I been living in my car for 90 days, and these 3 months have not been easy. I’ve struggled with summer heat waves, mental stress, rebuilding my daily routines like brushing my teeth, showering and going to the bathroom.

Its been a lot of hard learned lessons, but I’ll show you the four core parts, and how I manage living in my truck.

The four important parts about living in a car that you need to address immediately are

Sleep - where will you be sleeping? Will it be in parking lots, at local parks, or In neighborhoods

Hygiene - how will you keep yourself clean? Where will you shower? Where will you brush your teeth? Where will you wash your clothes?

Food - how will you store and cook your food? Will you buy fast food all the time? Will you cook your own food? How will you store your food?

Money - most importantly, how will you be making money? Will you have a day job? Will you make money from gig work? Will you live on retirement funds or a fixed monthly income like social security?

These are the four most important things to figure out before you even think about living in a car. I really struggled with three of them. Before I started living in my car, I wish I had a clear plan for where I would sleep, how I would stay clean, and how I would manage my daily meals.

The money part was pretty straight forward, as I already have a job, and that means I just need to manage my money better. That became a problem in it’s owns though, as I’ll explain later. This lifestyle is much cheaper than renting a home, but it’s not free. You’ll still need to pay for basic essentials like water, food, and car expenses.

Let’s get into the first most important part about living in a car.

When I lived in a regular home, it was easy to walk into my room, fall into bed, and call it a night. But now I have to find a safe place to park my car, black out my windows, and stealth camp in a public area, hoping I don’t get reported.

I would love to park and sleep anywhere I want, unfortunately I can’t because most locations are illegal to car camp, whether you’re in a city, at the beach, or in suburban neighborhoods. If you get caught, you’ll usually get kicked out.

There's this thing called "the knock," which is when someone taps on your window, usually at night, when I normally sleep. If you're parked in a lot and the security notices you’re living in your car, they'll come knocking and ask you to leave.

So, the question is, where can you go to sleep?

Keep in mind that almost everywhere you go, you won’t be allowed to sleep in your car, except for a handful of designated areas. And you probably won’t be parking at these every single day. Those places are:

Aside from those designated areas, lots of car campers also sleep in

Let’s first cover the designated areas you are allowed to stay at.

Campgrounds are the most comfortable place to rest on this list. You can go to almost any campground across the U.S., pay for a campsite, and stay there for up to 14 days. The downside is that campgrounds are not always conveniently located.

Campgrounds also have restrictions on the types of vehicles they allow. Some beach campgrounds, for example, only accept RVs, travel trailers, and camper vans—not regular cars. The rules vary by location, so always check before you go.

BLM land is completely free, and most of it is in the West. While you can legally stay on BLM land, it’s often far from town, which makes it inconvenient to rely on for long periods of time.

BLM’s are great for nomads, people who don’t have commitments to any single area, like a traditional day job. Nomads can normally afford to stay longer at a BLM because they usually work remotely or have retirement funds.

Also, BLM’s are for recreational use. They are not meant for people to live at beyond 14 days. You can learn a lot more about BLM’s here on their government site.

Bureau of Land Management

While I do go to campgrounds, mostly to actually camp, I have not used it, as a place to live. My mission is to save money, and paying every night for a campsite kind of defeats my purpose of not paying rent.

So, from the first four options, I prefer the following two.

Truck stops and Rest Stops

Before I continue, I need to say say that it’s good etiquette to always purchase something from places that provide a free service. If you plan to car camp at truck stops or gas stations, you should at least provide them some kind of business.

You can either buy something to eat, drink, or purchase gas. Buy anything you want as as long as you spend some money, since it is a place of commerce. I say this because if these places don’t get enough business, they could be forced to close down. That would reduce the number of areas where you can safely sleep.

When you provide them a little business, they in turn can continue providing a safe place to rest.

Let’s continue with specific locations on where you can sleep.

TRUCK STOPS AND REST AREAS

These are legal places where you can sleep in your car, usually only for several hours. They’re convenient, but they aren’t always close by. A lot of it depends on where you live.

For example, most of what I do is inside the city. Rarely am I ever near rest areas, simply because Southern California does not have many of them. But the Inland Empire has a lot of truck stops.

I’m lucky to be near high-traffic freeways (10, 60, 91, 15 and 215), with nonstop logistics moving through. That means there are tons of truck stops and they offer food, fuel, bathrooms, and even paid showers.

