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How to live on $432 a month in America

(shagbark.substack.com)
526 points cactusplant7374 | 2 comments | 23 May 25 16:40 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source
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Taikonerd ◴[23 May 25 18:42 UTC] No.44075328[source]▶
> any American could live an earlier iteration of the American Dream — and could be living so cheaply, they’ve got their expatriate buddies down in Mexico beat.

Their expatriate buddies down in Mexico probably aren't shivering through an upstate New York winter with nothing but a wood-burning stove for warmth, the way this guy proposes.

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Goronmon ◴[23 May 25 18:49 UTC] No.44075408[source]▶
Yeah, leaving the "heat" part of the list just blank is pretty telling as far as how much thought went into this.
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ruste ◴[23 May 25 18:54 UTC] No.44075439[source]▶
I've been following this guy for a while on X. He does live this way. This isn't a hypothetical. He lives on his writing and has plenty of free time to chop all the wood he'd ever need.
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1. Goronmon ◴[23 May 25 19:00 UTC] No.44075515[source]▶
That's not what the article says.

Considering that the property has a well on-site, water is free, and as far as heat goes, well, one could either pay a little extra in electric for that — or they could have the Amish deliver their scrap wood from their sawmills to burn in a wood stove, very cheaply.

Maybe "a little bit of electricity" or "very cheap scrap wood" appear to be the vague plans for how to handle heat.

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2. sgerenser ◴[24 May 25 11:08 UTC] No.44080284[source]▶
Apparently electricity is 4c/KWh there, so it really is only a “little bit extra” even if you’re heating with resistance heat (at least for a 600sf house).