25-year-old Eli Young lives in what used to be an ambulance, which he refurbished for around € 15,350.
As a result, he now only spends around € 460 a month on gas and insurance, but saves enormously high rents in New York City.
The ambulance conversion features a large bed, hot water shower, kitchen and work space.
While some children dream of living in castles, Eli Young has always dreamed of living in a car. Growing up, a small orange VW bus was his favorite toy and one of his most prized possessions.
But when it finally came time to switch from the toy bus to a real one, the budding 25-year-old actor was broke, he tells Business Insider. The next best option for his life in the van? A former ambulance.
“I found one on a state auction site,” says Young, whose video tour of his converted ambulance recently on Tiktok went viral. “When I bought it, there were gowns, needles and liquids.” Over the course of seven months, Young remodeled the interior of the ambulance. Now there in his Small house a bed on wheels that folds out of the wall, a mini kitchen, a work area and a shower with running hot water.
“I thought a lot about how to make the most of the space because I didn’t want to cut corners too much,” he says. “I wanted the big shower. I wanted a bed. I wanted everything that my old apartment had.
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He spends around 460 euros a month on his accommodation
Overall, the renovations cost about $ 15,000, he told Business Insider, plus another $ 1,000 in tax and registration on top of the $ 4,000 purchase price.
His move to the small house pays off: For three weeks in October, Young parked his new RV in different parts of New York City while working as a sound engineer on Broadway. He said he spends an average of $ 350 on gas and $ 100 on insurance each month, or about $ 500 – about 12 percent of the average one-bedroom rent in New York.
Prices in New York are significantly higher
“When I rented my apartment, I wasted thousands of dollars on a moldy apartment with no air conditioning or hot water and not very safe,” he says. “I was just sick of that.”
Without the burden of rent, he is now free to play concerts across the country. For example, during the summers he lived in the converted ambulance while touring the Midwest with a children’s show. “Gas is essentially my rent. And I see insurance as my ancillary expenses. “
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Even during the ten-hour drive across the United States, he spent less money on gas than on rent in New York at the time. “I had the opportunity to experience different cities from a different perspective in one year,” says Young. “I’m really lucky.” He couldn’t imagine going back to an apartment and paying the rent in New York.
This text was translated from English by Hendrikje Rudnick. You can find the original here.