They’re great for short breaks while you’re traveling between destinations, but they’re not meant for full-time living.

Truck stops are one of my favorite options because there are usually a lot more of them around, especially near major freeways. They also have bigger lots built for trucks, which means more space, more people coming and going, and more amenities. Plus, it’s already expected that travelers will likely be resting in their cars.

Once again, both these stops are not meant for frequent daily use. If you plan to stay at a truck stop, make a short list of stops you can rotate between.

Here’s a short list of some truck stops you’ll find in California.

Because these are more of a single day use, it’s best to find locations you can visit much more frequently. Somewhere you can go day after day, and not draw any attention.

Before we get into specific semi-permanent sleeping spots, it brings me to the next point: stealth camping.

I live in Southern California, and most cities are heavily populated. That means there are tons of people and traffic everywhere I go. More people means more eyes.

So if I want to sleep somewhere, I need to blend in with the environment. I need to be undetectable. I need to go into stealth mode so no one suspects I’m living in my car.

Here are two simple things you can do:

That’s two very simple steps to follow so you can easily stealth camp anywhere that you’re allowed to park.

If you sleep during the day, you are lucky in the sense that you can park anywhere you want, because it’s easier to blend in with the day’s traffic. Everyone is on the move, and they pay minimal attention to anyone sitting in their car.

On top of that, all parks are open usually till 10:00 pm. Day sleepers will have the least trouble finding a place to sleep.

If you sleep at night, then parks are automatically out of the question. You’ll be kicked out if you stay past curfew.

Since most people are going home at night, and stores are closing, that means you won’t be able to blend in with other cars in usual areas anymore. Like at the shopping centers and supermarkets.

My favorite spots to sleep at night are

Let’s talk about those three locations now.

GYMS

24 hour gyms are a great place to sleep because there is always constant traffic throughout the day and night. My car can blend right in with the rest of the cars.

This is the number one most common location you will find other stealth campers.

The one caveat is, that it needs to be a 24 hour gym. If the gym closes sooner like at 10 pm, you’ll be the only car in the lot, and easily stick out to local patrols or law enforcement.

Most car campers choose to sleep at Planet Fitness and 24 Hour Fitness. Either one will work, including other major gyms.

HOSPITALS

The hospitals have frequent, all day, all night traffic, particularly near the Emergency room side.

I have not slept at a hospital yet, but I have a few on my list that I will use if ever needed. For example, if I get kicked out of my usual sleeping spots, then I will drive to a nearby hospital.

If you’re going to sleep at a hospital, choose one with lots of parking. Smaller hospitals with fewer cars will make it easier for the security to discover you. Larger lots means they need to account for far more cars, and are less likely to pick you out of the bunch.

The ones I have in mind for myself actually have hundreds of spaces available across a really big property. A single car out of 200-400 cars will be hard to discover a stealth camper.

But, this is just a backup for me in case I ever get kicked out of my current rotation of spots.

The reason hospitals are a good location is because people already tend to sleep in their cars as they wait for a patient to come out. That patient could be a sick family member, or a friend. Instead of waiting in a waiting room, they choose to wait in their cars.

Spacious neighborhoods are going to be my second favorite where all the houses are at, and have lots of available parking on the street. I prefer wide open neighborhoods with tons of empty curb space around properties. You can easily observe this by seeing how much free space each property has along the curbs. Some neighborhoods are packed to the brim, and are not ideal because residents will get mad they cannot park their car near their home.

In neighborhoods, your car can blend in with everyone else. Most people will think you live in the area, or that you’re just visiting someone nearby.

This one is most important to keep a low profile. If people see you sleeping in your car all night, you’ll likely have the highest chance of police being called to check on suspicious activity.

Once again, people get concerned when they don’t know what’s going on. For their safety, they may call the cops to check it out.

For neighborhoods, I recommend rotating between locations often. It’s harder to get detected if you’re not always in the same place. You also draw less attention when you’re not a regular nuisance.

The last thing to cover about sleeping anywhere is how to avoid “burning a spot.”

Burning a spot means you can’t return to that location because you’ve drawn too much attention. Maybe someone reported you, security no longer allows you to stay, or you’ve been asked to leave a neighborhood for suspicious activity.

