I’m ‘houseless by choice’ – I moved into my car to pay off debt, now I’ve upgraded to a van & spend under $1k a month
A DIGITAL nomad revealed how a rent increase and desire to go debt-free led to living in her vehicle.
She is now saving money while living in a van to buy land with her long-distance partner.
Monique Starks has racked up over 20,000 subscribers on YouTube while sharing her experience living on the road.
After almost five years of living in a car, she upgraded to a van last year.
She told The U.S. Sun that financial stress sparked her decision to move into her Buick Encore in 2019.
HOME ON WHEELS
She was being sued by a company that said she owed money and her rent increased when it was time to renew her lease.
“They were raising the rent and I said, no, I can barely afford the rent now,” Starks said, adding that she ended her lease.
“I had watched a lot of van life videos. I converted my car, put a little fridge in there and a bed.
“The money that I was spending on rent, I started putting it towards my debt.
“I copied whatever I saw in the videos and tried to make my car as comfortable as the van lifers.
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“The hardest thing in my Buick was taking out the front seat because I removed my entire front seat to have my bed over there.
“My mattress was about 6 feet long. It went from the dashboard right into the trunk.”
With the entire passenger side of her car dedicated to her bed, Monique bought storage containers from Walmart to store food and clothes.
She said they would be stacked on top of her refrigerator when they weren’t being used and had to be moved when she opened the fridge.
She also kept a six-gallon water jug on hand.
SECRET SANCTUARY
The content creator said she quit her desk job after being offered a private chef role that paid $80,000 a year.
Throughout her time in full-time employment, she hid living in her car from her co-workers and boss.
“I had to drive to their home and they had security out there,” Starks said.
“Whenever I would have to get their groceries from my Buick, I would get so nervous because there was a maintenance man who would always try to come out and help me.
“‘I'd be like, no, no, no, it's ok, you don't have to help me.’
n the Van Life community, we have a saying that most of us say, that we're houseless by choice.
Monique Starks
“I didn't want them seeing my bed and my refrigerator and everything.”
Starks said she also hid living in her car from her family for the first six months.
Despite being given a list of all the places she had been sleeping and other female van lifers, her parents hated the living arrangement.
ROOM FOR IMPROVEMENT
She decided to swap her Buick for a van after her insurance company said the car became too expensive to repair.
She used the money from her car being “totaled” and her savings to snap up the van for around $34,000 — the price was reduced using her parents’ military discount.
Starks quit her high-paying chef job in January 2022 because the family she worked for was “horrible” and living “frugally” had allowed her to save while paying off her debt.
It cost about $10,000 to equip her van with everything needed to live comfortably.
“The most expensive thing for this van was probably my power system because I have a refrigerator that's always been a must for me," she said.
“The refrigerator was $400.
“I had to have my Vitamix and in order to power that I needed a good system.
“My entire power system, each battery costs about $900. My inverter cost about $300.
“My battery charger was maybe $100 and then I paid someone for labor because I wanted it done right and that was $500 or $600.
“The floor was left over from my parents' basement.
“We had a friend do my kitchen cabinet so he only charged $700.”
As her van isn’t equipped with a bathroom, she relies on a portable collapsible toilet, a pee bottle, and a female urination funnel.
She said public restrooms are often “dirty” so she avoids them where possible.
Starks uses a Coleman one-burner gas camping stove to cook all her meals.
She can make various dishes with her one pan, air fryer, and an instant pot.
“People online say they mostly watch me from my cooking segments,” Starks said.
“I throw it down in this pan.”
NIGHTMARE
She and her partner have to sleep in a tent when he comes to visit because he’s over 6 feet tall and space is limited in her van.
She moves her van to sleep somewhere new every few nights so she won’t be noticed.
However, just recently a cop attempted to kick her out of a local park because he assumed she was “homeless.”
My monthly bills never cost more than $1000 a month.
Monique Starks
“I was in my van working on my laptop and my windows were covered,” Starks said.
“I saw this guy circling my van and I saw him looking at my license plate, and I was like whatever.
“But apparently the guy who was looking at my license plate was calling the cops on me because he said it looks creepy that my windows were blacked out.
“So the cop came to me and I was like, 'What law am I breaking?'
