first time poster. You all have inspired me to share.

I spent 8 months (May 2015-December 2015) living in an university research lab.

Directly after finishing my master's in 2013, I took a job as a research technician at a University located in an extremely high cost of living city in the U.S. (won't say which one to protect my identity, but if you google "list of most expensive cities" it would be in the top 5). While everything was expensive there, by far the largest cost was housing. Just want a room in a cockroach-infested walk-up apartment? $800. Want a "livable" place with roommates? $1000-1200 Want to have your own studio? $1500-1800.

As a research technician in the life sciences, I wasn't exactly "rolling in it" salary-wise, but the city was beautiful, I loved my job, and I had already hardened my frugal living muscles after putting myself through college, so the income to cost of living ratio didn't affect me too much. I cooked most of my food at home, bought in bulk at Costco, enjoyed free activities like swimming and hiking, and commuted via moped (it was warm year around) which cost me $5 to fill up every two weeks. However, despite living a relatively frugal life, I wasn't able to make any headway on the $15,000 in student loans that I had to take out during my undergrad to cover what was left over after my scholarship and part-time job money ran out. $15,000 in student loans isn't too bad considering the debt that some of my other friends had taken out during school, but it was still bothering me that I couldn't put more than $100-200 a month towards paying off the debt. Enter the Home Sweet Lab project.

Early in 2015 I happened across an article about a man who lived in his office for 500 days. Intrigued, I checked out his website (http://www.theofficehobo.com/). After reading through his full journal, I started thinking "Hey, I could do this too!" The lab I was working in offered the perfect set-up. Our lab was in the medical-schools old research building. When the med school got a fancy new campus 10 years back, they started placing random professors from other departments in the building to fill the space. Still, the building was practically empty, and our lab had the entire third floor to ourselves. Inside of the lab I had my own large, enclosed office with plenty of storage space, and the bathroom on the 6th floor had a full shower.

My lease was set to expire in June of last year, so I partially moved into the lab in May as a "tester month" to see how it went. I purchased a Japanese fouton to sleep on, which I rolled up during the day and placed in the corner. For the food situation, I purchased a hot plate (the lab already had a microwave) and moved my rice cooker from my apartment into the lab. The only problem I had to work around was the cleaning staff. They would come by around 7am every weekday morning, so I had to make sure I had my "home" stashed away and was looking presentable by that time. Never really presented an issue, as I'm a morning person anyway. After the tester month, I was fully convinced that it was going to work, so I moved out of my old apartment, got a P.O. box for mail, and fully embraced the home free life.

There are plenty of tales to tell about those 8 months (too many to list in a single post) but to sum it all up, it was a fantastic experience. In total I saved about $8000 on rent+utilities during that timeframe, accomplished a lot of experimental work in a short amount of time, and I now have a great set of stories to tell in the future.

My time in the lab came to an end last December, when I moved to another lab group in Europe to pursue a PhD. I'll always fondly remember my time in the lab and the many lessons that I learned throughout the adventure. More than anything else, it showed  me the truth that material possessions do not lead to happiness (while I had very few material possessions, these were some of the happiest months of my life to date). The most important lesson on the path to a mustachian lifestyle. :)

[ketchup]

Awesome thread.  Some great stuff in here.

Closest I've gotten to "unusual" would be four people (two couples) with three dogs and five cats living in a 500 square foot one bedroom house for a year.  It cost us each all-in (including utilities/internet/etc) something like $150/month to live there.  Good times.  We had a bed in the (door-less!) bedroom for one couple and a fold-out couch in the living room for the other.

I still own that house though, and the second couple that was living with us is now living there by themselves and paying me rent four years later.

[CheapskateWife]

I rented a one bedroom apartment for myself and my youngest for 6 months in a very HCOL area.  Fortunately, the closet in the bedroom was 5 ft deep, had two doors and ran the entire width of the bedroom...plenty long enough for a twin bed plus some.  CheapskateKid lived in a well decorated closet for 6 months, and there was even room left over for my clothes.  Put up a canvas drop cloth in between the two doors to give him some privacy and me a defined storage space. 

[dilinger]

Wow! Do you have any pictures?

