Submitted by alqm in AskRaddle (edited )

I am seriously considering taking that step, but I need some ideas. I don't know anyone. I just have grandma, but she will only let me live with her if I continue having a job. It's not a stressful job (computer graphics and stuff) for a capitalist. But I am not. I am really really sad. I feel stupid for doing the same shit over and over again, like a rat in a cage.

EDIT: removed "(assuming no kids, no friends, nothing to lose)". I meant to assume these conditions prior to actually running away, not after you're away. You have a job, you have grandma/mom/anyone's house but no friends, no kids, nothing to leave behind.

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zombie_berkman wrote

I did this a couple years ago. I blew through my most of my savings in 2 months then got a job as a line cook when the job I thought I was getting fell through. I wouldn't recommend doing this. I more or less spent all the money I saved up paying bills

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zorblax wrote

I'd turn my truck into a dirtbagmobile and live in there.

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alqm OP wrote

I thought about saving to buy some sort of large vehicle that I can turn into a house, like a trailer. And always keep mobile, using whatever I can find and getting help from the people along the way. It even sounds fun, but I have absolutely no idea of how it would be in reality. I'd like to know from someone who did this.

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zorblax wrote (edited )

several peeps over at lainchan have either been voluntarily homeless or vandwelled before. The thread is long gone but the biggest things I remember were: proper ventilation is important, and it's very important for social, police, etc. reasons that you don't look homeless. That means wear nice-ish clothes, wash you and them regularly, and always park somewhere out of the way.

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Pop wrote (edited )

That sounds brutal

I might buy one of those portable massage tables and massage people for money, and depending on where I was, maybe sex work related to massage

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Ant wrote

I'd try to find out what kind of illegal stuff radicals are getting away with in my area and see if any of it is time effective

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DissidentRage wrote

I would eat a rich fuck in his mansion and squat there.

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anyan25 wrote

I'd most likely enroll in a multi month work exchange program, or live out of my car, travel, and work odd jobs if possible

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FemIncel wrote

Get another job probably. Not enough money to start a business. Start fixing people's bikes/cars on the side in order to eat. Then I'd freeze to death because it'll soon be winter where I am.

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Ant wrote (edited )

I don't know much about it, but I'd think about doing farm/handy work in exchange for room and board somewhere
Generally I feel like I'd like to learn to do these things and it'd be a huge break from the sort of thing I do now

There are websites about it, like HelpX
Haven't checked it out myself though

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boringskip wrote

I think the No Friends rule is unrealistic. If you become a street punk, you make friends.

I'd get food stamps and GR ($200 month) and get a PO Box and gym membership for showers and stuff. Bonus points for 24hr fitness.

You can find decent places to sleep, get a hiking pack, a floor mat for sleeping, a cheap sleeping bag if you're in a warm area. A lot of places allow tents now.

Maybe do this in an area with more radical presence. Meet people and get hooked up.

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MarkedDays wrote

I quit my job late last year and have been doing odd jobs while attending school to become and EMT and ultimately a paramedic. My end goal is to save up enough money to buy a few solar panels, an electric motorcycle, establish a permaculture environment on my folk's land (which they're kindly allowing me to live with them on) and I plan on selling organic, sustainably-grown vegetables. I'm already in the process of creating raised beds and hugelkultur methods, so expect the self-sustainability aspect to come about within the next year or two. All I eat are vegetables, so why not grow my own fully-nutritious food and abandon the destructive methods used by mass food operations? Synthetic fertilizers utilize fossil fuels like natural gas to add the chemicals used by plants for growth, this will end at some point in the future, so it's best to plan for it.

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Shittles wrote

Damn kids, get off my corner.

Don't worry about quitting your job, it'll get around to quitting you in good time.

Keep feeling stupid. Especially when you're driving to the bank with that paycheck.

You don't "make friends" out here on the streets (where I have been surviving for 5 years). You just meet fellow travelers who are just as desperate and miserable as you. Some few of them may become friends. Some others may steal anything of yours they can grab, and some few of those may be willing to cut you deep and wide to do it. Do you really feel up to guessing which are which, on the fly? From what I'm reading here most of you wouldn't last a month. A lot of us have some kind of shitty little job, temp work or junk gathering or grunt labor, or just sucking cocks. The luckiest of us (I'm one) have a vehicle to sleep in, and it's not as fun as you think when everything that comprises what is left of your life depends on the health of a motor vehicle.

I'm starting my 4th straight winter in the northeast US living in a car alone in a city packed full of people just as desperate as I am.. If you have a roof over your head and think our lives are something you want to make a "choice" to emulate, you're an idiot.

Enjoy that roof and warm bed and hot shower while you can hold on to it; many of you reading this will someday find yourself on a camping trip that never ends. We'd give anything to have what you're talking so lightly about throwing away.

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alqm OP wrote

That would be great. The thing is, I'm not exactly someone who speaks well with others. I spent too much time on the computer and forgot to make friends outside. It would take some time for me to start engaging properly with people. But it's a good tip. The book Sleep State Interrupt showed me that friends help a lot when you're escaping the tentacles of the system.

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alqm OP wrote

That is a something I must think carefully indeed. I'm complaining about the lack of time to study coding and the constant depressed mood. Having a job slows me down. But then I don't know how it would be if I took such drastic step. Thanks.

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alqm OP wrote

I watch too many movies that make me wanna have a punk hair, join some punk people with awesome tattoos and live out of crimes. But IRL, i'm a skinny computer nerd :D If my target is on the net, then I can think about reaching it... and I'm always learning things.

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RedEmmaSpeaks wrote

I don't know. I don't have a vehicle and I don't think living on the streets is an option for me. One, I live in a rural hick town way out of the fuck of nowhere in the reddest part of a red state. Two, I suffer from sleep apnea and until I got my CPAP, there were days where I could go to sleep at midnight and wake up at noon, and I'd still be utterly exhausted.

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Shittles wrote

Keep the job and learn to organize and optimize your time. If you think what you're doing now sucks all your time, wait till you're spending hours a day just trying to survive. You're blazing hot, you're cold, you're hungry, you're wet, your clothes and body are filthy, you're hungry, Junkies are all over your shit like skeeters, idling semis and gangbangers keep you up all night, cops are hounding you, hookers on the kibbee are waking you up wanting to turn a trick, you haven't had a good nights sleep in months, you're hanging out in Drunken Donuts just for an electrical outlet and wifi but there's crazy loud people in and out all night...

I was in the same boat as you in some ways, then got laid off, had two heart attacks and a quadruple bypass, now I'm about to hit 60 and no one will hire me on a bet despite my past good works. Just keep your job, buckle down for a few years, self-study like a motherfucker, maybe join some open source projects so you can learn to make a difference on a team, then a year or three from now make a serious turn towards finding a better job. Ok? Ready, Steady, Go! And when you have started to make a few good bucks, remember me and and write back that you need a yardman/cook/editor/life coach/guitar teacher, and I'll show up, teach you to drink bourbon and beer, and seduce your grandma.

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