The Blog
Are You Car Camping by Choice or Out of Circumstances?
Not everyone chooses this life, that much is painfully obvious to many of us car dwelling brothers and sisters out there. There are those of us like myself that yearn for the freedom that accompanies living out of your vehicle, especially as you travel around from place to place and see more of the world as you do so. If your financial situation allows for you live a nomadic car camping life, then that’s a truly divine way of life.
But if you’re unlucky enough to be forced into this situation because of circumstances that are out of your control, there are ways to cope with car living to make it an overall good experience; more good than bad at least is what we aim for. Many people are simply not built for living out of their car and it’ll be much harder on them than people who can handle this extremely simple lifestyle that is also restrictive in many ways.
I see some people over on the Urbancarliving subreddit who glamorize the car dwelling life and talk about everything related to it as if it’s the best thing in the world. In addition to that, I’ve seen some car campers try to minimize the struggles of those who are living out of their car for reasons not in their control. Just because you can live just fine off beans and oats doesn’t mean that someone else takes enjoyment in living the same way.
It totally is a great old time for some of us, but to the eyes and ears of the situational car dweller this can come off as privileged and a bit disrespectful. To risk coming off as a snowflake, that’s really as far as I’d go into that matter.
I started car dwelling because the situation of living out of my car was miles better than my other situation. I wasn’t going to be able to pay rent for the next month, and I was an alcoholic whose place had become a cockroach petting zoo because of the mess. I eventually discovered the idea of car camping, and knowing that I needed to make a massive change at this point in my life, just went with it. This may be similar to some of your situations, even.
I want to point out these two different backgrounds of car dwellers and it’s something that is interesting to be aware of. It is also interesting to think about the possible reasons that one might choose this life purposefully when they could otherwise afford to live in a place with a roof over their heads.
What Are The Main Benefits to Living in Your Car
The most obvious and common reason that a person may choose to live out of their car is to save money on rent or mortgage payments. With many one bedroom apartments costing you $2,000 or more to rent nowadays, the idea of saying screw that and roughing it for a while in your car can sound mighty appealing. Instead of slaving away at work all day and forking over half of your paycheck every month to someone simply to keep a roof over your head, it might actually be a good idea to move into your car. This was one of the main reasons that I started this journey, because being able to pocket that money instead of living paycheck to paycheck was much needed for my situation. It’s also a good way to save up for a down payment on an actual house that you one day want to buy. At that point, you could say goodbye to Walmart parking lots and hello to fresh linens.
Make sure that if you go into this with the main goal of saving money on rent, know that there are still a few expenses that come with dwelling in your car; it’s not free of its own challenges and financial hurdles. I’m not going to go in detail about all of the expenses of car dwelling because it could be a whole post in and of itself, which I’ll probably write up in the next couple days.
Additionally, it’s easy to fall into the trap of blowing all of your money on food because it’s a lot more difficult to cook and prepare food while doing this. You may stop for fast food a couple times a day or buy pre-made sandwiches at the grocery store etc., and the end of the month arrives and you spent $650 on food! You don’t have to eat like that, there are ways to eat cheaply! At that point, why are you even trying to save money on housing?
If you keep the spending down, then it’s pretty easy to save money and live in your car for under $1,000 a month. That includes food, insurance, cell phone bill, gas, and miscellaneous purchases. Of course, some people have their own situational bills such as heavy credit card debt, child support, medical bills, etc., but not having to pay rent and utilities is a huge load off your shoulders.
Another reason that we choose the car dwelling life is the freedom that comes with it. I’m sure almost everyone has dreamed of what it would be like to be a vagabond at some point? Travelling around to wherever the wind takes you, without caring much about the mundane happenings of the world. This is similar to the feeling that you can get when you move out of your stereotypical apartment and get into the mindset of someone who car camps.
By the way, you don’t have to think of yourself as a lowly dirty car dweller. Car camping is a legitimate hobby and passion that many people have, so just think of yourself as someone who loves to camp out of your portable tent, which just happens to be your vehicle. There are a lot of downsides that also come with this “freedom” that I’ll get into further down in this post.
