Greetings

[Autotroph]

Hi all,
I grew up in Detroit and am now in SoCal finishing up graduate school in physics. My great-grandparents were homesteaders, and my family is of modest means. As such, I have spent my entire life 'frugal', although I didn't know it. A few years ago I attended a lecture by Ed Thorp on investing that was the impetus to *finally* do something with all of the money I had saved from being so frugal. And so I kind of discovered what so many before me have, the combination of frugal, eco-conscious life, coupled with 'capitalism'. That was about two years ago, when I started reading into YMOYL/FIRE after re-discovering it myself. Earlier this year someone introduced me to ERE and to me it was the final piece.
During undergrad I spent about six years living in Detroit with a group of friends. I think I was spending about $200/month; my rent and utilities was about $125, and at the time I was working as a dishwasher at a restaurant so virtually all of my food was free. Admittedly the numbers sound fake, but we had something like 8 people in a 5-bedroom house; two were living in the basement and one in the attic. And it wasn't exactly the nicest place, and it certainly was not up to code`... I didn't have a car, and was able to cut a lot of other expenses (e.g. no insurance, young healthy and brazen, 'stealing' interenet from neighbors, etc.). At the time we were all broke college students who wouldn't turn on the heat in the winter, opting instead for small space-heaters. Although I don't have to live like that anymore, I prefer to, although I'm not 100% certain why. I think I've always been interested in seeing how 'low' I can get in my COL and still be happy, in case I ever had to for real. After all, I grew up on tales from my grandparents about the depression, when they were resoling shoes with rubber from tires...yeah.
Surprisingly, ifixit has a tutorial on how to do this, and it doesn't seem as crazy as I previously thought. Amazing this is still done! I've also heard of some extreme practices where Ford employees would split a room where one would get it 12hrs, the other would get it the other 12. Basically, they were working so much at the factory (and they had differing shifts, of course), that they just need a place to sleep really. NPR did a piece on it. Anyways, glad to be here and look forward to interacting with you all.

[Chris]

Although I don't have to live like that anymore, I prefer to, although I'm not 100% certain why. I think I've always been interested in seeing how 'low' I can get in my COL and still be happy, in case I ever had to for real.

Totally. It's like golf: what's the lowest score I can get? I might not hit it every time, but I know what I'm capable of. A nice net worth can bring a feeling of security, but not as much as the skill of living cheap. You can't lose that skill in the stock market; you only lose it by not exercising it.

Living "low" also makes it easy to be thrilled. In your case, moving from an unheated house in Detroit to any one-star hotel would be luxury! The HoJo gets you heat AND a pool AND unlimited waffles in the morning? What splendor! People inhabiting higher levels of spending need to seek out a Grand Hyatt to feel luxury. I feel sorry for those people, because luxury evades them.

[unemployable]

Welcome.

I think I've always been interested in seeing how 'low' I can get in my COL and still be happy, in case I ever had to for real.

I've wondered this myself out loud here!