Hey HEDGIE

I have a small "sport-ish" car. I slept in the back 3 seats, not in the drivers seat (reclined) in a sleeping bag.

I used my clothes (in bags) as a way of extending the area I slept on my making it roughly the same height as the seats so it was actually a decent size (plus it was easy to change ). Keep your dirty stuff in the trunk.

Try to keep some water on hand. It's nice for washing up, because you'll tend to be a bit sweaty (cars get stuffy while you sleep in 'em). Obviously still brush your teeth and stuff. I would also go to Taco Bell or whatever to shave and wash up.

Pools tend to have free showers, and libraries tend to have free internet and electricity, so doing this while a college student is best 'cause you can use both those resources.

Yeah, I plan on living on college. Thanks! Rent is so goddamn expensive, and I really don't think I'll mind it for maybe a year. My campus has great facilites, so it should suffice. The back seat of my car folds down, so I'm considering putting it down and fitting my mattress in there. I did it for one night before, but the problem is that I can't roll over while sleeping, haha.

Cheap vans cost money, and I already have a car.

What'd you do for food, btw? Just eat out, or is there good food that doesn't need refrigeration? I'm thinking I can probably keep some fruits around maybe.

I kept my passenger as my "cargo" for food. Things tend to spoil VERY quickly in a car, because of the heat and direct sunlight, so you pretty much have to get food every other day. You also have to be careful about messy foods since you only have a limited supply of water (I used a beach-tub thing for water).

Fruits are good, bananas and stuff.

Bread is good. Crackers, Peanut Butter with bread.

Some cheese you can keep out, like string cheese.

I ate a lot of raw pepperoni. It lasts decently long without refridgeration but usually you just buy it and take it home and eat it that night.

I did eat out a fair amount, however.

It's hard to avoid: you can't really prepare anything because of size and water constraints, and you also might not have the tools or anyway to preserve foodstuff for long (and you have to clean the tools you do use after you're done). So you can have cold ramen or cold this or cold that but you can't really cook it. You might be able to find some sort of 9V tool that plugs into your cigarette lighter or find some sort of solar-oven or something crazy like that to help. My hobo-ness was unplanned and of an unknown duration so...

You could try to get powered milk with cereal? That might work out okay.

But I mostly restricted myself to packaged items (Gronla breakfast bars are great!), non-perishable items that you can eat with your hands. They mostly fell into a "snack" role, but I don't eat very much (1 meal + 1 "snack meal" is enough for me a day and sometimes if I go out to eat, I split my meal in half and just eat the second half that night). If you eat a full 3 meals a day, it will be more difficult for you.

its not that hard to cut down  on eating all you need to do is of course be at school usualy in high school i never ate lunch if im busy or out in a job i dont eat i just eat whats needed to be healthy and you dont really need a large meal to be healthy or 3 of them either also why not go to one of those nice large camping stores i know you usa people have and get some cooking tools it would be easy enough to just buy a small oven type thing now a days they can be really really really small if you look for it and quite affordable also if you really want to be an economical hobo you just need to find some large container that you can strap to the top of your car and when ever it rains you got water just buy some filters purhaps drill some holes in the roof so the water can trickle in and down into some filters itll work great seiresly hedgie get with the times if your creative enough you can turn your car into a relitivly nice and affordable littler mobile home all itll be missing is a place to shower and possably internet but you could drive up to some where that has internet and a laptop might pick up the wireless connection and you just need toilet paper and find some trees to be concealed in or a gas station which ever you prefer

At first I was like

But then, I cried.

Haha, don't worry Split. It's just temporary until I can find some work. I'm treating it as an adventure.

I suppose a good attitude will help you get through it lol.  It sounds like a rough way to spend the summer 

Hey epi - hope everything works out for you and hopefully Hedgie's tips help you out.  Is this is situation where you can't get financial aid or don't want to? 

That's what I thought too! "Adventure"! 

I'm on out-of-state tuition here in VA, and I'm already on student loans. I don't want to take out another freaking 10k just for living costs. It should be ok as soon as I lock down some sort of job.

I'm in VA too. What school do you go to?

Gotcha.  I've got a buddy who's not exactly the best with money.  Going to school, just had his first kid, living on student loans... in short, things won't be all that pretty when he has to start paying on those student loans, so saving 10k is good - just be safe. 

I'm in Fairfax here at George Mason. It's a really neat area. I've been to D.C. multiple time and have had a great time touring the place.

Pacov, yeah I'm a bachelor with very low living standards. I couldn't imagine having a family and just living off of loans. That's nuts. I'm trying to get in-state tuition but I hear Virginia is sort of stingy with that sort of thing, so not holding my breath...

Huh, don't you get paid for going to school?

I thought all grad students did.

Not these days. The economy has tanked school funding.

At least you can go to school.

I got banned from a campus and they wont send me my transcript and the only school that'll have me around here won't let me register without it, lol.

@T

Thats your legal info, they can't hold that; sue them.

Well if you live in Toronto I'd lend you a hand - but too bad you don't live close to the coolest person in the world.

Epi, if you ever need a place to get away for a long weekend let me know, im up in Philly so it's not that far lol.Be careful leaving your car running, if you are make sure it is in a well ventilated area AND there's a breeze.  I would recommend having your exhaust system thoroughly looked at by a professional.  I've also used my engine to warm up food in the past...

Also, be careful with heaters. 

Teseer, we need to know more about that story, please share!

Also, i think Epi is pulling our leg a bit.

the following is more what grad school is really like:

http://www.phdcomics.com/comics.php?f=1286

Thanks everybody for the concern.   I appreciate it! I'm trying to get a job with the FDIC, so we'll see how that goes.

Synn, do you live in VA too? I'm afraid my car isn't big enough for 2 peeps.

Well, I was away at college and in about the middle of the semester my friend and I were bored.

We decided it'd be a great idea to get really high and watch The Fast and the Furious. We were already pretty baked, but we wanted to the movie to be...very entertaining.

We went into our bathroom (Handicap rooms FTW!) and sparked up a yointy yoint. I turned on the water and blocked the vent up top so the smell wouldnt spread. Well, seeing as I was already high, I turned it on hot instead of cold. The steam helps the smell travel. 

With the bathroom hotboxed, we relaxed for a little then went to watch the movie. 

All of a sudden one of my friends pops his head in and says "Cops are here, flush your shit!"

I just got a bunch and I was like...."But!" but wanted to make sure I didnt get fucked over.

So I flushed it all and the cops show up at my door. Apparently the whole dorm smelled the shit.

They went into the bathroom and found "Marijuana Residue" in the toilet. They figured I flushed it all, but I mean...it was pretty obvious. So rather then getting me in true "your fucked" trouble, they just booted me from the school. 

I was lucky as HELL! Them assuming I flushed it all made them not search my room. They would of found....a LOT of stuff that woulda gotten me in a HUGE amount of unhappyness.