Ask HN: How to live in San Francisco or the Bay Area on a budget?
I am curious: what are options to save money living in San Francisco or the Bay area as a couple?
Even then, the solutions are limited:
#1 Get roommates and split a larger house
#2 Downsize housing
#3 Live further out and commute longer
#4 get on the Section 8 housing list if you qualify
#5 get on the list to buy a government-subsidized subsidized house if you qualify
#6 get a rent control lease and hope for the long-term savings
Overall the Bay Area is not a sustainable place to live with a decent quality of living if you are on a limited income. If costs are an issue for you, I recommend planning to increase your earnings or move somewhere else.
This is what worked for us though it wasn't a specific plan other than we couldn't afford non-rent controlled housing at the time. We lived in a small but decent rent controlled 1br apartment for about the first 7 years here at which point the housing market dropped enough and we were able to buy. I wouldn't count on another housing crash of the same degree, but with two incomes and no kids, rent control definitely helps in building that cash reserve in case it does or in case you decide to move elsewhere or lose your job.
If you rent, can you find something else that fits your needs and costs less? Or costs similar but lets you have a less costly commute? If you have a mortgage, is it worth refinancing to get a better rate? (kind of late for this one, rates were very low for a long time and have been going up lately; if you've had your loan long enough, maybe refinancing to a lower rate 20-year or 15-year could be an option?).
Can you trade your vehicle for something that is less costly to operate? Is your work close to mass transit, such that it might be less expensive to take mass transit for part of the journey; maybe they offer a transit benefit?
Spending less on entertainment is eat in restaurants less, go to bars less, reduce pay tv subscriptions (and other subscription entertainment), etc.
Can you reduce your internet and cell phone bills? Buy phones less often and switch to a less expensive prepaid plan, if possible ($15-$25/month gets you something decent from the prepaid arm of major carriers, you can go less with a MVNO)
For food, restaurant eating is often extra expensive, but for home cooking, smart bulk buying, following bargains and eating what's in season (and usually less costly) can help. Avoiding waste is important, if you bulk buy but end up not using most of the package it can be worse economically than buying a right sized package (but not always, sometimes the bigger packages are cheaper than the smaller ones).
Avoid spending money on drinks. Water is fine.
Make sure you're contributing to 401k, especially if there's a company match. If your company has an espp program with a discount and minimal sales restrictions, that's a way to earn some extra money with limited risk just by delaying income.
Salaries were lower then as well.
Personally I don't think it would be very pleasant (everything you own gets mouldy, power issues, internet issues, boat disintegrating in front of your eyes etc) but he was a fairly carefree dude running a small unfunded startup so didn't seem to care too much about that sort of stuff.
> everything you own gets mouldy, power issues, internet issues, boat disintegrating in front of your eyes
This isn't true for my mom. She doesn't live on a dilapidated sailboat or anything.
They do spend a lot of time on maintenance, and they spend a lot doing things like bottom cleanings, but way less than SF rent or whatever.
Weird stories of people living in Boats, Converted Box trucks[0], and sharing houses with 9 other programmers.
[0] https://www.businessinsider.com/google-employee-lives-in-tru...
Share living spaces.