THE “JUST PICK IT UP” STRATEGY
My family and friends of course all know that I’m living in the van. I’m doing something that seems quite unique to them, and that has it’s own little challenges or opportunities to optimize. This combination has generated some interesting “you needs” from them, and some interesting “well, I don’t exactly need” explanations from me.
When I’m talking to a family member or friend, some of them have said, in a way that’s apparent they’re now remembering something they thought of or saw before, “Oh, you need an [ACB] for [XYZ]. The things they bring up are not stupid, they often just wouldn’t be worth buying for me, or they wouldn’t be worth having given my space limitations. Some things include:
- A toilet/porta potty thing
- A grill
- Metal sticks to roast things over a fire with
- At least 5 other things I can’t remember.
I should just say, “oh, thanks. That’s so nice you thought to tell me about that, I’ll check it out”. But my INTJ way of thinking and whatever other social ineptitude I have leads me to say “well, that would be cool to have at certain times, but ……”. Often the issue is that the recommended item would only serve one function, and occupies too much space to be worth carrying just for that one purpose.
Sometimes, I’m able to use this explanation:
[quote=”C40”] Generally if I’m able to fulfill the function of a [THING] by just picking something up off the ground, I don’t need to carry around a [THING] in my van all the time. When I need to do [xxx] I could just find a [yyy] on the ground and use it”. All three of the examples above actually fit this pretty well.
- I don’t need to carry around a toilet inside my van, because all I need to poop in is a little hole in the ground, and a trowel takes up barely any space in my van (and in cities there are toilets all over the place)
- I don’t need to carry around a grill when I can just make a fire on the ground.
- I don’t need to carry a metal stick for roasting things on a fire when I could just pick up a stick off the ground and sharpen one end
[/quote]
Jacob explained this when he was on a podcast years ago, talking about a grill not being needed if you can just take the rack from inside your oven outside and put it on some rocks. Was that his interview on “The Survival Podcast”?
So, something good to keep in mind when you think about buying something (and all the effort that goes along with that – researching, going to a store, deciding, storing, etc.) is: “can I just pick something up off the ground to serve that purpose?”
THE “DO NOTHING STRATEGY”
This one is golden, especially when it comes to limiting spending on hobbies and fun stuff.
Here’s an example:
I have a bike computer that’s 8-10 years old. It’s a good one. I haven’t used it for years. I decided recently to start using it again. It’s a Garmin computer that has a mapping system, routes, ride history, etc. It has an internal rechargeable battery. So I needed to charge the battery. It uses micro USB. I didn’t have a Micro USB cord. Over the next week or so I looked while I was in stores that might have one. Nope. None. Too outdated. Ok, they’ll be really cheap online. Nope. $20.
I’m not spending $20 on an outdated $3 cord. So I just did nothing. It went on the mental (and written) list of things I want.
Fast forward a month, at my friends house. They like bicycling we went on some rides together. I brought up the micro USB cord thing. My friend said “oh, I might have some of those in the desk in our office”. We go in there, open the drawer, and there are SIX micro USB cords right on the top. Ha!
Doing nothing has saved me thousands of dollars, at least hundreds of hours of effort, and in many cases has solved my problems better than just buying something right away.
This strategy works best when you’re also able to not have crises in your life. A crisis needs to be solved immediately. Immediate solutions are often expensive and not entirely effective. The opportunity and willingness to wait, or to “do nothing” works wonders for bringing you serendipity. Other times helps you realize that you didn’t really want or need that thing so bad.
FUNNY MOMENTS WITH MY FRIEND
FREE STUFF JUST APPEARING!
My buddy who lives in San Diego is a videographer. When I got to town he said “Where are you parked? I’m coming to meet you to smoke a joint an talk business”. That business was that he wanted to make a video about me living in the van.
We were out shooting the other weekend. The first place we went was a little area of dirt overlooking a beach and sort of swamp. While he was setting up his camera and the shots, I walked around to move trash that was probably in the shots. One of those trash Items happened to be a 6 pack of tall beer cans, with four of the cans remaining in the 6 pack. Unopened. The cans and seams were undamaged so I took the 6-pack over to my friend to ask if he wants it. He did and said that it’s a fancy beer. $15 for a 6 pack.
The third location we went to was near a Library. We found a parking spot in the Library and started walking over. As we walked past the front entrance, there was a rack of books and magazines with a “free” sign on it. One book quickly stood out to me, about a subject we had been discussing with the friend’s girlfriend last night , something she seems very fascinated about. We took another book, and about 10 magazines that my friend likes reading. Score!
TRASH EPIDEMIC OF THE “RICH”
One evening we did some shooting near a beach. That’s where the pictures in this post were taken. While driving back towards my friends house, we went down a road with beachfront houses. My friend noticed some trash cans out on the street and said “oh yeah, this street is a dumpster diving goldmine”. He listed a number of nice things he’s found here left out for trash by their owners. Furniture, electronics, etc. After passing 10 or so houses, a trend was apparent. These people throw a lot away. Every house had multiple trash cans out. Some had SIX or SEVEN! I thought maybe this was just because trash pickup was infrequent. Surely, with this much trash, it must only be collected one a month. Or every other week? I asked my friend. He said “oh, the trash is picked up twice per week”. TWICE PER WEEK!
By my quick calculations, these households are throwing away somewhere between one and four THOUSAND pounds of stuff per month.
I’ve hung out with Ego a number of times since arriving in San Diego. I want to write about some of the things I’ve learned of/with him, but after writing the above I need a break. So, stay tuned folks.