I have so many questions about this arrangement:

1. How did they nab the place? Who came up with the idea of the hidden bedrooms above walls??
2. Was the "normal" part of the office used as a regular office during the day? Or was it an elaborate front to the whole discreetly-living here thing?
3. How were these hidden bedrooms constructed? And without other people knowing?

You gotta give way more info!

1. It was passed along by multiple students and former students of a college.  It had been like that for years, I don't know who came up with the bedrooms.

2. Yes.  Some of the people living there at the time had either small startups (1-2 people) or research that they were doing in the space.  So during the day, there was one guy soldering a medical device, another creating batteries for sailboats, robotics, and lots of random other stuff.  Other people left during the day to head to school or to some 9-5 office job.

3. The main area looked like a workshop or warehouse.  So while the small rooms were set up like offices with hidden beds, and there was a kitchen/bathroom area, the "living room" was a few couches as well as a big open area with a concrete floor.  Multiple projects happened there, and that included woodworking, pouring concrete into forms, welding, etc.  Doing actual room construction probably would not have been noticed, considering everything else that went on there.

My wife may have pictures lying around somewhere, but it was a decade ago and we'd have to search for them.  I found some (from someone else) on flickr, though.  This is outside of the room.  On the left is the bookshelf that you climb up; if you look closely, you can see that the piece of wood on top doesn't actually connect to the rest of the bookshelf.  That's the door that swings out.  We're hanging out on a ledge that's a non-hidden storage area.

Oh, and here's another pic of the bookshelf (with a kinetic sculpture in front of it; that's not usually there).

[firefamily]

Mine isn't all that unusual, as many people rent out parts of their homes, but is Mustachian.  In 2008, my husband and I (with 3 children at the time) bought a 2800 square foot house, and had another baby 3 years later.  We definitely don't need that much space.  We decided to remodel the lower level (about 1100 square feet) at a cost of about $25000 into a nice 3 bedroom apartment, and began renting it out for about $1000/month.  Our mortgage was 1752/month, so this covered more than half of it.  The remodel cost paid for itself in 2 years, so we got a 50% return per year, and we thought we were doing really well.  After reading all of the MMM posts this year (we discovered the site last fall, the first time we had heard of a real person who retired in their 30s like we were about to do, without having some amazingly high income or huge pile of money fall in their lap), we started thinking out of the box and questioning all of our already pretty frugal expenses, and realized that we didn't even need the 1700 square feet we had for 6 people, and we have way too much junk, including lots of big, old, ugly furniture.  With this new frame of mind, when our tenants downstairs decided to move out, we decided to downsize, get rid of all the junk we already wanted to get rid of, and move downstairs and live in the 1100 square foot apartment.  We now get $1795 in rent plus $295 flat utility fee each month, and have a positive cashflow on our house while living in it for free (not counting vacancy and repairs and some of utilities--this would account for some cost still), and we're about to refinance to about $1600/month mortgage PITI.  We are also already FI even without this change and my husband has agreed to quit his job in less than a year (he wants to get his sabbatical first..).  A lot of people probably who hear of us "downsizing" into the size of place that most people would feel crowded in and figure we did it because we didn't have enough money, but we find that we love the new space even more than the larger one, even if it didn't cost less...we have simplified our lives and our stuff in many ways and feel a burden lifted from having less stuff, and don't ever want to go back to a bigger space even if cost wasn't a factor. 

[Peony]

I've had a couple of friends who regularly moved to a tent in a campground for summer months, or during the time they were waiting for a new rental house to become available. I know a college professor in NYC who sleeps in his office (but lives at least half the time in upstate NY), and I think office living is pretty common for members of congress. I've known year-round yurt-dwellers. This is an interesting thread.

[mamagoose]

I rented a room in a DC group house with 8 other young professionals. My rent was only 800/month compared to their 1200 because my room was the office/study and didn't have a closet. A small compromise to live with folded clothes on a bookshelf but totally worth it. The landlord hadn't planned on renting that room since it was his drop in crash pad, but my rent paid for his hotels when he came thru town so it worked out.

