A Typical Weekday Living in My Car

Unlike many YouTubers I follow who chronicle their experiences living out of their cars, I don’t have a remote job or make an income from social media. I have a regular day job. I work full-time in an office building five days a week. So, my daily routine is a bit different.

My typical weekday begins with waking up around 4:30 a.m. My early morning routine consists of removing my window covers, putting away the blankets, and getting dressed into my gym clothes. I’ll have a few sips of water, start the car, and head to Planet Fitness.

I usually do a light 30-minute workout consisting of a fast-paced walk or slow jog on the treadmill to get the blood flowing. Then, I’ll take a shower and get dressed for the day. I don’t work out and shower every morning, but I do most days during the week.

Panera Bread is practically next door to the gym, so I head for coffee when they open at 6:00 a.m. I’ve already been awake for an hour and a half and don’t need the caffeine, but I still enjoy having that morning cup of coffee. I typically do a 50/50 mix of their dark roast and the decaf. I’ve cut my caffeine consumption in the past few years.

Besides enjoying their almost free coffee as part of the Unlimited Sip Club, I also take advantage of the free Wi-Fi. I’ll bring my computer to check my emails and social media accounts. I’ll pay any bills that need to be paid and attend to any other online matters requiring my attention. I’ll spend about 45 minutes at Panera before heading to work.

One of the nice things I like about my regular work location is the covered parking garage. I can shield my car from the daytime sun and weather elements, which is especially nice during summer. It also served as a great spot to park and sleep overnight during a couple of snowstorms last winter. While some employees couldn’t drive to work due to hazardous road conditions, I only had to walk 50 feet to the front door of my office building. I didn’t have to take any time off because of the weather, and I didn’t have to clear any snow from my car. My car remained completely dry and untouched.

I’m in the office for nine hours each day. We have an unpaid lunch hour as well as our regular eight-hour workday. The office practically serves as a de facto apartment minus a few conveniences like a shower or stove. I can eat breakfast, lunch, and even dinner daily at work. I don’t need to keep or prepare meals in the car during the week. When I leave work, I’ll usually grab some fruit or a Larabar if I need a snack after dinner in the evening.

Because I eat my meals at work during the week, I do nearly all my food prep there, too. I follow a healthy whole-food, plant-based diet and keep processed foods to a minimum. That involves regular food preparation, but I keep things simple and easy. I can also prepare cooked food at work. I have a small 3-quart crock pot to make chili, soups, and stews. I usually have a few cooked meals each week, but much of my diet is raw vegan.

Since I don’t need to keep food in the car during the week, I don’t require a cooler. I have two coolers: an inexpensive 16-quart Coleman cooler that I keep behind the passenger seat because it creates a level space for my mattress and serves mainly as an extra storage container as needed. My much more expensive ($250) and sturdy 24-quart super-insulated Yeti cooler stays at my storage unit during the work week. I only have it in the car for weekends, vacations, and road trips. Unlike the Coleman cooler, it does a superb job of keeping items cold for an extended period of time. I love having it in my car for weekends, vacations, and road trips.

I always have water with me in the car. I have two Takeya insulated water bottles, a 24-ounce and a 40-ounce container, that can keep water cold for up to 24 hours. I refill them before I leave the office so I have all the water I need for the rest of the day and the next morning.

After work, I like going for walks or a casual jog along the nearby trails and paths. I enjoy solo walks, although I occasionally have a walking partner. I do a lot of walking and typically average 15,000 to 25,000 steps daily, sometimes more.

I also do light to moderate weight training several days a week. I keep several resistance bands at work and a set of free weights in my storage unit. I occasionally utilize the weights and machines at the gym. However, the gym is often jam-packed after work, so I like having those free weights in my storage unit. I have a small 5x10 foot unit, but there is enough space for me to work out. Introverts like me often prefer having a quieter, calmer place to exercise. I do a steady mix of these workouts every week.

I try to spend as much time as possible outdoors during the week after work. But I occasionally chill and hang out with a friend at their house or a restaurant.

If the weather is terrible, I’ll spend the evening at the library, where I can write, research, watch YouTube videos, listen to music, or watch a movie or documentary. I sometimes also do this on nice weather days after my evening walk. I’ll work on one of my projects or relax and watch the latest videos from my favorite YouTubers.

I usually have a handful of errands to run each week. I’ll pick up my mail and packages at the UPS store, stop by my storage unit to pick up fresh clothes or anything else I need for the week, hit the laundromat to do laundry or go grocery shopping. I get groceries during my lunch hour at work because it is so convenient. I typically do a couple of small shopping trips each week.

My evenings usually end by 8:00 to 9:00 p.m., when I will park for the night and get ready for bed. I have several relatively quiet spots where I have parked regularly for the past nine months, all within about 5 minutes of the gym and 10 minutes of my work. These spots allow overnight parking, and I’ve never had an issue. I’ve never gotten “the knock.”

My gym is in a shopping center with a Wal-Mart, and a small number of RVs, cars, and van campers can be seen regularly parking there overnight. I’ve also parked there several times, but it tends to be noisy and busy until about 11 p.m. While I liked only walking a few feet to get to the gym in the morning, I’ve found much quieter spots to park just a mile or two away. I value quality sleep over extra convenience in this case.

My evening routine consists of putting up the window covers and setting up the bed. I will have several layers of blankets and my zero-degree sleeping bag in winter. For warm nights in the summer, I have my powerful, high-velocity, rechargeable, battery-operated camper fan. The fan has a hook so I can hang it from the grab handle above the rear car door window. The charge lasts a long time. I’ve run the fan for several nights in a row without having to recharge the battery.

I’ve slept in my car when winter temperatures dipped to 11 degrees Fahrenheit. I’ve also slept in my car in summer when we had several days in the upper 90s, and it stayed in the 80s most of the night. As a backup, I always allow myself the option of getting a hotel room for a couple of nights if temperature extremes make sleeping comfortably a bit of a challenge.

Some nights, I’m already tired and quickly fall asleep. But I keep my 10” Amazon Fire tablet in the car if I want to watch a show or documentary. Since there is no Wi-Fi where I park at night, I will download them while I’m at the library or Panera using their Wi-Fi. I can also download them on my iPhone, but it’s a small screen. I prefer to watch programs on the tablet over the phone. I can also use the tablet for reading, but I still prefer the old-school way of reading a physical copy of a book. I keep a couple of books in the car for those occasions.

There isn’t much variety to my weekday routine since the majority of my waking hours are spent at work or getting ready and commuting to and from work. But my routine wouldn’t be much different if I were paying a huge chunk of my paycheck towards rent. I’ve gotten so used to living out of a car that it seems perfectly normal to me. And I save a lot more money.

I usually have a more varied weekend routine. But I’ll save that for another article.

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I have lived in my car since August 2023 and plan to continue living out of my compact Hyundai for the rest of 2024. You can follow my car life journey and adventures on Facebook and Instagram