The best way to avoid burning a spot is simple:

One more thing I didn’t mention is to be thoughtful and respectful. Don’t create a scene. Don’t be a disturbance. Don’t dump mouthwash or leave trash in public areas, and don’t do anything inappropriate.

Use common sense. Your life might be harder right now, but that doesn’t mean other people have to tolerate your situation. Be clean, respectful, and follow basic social norms.

If people don’t like what you’re doing, they might report you. And just like that, you’ve burned your spot.

Be thoughtful about your actions.

Make sure you have a few different places you can sleep. If you ever get “the knock” and you’re forced to leave, you need another spot you can drive to immediately. You don’t want to be tired, stressed out, and scrambling with no plan.

Stealth camp. Black out your windows and make your car look like every other parked car to blend in.

And don’t burn your spots. Be mindful of your actions, keep the area clean, be respectful, and leave things exactly how you found them. The more low-key you are, the longer you can keep your rotation.

When I lived in a house, I could walk into the bathroom and find everything I needed, a shower, a toilet, and a sink. I could take care of my hygiene in total comfort and privacy. I could use the toilet, wash my hands, shower, brush my teeth, and get dressed for the day, all in one small room within my home.

It’s funny how much we take these simple things for granted. Now that I live in my car, I have to drive somewhere just to do any one of these things.

Now I’m fumbling around in my car for my toothbrush, spitting mouthwash into a cup, and holding it until I find somewhere to dump it.

If I want to shower, I have to drive to a gym or a truck stop and pay for it. While I’m there, I’ll usually use the toilet too.

And every time I need to use the bathroom again, I have to drive somewhere else (because I’m not staying at the gym all day). Then, when I arrive to this location, I’m hoping the bathroom is open, hoping it isn’t broken, hoping there isn’t a line, and hoping it’s reasonably clean.

All of this takes way more time than it used to.

When it comes to getting dressed, I’m often changing inside my car. I don’t have a closet to grab clothes from. Instead, I hop out the car, walk to the back, and pull clothes out of bins in the truck bed.

I know this sounds negative, and I’m painting the worse picture here, but it’s important you know it can get very bad sometimes. It’s not always going to be a good day.

The first few weeks were definitly the worst for me. But, as I got used to this life and created some sort of routines, it became easier and less problematic. Now I’m doing fine living in my car.

Here’s how I handle showers, toilets, mouthwash, changing clothes, and laundry—everything I do to stay clean.

The gym is my favorite spot for just about everything. When I wake up, I drive over to one of the few gyms I like to visit, grab my gym bag, and walk right in.

Before I work out, I’ll use the toilet, brush my teeth, and then start my workout session.

Then, after my workout, I’ll take a shower, get dressed, and head to work.

Gyms are the best place to shower. It’s somewhere you can constantly return to, and no one will have a problem. You’ll just become a frequent regular at the gym.

The top two gyms that car lifers choose are Planet Fitness and 24 Hour Fitness. Most people pick Planet Fitness because there are a lot of locations across the country, they have lots of amenities, and the monthly cost is usually cheaper.

I prefer 24 Hour Fitness because the locations are closer to where I’m usually at. Plus, I got a good deal when I signed up for an annual pass. In total, I paid around $321 for the year, which comes out to about $26.75 per month.

You can go to the gym and shower every day, or create your own routine and go as often as you want. For me, I tend to go every other day, unless it’s summer. The summer months were killing me, so I went way more often.

If you decide to live in your car, definitely get a gym pass. Do a little research and see which membership benefits you the most in your area.

What I mean is, if there’s only one 24 Hour Fitness gym in your area, but there are multiple Planet Fitness locations, then Planet Fitness probably makes more sense. Get the gym that fits your budget and is most convenient for you.

Finding a bathroom to use can get a little tricky sometimes. For me, I work as often as I can, so I use the bathroom at work all the time. I usually don’t have a problem on work days.

When I don’t work is when problems usually arise. I drive to these following 5 different locations to use the toilet, in order of preference:

The problem with parks is that a lot of times I’ll run up to the bathroom, barely hanging on for dear life, and the door will be locked. I look at my watch and I notice It should have been open an hour ago, but it’s still locked (I really hated those days).

Other times the bathroom is out of order, and there’s a porta potty outside.