[mm1970]

Three years ago I accepted a great job in Yellowknife as the director of a small environmental agency, on a 3-year contract. I had spent decades in the Arctic but after selling our Yellowknife home in 2010, we did not feel like moving back so it was simpler for me to relocated alone. The moment I walked into my office, I realized this was going to become my ideal bachelor pad: it had a shower, a top of the line espresso machine, microwave, mini-fridge, a nice comfy couch in a loft next to the washroom, an empty and locking credenza to store my clothes and personal belongings, a walk-in crawlspace to store my bike, tools and other stuff, and lots of privacy after 5 pm and weekends. Considering the high cost of housing in this remote city ($800-$900/month for shared accommodation, $1300 minimum for a bachelor in a crappy apartment building), my natural anti-conformist tendencies, and most importantly my frugality, it was a no-brainer. So for about a year or so, I became an office hobo. Nobody except one or two close friends had any idea I lived there permanently. I got caught once, a few days after "moving in", by the cleaning lady, who barged in at 3 am, singing at the top of her lungs with headphones on...Luckily I was in the loft and retreated quickly in the washroom in my underwear before she saw me, got dressed, introduced myself and told her I was working late on an important project...needless to say, she was as surprised as I was to see such a hard working guy in the middle of the night...The next day, I told the building superintendent that we would no longer need janitorial services at our office...

About a year later, a lady who works at a remote mine site on a 2-week rotation practically begged me to house/pet sit for her. She was desperate to find someone to stay at her house (it is an insurance requirement for all homeowners here to ensure their house is not left unattended in winter for more than 24 hours), dog and 2 cats while she was at the mine. The deal included finishing whatever food I could find in the fridge and freezer, and the use of her SUV, gas included. Too good to be true, but this time it was true...

So for a while, I shared my time between my office pad and her home, but I realized the potential if I could find another similar house-sitting gig, so I put an add in a local website. It did not take long and a few weeks later, I started to house/pet-sit for a charming young couple who are both working at a remote mine on an exact opposite two-week rotation. After having experienced too many issues with expensive pet-boarding and house-checking services, they were also desperate to find someone reliable and serious to take care of their dog and house... So for the past two years, I've been moving every two weeks from one place to the other with my backpack, and have not paid a cent in rent or gas, and practically nothing for food.  I haven't calculated my savings but I wouldn't be surprised if they were in the area of $10K per year.

This is so bad ass!  The whole thing!

[mm1970]

I've had a couple of friends who regularly moved to a tent in a campground for summer months, or during the time they were waiting for a new rental house to become available. I know a college professor in NYC who sleeps in his office (but lives at least half the time in upstate NY), and I think office living is pretty common for members of congress. I've known year-round yurt-dwellers. This is an interesting thread.

I live in So Cal.  I walk on my lunch break.  I work in a mostly - industrial park area.  So there's a line of buildings and parking lots, with a little "path" on the far side of the lots.  The path has picnic tables every 20 yards or so for people to eat lunch.  On the other side of the picnic table/path is a ditch/ creek.  Mostly a ditch. 

I discovered one day while walking the length of this 0.5 mile path that at the end of the path is a basketball court, and the RR tracks, and then you can loop around to the other side of the ditch.  This side of the ditch had large open fields, and one office building kind of far off (right now they are building about 300 houses on the ditch).

One day as I was walking on the open-space part of the ditch (closest thing to quiet and nature that I can get at lunch), I looked down on a slope - and near the bottom of the ditch was a tent.  With a bicycle, and some clothing hanging on hangers from a tree.

It was there for about a week.  I'll never know if it was just someone between apartments or what.

My friends down the street lived in their garage (illegally) when they were doing a remodel.

The local park up the street has park hosts that live for free in their RVs.

[monstermonster]

This is a fabulous thread. Really enjoying following!
Here are a few weird mustachian places I've lived:

1) In a tree in a forest for a summer (was trying to prevent the forest from being logged by surveying the forest - not treesitting- but had the benefit of free rent)
2) At a hippie commune in an RV - free living expenses including rent and food in exchange for labor and had the benefit of learning how to manage a commercial kitchen which got me many jobs
3) In a small ecovillage of "geodomes" - 8' waxed cardboard domes with insulation that were great little pods - paid $75/month in rent
4) As a live-in worker at a catholic worker house - I lived in voluntary poverty and acted as a social worker for the young mothers there but got free food and rent
5) In a 10' geodome like the ones from #3 that I built myself in the backyard of a house in the city. Paid $150/month in rent for years

[mtn]

My wife and I are thinking about moving in with her parents. We're getting priced out of safe areas that give us both a reasonable commute for rentals and haven't found anything we want to buy yet. And this would help my in-laws out immensely (to the point that if they charge us rent we probably won't do it).

