Low-income telecommuter looking for a location with the following characteristics. r/frugal knows what is up, please point me in the right direction.

rubymiggins · 1 year

Your best bet is to find a caretaker sort of situation. IOW, somewhere you can live rent free. Hotel... apartment building. You'll have to investigate. Another option might be to get into the house-sitting business for wealthy people who move around seasonally.

Trunkbutt · 1 year

Too bad you prefer somewhere in the States - I lived quite the comfy life for a while in Costa Rica making about that much.

jaggederest · 1 year

You can basically live on a resort for that in Thailand, if you don't mind moving.

The hard part is getting the money to get over there - once you're there, $300 a month is 3-5 times what the locals make.

smacksaw · 1 year

Belize...not just Costa Rica. But in Belize they speak English.

Anyway, is this $300 after rent or you have to pay rent and food ON this $300?

I have two places in the US, one in upstate NY and the other in WA. You could BUY a house around...Rouses Point (where I have a house), Malone...somewhere along the border and pay about $100/mo mortgage and maybe another $100 in property taxes. Then find roommates and you'll make money. To rent it costs a few hundred, so that's about what you could make if you had separate entrances. Sadly you'll pay more in property and school taxes than your mortgage. But because the economy is down, old people live and die here and unemployment is high, housing is just dirt cheap. Around Buffalo and Ohio you can find similar prices, but it's more dangerous and crowded. It's MELLOW in the North Country/Northern tier.

The other place (which is my official US address) is Point Roberts, WA. It's the world's largest gated community. Meaning you must cross a border to enter or exit. Due to some spat with the Canadians we ended up getting this tiny peninsula that's 5 square miles. You can't go in or out unless by boat or crossing the border. If you have any sort of criminal record you're inadmissible to Canada, so you can't get out. Thus, no one locks their doors or anything. It's pretty much crime free.

Another cool thing is that everyone there is either a Canadian with vacation home or someone like you. What few businesses there are need people. So if you want to pick up an easy $10/hr, work at the USA Gas or something. Also, gas prices are in litres there, which is always funny...

My roommate was a presales engineer for HP before he got Carly Fiorina'd. He just kinda downscaled his life and does odd jobs now. No biggie. You can ride a bike anywhere, ride a horse. No one fucking cares. People are always looking to make an extra buck to keep the dream alive, so you can find a roommate situation. Or you can rent something in the woods and find a roommate yourself. My friend is trying to build a shelter, live totally off the grid and await the upcoming world apocalypse...hahahaha. But there's a saying about Point Roberts: "We're all here because we're not all there"

Vancouver isn't cheap at all, but if you cruise up to the city you have everything you want. And because you're American you live around houses that are $600k-$1m in Tsawwassen that are in a great neighbourhood. You don't really need to drive unless it's raining and you can't get all wet. You can just bike up to the border and shop in Tsawwassen or shop on the Point. You can also catch the 6xx bus into town and stick your bike on front.

zjunk · 1 year

I see Thailand here - another Asian option would be teaching English in South Korea. I did it for a few years - good wage, fully paid airfare and apartment, and light working hours (25-30/week). Lot of folks I knew paid down their student debt substantially or completely within a year. Fairly enjoyable place to live as well. Checkout eslcafe.com for job postings.

rufius · 1 year

Texas is actually great for housing costs. You can easily rent for $300/$400 a month by yourself which means if you get a roommate, then you're set to pay half that. Texas doesn't have the housing bubble that most states have because they already went through their boom/bust in the 80's with the oil industry. Very little variation in the market for Texas. Texas was one of the least hit by the recession due to this fact.

specialkake · 1 year

$300 a month? Mexico?

casperrosewater · 1 year

Four corners was always my dream but I could never pull the trigger because the only jobs are service/hospitality or extraction (mining or oil).

St. George would be the place to go. It is the only city (as opposed to town) and has the least Mormon influence (many transplants). Winter days are 65 degrees all winter long.

The other thing about St. George is, not only do you get the red rock canyons, you get the Mojave Desert to the west and the Great Basin mountain range (and an airport one hour away in Vegas) to the south, all within driving range. That, to me, is heaven.

Otherwise Salt Lake. You can be in the red rock of the San Raphael Swell within a two hour drive. You'll wear out many a hiking boot and sets of tires exploring the Swell alone. Plus Salt Lake is surrounded by mountains. You can be at 8000' in twenty minutes and travel on either mountains or the Colorado Plateau clear through to Colorado. Vernal, the northern tip of the plateau is only 3 hours. From Salt Lake you can even take a train close to Moab (the Thompson Flats stop is very close).

Good luck.

uglyredbag · 1 year

Detroit, Michigan.

Phokus · 1 year

I'm curios as to what you do that would net you minimum wage either that, or you're working part time...

qxcvr · 1 year

Whew, thats a tough one. I would have trouble eating off that kind of money. Im guessing you are talking about camping? I could not imagine actually renting something to live in for that and still eat. Get a good reliable japanese car or truck and a canvas wall tent. They can be reasonably warm and are highly waterproof. some can even take a small wood stove for cooking and heat.
My advice would be to keep your eyes peeled in any high desert, but also in the southern Appalachian mountains. Lots of people basically squat the camp sights for months on end in wall tents in the Pisgah National Forest. One could do this pretty much year around because it never really gets cold except in late winter for a few months. Also, I heard a place on the coast of south western Oregon called Brookings has warm though wet weather year around. You probably could camp in the mountains there for ever. There are a lot of mountains.

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