How do you deal with being broke? - eviltoast

I’m in my 30s so I should be used to this by now, but this shit is getting so stressful guys. I have no savings, my checking account is drained every month with rent, and if there’s ever a serious emergency I have no safety net, I’m legitimately fucked. I’m one unplanned expense away from absolute ruin. Those in the same boat as me, how do you deal with this?

  • Sir_Kevin@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    1 year ago

    I realized that paying rent was like throwing money into a bottomless pit. Obviously buying a house was out of the question so I bought a used RV and moved into that. I added solar panels and all the VanLife type stuff and now my biggest expense is for the storage unit I put all my stuff in. No more rent, no power, water or most other bills. StarLink is expensive but with all the other expenses eliminated it’s not bad at all.

    • theshatterstone54@feddit.uk
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      1 year ago

      But what about an address? No address, no bank account. No bank account, no job. Or can you get paid another way in the US?

      • BCsven@lemmy.ca
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        1 year ago

        Most places you can request general delivery to a local post office, or rent a PO box

          • BCsven@lemmy.ca
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            1 year ago

            General Delivery is a term for when you don’t have a street adress here in Canada, so you still get your mail from somewhere (I’m not talking Amazon “Delivery”.) So when my friend moved to a new province and was living out of a van he contacts a local office and sets up General Delivery, his address was Dude c/o Post Office Address General Delivery. They hold it till you pick up your mail. You give this to the bank or anyone that needs a mailing address. We also have rural communities with PO Boxes at a main PO, and you can rent one. A PO box is all i had as a youth and opened government and bank accounts with it. UK must have something similar no?

      • Sir_Kevin@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        1 year ago

        There are services for that. I have an address that can scan/forward mail. Packages are also accepted. I use this address for everything.

    • callouscomic@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      A storage unit is rent. RVs require maintenance and resources similar to a house.

        • mayonaise_met@feddit.nl
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          1 year ago

          Also you can do maintenance the dirty way because you’re probably going to write off the RV/trailer over time, while with a house you want to do it the proper way in order to be able to sell it.

      • Sir_Kevin@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        1 year ago

        Both true, but storage rent is far cheaper. As for maintenance, I’m far more handy than the average joe so YMMV.

      • Sir_Kevin@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        1 year ago

        My RV holds 40 gallons and has a shower. But yeah, many people do a gym membership for showers. Planet Fitness is like 20 bucks a month.