[JDM]

Moving from West Michigan to NE Florida. Going to live with my husband, MIL, SIL, BIL and 2 nephews. Florida has some really nice houses for rent that will fit all of us for pretty cheap. We have lived together before and enjoy it. Also, no state income tax! Yesssss.

[Eucalyptus]

My badass living story (apart from when I've been traveling and cycle touring-which involves mostly stealth camping for me) at first, I thought I would be too reluctant to share online. Because for me it was an awful period of my life. But I thought tonight, no, I'll share it as I learnt a lot from the experience.

After my undergrad, I got a job in a remote mining town in Orstralia. The position was most definitely not in mining, so I was about the lowest paid person in the entire town (the pay rate was much much lower too than what I was initially told). The town at the time had a massive housing shortage (for years), and prices for rentals were extreme. Because of my job, and some other social factors, I found it a little hard to find a room in a sharehouse, also that was still insanely expensive!

I lived in a couple of old "camps" mostly. One was an old one that was connected to mains power but in the boonies, so no one knew about it. It was major run down. Occasionally others would stay there for a few weeks. For a couple of months I had some roommates with various social issues (alcoholic) that didn't make it fun. This was the better camp, because it was close to the office (I was mostly working out in the field though) and an easy short drive in my old car to town. I didn't have much stuff-it all fit in my car. After a few months, I went away on a holiday, while I was away, it rained, and this camp was then condemned as the electrics got water in them. Damn. I went and lived after that out in the field at the field hut. Further from town, but despite the rough living conditions I did really like the place. At times I had a great fellow scientist there, a great guy. He kept me sane. However, because of where this place was, when it rained, I was stuck out there for a couple of days or more at a time. One time I went away for a few days to visit family, and came back and the roads were closed due to rain. I had no where to go. So for a few nights I had to sleep on my office floor. If it was a more normal job with more normal office hours this would have been pretty fine, but colleagues started work super early! I had to get up really early (not normally a problem for me with my job back then, but sleep ins were precious), and got caught by a colleague. Super embarrassing. Eventually the field hut was back in action and I went out there.

Looking back, you would think all this should have been fine and fun for me. I'm naturally fairly Stoic and minimalist, but until I actually discovered Stoicism a couple of years ago (and defined minimalism a few years ago around when I traveled around the world), I sure wasn't perfect at it. At the time of this job, not long after I started it, I developed serious clinical depression and there was no help out there for me with that. So I was in a world of hurt. Also, although going back now I would have totally chosen to be Badass and live that way and embraced it perfectly, at the time it was not by choice. I was living the life of an economic homeless person (I was technically very much homeless). It totally didn't help my mental health. I'm so, so, so, unbelievably thankful at the time that occasionally this friend of mine would come up to do his field work and be around. He was awesome. Also a couple of others that were there for short periods. But other than them I had zero support network, and open hostility/indifference/disrespect/contempt to my living situation by the rest of the town and some colleagues.

My life situation is different now. Its a bunch of years since then.

But I now find myself contemplating BadAss living arrangements. I can't be as badass as I could otherwise manage, as I'm a single Dad with a small child. But I think I still have some small options with the two bedroom unit I'm renting that would halve my rent and increase my savings %.

Some take home points on living badass (these are all interlinked):
a) Choice. Choice is everything. It defines the effectual difference between being "homeless" (by technical definition...in Orstralia living out of your car or in your office for example would most definitely be defined officially as homeless) and being an empowered badass. Choice over your situation empowers you, and gives you mental health protection against the potential impacts of being homeless.
b) Stoicism. I see this, massively, as a character trait on this website, and amongst badasses. Understanding and equipping yourself with Stoic mental skillsets, beyond the natural character trait, is a huge advantage (read Ryan Holiday's book: "The Obstacle is the way" as a starter).
c) Support network. Some on here mention few or no people knowing about their living situation. I think this is perfectly fine for some people, but, I caution that not all people can cope with that long term. We are social creatures. And while that doesn't mean your badass living situation needs to be able to host a 100pax house party, not being able to talk about with at least a core set of people, in open, accepting conversation about your living situation, is not a support network.  You need at least a couple of solid people that give you mega kudos for doing what you are doing. Support networks become really important when your life is struggling. MMM forum (and other badass minimalist forums, websites, facebook groups, meet and greet groups that are starting to exist in various places) is one potential great additional support network.
d) Mental health. Be super careful about badass living if you have current mental health issues that need sorting, like Depression or Anxiety (there are others). Dealing with your health, you might need more support than normal, than that which you could get in a badass living situation.