I’d say that another great benefit that comes with living out of your car is the minimalist lifestyle that one is basically forced to adopt while doing so. You have to discard many of your old possessions and large objects before moving into your car for obvious reasons. Unless you’re living out of a school bus, you probably won’t be able to take your entertainment center and refrigerator with you on this journey. And let’s face it, we don’t truly need ninety percent of the things that we keep in our houses anyway so it’s not all that bad.
You could take to Craigslist and eBay to sell many of your extra possessions in the weeks leading up to your departure if you have no place to store them. Extra money into your emergency fund will save you so much stress later on and you’ll absolutely thank yourself for it. I say that this is a benefit because there’s a lot of charm to only keeping around the things that are actually of importance to you. It’s a huge burden off of our brains when things are kept simple and easy to navigate.
I wouldn’t recommend letting your car situation turn into a car hoarding situation, I have no idea how some people can live like that with things just stuffed into their dashboard and the floors covered with junk. I’ve been there and done that in an apartment and never again will I live like I don’t care.
The Disadvantages to Living in Your Car
What are some of the things that suck about living in your car? There’s quite a few of them, so while it may be worth it for some of us to choose this lifestyle, it is not without it’s headaches.
The uncertainty of a secure place to sleep is a big one that many of us worry about even as veteran car dwellers. As time goes on, you figure out the best spots where you’re less likely to be disturbed but unless you’re parked on private property that you have permission to be on, you always run the risk of being told to leave or getting a visit from the cops. It’s hit or miss with the cops, some of them will look at you like a piece of gum underneath the table and some will sympathize with your situation and politely have you leave while maybe even giving you some pointers along the way. Either way, you want to avoid law enforcement at all costs as someone without a permanent address.
When you take up this life of car camping, whether by choice or other circumstances, you run into the issue of living in a cramped space. This is really a given, and the small space doesn’t bother some people, myself included. I don’t need much space at all, as long as I can lean back and read a book or watch videos on my phone then all is good.
It definitely helps to drive to places where you can stretch your legs during the day like parks and the gym. You might be surprised at how many people who do this stuff spend almost all of their free time all cooped up in their car. If you take that route, you can expect to take a hit to your mental health after a while. It helps to get out there into the world and live a little, whether your down on your luck or not.
We don’t have easy access to a bathroom to have a comfortable poop or to freshen ourselves up as easily as it usually is. The bathroom situation of course differs depending on whether you’re male or female, but it’s definitely an annoying task for all of us who car camp. What I do about having to pee as a man is to simply go in a bottle if I’m not near a convenient bathroom. I personally don’t find it disgusting to pee in a bottle as many others do; I then dispose of the pee later that day or even the next day in a suitable place.
Pooping is more challenging but I prefer to use a public bathroom but if that’s not possible I have myself a bucket situation with a disposable bag attached to the inside of it. Females can do similar things but peeing is a bit more difficult, they actually make a funnel and tube situation for this called a Peewee, which is what my girlfriend uses.
This life is more dangerous than if you had the safety of a normal home around you. You might find that bad things are more prone to happening to you when you aren’t surrounded by the four protective walls of a fixed residence. It is definitely a much higher risk to your safety if you end up living out of your car. There are piece of crap human beings who like to break into cars or cause trouble for you if they find out that you live inside of your car.
For the most part, car dwelling relatively safe, especially if we’re comparing it to living on the actual streets. Even your vehicle can offer a good amount of protection behind your walls and windows, and most people are not messing around with other people’s cars.
Still, one has to take measures to become as stealthy as possible when car camping and not leave valuable items (or any items at all) visible to the outside public. Just stay as low key as possible and much less trouble will come to find you. I’ve had multiple unpleasant and annoying interactions when chilling in a parking lot with my window down because of the heat and not wanting to waste gas.
People sometimes take my window down as a premium invitation to come and speak to me about whatever the heck it is that they want, whether it’s money or wanting to get in and get a ride to somewhere. Yeah, don’t let a random stranger into your home right off the street.
Some say that it’s harder to stay clean and hygienic while being a car liver but I personally haven’t had that be the case. If you get yourself a Planet Fitness membership for fifteen bucks then you can get shower access and bathroom access. There is a planet fitness in most medium sized to large city. And well, if you don’t have a Planet Fitness or another affordable gym membership in your area, then I do imagine that cleanliness would be more of an issue. But it’s really not hard to stop by the gym every other day and clean yourself up real good, and if you actually use the equipment as well then that’s even better.
