I'm honestly curious about this since, even as a student, I'm living on more than that per day. Could you tell me more?

Start with these to get the idea: http://abuckaplate.blogspot.com http://tinyhouseblog.com/ http://mypatriotsupply.com

Shop at the Dollar Store, Goodwill, Aldi, etc. Look for foreclosed, abandoned, and other dirt cheap real estate; search Zillow.com for sub-$1000 properties (not a typo). Plant a garden. Move. No excuses.

And if you eat cheap shit food your medical costs are going to soar within a few years, wiping out any gains you would get.

You can eat very healthily on the cheap. Lots of different beans and grains, particularly rice.

Meat is very expensive so generally people eating frugally avoid it nearly entirely, but depending on where you live it may be cheap and practical to raise some chickens if you really feel you need it.

I didn't say "eat cheap shit food". I said "plant a garden". Not sure how you read one from the other.

I've found a while ago an article - "eating healthily for $3 a day" (googe it). I found it to be a very interesting read (and an inspiring business idea, BTW). If you start there, you'll get $7/day left for other needs.

OK - I am your student

I live in the bay area, Married, have 2 kids and work in SF.

Show me how to live on $10/day.

Consider me your student.

Unless your comment of "showing me how to live on $10/day" is really titled "show a homeless 15 year-old with no job, family or financial obligations how to subsist on $10/day"

If you really can show me how to live on less than the cost it is for me to get to work ($7.10, BTW) then i will accept you as my teacher. (I already ride my bike EVERYWHERE - literally - I do not personally drive at all)

If not, then fuck you you smug ass - it costs to live.

> If not, then fuck you you smug ass - it costs to live.

Wow. Now why was that necessary?

Poster makes a valid point – $10 daily will buy you an existence that looks positively palatial to some, and near a pauper to others. You will be living well, relative to any number of other humans, but lacking the things you want.

For example, you probably stop living in the Bay Area.

What? Your argument is to not live in the bay area? OK - Ill move to [WHERE EXACTLY?] to live on a palatial compound for $10/day.

N has adopted the reality distortion field, apparently only idiots live here now.

Why would I live in the bay area? how stupid of me...

*Danilocampos, you're quire renowned here on HN, I find your post to be the lamest thing you have ever said.

The replies to my comments have been the lamest I have ever heard.

"relative to any other humans" -- seriusly - that is your argument? Sorry - that is not only naive, but also fucking pompous.

I CHALLENGE you to live off $10/day. Show me how removed I am. YOU CANT!

Get the fark off your idiocy! living on $10/day is NOT going to happen to ANYONE on HN.

Jesus!

You do realize that the bay area's cost of living is astronomical, right? He's not slagging on the area or anything...

Regardless, if you actually have an interest in low cost living, hit up Joey Hess. He, in this country, pays something around $4-5 a day in rent/utilities. Using the remaining money frugally for food and other needs is fairly trivial.

source: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4154371

Chill out dude.

If you want to live in the bay area, you have to work for it. If you want to live on $10 a day, the point is you dont want to work for it. You can't have both.

Living on $10 a day can be done. Go build an earthship in Taos.

> *Danilocampos, you're quire renowned here on HN, I find your post to be the lamest thing you have ever said.

Gosh, are you sure? I've said tons of lame things – not sure this even nudges the needle.

>If not, then fuck you you smug ass - it costs to live.

Wow, HN has dropped this low?

Here were I live the standard household income is around $600 USD a Month. A family of 4 can (parents and two children) can live with that.

Good for you, my rent is more than that and I don't live in an expensive place.

Sure you do! So do I! You and I probably live in the most expensive 1% of places on the planet. We live incredible lives - our existences are better on average than anything any king had 150 years ago. We have whatever food we want at whatever time in the year we want it. We have phenomenal connectivity and mobility and, if we need to be on the other side of the planet in 48 hours time, that's doable.

Of course, I want more. The guy next door has a Range Rover and a Porsche. But I know there are literally billions of people who cannot imagine the luxury in which I live.

The gargantuan difference between kings of old and us today, the critical difference that these comparisons always miss, is that whatever lifestyle you choose, you have to work roughly the same number of hours to maintain it.

If you are a programmer, you can't just decide to work 10 hours a week for $25k and live a $25k lifestyle. If you want to earn $25k, you'll probably still have to work full time to do it. Regardless of the comforts we enjoy, we are still slaves to the workweek (there's not enough contract work for every programmer or designer to go freelance), and that is why it's right to complain.

We may have more "things" per person than Arthur himself, yet we lack the freedom and status of being royalty.

By definition you do live in an expensive place. If your rent alone can sustain most households on the planet, your rent is expensive.

Where would that be?

Step one, grasshopper: MOVE.

If you refuse to leave, then we cannot get on to the next lesson of choosing cheap, even free, real estate.

But, like the koan of the full cup...

Where do you suggest moving to? Out of the US or somewhere within it?

Stay in the USA. Easy to find affordable real estate no matter your budget.

Too many naysayers don't realize how ridiculous their local cost of living is, and how a simple move can cut that by orders of magnitude.

The key is being willing to move. Once you are, options abound. Get busy on http://zillow.com and search regions and price ranges; to get in the mindset, start by searching whole states for properties under $1000 (not a typo).

Bad attitude aside...

I've noticed (at least grokking it more than usual) of late "it costs to live" is a very popular, and deeply misguided, and financially devastating, frame of mind. Yes, of course, on its face the statement is true ... but it belies an existence which is completely ruled by our advertising-driven culture, in an ultimately self-destructive (in a "keep the host alive as long as possible" way) manner. The mindset places spending as the top priority; doesn't matter what the income is, what orders-of-magnitude-cheaper alternatives there are, or the long-term financial consequences, so long as swiping plastic gets results then spend we shall because "it costs to live."

Thus we have a nation saddled with $54K debt per person, and intelligent productive people getting obscenely abusive about the suggestion that living in one of the most expensive places in the world probably isn't a good idea.

Right now in arm's reach on my desk I have a can with enough seeds in it to plant an acre. Being non-hybrid/GM seeds, the $40 cost amortizes to $1/year to feed a family of four for the rest of my life. Yes, it "costs to live" - but you're loading the phrase with far more baggage than necessary.