Needless to say, parks aren’t always dependable. That’s why it’s important to have a few backup locations in mind, so you can drive somewhere and use the toilet before you have an accident.

I personally like Target and Walmart. I’ll usually plan a bathroom stop while I’m shopping for groceries or buying little things like napkins, propane, disinfectant wipes, and other useful stuff.

The bathroom ordeal can really be a pain. But if you plan your day so you’re near a bathroom around the times you normally go, it gets a lot easier.

The alternative is to keep a bottle in your car that you can pee in. A big benefit for men is we can aim it right in.

If you ever need to poop in your car, get waste bags and a small bucket or a portable toilet. It’s not something I’ve had to deal with, but I’ve heard plenty of people end up doing it in desperation. It’s better to be prepared, just in case your stomach starts bubbling up.

If you do need to go poop in the car, here’s a good poop bag, which is technically meant for dogs, but works fine for any kind of poop. Here’s the link to these bags here.

This should last you all year with a single box.

Let’s move on to something less messy.

Most mornings, I keep my window covers up, brush my teeth in my car, and spit the mouthwash into a cup. If I want, I can also brush at the gym or at work before my shift starts.

I’ve seen lots of people online that live in their cars spit mouthwash onto the street. I don’t like doing that, nor do I recommend doing so. Before I get on my high horse though, I will say that I’ve done it a few times, mostly because I just didn’t know where to waste this gray water.

You can imagine that one person spitting mouthwash in public areas once in a while is not going to have any major affect. But what if hundreds of thousands of people did the same?

The problem is that more and more people are living in their cars. Life is getting too expensive, and therefore we’re seeing a rise of car life, van life people. It’s actually become a popular thing to do, especially for those who want to travel the country.

If everyone spat mouthwash onto the street every day, it would be disgusting and would quickly become a real sanitation problem. That’s why I wait until I’m somewhere with a sink, or I spit into a cup so I can dispose of it properly later. I don’t want to encourage behavior that could lead to more restrictions and a poor outlook on the community.

Here’s the four places you can brush your teeth

I actually like going to the laundromat now. At first, I missed the convenience of having a washer and dryer at home. I could throw clothes in the machine and relax in bed, shower, watch TV, cook, or do anything else.

Now I have to drive to a laundromat every week.

I like it, though. It’s not that bad, and I actually enjoy people-watching. I just see people going about their day, hanging out for a while, and then everyone heads out to continue their day.

What I do is pack all my dirty laundry into a trash bag and leave it in my truck bed. If I had a car, I’d leave it in the trunk. Then, at the end of my workweek, I’ll drive to the laundromat and wash everything.

While my laundry is washing, I’ll sit around, scroll social media for a while, watch some YouTube, and if I’m working on any projects, I’ll do it from my phone.

I do a lot of my curiosity research during this time. I’ll look at places I want to visit, how to do certain things, and whatever else I’m thinking about. Honestly, doing laundry feels relaxing now.

Then, once everything is done, I haul it back to my truck and organize it into two bins and one sports bag.

Here’s that setup:

It’s easy for me to manage this every day. But if I had less space, I’d probably consolidate into a single bin and carry fewer clothes. That would also mean I’d wash laundry more often.

Just stay clean. You’ll be happier this way, and most people will never suspect someone so clean is living in a car every day. That alone gives you piece of mind.

Get a gym membership. It solves almost everything in one place. You can shower, brush your teeth, use the bathroom, get dressed, and exercise while you’re there.

Before I moved into my car, I whole heartedly believed I would cook more often and eat far less fast food. I was calculating how much money I would save by cutting down fast food from my expenses. But it didn’t work out that way.

My plan was to cook more often, or at least prepare simple meals like sandwiches and sides when I couldn’t turn on a burner. It looked good on paper, but once I was on the street and in my car, I was quickly overspending on fast food.

First, let’s talk about cooking. If you decide to cook, you’re going to need something to cook with, and somewhere to cook at. I purchased a Coleman stove with two burners. I also have a boiling pot I picked up for camping, which I mostly use to boil water and cook soups. These two help me cook tons of different recipes.

The one thing about cooking is that if I decide to cook, I would need to use the stove, a pan, spatula, and usually a spoon, knife, fork and/or a plate. Then, I need to wash each one of those things, along with needing to carry all of this with me each day. It’s too much work to add into my schedule everyday.