Sending out love and support and mega badass kudos to you all!

:-)

[Goldielocks]

MIL and FIL lived for 6 months out of the year, out of camps in the bush.  FIL was a geologist and MIL would go along, sometimes be the paid camp cook.  Now, These were not nice built-up camps, like for mining or oil and gas, these were temporary, seasonal shelters (tent like) to support geological exploration, far, far away from anything, limited or no running water, that sort of thing.     They did this even after my DH was born -- he spent the first 3 years of his life living in a bush camp during the "summer"...   

The largest difference, apparently, -- MIL could not carry him nor push him anywhere in stroller, so he learned to walk on his own, for long distances (for a toddler) at quite an early age.

During "winter" they would rent or stay with parents.

[Beardog]

My father was a teacher and we went on a sabbatical for a year so he could study at the University of Iowa.  Our family home was rented out during this time.  After my father's program ended, we had several summer months to fill before our house was empty, so my family camped it's way east from Iowa to Massachusetts.  Speaking from the view point of a 5th grade girl, it was great fun!  My Mom, however, didn't have as much fun as I did.

[HomeSweetLab]

a) Choice. Choice is everything. It defines the effectual difference between being "homeless" (by technical definition...in Orstralia living out of your car or in your office for example would most definitely be defined officially as homeless) and being an empowered badass. Choice over your situation empowers you, and gives you mental health protection against the potential impacts of being homeless.

Agree with all your points, but especially this one. If you're undertaking an "unusual living arrangement" on your own terms, rather than out of necessity, you can adopt a totally different mindset towards the situation. In my own scenario I was living "home free" by choice, so I looked at it as more of an adventure and a cool story that I would one day be able to tell as opposed to a prison which I couldn't escape from. I think if circumstances had forced me into the situation I would've been in a much darker place.

Glad you made it through the depression and can now reflect on the situation from a mustachian mindset. :)

[babysnowbyrd]

Great posts so far everyone! I'm a long-time lurker but first time poster. You all have inspired me to share.

I spent 8 months (May 2015-December 2015) living in an university research lab.

Early in 2015 I happened across an article about a man who lived in his office for 500 days. Intrigued, I checked out his website (http://www.theofficehobo.com/). After reading through his full journal, I started thinking "Hey, I could do this too!"

Welcome! And thanks for adding your story!

I also discovered the Office Hobo blog after discovering my potential "Home Sweet Office." It provided me with some valuable validation, though I would have done it anyway. I just would have thought I was a little more creative than I actually was. :)

There are plenty of tales to tell about those 8 months (too many to list in a single post) but to sum it all up, it was a fantastic experience. In total I saved about $8000 on rent+utilities during that timeframe, accomplished a lot of experimental work in a short amount of time, and I now have a great set of stories to tell in the future.

I think the kind of tales people are interested in are "Close calls." I had someone ask way up thread about mine and I haven't answered, so here's a couple of mine:

The space I'm renting is fairly small, and just has an interesting configuration as far as accessing it, involving entering two different doors and tiny hallway with the mechanical room entrance in it. I can hear them being opened, so I always considered the first door as my "alarm" giving me enough time to jump up and meet them at the second door if they opened it. Since it's not residential, the landlord can come in at anytime without advanced notice.

Initially, both doors locked with the same key. The landlord owns the main business and will use their employees to distribute the mail to the other offices. Some of them would open both doors to hand me the mail (or just set it inside the office) and of course that drove me nuts. I would tell them each time that they could just leave it in front of the door but it wasn't always the same person and sometimes old habits die hard. Anyway, I got permission to change the lock to the second door but still had to give them a copy of the key. It stopped the employees from coming in, so they all left the mail in front of the second door instead, but the manager and landlord could still come in if needed.