It helps to not worry about what others think of you but many of us receive negative judgements from other fellow human beings by living out of your car. Being a car dweller can hurt your reputation in your workplace relationships, familial relationships, and even friendships. One should really not place any importance of how other people view you and rather focus on the things that matter, but for many of us that is easier said than done. I’m just pointing out that there are some closed minded people out there who may look down upon you for it.
Conclusion
With all that being said, my point here is to try to help spread the word that not every one does this out of some grand desire to free ourselves from the shackles of society and live a free life. I find it a bit strange to see so many people glorifying the act of living out of your car. It can be an easy-going years long adventure of relaxation for some rare people but for you average Joe, it sucks.
What are your thoughts on people’s different reasons for being a car dweller, do you think it’s worth mentioning? Do people’s reasons even matter? To be honest, I don’t think that it matters all that much. But it definitely does do to make yourself aware of the different pushes and pulls of the car dwelling life. The more you know before going into it willingly, or because this harsh society has pushed you down, the better.
Where to Park Overnight When Sleeping in Your Car
This was one of my biggest concerns before embarking on my fantastical and luxurious journey where I’d be sleeping in the back of my Hyundai Accent. What sort of five star accommodations would I be able to park in without any wierdos fondling my car, my home? My main worry while living out of my car, and rightfully so, is the cops. Let’s be honest, they seem to make most situations worse. Unless I need to call upon them because someone just robbed me at gunpoint, I prefer to leave them out of it; always. It’s technically against the law to park and sleep inside your car in some locations so that is a little worrisome. Common sense tells you that it’s unlikely to be arrested for camping out in your car. I mean, you could just make up a story about how you were driving somewhere and pulled over for a few hours to get some rest because you were about sleep behind the wheel.
Either way, it’s in your best interests to not attract the attention of law enforcement or to stand out in any way. As a person who lives inside of your car, you will be looked down upon by a nice chunk of law enforcement; you’re only on small level above the homeless in their eyes. These words are just from my experience so far, I’m not trying to bash on the police just for the sake of it. Then there’s some car dwellers who couldn’t care less about stealth and nestle themselves into the center of a Walmart parking lot with 3 tarps and 5 random things sticking out of their windows.
The point is, we want a good place to sleep at night so that we can feel as safe and secure as possible. Especially if you’re a woman, you’ll probably want to feel as secure as we can be under the circumstances. No matter what, there will be some risk involved, urban car living is entirely 10 times less safe than being inside four walls and under a roof. I’ve tried out many different varieties of spots and some are definitely better than others.
The spot that I prefer the most is the kind that is outside of town. Drive far enough to where you leave the town and then find somewhere to park where there are very little people. I’m honestly not sure why more people don’t do this, could be because their situation doesn’t really allow for them to do that. For example, you head out of town using the main road and then there is a gravel road that turns off of it heading into the woods. And even after you’re on that road, see if there’s another small road that turns off of that. This is the ideal spot for me because I’d rather there not be people in the first place. And even if there are a couple people who see my car, the chances are hopefully low they’ll stop. This sleeping spot is also less likely to deal with law enforcement, compared to a parking lot. The only downside that I experienced while sleeping out in the boonies was that sometimes you have to drive ten miles to reach your spot, which is an extra couple bucks in gas money; worth it for peace of mind in my opinion. Another example of this spot could be a gravel turn-off of the highway, not like a major freeway where you might get flattened by a semi in your sleep, but one in the middle of nowhere. Hopefully you understand what I mean.
The second best place to car camp in my experience are rest areas; especially ones with two sides. By two sides, I mean a rest stop for each direction of the freeway. That way you can swap rest areas every night without having to travel far; and help yourself remain unnoticed for longer periods of time. You will be recognized after a certain number of times staying at rest stops, but that is usually not a problem as long as you stay respectful and don’t leave trash everywhere. I’ve never been kicked out of a rest area or even talked to funny. I’ve stayed at the same rest area for two nights in a row but never three. At this point, I’ve probably stayed at fifty different rest stops and they’re great because of the vending machines, sense of security, and bathrooms. I’m sure I could have stayed for a week at one of them if needed. It probably helps that I don’t just stay there all day and I only come back during nighttime when it’s time to sleep. Rest areas are perfect for me because I’m always traveling, being a nomadic car camper and all. If you aren’t near any rest areas along the freeway or don’t travel then this spot might not work for you.