I’m the kind of guy that let’s dishes sit in the sink till the end of the day, where I could wash at my convenience. It only took about 10 minutes and very minimal effort. But now, it takes a lot more time, a lot more effort, and I’m cleaning outdoors, usually in public.

That’s part of why I was eating fast food everyday.

But, eating out all the time gets expensive, and doesn’t allow me to save money like I planned too. So, what I do now is go to a park or a beach and grill food to prep meals for the week. I still have to wash the grill and cooking utensils, but now I only do it once a week.

Here’s what I do to prep food for the week.

On my day off, I go somewhere like the park or the beach, setup my area like I’m having a BBQ, and grill a few pounds of meat. I’ll eat some right there, and then I bag up the rest. Now, I can eat a portion of that food each day for 3-5 days. I’ll also cook mac and cheese, corn on the cob, vegetables, or some other sides to compliment the steak, chicken, or whatever the main dish will be.

Since I cook only once a week, I only have to wash dishes once a week. This minimizes the time I spend prepping, cooking, cleaning, loading, and organizing everything in my truck. This routine works much better with my work schedule and limited time.

I do run out of portions before the end of the week. When that happens, I switch to some low cost fast food, simple sandwiches, and/or ramen.

My goal is to pay off debt fast, so I try to save money by cooking food or eating inexpensively.

I prefer cooking at a park or beach, where I can relax for the day and enjoy being out in nature. I work a lot, so I need to recharge on my days off. This way, I can knock two birds with one stone by being outside which makes me feel happier and improves my health, and then getting to cook some food for the week.

Anyways.

You can choose to cook food daily or weekly. I would say it depends on how much time you have available. If I didn’t work so much, I would cook more frequently.

Aside from cooking outdoors, I know there’s people that cook in their cars, and personally I try to avoid that. I don’t like the smoke seeping into my upholstery, and leaving a lingering smell within my car. I would rather do it outside. But, if I ever need to cook inside, I’ll probably resort to boiling soups with my FireMaple boiling pot. It’s really easy to boil food, and a lot easier to clean.

I don’t judge though. Everyone will have their style of cooking, and I would never rule out cooking in a car, it just won’t be my first option.

STORING FOOD

A problem with cooking food is that you need to store food before and after cooking. The alternative would be to visit the store every single day, but that takes far too much time and extra driving that I rather not have to do.

You also need some kind of pantry. What I use is a BougeRV mini fridge to keep all my food cold. I store a few drinks, sandwich meats, cheese, coffee creamer, my cooked food, and various other fridge items.

For my pantry, I use this 20 quart cooler by Arctic. I store only a few pantry items inside of here, and keep this inside of my cabin. It’s kind of bulky, but it allows me to fit a reasonable amount of food inside, it has two side pockets, a front pocket, and a net on top to hold things down like chip bags, bags of napkins, or other stuff.

Prior to the fridge, I used a 50 quart Igloo ice chest. I love this ice chest because it fits so much inside. There’s tons of space to load lots of drinks and food. But it kind of sucks having to get ice multiple times a week, especially during the summer.

The pro’s to storing food is that I always have food with me, and I don’t have to go eat fast food. It’s the same as having a fridge and pantry at home, just in a smaller scale. Because I can store food, I can save more money by preparing or cooking food I already have with me.

The cons to storing food is how much space it requires inside of my car, the required energy to power the fridge, the heat released from the fridge, and food getting spoiled during hot days.

In the summer for example, I go to work for 10 hours a day. During that time, it would get so hot in my car, even if I had the windows partially down for air circulation, everything got hot and quickly spoiled. My EcoFlow power station that powered my fridge would also die much faster, which then spoil food.

During the heat wave, I preferred using my ice chest for drinks. But during the summer, ice was often sold out in stores, and I sometimes went days without ice. Without ice, the heat spoiled my food, or the melted water often caused problems too.

At one point, I gave up on storing food during the heat wave and chose to eat out far more often. The heat wave lasted about a month. It was easier to eat out and simply empty out my car for a while, storing my fridge and coolers in storage until the temperature cooled down.

That heat wave really kicked my ass. This was something I was not prepared for, and I had a terrible time living in my car, but that’s a story for another day.

Now, we need to talk about how I manage to afford this lifestlye and how I make money.