Anyway, initially I was sleeping on a thin, fold-up mattress, but my grand idea was to get some cupboards custom built. They would look like normal storage, but the bottom section would be where I slept, and top sections would be for my clothes and storage etc. My brother said he'd help build the cupboard and we eventually got the bottom half built with a false bottom that fit my mattress underneath, so when you opened the cupboard, it would look like a normal cupboard. But then you lift the bottom and there's the mattress!

For those who may have missed in the previous post, I work graveyard shifts, so I sleep in the day. It's an advantage in that I appear to be going "home" every night, so it helps mask the fact that it's actually my residence. On the other hand, when I'm the most "vulnerable" is when I'm sleeping, which is during the day, which is when it's more likely someone would enter the room if they felt the need to.

Anyway, I'm sleeping in the cupboard, (before I changed the lock on the second door) and I wake up as the first door gets opened and as the second door opens, I freeze. I'm guessing they were curious about the new business tenant and what was being built in the room since they'd seen me and my brother coming in and out with materials. One of them says "Oh, it's a cupboard!" And I start panicking. What if they're curious enough about it to come over and open it? If they do, there's nothing I can say about why I'm in the cupboard with my pillow, mattress, blankets, etc. I don't move. They say something else I didn't quite catch and left. *whew*

I got locks for the inside of the cupboard and for that second door the next day.

Eventually the cupboard idea was scratched. Though my brother is handy, a furniture maker he is not. I eventually got craigslisted furniture to put in the office. One for my computer, one for my clothes etc, and a couch. I figured a couch was fairly common for some offices, so that's what I sleep on now.

Somewhile later, I'm sleeping on the couch when the first door opens, and I hear the key in the second door. I spring up just in time to meet the manager as she's opening the door. She's definitely surprised as she didn't know I was there. She awkwardly asks if she can show the room to someone, and I awkwardly answer sure, but could I just have a few minutes to put some things (i.e. blanket and pillow still on the couch!) away. She and another person she's with say it's fine and they don't really need to see the room.

The whole thing was a bit strange. I ask the manager later if they were unhappy with my tenancy since they wanted to show the room to someone. I can tell she feels very awkward about the whole interaction and explains that she had shown the woman another room for rent in the building but it didn't suit her needs. She though she'd show her mine, and if she liked it, they would have offered me the other room. I let her know that I really liked the current place and would rather not move, even for the bigger rooms.

It definitely a close call, but a win in the end, I think. I suspected at the time, and so far it's been true, that the manager would not be coming in anymore without letting me know in advance.

The only other thing was that they installed some cameras a bit ago which weren't there when I first moved in. It made me a bit paranoid when I saw them installing them. Do they suspect me? Are they trying to catch me? Get proof?

Then I realized it would be far easier if they suspected me to just come up and ask me, Babysnowbyrd, are you living here? I did have to change my routine though. I usually came in in my work uniform and changed once I got there. I was always the first one there, so no would would notice the clothing change. However, now I change at night after leaving, so I bring a change of clothes in my bag when I leave and bring the dirtly clothes back in in the morning after my shift.

[gggggg]

Not me, but a guy that works in our building. I'm a police officer for the govt, and one of the govt buildings I patrol has a young man that works as an office assistant. He goes to school during the day, comes to the building, and works half the night at his govt intern job. He then sleeps in his office every night, to do it all over the next day. There's an unwritten rule that he isn't supposed to do that, but I've never seen anything in writing, so I leave him alone.

[Spork]

In 2006, I quit a high paying, great benefits job in the big city and bought a bit of land a few hours away.  The land had a 30x40 workshop on it.  20x30 of it got carved out into living quarters.  Wife and I spent almost 6 years living in what I called "a tool shed" out in the woods.

[HomeSweetLab]

I think the kind of tales people are interested in are "Close calls." I had someone ask way up thread about mine and I haven't answered, so here's a couple of mine:

The only other thing was that they installed some cameras a bit ago which weren't there when I first moved in. It made me a bit paranoid when I saw them installing them. Do they suspect me? Are they trying to catch me? Get proof?

I had a few close calls with the cleaning staff of the building. I'm pretty sure the woman who usually cleaned our floor was on to me, but we were on good terms so I don't think she would've said anything even if she knew.