My next spot would be large parking lots. It is much preferred if the business is open 24/7 and has a medium amount of cars parked there overnight. If there’s too many, you will have people parking next to you and leaving repeatedly which makes you more likely to be noticed. If there’s too little people, you stick out too much and someone might check on you. Not all parking lots are created equal when it comes to urban car living. I’ve never had any trouble at the dozen or so Walmart parking lots that I’ve slept in but you might get unlucky and come into contact with a “Karen” manager. A lot of car campers recommend staying overnight at Planet Fitness parking lots because they’re open all night and are kind of our safe-haven as people who live out of their car. Funnily enough, the only time that I’ve ever received the “dreaded knock” on this adventure was when I was trying to sleep at a Planet Fitness! The cop wasn’t bad, he told me that I “can’t be doing this here and have to go to the Walmart across the street”; so I went over there and had a deep sleep. Other good options for parking lots to sleep in include: Cracker Barrel, truck stops, McDonald’s, the movie theater, grocery stores, hospitals, and churches.
The last place that I recommend for sleeping in your car overnight is BLM land. BLM land consists of about 1/8th of the entire country’s land mass. You can legally stay on any BLM managed land for something like two weeks. It’s usually located pretty far-off the beaten path but if you can find a good BLM site near you then you can stay there without any worries of waking up to a Macy’s manager angrily peeking through your window shades. You can checkout a map for help locating some BLM land on their website.
Your greatest asset in this lifestyle is your common sense, if you have some of that, you shouldn’t have much to worry about. I can guarantee you that small annoying things will happen to you here and there, but you can make it so that you can keep anything major from happening to you. It’s not hard to stay out of jail if you are always cautious and don’t push your luck. Hopefully you find a stealthy parking spot for the night and get all cozy underneath the covers with some Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone playing on your tablet. Stay rich out there fellow dwellers, peace.
-cross
Ways to Make Money While Living in Your Car
There are people who live out of their car by choice and those who are forced to endure the suffering that comes along with living in such a cramped and unreliable housing situation. Sometimes, you never know where you’ll end up parking your car and sleeping that night. We like to rotate spots and not stay at the same spot for extended periods of time to not attract much outside attention.
For the people who live in their car and already have jobs, some of you have remote jobs and some of you have jobs with a physical location. Those who have to show their pretty mug every day and clock into work are most likely not going to be nomadic car campers. You wouldn’t be able to roam the continent if you’re tied down by a job that requires you to be there in person. Luckily, some of us have remote jobs that allow us to travel around in our home (car). This article is more for those types of jobs, and for people who do not currently have a job at all. And let’s be honest, many of us would much rather not be tied down by your typical bootlicking job.
Living out of your car can be much cheaper than living like a ‘normal’ person who lives in an apartment or a house. That being said, it is very wise to still have some form of income while living this lifestyle. If not, you’ll be on the street pretty quickly. Some of us need more money than other to sustain ourselves. Personally, I don’t need much at all and can comfortably live on $10 a day maximum. This is not including the occasional car repair and emergency expense, which will inevitably happen. That’s why it is smart to go into this while already having a little nest egg of at least a couple thousand.
I’ve been making money from non traditional income sources, mostly online, for the last thirteen years or so. This is the way that I prefer to work, and enjoy making my money online and from multiple different income sources. I’ll be giving you a list a of options for you to create yourself an income while living in your car. Some of them might be unrealistic or unsuitable for your situation, circumstances, or skillset, but hopefully this can help you make some money in some form.
Create an Online Store
This is a viable option for you to make money while you’re living in your car and it has very high growth and scaling potential. There are multiple different ways that you can go about this. I would not recommend going all-in and focusing only on this, and dumping all of your money into it at the beginning. Start this up while you already have some source of money coming in and only focus on it fully once it starts to bear fruit.
