Frugal living trend associated with ER

Major Tom said:
I remember Glenn, and the various articles about him. Though I do not remember many details about his life, I was impressed with the fact that he was continuing to pursue his profession, and didn't seem to be suffering much of a reduction in quality of life, due to living in a class B. He was making it work for him.

It's a shame that he deleted his archives, but I can't blame a person for not wanting a journal of their life up permanently online. A year or two ago, there was a couple with a YouTube channel, who did a great job of documenting all the restoration and maintenance work they put into their class B. There was a lot of good "how to" information in their many videos. Then, one day, they announced that they were deleting their channel, along with all the videos. They wanted to continue their life on the road without a commitment to be constantly maintaining and updating their channel, and without the responsibilities of being, in some way, public figures. I was a little upset at the time as I enjoyed the channel, but couldn't blame them. I didn't know them personally, and had no connection with them, other than watching their videos. It was an odd feeling of helplessness, knowing that I would never hear from them again. I got over it though! For the life of me, I can't even remember the name of their channel now. I hope they are having a magnificent life on the road.
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We met Glenn a few years ago and at the time he was in an old VW van that he had done extensive work on. It was impressive. We boondocked near each other once and we enjoyed hearing him playing his sax.

He does have a presence on Instagram. You can find it here https://www.instagram.com/tosimplify/?hl=en
 
Major Tom said:
Plenty of RV'ers stream videos to their hearts' content. The last time I checked, Sprint were offering 100GB/month with their MiFi device for around $65-$70/month. That's a lot of data. I don't even use that much at home! Verizon used to have true unlimited plans. I'm not sure what the latest is on their offerings.

Sure, mobile data is enough to binge seasons of shows. You just have to make sure you have the right plan
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AT&T offers an unlimited* LTE data "tablet" plan for $35/month.

The SIM can be used in a hotspot once provisioned in a tablet (easiest is just to buy the SIM already provisioned off eBay)

That's what I did...but I only use it for travel/backup.

*may be throttled after the first 22GB/month of LTE data.
 
jcgc50 said:
We met Glenn a few years ago and at the time he was in an old VW van that he had done extensive work on. It was impressive. We boondocked near each other once and we enjoyed hearing him playing his sax.

He does have a presence on Instagram. You can find it here https://www.instagram.com/tosimplify/?hl=en
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Thanks for the link to Glenn's IG account. I see pictures of what I assume are his VW camper, as well as a Mitsubishi truck that appears to be undergoing conversion into a camper/RV. I like the custom-built studio space in his VW!
 
He made his Instagram account private, and just reopened it recently. I just now see the Mitsubishi truck.

I guess Glenn always wants to work on something. He sold his nice Chinook to live in the VW, and now is upsizing again. When he sold his Chinook to downsize, many fellow RV full-timers tried to talk him out of it, saying he should keep the vehicle that had a shower and a toilet, but he had nothing of it. :)
 
explanade said:
Can you keep up on ER and other websites while RV'ing or sailing?
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Gee, I found this forum when I was already full time RVing and had no problem keeping up.

We used a cellphone modem card which plugged into a router in the motorhome. We were rarely out of cell range. Occasionally a campground would offer decent WiFi.

Major Tom said:
In the past, people who needed a regular connection to the internet used satellite services. I believe they were pricey.
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No, we never used a satellite dish for internet. We knew some who did have them on their motorhome, but we were rarely out of cell range even though we were often out in the boonies.

Our cellphone modem was not an expensive solution by standards at the time.
 
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audreyh1 said:
Gee, I found this forum when I was already full time RVing and had no problem keeping up.

We used a cellphone modem card which plugged into a router in the motorhome. We were rarely out of cell range. Occasionally a campground would offer decent WiFi.
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What's a modem? Just kidding. I used one of those during my first year away at college to call up bulletin boards. 2400 bps?
 
HNL Bill said:
What's a modem? Just kidding. I used one of those during my first year away at college to call up bulletin boards. 2400 bps?
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Of course not - it was using cellphone data, and we had a data plan which quite fast for the time and either it was unlimited or we came nowhere near the limits.

They are still called modems. Just like people have cable modems today.

We did not use internet streaming for video in our motorhome. We had a satellite dish plus off air antenna.
 
Hey, this EliteBook laptop I am using has this RJ-11 port in the back. I just saw it the other day. Did not know it was there.

Could it be a modem port? What else could it be? Yep. A glorious 56K modem!

And it has all the other advanced ports, like Gigabit Ethernet, WiFi, FireWire, SATA, Bluetooth, USB 3.0, Displayport, etc... Why the heck HP put in that obsolete modem port?

Then, I figure out that it is for sending or receiving Fax. Yes, Fax is still being used in the 21st century. Son of a gun!
 
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Still have the Hayes 300 that we used in my business...in 1986.


... And, re electronics history, carried a fax briefcase way back in the mid 1970's. Absolutely no mention of a briefcase fax .... anywhere.... but as an on-the-road district manager, I would send copies of financial documents from whatever store I was in, to the accounting department in our home office.

It was more of a solid box, than a leather case, but lift up the lid, and place the phone in the receptacle... dial the number, and pass the paper through the whirling roller.