Funny you should tell the story about security cameras. About 4 months into living at the lab, there were security cameras installed in our building right in front of the elevator on every floor. Before that, I would walk around the halls at night in my PJs (because no-one in my building stayed past 6pm except for the lab manager in our lab). After the cameras I got a bit paranoid. I stopped walking around in PJs and didn't carry food through the hallways. To make it look like I was entering the building every morning, I would walk down the back stairway, out the side door, back in through the front door, and past the security camera into the elevator haha.

Looking back, I highly doubt anyone was checking those security cameras (as I said in my original post, no one cared what happened in this old building) but those precautions gave me peace of mind.

[mm1970]

New story! There was a new person at the neighborhood potluck last night. Well, maybe she's been there before, but not a regular.

Come to find out, she's a permanent house sitter/ pet sitter.  The topic came up as we all discussed our various plumbing woes (and how we should just stay at each others' places when that happens...someone is always out of town). 

This woman used to do wedding services.  Apparently sought after.  But the industry has changed so much that many couples are having friends marry them.  So her business dried up.

Anyway, she's "in between" gigs, and is sleeping on the neighbor's massage table in the garage.

[Captain FIRE]

My wife and I are thinking about moving in with her parents. We're getting priced out of safe areas that give us both a reasonable commute for rentals and haven't found anything we want to buy yet. And this would help my in-laws out immensely (to the point that if they charge us rent we probably won't do it).

If they charge you rent, you won't move in?  Or if they charge you rent you won't buy a rental?  This doesn't quite make sense to me.

[mtn]

My wife and I are thinking about moving in with her parents. We're getting priced out of safe areas that give us both a reasonable commute for rentals and haven't found anything we want to buy yet. And this would help my in-laws out immensely (to the point that if they charge us rent we probably won't do it).

If they charge you rent, you won't move in?  Or if they charge you rent you won't buy a rental?  This doesn't quite make sense to me.

If they charge us rent more than our share of utilities, we won't move in and will find other arrangements. There are two reasons that we will be moving in:
1: to help them, as they're struggling to maintain a household (debilitating illness and a full time job for MIL, taking care of MIL and running a business that the government ripped out 70% of his income for FIL), and
2: to save money.

My MIL is not easy to be with. If they charge us more than utilities, it is not worth the added stress for my wife.

[Captain FIRE]

My wife and I are thinking about moving in with her parents. We're getting priced out of safe areas that give us both a reasonable commute for rentals and haven't found anything we want to buy yet. And this would help my in-laws out immensely (to the point that if they charge us rent we probably won't do it).

If they charge you rent, you won't move in?  Or if they charge you rent you won't buy a rental?  This doesn't quite make sense to me.

If they charge us rent more than our share of utilities, we won't move in and will find other arrangements. There are two reasons that we will be moving in:
1: to help them, as they're struggling to maintain a household (debilitating illness and a full time job for MIL, taking care of MIL and running a business that the government ripped out 70% of his income for FIL), and
2: to save money.

My MIL is not easy to be with. If they charge us more than utilities, it is not worth the added stress for my wife.

Ah, so when you mean, help them out immensely, you mean with chores and such, not financially.  I was confused why you'd only move in only if it was free, and not be willing to pay your way at all (utilities, food, and at the very least a small amount to wear and tear on the house/having extra people around).  I figure there's usually a point somewhere between no rent and market rent that it's reasonable to charge people that are moving into a relative's place (where the halfway marker is, of course varies from family to family).

[mtn]

My wife and I are thinking about moving in with her parents. We're getting priced out of safe areas that give us both a reasonable commute for rentals and haven't found anything we want to buy yet. And this would help my in-laws out immensely (to the point that if they charge us rent we probably won't do it).

If they charge you rent, you won't move in?  Or if they charge you rent you won't buy a rental?  This doesn't quite make sense to me.

If they charge us rent more than our share of utilities, we won't move in and will find other arrangements. There are two reasons that we will be moving in:
1: to help them, as they're struggling to maintain a household (debilitating illness and a full time job for MIL, taking care of MIL and running a business that the government ripped out 70% of his income for FIL), and
2: to save money.

My MIL is not easy to be with. If they charge us more than utilities, it is not worth the added stress for my wife.

Ah, so when you mean, help them out immensely, you mean with chores and such, not financially.  I was confused why you'd only move in only if it was free, and not be willing to pay your way at all (utilities, food, and at the very least a small amount to wear and tear on the house/having extra people around).  I figure there's usually a point somewhere between no rent and market rent that it's reasonable to charge people that are moving into a relative's place (where the halfway marker is, of course varies from family to family).

