I really doubt that a couple can live "quite comfortably" in the U.S. on $10,000 or $14,000 for that matter unless they have a very different outlook on spending than that of most people. And people with a suburban lifestyle in a house the size of an ordinary suburban house with its' cooling and heating needs, property taxes, etc. would find it very difficult indeed. Especially if they have standard American tastes for meat, consumer goods, entertainment and snack foods.
In this nomadic lifestyle, it is ridiculously easy. We know any number of people living on $1,000 a month or less, and "quite comfortably". Opportunities abound for free places to park and ways to live on very little. For example, it is the end of the first week in May. We just arrived in southern CA at the moment, and are paying rent in a park in order to be close to my husband's mother for a couple of months for visiting. That is the first cent we have spent for housing this year. We have either been parked out in the desert on public lands, volunteering at two different national wildlife refuges which supplied parking spot, (as well as propane, laundry and a small stipend, etc.), or in a friend's driveway where we were helping with several projects. Many years we have gone the whole year without paying a cent in site rent. And with producing our own power with solar photovoltaic panels, obviously no electrical bills as well. And obviously no property taxes, etc.
We eat quite low on the food chain. Our diet is based on rice, beans, lentils, grains, etc., with the ADDITION of fruits and vegetables. We often seek out local sources of veggies, etc. in season, and even raise a bit of our own, such as container gardens of lettuce, etc. that grow quickly. We have a nice herb garden in pots that travels around with us in the back of our little pickup, so always have fresh oregano, parsley, mint, rosemary, thyme, basil and until it came a cropper on a cold night this winter, a stevia plant. We also sprout our own alfalfa sprouts in a jar in the sink, as well as other kinds of sprouts occasionally.
For an example....let's look at yesterday. For breakfast, we had homemade whole wheat bread with butter and honey, and some yogurt. Many mornings we may have oatmeal or something similar.
For lunch, we had mixed greens with tabboleh (tabboleh is bulghur wheat, soaked, with lemon juice, chopped parsley (from the herb garden), an onion and chopped tomato and crushed garlic. We each ate half of an orange. We also had a couple of whole wheat Ak Mak crackers.
Last night for dinner, it was really hot. I made chicken salad and we had that over greens, with some roasted zucchini, carrots and onion, and more homemade whole wheat bread.
Even when we eat meat, it is seldom the way the standard American family would eat meat, in hunks. For example, say we buy chicken. We buy a whole, organic roasting chicken from Trader Joe's. Pretty pricey, you say? Well, yes, but we will make five or six meals from that chicken, and over a period of several weeks. And it might be the only meat we buy that month.
We'll roast it, and each have some as roast chicken, usually some of the dark meat. The rest of the dark meat is set aside, the chunks of meat removed from the carcass, and the two breast hunks, we usually wrap and put in the freezer, cooked, for later days. We seldom eat meat more than a day or so per week, of any kind. We kind of chop up the carcass and simmer it for awhile, strain the broth and pick out and save any meat that remains and add to the broth. This becomes a pot of chicken soup with the addition of a few veggies and herbs, and maybe some noodles or rice, enough for several meals of soup at least. Now, remember we still have two nice big fat chicken breasts, which will be the basis of maybe two or even three more meals. Chicken salad, stir fries with the addition of some chicken, casseroles, enchiladas, tacos, etc.
Yesterday, here is how I made the chicken salad. One frozen, cooked chicken breast defrosted. An onion, chopped, some chopped celery, a chopped up apple, some herbs and spices, a little mayo and seasoned rice vinegar, and voila, the chicken had almost doubled in amount. Each of us had a helping last night on greens, and there is still enough from that one breast for us to have on a nice piece of homemade whole wheat bread for lunch.
Tonight we'll be having black beans from dried beans cooked in the sun oven and rice and some roasted asparagus which is now in season and inexpensive.
Yes, fruits and veggies are expensive, but they are not the basis of a vegetarian diet. Grains, beans, legumes and rice are, with veggies and fruits serving the same position as they would in a meat based diet, as side dishes. We usually buy our whole wheat flour, brown rice, beans and oats in bulk at a natural food store or co-op, and can have a supply of twenty pounds or so of brown rice and twenty pounds of beans for maybe twenty bucks or less, each. That's a lot of meal basis and good protein for the price of a steak or two that would be eaten up in one meal.
Vegetable sources of protein such as grains, beans, legumes and rice are far, far less expensive than meat sources of protein. It takes nearly 20 pounds of vegetable protein to produce one pound of beef, for example, when raised in our usual feedlot fattening system in this country. Unless beef is raised on grass, utilizing food unable to be utilized by humans, it is an expensive food environmentally, indeed. And pretty much not good for our health in the amounts eaten in the standard diet in this country.
The cheapest way to get calories in this country is with junk food, which is why many of our poorer citizens are obese. But a vegetarian, or mostly vegetarian diet is nearly as cheap and offers excellent nutrition for low cost.
We keep records of everything we spend, and have done so for the fifteen years we have lived nomadically. Even buying mostly organic food, in the past year, we spent less than $300 per month on food, and we make our decisions based far more on nutrition, taste and quality than on price. If we were going just for price, I am sure we could get it down below $200 per month, but there is no point to do that because we want quality. We don't want lots of saturated fat, processed foods, additives and junk. We don't buy soft drinks, although we have been known to spring for the occasional bottle of "Two Buck Chuck" wine at Trader Joe's.
It helps that we LIKE eating this way. For someone who is a meat and potatoes person, it wouldn't be. But we feel happier, healthier and more satisfied on this lower on the food chain diet. And we are in excellent health with sound teeth and have lots of energy and wellbeing. When we are forced by circumstance or family necessity to eat the standard American diet, it's AWFUL to us. We had to go out last Sunday with my sweetie's mother who wanted to go to IHop. The eggs were good, but the bacon tasted dead, the hash browns were premade and loaded with salt, and the pancakes managed to be both rubbery and dry, with the artificial syrup leaving a ghastly chemical aftertaste in our mouths. We LONGED to have had a simple vegetarian breakfast of good homemade food made from scratch instead. It's just an extra, added bonus that that breakfast would also have been much cheaper.
I'm going into all this detail because I can realize by your comments that some of you have little understanding of this way of living. I've learned a tremendous amount from many of you on the financial threads, finally understanding what our broker has been trying to tell us about withdrawal rates and the fact that since we don't even spend all our interest and dividends, we really can and should loosen up a bit. Realizing that, thanks to you guys, led us to plan this two month trip to Europe this fall. We have stuff to learn from each other.
LooseChickens
P.S. added as Ha posted while I was writing this. We do eat some nuts, but not a lot. Grains, such as corn, rice, oats., etc. are excellent sources of protein in and of themselves, but need to be complemented by such things as beans, nuts, eggs or dairy, or soy products such as tofu or soymilk for them to be complete in the essential amino acids that our body needs to assimilate protein effectively. There are, I think 22 amino acids. Our bodies can synthesize all but eight. The reason you mix grains and beans is because grains are low in a few of those eight while beans are high in those, so between them, they make a complete protein. It's why most peasant cuisines are artful combinations of vegetable proteins. They might not have understood the science, but they knew what worked and kept people healthy.