There are a few ways you can afford to live in a car, and it all depends on how expensive your bills are. If you have no car payment or debt, you can live on a relatively small income. But if you’re like me—car payment plus debt—you’ll likely need a full-time job to cover everything.

For me, my biggest expenses (aside from food) are my truck and my debt. Here are my four biggest monthly costs:

My total monthly bills are roughly $2,200, and they’re slowly going up because of rising fuel costs.

To cover all my bills and expenses, I need to work about 35 hours a week. If I didn’t have a truck payment or debt, I only need about 18 hours a week. That’s a big difference

Those are my costs and my minimum work hour requirements. I only need 35 hours a week to survive, but I don’t want to just survive. I want to pay off my debt as fast as possible, go on road trips and vacations, and actually enjoy life while living this low-cost lifestyle.

So instead of working 35 hours, I prefer working 50–60 hours a week. I like earning more so I can pay down debt faster, still have some money for fun, and set aside money for emergencies.

Everyone will be different. Some people will cut out all fun and work as much as possible to finish faster. I prefer to mix in some fun so I can stay sane and happy.

HOW TO MAKE MONEY

The easiest answer is to just get a job. If you already have a job, then keep it till you pay off all your debts and assets. Then, save as much as you desire.

If you don’t have a job, you can get an easy entry job like at a fast food, a warehouse, or retail store. You can also do gig work like delivering food for Uber Eats or car share like Lyft. As long as you can earn more money then you need each month.

The Creator Economy - Online Business

If you don’t like the idea of working a traditional job, you can always try making money online. There’s thousands of ways you can earn money online now, and there’s an enormous creator economy that monetizes digital products.

The creator economy has grown so big that creators have made $250 billion in 2025 alone. It’s also expected to grow to $480 billion by 2027.

A creator is anyone that creates some form of content online that can be monetized.

For example, this can include making websites, editing videos, doing other peoples social media, consultation services, coaching, selling guides, pdfs, files, etc. You can even make money on YouTube and other social platforms like X, TikTok, and Facebook. There’s hundreds of things you can sell online and the best part is you can work from anywhere you want.

I personally teach people how you can do this, and I show you how to set everything up. I make it easy for you to get started and save tons of time by following my guides.

I do have a guide you can get for free right here →

The guide will explain what digital products are, how you can make them, how to sell them, and many other ways you can make money online. It’s completely free.

There’s a couple popular websites that most gig workers acquire work from like UpWork and Fiverr. You can also promote yourself online and demonstrate your skills through social media and acquire leads through apps like TikTok, YouTube, Facebook, and all other social media apps.

I personally do this myself. I make content on X, YouTube, Medium, LinkedIn, and Substack and then I share a lot of tips of how to make money online. I share stories to help people understand how the creator economy works, and how you can make money selling digital products. I show them how to create websites, funnels, digital products, email marketing, and other stuff that I spent years learning.

I now use this same practice to build my current brand California Digital Nomad.

The way it works is, you market your self on social media, provide a link to your landing page, and let people buy a product that your are selling.

My brand California Digital Nomad is still in the beginning stages, but eventually I know it can become a media business for me. It’s my personal example of how it can work for you too.

The vision I have for this business is to make money from ads, sponsorships, and YouTube payouts from views. I am working on additional revenue streams, but for now, it all comes down to uploading more content on YouTube. It’s really easy to do.

Get the free guide to learn the basic of how to make money online here →

Anyways, the point is that you need to make money to sustain this lifestyle. What I recommend you do is create a simple spreadsheet, and list everything you pay for each month. Then add to that list what else you need money for. Then you can determine how much you need to pay all your bills each month to sustain your lifestyle.

Find out how much money you’ll need to get by each month.

Find a job or side-hustle that will help you pay for those expenses.

I hated the first few weeks because simple life routines now felt like the most complicated thing every day. I really wished I knew everything in this guide from the beginning. It’s not that hard to live in a car, but having solutions to the main four problems is the key.

As long as you know where to sleep, it will make it easier to rest and recharge with a clear mind each day.

Going to the gym solves a ton of problems.

Know how you will prepare/cook food and where you will do so. Or you can just buy fast food and make life easier, although less healthy and more expensive.

Make sure to have an income, or have enough funds to support your lifestyle.

Thanks for reading.

See ya next time.

Amado.