Yup. In most other situations I'd be willing to pay, but we're paying by way of being personal caretakers for MIL (I'll drive her in to work 10 miles each way, my wife helps her with... everything) which means that FIL doesn't have to do those things, and cleaning the house--they just can't keep up anymore.

Just need to get them to February when MIL can finally go on disability.

[Crusader]

Last I lurked before I signed up, living with parents was rather discouraged. But it is still considered unusual for a working person. I am only 24 and I do live with my parents in a HCOL area. My parents know my goals for early retirement, we get along great, and they like having me home. So me staying home is greatly encouraged. I maintain a 45%-60% savings rate since I started working after spending money on my own stuff, hobbies, or travel. I have three years of ROTH IRA and readying 2017's to get filled hopefully when the new year starts. I have a small $5k emergency fund, which at this point would only be used to buy a car if the current one I have goes down. A short term savings account for trips I might be saving and later the 2017 ROTH IRA. I make 26/hour right now no benefits and I work in DC. My coworkers actually congratulate me on living at home as the smart thing to do and are kind of jealous of me. I was surprised by this support, but I am happy to have it. Allows me to enjoy my hobby and maintain a high savings rate so I have a comfortable and fun journey to early retirement.

Point is nowadays this is still consider unusual and rather discouraged from most people I read on the internet. But real life people I meet happily encourage me and wish the same for themselves. As a huge advantage I have with this I do not squander it by having no savings and spending all I earn just to enjoy the now. I cannot say the same for my other friends.

[babysnowbyrd]

UPDATE! THEY KNOW

I think. I've occasionally stayed through the night here, even with the cameras (stupid I know). Had an office manager mention "in passing" that another office worker asked permission to "occasionally" spend the night here and they told him that wasn't ok.

So I'll make sure to make myself more scarce on weekend nights...so as not to be "spending the night." Totally doable.

Sometimes I think I should get myself into something better. I'd really like to nab one of the houses that come up around here every once in a while in the low $200k range that have a mother-in-law suite. I'd live in the suite and rent out the other like some other posters have done.

What MORE is that since I wouldn't be sleeping there at night, I could keep it nice and clean and basically rent it out WHILE I'm living there! I think it's genius and a good way to pay the mortgage. I posted my desires and financial standing in another post here on the forums and was massacred so.....that one's not quite a reality yet.

[babysnowbyrd]

I rented a one bedroom apartment for myself and my youngest for 6 months in a very HCOL area.  Fortunately, the closet in the bedroom was 5 ft deep, had two doors and ran the entire width of the bedroom...plenty long enough for a twin bed plus some.  CheapskateKid lived in a well decorated closet for 6 months, and there was even room left over for my clothes.  Put up a canvas drop cloth in between the two doors to give him some privacy and me a defined storage space.

Single moms are pretty badass anyway, but this was awesome

[Migrator Soul]

I am projected to make 60K this year after all my TDY pay and such is sorted out. I rent a room from a good friend of mine I met at work, $400 a month flat, internet and utilities are included. All I have to do is occasionally take care of the horses in her absence. Not super badass, but it really works well for me.

[Lagom]

Mostly posting to follow. Very interesting thread! The closest I've come to doing this is rooming with 3 other people in a 1BR apartment during college. But it was pretty huge for a 1BR and had an office nook that we used as a second bedroom, so the arrangement was mildly badass at best.

I was seriously close to moving into my Subaru a while back (I live in the SF Bay Area, so rents are especially insane), just before I met my wife. She is pretty mustachian, but not THAT mustachian. Still, I am more than happy with the trade-off :)

[Bracken_Joy]

Posting to follow. I don't have much to add, except that I car camped/car hobo'd for about 2 months at the end of college when I got dumped out of a sublet early due to a friend's breakup. Wasn't bad at all, since I was a student- fancy school gym with showers, I worked until 10pm most nights anyway, I had a big car (tahoe) that I could sleep normally in, and I mixed it up with surfing friend's couches and camping outside of the city for a little more safety (solo young woman). Only challenge at the time was my dog, but I had a fellow who was sweet on me, so she usually stayed there during the days.