The Americans Pledging to Buy Less–Or Even Nothing

https://www.wsj.com/personal-finance/the-americans-pledging-to-buy-lessor-even-nothing-7edeacf3

by pseudolus • 1 year ago

34 78 1 year ago

pseudolus• 1 year ago

ty685311• 1 year ago

The biggest advantage of DIY over buying is no taxes or regulation. I built a house without codes or inspection for $30k, meanwhile it would cost you $300k+ for same.

leetrout• 1 year ago

Do you have more details?

How long did it take you?

What's the square footage and number of bedrooms / bathrooms?

Did anyone help you?

Did you include buying / renting tools in that amount?

Already own the land?

Interior / exterior finish levels? e.g. is it a cabin?

glouwbug• 1 year ago

I wouldn't recommend it if anything were to go wrong. It's a quick way to end up in bankruptcy if anyone gets hurt, or if your neighbors property gets damaged

ty685311• 1 year ago

600 sqft 2 bd / 1 ba

Mostly no help

Not include tools or land but include renting an excavator to do the site prep and dig footings

Vinyl and drywall

yial2• 1 year ago

Not the original commenter, but I’ve done extensive renovations of different sizes, and walls off restorations of 3 houses.

The 30k to me, sounds possible ish, but also hard especially without a helper.

Personal example, I’ve gotten many materials for free. Including several hundred square feet of hardwood floor.

But thinking through some basics of just tools needed, and being cheap- and also with an assumption that you have time, and land with wood. And assuming you find cheap / used tools but not junk.

Decent chainsaw: $600-$1,000 Alaskan sawmill: $120

Stuff to setup basic kiln house: $600

6-12 months wait on wood.

Planer: $400-600 Jointer: $200-300

Impact, drill, sawzall, oscillating saw, jigsaw, circular: $700

Mitre saw and stand: $400 Table saw: $200

Basic plumbing tools, pex or copper : $200

But when I start to think through things aside from that: If you start to buy materials…

I think it could be done, if you did a cement or block foundation yourself, and did very basic construction.

But my just off the cuff guesstimates, assuming 1500 sq ft ranch house:

Lumber for framing: $4,100 Toilets: $240 Fasteners: $500 Drywall: $1,500 Piping, fittings: $1,000 Electrical: $2,500 (assuming electric stove, and electric dryer) HVAC: $8,000 …. I start to see a hard time doing it for 30k, but, I’m sure there’s a way!

535188B17C93743• 1 year ago

How did you get permitted without an inspection or adhering to code?

bluGill2• 1 year ago

In rural areas this isn't too hard as they often don't have the in the first place. Of course there are reasons people generally live in cities.

Dalewyn• 1 year ago

I built a house without codes or inspection for $30k

You will, of course, not be able to get insurance nor sell the house later on, among many other hurdles related to liability.

Not dissing the idea of DIY, to be clear. Just noting for the audience that freedom is power and power is responsibility.

ty685311• 1 year ago

Someone would buy it for $30k cash, if it were for sale.

forgetfreeman3• 1 year ago

Code compliance is not a prerequisite for selling a property with a structure on it, and it isn't a guarantee that you can't get the structure insured. If it was you'd never be able to get homeowner's insurance on older homes.

s1artibartfast4• 1 year ago

You would also save 30k in insurance premiums pretty quickly.

taeric• 1 year ago

What? Regulations are in place whether you buy or do the work yourself.

alephnerd2• 1 year ago

Rachel Holdsworth, a part-time nurse and stay-at-home mom, came across no-buy videos around the holidays. Holdsworth wanted to pay off her family’s $10,000 credit-card debt. The 28-year old and her husband, Macy, also wanted to stop living paycheck to paycheck

How do you get $10k in credit card debt?!?

I've gotten up to $4k at one point, but I was using my credit card to pay my college's tuition payment plan.

Marissa Huertas-Crespo, a 25-year-old financial analyst has done what she calls “low buys” over several years. Whenever she sees something she likes, she takes a screenshot of the item, puts it in a folder on her computer and—at the end of each month—deletes anything she hasn’t thought about. At the end of every quarter, she’ll allow herself to buy something from this folder with money she set aside in a savings account.

That's a smart strategy.

randall• 1 year ago

i started a startup on a credit card.

dmd• 1 year ago

The average American credit card debt is around $8000. https://www.lendingtree.com/credit-cards/study/credit-card-d...

floatrock• 1 year ago

A single medical diagnosis or accident could easily do that.

elif2• 1 year ago

Try having a family and you can get some of those 10k bills in a single month.

alephnerd2• 1 year ago

Good point. Haven't hit that milestone yet so didn't consider that.

ajfriend• 1 year ago

Oh man, what an exciting opportunity. clears throat The hacker news title seems to mistranslate the original Em dash to an En dash.

xnx• 1 year ago

In a consumerist society, decreasing consumption is a radical act. Saying something against advertisers is tantamount to hate speech on social media.

m4634• 1 year ago

Sometimes it's also nonsense. Keeping an old energy-hungry 50's refrigerator or driving a 25mpg volkswagon beetle doesn't add up.

from-nibly• 1 year ago

If you also drive less the beetle does make perfect sense. Especially when the car is paid off and you fix it yourself.

The fridge may or may not make sense depending on bow long you think your new fridge will go until it fails. Having to buy a new fridge is expensive.

s1artibartfast4• 1 year ago

Buying less is the ultimate control for inflation. In fact, price discrimination is necessary to control inflation.

kurthr• 1 year ago

I'm frankly astounded at the difference in gas prices you'll see. At one point within 2 blocks there was a station selling $1.6 less, and it wasn't even crazy busy. The other station still had plenty of business.

The price difference isn't as large now that prices have come down, but it's $0.7, and both are still just as busy as before.

wakawaka28• 1 year ago

Inflation is a separate variable that influences prices regardless of what any consumers think about prices. In the long run, if the money is in the system, it will be spent. Our perception of what constitutes a high price is largely dependent on the money supply.

bitmasher9• 1 year ago

Sometime in my late twenties I decided my quality of life is good enough, and to not buy fancier stuff. A decade later I still live in the same type of home, drive the same class of car, and eat the same type of food. Inflation made my expenses higher, but my wages have increased more. Living below my means has reduced stress to a degree I couldn’t imagine. When the tech layoffs came, I didn’t stress out because I could go 2-3 years without a paycheck and not miss a bill. When I need to cover a major expense such as AC replacement or urgent air travel I just have cash to cover it.

While my peers might take fancier vacations or drive nicer cars, I wouldn’t trade. I have a confidence in finical stability, and I focus on things that really matter to me.

chneu• 1 year ago

Reducing stress is the biggest pro of a consumption-aware lifestyle for me. I don't need the latest crap. I don't need flashy stuff. The desire to have the latest/great and more of it destroys us.

blackeyeblitzar• 1 year ago

We need this but for the government at local, state, and federal levels. The amount of spending and also just plain growth in number of public employees is outrageous, a big risk for the public, and also just disrespectful of taxpayers whose hard earned money is wasted.

Ekaros• 1 year ago

Somehow a guy who is trying to do something like that is very hated here...

billgeorge• 1 year ago

We buy stuff we don’t really need, and we in reality can’t afford, to Impress people we don’t really like,, or know ! We the people control are in control of everything, regardless of how you think government is at the helm, when you stop buying cheap knock off crap from Amazon(aka China), “we the people” can do way more damage than any government action ! So let’s get busy,,less is more, cheers

The Americans Pledging to Buy Less–Or Even Nothing

Related Stories