The first thing you might want to figure out is what you’re going to be selling. It helps to choose something that you can get excited about, something you enjoy, something you would use yourself, and something that already works. It sounds nice and all to invent something brand new, but this is much more risky and you will probably fail many times before you can come up with something that will actually pop off. Once you’ve decided on your product, you could test it a bit to find out if there’s any demand for it. After that, you will want to ask questions like “are you going to hold the inventory yourself?”, “where will you store the products?”, “should you purchase a storage unit, or maybe use an Amazon warehouse with Amazon FBA?”.
You’ll want to figure out which platform/s you want to use to sell your products. It’s better to try multiple different selling platforms at the same time. You could make your own website and brand name to go along with this business venture. You can sell your items on Amazon, E-bay, Facebook Marketplace, Craigslist, a personal website, TikTok shop, etc. If you want my E-book with more in depth instructions on how to get started with creating a private label product and making your first sale, join my mailing and you’ll automatically receive an email with a free copy of it.
Different Survey Sites and Research Sites
You might read the headline of this section and roll your eyes and have the urge to keep scrolling, but hear me out. You might be surprised at how much you can make with paid survey and research websites. Sure, you will not be making a doctor’s salary or even a middle class wage, but you can definitely clear over $10,000 a year with this if you put in a little effort. You can use survey sites to make over $1,000 a month without an insane amount of effort, believe it or not. That’s because there are a few research sites that currently pay pretty dang well for your opinion.
I’ll list the best ones out there for you:
Prolific. Prolific is hands down the best website to make money online for simply giving your opinion. I have made $800 a month on Prolific alone while working only about 20 hours a week. That’s just a few hours a day and wasn’t even doing surveys the whole time, I was switching between my League of Legends (a video game) and other tasks.
Mturk. This is a close second to Prolific in earnings potential in my experience. If I’m making $500 a month on Prolific then I’m usually making around $300 with Mturk.
Inbox Dollars and Survey Junkie Mobile Apps. I put these together because they’re both on mobile and they’re the only mobile survey apps that I think are worth it. They are quite good, actually, not on Prolific level but you should use them to add more money to your overall earnings. You could sit back and make $20 a day on them with just an hour or two of work if you want.
Online Freelancing
This is quite a broad thing to say but basically you would learn a useful skill or trade and put that to use online. Or, you can do something that you’re already skilled at. The options for this are endless; there is article writing, product reviewing, web development, graphic design, stock trading mentor, and so many more.
Once you are able to provide something of value to other people, you will go out there and market yourself. You can look to gain clients for your freelancing work on places like Upwork and Fiverr (the two best places to start in my opinion). The earning’s potential is very high for this type of work, but it all depends on you and what you’re able to provide and how well you sell yourself.
Gig Work Such as Instacart and Grubhub
I do a lot of Instacart along with all of these other things. It’s a reliable income source that isn’t going anywhere any time soon for me. If I need an extra $50, I’ll simply open the Instacart app. and complete two or three batches. If I Instacart for a solid eight hours, I’ll make about $120. If I go absolutely hard from sunrise to store closing times, I can reach $220 days.
Gig work could be a perfect fit for you if you have a reliable car, if your car sucks then it might be better to not risk it. Your car is your home in this situation, and if it’s nearing the end of its life then you might not want to strain it with this type of work. Not to mention how much it’s going to cost you when random parts inevitably start going bad. If your situation calls for it though, you can make enough money doing this to stack those Benjamins. I can bring in $4,000 monthly without too much stress using Instacart.
Social Media Influencer
It’s a bit more difficult to make this one work than the others, but it’s definitely a viable option if you have the patience and the dedication to remain consistent. You might think that you have to gain an insane amount of followers and become famous to make any sort of decent money with social media, but you really just have to grind consistently and pull in relatively humble amount of views in your niche.
For example, if you are able to acquire a couple hundred thousand views per month on Youtube then you will have something like $200. You just have to get monetized first, which to do that you need 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 watch hours in the past year. Youtube is the social media platform that I recommend you start on, make an account right now. The sooner you get started the better. You can make a bunch of shorts per day if you want to gain subscribers more quickly.
Other than Youtube, you can create a following on TikTok or Instagram. TikTok pays out per views, and pretty handsomely at that. You just have to have an idea. There should be something you can do that people want to watch, you just have to figure it out. Good luck!