Strange that I can find no mention of a portable fax, much less a briefcase fax.
 
NW-Bound said:
When he sold his Chinook to downsize, many fellow RV full-timers tried to talk him out of it, saying he should keep the vehicle that had a shower and a toilet, but he had nothing of it. :)
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Without writing a long essay as to my reasons, I can understand his position. I have a working Thetford toilet and a shower in the back of my van, but would be just as happy if they weren't there. In fact, I am planning on using a Luggable Loo instead of a toilet, so that I don't have to deal with dumping black tanks. I already have a rough plan for how to deal with the grey water, so that I don't have to dump those tanks either. Both the grey and black tanks have been flushed out, and I am not planning on using either of them again.

If I keep the van, I may even remove the toilet, in order to create more space. When looking at home-built conversions, I liked the ones that didn't have much in the way of permanent plumbing. Fewer pipes and wires embedded in the vehicle = fewer things to go wrong! Each to his/her own though. We all have our own preferences.
 
NW-Bound said:
Speaking of high housing costs in the San Francisco area, I just read the story of a young guy who lived full-time in a class C parked on the streets.

He was happy to move down to San Diego, where he was able to rent a parking spot on someone's driveway for $850/month. For that money he was also given water/electric/sewer hookup. He was so happy to be off the streets, where he was constantly in fear of being towed.
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I don't think I'd want a guy crapping in a box in my driveway for dough. And how do you plumb a holding tank into a home sewer? Drill down into the driveway?
 
RobbieB said:
I don't think I'd want a guy crapping in a box in my driveway for dough. And how do you plumb a holding tank into a home sewer? Drill down into the driveway?
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There should he a 4" or 6" PVC cleanout somewhere nearby. You tap into that.
 
RobbieB said:
I don't think I'd want a guy crapping in a box in my driveway for dough. And how do you plumb a holding tank into a home sewer? Drill down into the driveway?
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Easy. There is usually a sewer clean out near the garage.
 
RobbieB said:
I don't think I'd want a guy crapping in a box in my driveway for dough.
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Understandable, but at $850/month, it sounds like a good deal for the homeowner. All he/she has to do is provide some utility hook-ups, and collect the rent. Virtually all possible maintenance issues would occur in the RV and not be the responsibility of the homeowner.

If the RV owner is happy with the arrangement, then everyone is benefiting.
 
I have a friend who lives in Florida in an area with about 1/2 acre single family homes. Her neighbor just paved a large area on his lot and put 3 RV's on that area. It looks like he is intending to rent them out. The neighbors are not happy, as they didn't plan to live next to a rental RV park. Traffic, transient residents, density issues.
 
Cities usually have an ordinance against that. Most often, there's no city ordinance against keeping motorhomes or RVs on your lot. However, they must be unoccupied.

I have read of people with a tiny home who were invited to park in the backyard of a friend's home. They were served with papers to move. And this was a small town in Colorado.
 
YakGrl said:
I have a friend who lives in Florida in an area with about 1/2 acre single family homes. Her neighbor just paved a large area on his lot and put 3 RV's on that area. It looks like he is intending to rent them out. The neighbors are not happy, as they didn't plan to live next to a rental RV park. Traffic, transient residents, density issues.
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Would this possibly be a code/zoning violation?
 
Yes, neighbors are contacting code authorities. It could take some time.
 
The guy in the youtube video in Sonoma County has figured out how to expand living space on a rental property in a low cost way without violating building codes. It doesn't work for people who want to have a backyard rental apartment, but for just some extra space for personal use like a She Shed, game room or backyard office he has some good ideas:

 
YakGrl said:
I have a friend who lives in Florida in an area with about 1/2 acre single family homes. Her neighbor just paved a large area on his lot and put 3 RV's on that area. It looks like he is intending to rent them out. The neighbors are not happy, as they didn't plan to live next to a rental RV park. Traffic, transient residents, density issues.
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There are a decent number of negative comments about HOA type communities, but I know this situation would not even be a thought process in my Florida HOA community.:cool:
 
NW-Bound said:
Speaking of high housing costs in the San Francisco area, I just read the story of a young guy who lived full-time in a class C parked on the streets.

He was happy to move down to San Diego, where he was able to rent a parking spot on someone's driveway for $850/month. For that money he was also given water/electric/sewer hookup. He was so happy to be off the streets, where he was constantly in fear of being towed.
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The lady I hired to take my j*b has a son that did sound school in SF. He had purchased an old school bus. The full year he went to school it was parked in various places in the city. Had numerous warnings. Worked out well
 
Bir48die said:
The lady I hired to take my j*b has a son that did sound school in SF. He had purchased an old school bus. The full year he went to school it was parked in various places in the city. Had numerous warnings. Worked out well
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Well, where we live isn’t always ideal, but we don’t get much of this nonsense here. Too cold in the winter and too hot in the summer!
 
NW-Bound said:
I have read of people with a tiny home who were invited to park in the backyard of a friend's home. They were served with papers to move. And this was a small town in Colorado.
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That's good. Single home lots are single home lots for a reason. Tiny home people shouldn't be given an exemption.
 
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