COMMUTING FROM “CHEAP”RENT
For the last few weeks I’ve beat my head against the wall, trying to discover a magical solution that somehow has eluded me so far. How can you escape the city while still working full time? It used to be easy. You simply commuted. That was back when oil was nearly free. Now, I’m not saying that oil at $130 is necessarily an outrageous price. Considering inflation and the fact it’s a non-renewable resource shipped from half way across the globe and protected by a very expensive military. But it is a price we are hard pressed to pay, taking into account decades of stagnating wages and purchasing power. The price might still be a bargain, but our declining economy can’t afford it. Car ownership will one day be the exclusive domain of the wealthy, as it was a hundred years ago.
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My family situation is no longer as strong of a glue holding me here in the city. My father most likely is moving up north soon. And the wife is really becoming fed up with her daughters antics. So moving is now less of an emotional issue as it once was. So of course, at the same time gas prices shoot up. Commuting makes living in the country much more expensive than it used to be. Cheap suburban or rural living is becoming much less cheap. I could move to my land, rent free. But the cost of that “free” is the necessity to start driving. Even assuming no mechanical expenses, gas alone is two gallons a day. Since we can safely assume $5 a gallon gasoline, I call it $200 to live cheap. Then you need to add in the increased cost of rural living such as expensive phone service and Internet access. At least an added $80 a month. While living in town I spend $395 for rent, phone and Internet. I’m barely spending over a hundred bucks more to stay in a trailer park compared to living in the wild without a sewer or electric lines. Yes, I want to live like that, to escape all the BS. It is merely hard to justify living rural while working full time in town.
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I could move a lot closer to town. Buy a lot a few miles from town, bike to work. If I lose my job I can give up the lot and move 20 miles away to the lot I already own free and clear. $125 payments. Drive in one day a week to stock up on water, dump sewage, wash clothes. $20 in gas a month. Add in the $80 for the increased phone and Internet cost. $225 sure beats $395. And it is better than the above $280 since it removes a lot of commuting and all of the mechanical problems. But I am still only saving $150. The cost of that is moving from family, biking five miles instead of my current one mile, and living primitive. Again, I want to live primitive. Just not while working in town full time, and not when it saves so little money.
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Financially, it makes little sense to commute anymore ( I understand my rent in town is cheap compared to most peoples, but this is all about me, okay? ). Getting out of town is mainly for peace of mind and future security. Not savings.
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8 comments:
Around my parts you will need a lot more than two gallons to commute to and from cheap land. Consider your self lucky and stay put. I am hoping to retire before I have to head out the cheap land.
Good point at looking at the economic side of it. Commuting costs are going to hit people who moved 30+ miles from work to get out of town harder and harder as prices continue to rise.
Just another way of pointing out how critical transportation is to our entire economy, nationally and world-wide. Also, how hard it is to live without the work-a-day world. Is "survivalism" a fantasy? A sort of wishful thinking? or are we all in this together for the long haul whether we like it or not? Working together as a world to solve our very real problems may be the only solution if there is any solution at all.
Man I am gettin a real bad feeling. Gonna start spending my time in the cellar
In Rawles's book (Rawles Pontificates on Retreats and Relocation), he talks about the option of living IN a small town instead of having a rural farmstead. In a Post-Peak Oil world, that prolly makes more sense. If you pick a small town where everyone is on septic system, and where there are drilled wells--and preferably on a river--you could do just fine.
There are some small towns in Nevada that you could find work in, yet would be semi-self sufficient when the stuff hits the fan. The trick is finding one far enough off of the major freeways to avoid what Rawles calls the Golden Horde.
My two bit analysis: Tonopah is almost too big, Silver City is too close to Reno and Cartoon City, and road junction hamlets like Stagecoach are too small. Somewhere, you can find one that is JUST RIGHT, with some kinda job waiting for you.
Maybe Farmington, in the 4 corners region, has possibilities for a bug-in place. Has a good river (San Juan) and plenty far enough from major populations. Decent climate as well.
the real answer to your problem is -tada-
quit your job, move to your paid for land and with your increased time live off the income from your expanded web sites. simple aint it?
I've just bought a scooter to reduce the cost of my 21-mile each way commute, trading an extra hour a day for the MUCH reduced petrol costs. Realistically I expect a 8-9 month payback for cost of scooter, helmet, etc. versus fuel savings. I haven't yet factored in the potential savings for "low annual miles" on my auto insurance.
To tell the truth, 21 miles one way is about the limit for a 49cc machine, especially with a quarter of the route through hilly terrain, at leaast for fat, fifties office guy. YMMV
Never rode a scooter or MC before; this was driven by the economics of how to cope with rising fuel prices and maintain my little place in the country while working F-T. Hoping to transition to less town work and more garden-work.
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