Contributor Nathan Hoag adds his two cents on living cheap.

Compared to what I spend on life now, using the word ‘cheap’ to describe tentlife is an understatement.

There were many factors that led me to move into a tent. I wanted simplicity. I wanted peace. I wanted solitude. Interestingly, I got all of those things plus a few added bonuses. Before I moved into the tent I wasn’t exactly breaking the bank but I wasn’t hurting to pay the bills either. Two, and sometimes three, jobs provided enough cash flow to rent an apartment in Valdosta, GA…the cheapest place to live on planet earth. So, the cheapness of tentlife was icing on the cake. Speaking of ice, I bought an engagement ring in the middle of my tenlife experience and I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t have been able to afford what I bought had I not been living off of pennies as day.

Tentlife forced me to save money before I even moved into the tent. At the end of my junior year of college I realized that I had an apartment full of crap that wasn’t ever going to fit into my tent and that my parents most definitely didn’t want in their house. So I sold it. All of it. Now, I didn’t pocket the money. I actually gave most of the cash to a missions organization that sends college students over seas. However, you can imagine how much I would have pocketed if I had kept the money from everything I sold. Yard sales can be more profitable than one might imagine.

Now, it’s obvious that tentlife saves it’s residents money on the the basics like rent and utilities. What may not be obvious to many people is that tentlife can save you money on food, gas, insurance, clothes and many other things. Why is this? Because living in a tent makes you think differently. You don’t want to wake up in the morning, hop in your car, swing by McDonald’s for breakfast, and head off to class. No, tentlife makes you want to rise with the sun, cook some Cream of Wheat over a fire, write in detail about the storm that came through the night before, hop on your bike, and take the long way to class. Tent dwellers are in a fantastic mental position to get rid of their car, thus eliminating gas, insurance and maintenance payments. They are in a position to quit eating expensive, horrifyingly unhealthy fast food, and pay a dime for some hot cereal instead. Keep that lifestyle up for six months to a year and see that you’re bank account looks like then. I can promise there will be some significant changes.

Tenlife requires creativity. It forces it’s residents into an agrarian frame of mind. Tent dwellers thus refuse to pay for that which they can accomplish on their own. When a pole breaks on the tent, the tent dweller fashions a splint for the fracture. When a tent dweller find a rip in his or her pants there is no need for a trip to the store for new pants because the old needle and thread come to the rescue. When the derailleur on the two wheeler comes loose the tent dweller doesn’t bat an eye. Instead, he or she finds the tool box and gets to work. Paying for stuff is a last resort, a last ditch effort only when the tent dweller is in a terrible pickle.

Bottom line: Tentlife redefines cheap.