“He was like, 'You're urban camping.'
“And I was like, 'But I wasn't, I have a dash cam to prove that I got here at 11 a.m.'
“He was like, 'Well, it's weird that your windows are blacked out.'
“I was like, 'Being weird isn't breaking a law.'”
She said the cop threatened to tow her vehicle until she spoke to the sergeant who defended her right to be there.
Her makeshift blacked-out windows have also garnered attention from security officers when she's parked by grocery stores.
However, she revealed the most difficult part of living in a van is her inability to stand up.
She said prices to extend the roof vary from $5,000 to $20,000, which is money she would rather keep in her savings.
“My monthly bills never cost more than $1,000 a month,” she said.
“I don't make as much money as I did at my private chef job, but I'm still able to save.
“My phone bill is the most expensive because I have 55 gigabytes of hotspot.
I am silently protesting the crazy rent in this country.
“Hotspot is very important when you live in a vehicle and that’s $104.
“I have my phone bill, gym bill, and that’s where I shower it’s $22 a month.
“I have Canva for my YouTube channel, a business Gmail, iCloud, and car insurance.
“Those are all of my fixed costs and then the variable costs are gas and food.”
FIGHTING THE STIGMA
Starks said people assume anyone who lives in their vehicle is a “dirty smelly bum,” but she’s very clean and presentable.
She’s been called a “vagrant” and “homeless” with some even assuming that she’s trying to avoid paying taxes.
“In the Van Life community, we have a saying that most of us say, that we're houseless by choice.
“That's different from homelessness.
“Homelessness, in my opinion, isn't a choice.
"A lot of homeless people, maybe they have mental issues or something that put them out on the street and didn't really have a choice.
“I could get an apartment if I wanted to but I don’t want to.
“I am silently protesting the crazy rent in this country, this is my protest.
“I don't feel like I'm homeless and most van lifers don't feel like they're homeless because we could easily go back to a regular life.”
She said van life has become increasingly popular because people want “more freedom” and the opportunity to explore.
“It's a nice experience," she said.
"Whenever I would see the hippies in the seventies doing it I was like, ‘damn, I wish I was alive back then.
“It's a fun experience but it's not an easy life. And we're saving money.
“We don't have to work as hard as everyone else because we're not paying $2000 in rent plus utilities.”
I see a lot of van lifers quitting because they’re feeling sad and lost.
She is less than five years away from her goal of buying land with her partner.
Starks said most of her money comes from online posting, gig work, and picking up restaurant shifts on the app Upshift.
She has learned to live with “very little” and willingly gets rid of items when she wants more space.
MOTOR MOANS
Before living in a vehicle, she loved cloudy days when it would thunder however her perspective has now changed entirely.
“I don't have a lot of windows and sometimes it can just make you sad if it's raining and storming and you're stuck in this small space, " she said.
“In an apartment, I would love cloudy days because I can just do a whole bunch of cozy things.
“But in here I'm like, gosh, can I get some sun so I can go walk out in a park?”
She would advise anyone considering moving into a vehicle to try doing it before ending their lease.
She admits to crying for the first few nights of living in her car despite having practiced doing it in her apartment complex beforehand.
“Practice before you commit because you might not like it," she said.
“And secondly, if you do live this lifestyle, I feel like you should have a goal because, at a certain point, you start to feel lost.
“I see a lot of van lifers quitting because they’re feeling sad and lost.
“In the beginning of this lifestyle, it's exciting and cool.
Monique Stark's cost of living in a van
- Refrigerator $400
- Power system $900 per battery
- Inverter $300
- Battery charger $100
- Labor $600
- Kitchen cabinet $700
- Hotspot $104 a month
- Gym membership $22 a month
“But after a year, two years, three years, you get to a point like, what am I doing?
“I've seen a lot of van lifers who get really depressed.
“They don't know where to go next because they did this because it was trendy and fun.
“They feel like a sellout if they get an apartment again, but you're not a sellout, you're allowed to change your mind.
“My goal is to buy land whenever I feel a little lost or I get annoyed that I can't stand up.
“I remind myself of how much money I'm saving and that this isn't forever.
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“I plan to have land and build a house.
“Having a goal really helps with those poor mental days that van life can bring.”