Conclusion
These are just the most efficient income streams that I can think of for you to give a chance while you’re living out of your car. All of this is under the assumption that you don’t already have a job and you’re in need of income. Don’t forget to check out the E-book I mentioned at up there! Always shoot me an email if you have any questions about anything. Stay warm (or cold) out there fellow car dwelling brothers and sisters.
Best Car Living Essentials For People Who Live Out of Their Car
Car camper, car living, car liver, car dweller, whatever the heck you want to call yourself, we all have one thing in common; the desire to live with some semblance of comfort. If that’s not you, then well, you’re probably that Florida man on the urbancarliving subreddit who slept on the beach all summer in 200 degree heat and called it heaven. There are quite a few car living essentials that you won’t even know you need until you get out there.
If you’re in a situation where you’re living out of your car, you are most likely buying only what you need and not what you want. There are exceptions to this of course, some people save copious amounts of money from living this lifestyle and choose to splurge. I can’t blame them, they’re saving $2,000 in rent or mortgage payments so they probably have quite a bit extra to play with.
If you can now afford Chik-fil-a and Red Lobster where you couldn’t before, treat yourself to a couple crab claws and fried chicken sammiches. I try to keep my daily food spent under $7 every day as I’m all about saving as much money as possible. Anyways, I’m getting greatly off topic here. As you will soon be able to notice, I can talk about car living all day long.
What is Our Mission
I decided to build a website around car living essentials and my own personal car living experience. So it’s a store where you can find everything that you might need all in one place and my blog where you can find car living tips mainly, and some of my stories. I don’t expect people to care about either of these things, it’s just what I desire to do.
I know that I’ve asked around on the urbancarliving subreddit in the past about what items I’m going to need out there the most. Having them categorized and all in one spot for the eye to see is hopefully helpful to some people. The main goal here is to provide car living essentials at the lowest price on the market, and categorically group everything into one location so we can improve our quality of life.
About the Car Living Essentials Store
Products you’ll find populating the store are simply urban car living essentials that I know are necessary and other car dwellers know are necessary. What I mean by necessary is “extremely helpful”. The items will come in handy for you immensely while you’re out there car living.
Every product in the store is something that I’ve needed on my car living journey, OR something someone else in this life recommended or uses. All store additions will be sourced from the urbancarliving subreddit. For example, homeless car-liver Billy replied to a Reddit thread where someone is whining about the cold weather and recommended his favorite bunny rabbit parka, we do our best to get the very same parka, if not, something very similar.
A Little About the Owner
I’ll keep it short because I’m not particularly exciting or anything. I too, live out of my car just like so many other people are doing in this day and age. I never realized how many other people were living in their car until I got out there. I made this decision on my own and wasn’t forced to. That might not be all the way true though, since I left because of how behind on rent I was becoming. I might’ve scraped by, but anyways, that doesn’t matter. I was also leaving behind a disgusting six year long past in that apartment. A six year long period of heavy alcohol abuse, uncleanliness, laziness, depression, and negative emotion. It was absolutely essential to leave, no matter how much I wanted to change, I doubt I would’ve been able to do much while still living in that hell hole.
Now I work on the road in the coziness of my car while getting to travel anywhere I want. The best part about nomadic car camping has been the freedom to be able to “pack up” one morning and try out a new location. I’ve been moving from place to place so often that in the five months I’ve been at this I’ve driven over 10,000 miles. If you’re wondering about my work, just think Ebay. I’m an introvert, so I rarely get the urge to find people to chat with, so that’s another reason why I can be so content with just myself and my car. I could spend a month watching Youtube alone if I wanted to. Someone like me doesn’t have too many car living essentials, I just need to say cool and stay private. Other people need quite a bit more, though. I said I’d keep it short, woops.
End Goal
Another purpose of my creating urbancarliving is to improve my website creation and management skills in order to add another thing to my resume. I would absolutely love to be able to create WordPress websites for people and get paid for it. It’s been a blast setting up this website, and I know there’s a ton of improvements needed, so in the end I want this website to be something impressive.
I don’t think there’s anything out there that covers this, car living essentials. It could be nice to have everything you need for car living in one space. And if we don’t yet have what you’re looking for, bookmark us and come back at a later date because we’ll eventually have everything.
