I now like Wal-Mart.

Yes.  Wal-Mart is my preferred place to stay.  When I first decided to do this, I read every article and blog about living in your car.  One overwhelming piece of advice is to not stay in the same place.  Don't let "the man" know you live in your car.  So, the first week I tried a new place every night.  Since I have a bladder, I need a place that's open twenty-four hours so I can use a restroom.

That's the single most pain in the ass thing about this experience.  I go to the bathroom shortly before I go to sleep, but as soon as I wake up I need to go again.  Urgently.  I've walked into Wal-Mart more than once with my thighs squeezed tightly together.

I spent a night at Harris Teeter (a grocery store) and another at Ingles (another grocery store).  I went to two different Wal-Marts.  I spent one night in an empty shopping lot that didn't have a sign about no overnight parking.  There is a Wal-Mart is less than five minutes from my work (so I'm not driving all over the place wasting gas), has a well-lit (with lighting, not Asheville hippies) parking lot and has (hopefully) working security cameras.  Plus the indoor plumbing and free toilet paper.

If you don't know, Wal-Mart corporation has a policy that you're allowed to park overnight in their lot (most locations - some stores do not).  Since they have now infiltrated every American town, this makes it easy to find a place to sleep when you need one without someone knocking on your window at three a.m. telling you to beat it.  At night, about half of this particular lot is empty.  With the exception of one night, it has been amazingly quiet.  I've stayed in some (out of state) WM lots that have employees playing cart derby all night and grumbling lot sweepers driving by.  The far side of the lot is for people like me.

And there are quite a few 'people like me.'  Each night there are anywhere from 8-15 cars, 2-3 RV's and a few large trucks thrown in.  It makes me sad to look around and see those un-empty vehicles.  The one night I slept in the shopping center lot there were two other vehicles - one SUV and one two-door truck.  We all periodically started our engines up to help stay warm.  When I think of how many lots there are in Asheville alone, not to mention the quiet, out of the way places people can park...I wonder how many of "us" there really are.

And that's just the ones who have a car to stay in.  

There are so many empty homes from foreclosures, abandoned hotels and military base closings - we shouldn't have homeless people in America. I'm not referring to freeloaders. I get immensely irate at people who ask for handouts. If someone wants to live on the street and not work please let them. Some of the people - couples - that I see at night...they seem like they could use a home that's not on wheels.

  

Why?

Twelve weeks ago I moved out of a two-bedroom, one bath, full basement, large-yarded house that I was renting.  I didn't move into another place.  Instead, my belongings went into a tiny storage unit and I sleep in my car.  A few people know; most do not.  I'm 42, work two part-time jobs and am not what you likely think of when you think of a homeless person.  The question I get when I tell someone of my living situation is, "Why?"

Because.  I'm happier and less stressed than I have been in years. I'm taking care of myself, mentally and physically.  This wasn't happening six months ago.  One day I came home from work, tired of interacting with people all day to a messy, unorganized house.  I didn't feel like cleaning or even straightening up.  That happened each night for the next year.  My house wasn't hoarder-worthy, but I didn't let people inside.

In December of 2015 I paid my rent.  That was it.  I didn't have money for anything else.  Thanks to my boss giving me a Christmas bonus, I paid my car payment that month.  A good friend I had done some work for in August had finally gotten paid for that same job and she shared the wealth.  I was able to go out two days before Christmas and get some gifts for my 18-year old.  I felt blessed.

I had some serious decisions to make.  I had been trying to get a second job for some time.  I work 27 hours a week, days, Monday-Thursday.  I wasn't willing to give up my weekend hobby for a job, so that left nights and Fridays.  No one I applied to (Kohl's, AC Moore, Michaels, CVS, Harris Teeter, Ingles, etc.) was willing to work around my schedule, including the places open twenty-four hours.  I made $1200 a month, with my rent being $750 (which is incredibility low for this area), and utilities adding another $115.  My housing was eating away at 72% of my income.

Before you send me links to budgeting sites...I had no cable, no internet and no netflix. I had already cancelled those months ago.  I don't smoke, drink Starbucks or have my nails done.  I shop second-hand stores and buy groceries at grocery outlets.  I don't buy soda, meat, or healthy organic food.  My hobby costs me extra gas money, and I had already missed out on several events I had planned on going to.  Housing was the biggest and easiest thing I could change.

So I did.  I hated telling my landlord on such short notice, but I had to.  Once that part was over I felt such relief - like I was no longer drowning.  I paid the minimum on everything once again in January, caught up on bills in February (when I didn't have rent) and now, in April, have money in my savings account and am paying extra on my credit cards.  I will have my two credit cards paid off in November (around $5000 between the two) and plan on having $12,000 in the bank by next December to pay off my car.

Money drove me to do this, but it also came at I time I needed to radically simplify my life.  There are so many things I'm interested in and want to learn about - and having my toe dabbed in too many of them meant I wasn't enjoying anything fully.  My house was disorganized, my mind was scattered and I wasn't getting most things done.  Like the dishes.  Getting rid of about 80% of my belongings was hard.  Looking at the money I had spent on those - I wished I could have afforded a larger storage unit to at least keep items until I could have a yard sale.  I did sell a few things on craigslist, which was a time-sucking hassle.

Living out of my car wasn't something completely new to me.  One year ago I made the decision to lease a new vehicle.  It was either put down money on that or on my 11-year old car that needed brakes, a new transmission, an emergency brake, a passenger side mirror, a new windshield, a power window motor, etc.  (Before you ask, this wasn't what drove me to the poor house.  My lease is $257/month and I get $270/month donating plasma.  Yes.  I donate plasma.  I needed a new car.)  Anyway, going to derby events would cost a little more in gas than I was used to.  My compromise was to sleep in my car and not get a hotel (except for 3-day events - showering is necessary for those).  So I spent a few weekends last year hanging out in Wal-Mart parking lots and washing my pits with baby wipes.

I'm happy.  I have a place to go if I need to. I'm paying off debt and am able to start doing things I haven't done in years, like go to the eye doctor and gynecologist.  I'm safe.  I'm ok with this.  I went from being inside my house 90% of the time to being outside 90% of the time.  When I open my eyes in the morning, I get to see this looking back at me:

Who knew a Wal-Mart parking lot could be so pretty?