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How cheaply can you live in Puna?
#11
quote:
Originally posted by rocketman

Wuzzerdad... Where can I rent a car for $79/week?
Thanks
Ed


Kona Airport, Thrifty had a special.

https://www.thrifty.com/Reservations/index.aspx?SavedState=True&ControlTarget=TransitionLocationTime

Right now it is around $119 a week, I will look for a code for a discount if you really want a better deal.

https://www.thrifty.com/Reservations/index.aspx?SavedState=True&ControlTarget=TransitionLocationTime

$474 is the best I can do for September so far

$118.50 a week, if you sign up for emails they will have great deals every so often.
That $79 was 3 or 4 years ago, but I bet they will have something close soon.

That was also the year I flew for around $400 Round trip from Moline Illinois. Current fare is almost $600, still cheap I think.



I started out with nothing and I still have most of it.
Mahalo
Rick
I started out with nothing and I still have most of it.
Mahalo
Rick
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#12
Carey- what kind of peaches and cherries do you have, how happy are you with them, and what elevation are you growing them at?
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#13
Well, that really depends on how much cash you got to work with. You can buy a lot for 5-7K Clear it for another 10K with septic tank. Build a small house for another 15-20K ... All and all you could come here have your own house for around 40K permitted (tho you need some handyman skills) or know someone. Smile

Theoretically, if you bought like in Hawaiian Beaches/Parks. You could ditch the car and take the bus. Plus have Road Runner and private water. Have you house paid for (no monthly) payments... Just woofing on your own lot to grow some papaya/banana. You could possibly live here for 150-250 a month if you ate what was on sale like at safeway, kta, foodland and the kicker here is farmers market you can get tomatoes/eggplants/pineapples/banana/papaya/etc...etc.. for CHEAP!

Power is expensive yes, but if you use LED bulbs 10 bucks for 60watts at HD, get yourself a 1KW a day refrigerator, cook with propane and a propane hot water heater for 100 bucks on amazon. You can keep your electricity down to 30-40 bucks a month. Plus propane tanks would be about 10 bucks every 5-6 months depending on your usage of showers and heating up water.

So, lets see...

Monthly cost:

140 food
50 electric/propane
35 Water
35 Internet

Of course you'll have to pay taxes and if you build small you can get by with 4-500 depending how big of a house you built.

Of course you throw a toyota echo with 44mpg into the mix. Now you have a good running car but with registration about 130 bucks a year, plus safety and maintenance... Plus 4.5 gal gas average. If you only drive it hilo a few times a week, and to the hot ponds or kopoho etc...etc.. maybe even to kona you probably will need to ad 150 bucks to your bill monthly but if you just drove 20 miles every other day you could squeeze that down to maybe 80 bucks a month.

The bus is only a buck. Smile
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#14
ericlp has it about right, although I'd think you'd have to spend more like 50-70k to get a place permitted and complete with electricity and catchment water. The big question there is SSPP status of the lot. If it's already payed in full for the lot, then great, if not, expect somewhere around 4-12k just for that. Another 4k to run electricity to the house and another 4-5k for an electrician to wire the house.

I'd also plan on more like $200/month for food, although if you grow some of your own and fish, that can really cut things down. I'd love to know where I can find internet at $35/month in Eden Roc.

Another question is what your skills are. Can you be your own carpenter, mechanic, gardener or any other things that can help keep your costs down?

A friend of mine has a fixed income less than yours and he just spent the last year living at my place in Eden Roc as caretaker while it was being brought up to code. Now he's a master of living cheap, so it's not fair to expect many other folks to thrive, but he's a mountain man at heart so this wasn't really much of a challenge for him. It's really a matter of how much or little you need to live on. He didn't have a car, so he hitched in to Hilo or caught the bus (still a 5 mile hike to catch it). The whole time he was paying down some credit card debts he'd acquired previously.

There are places for rent that aren't expensive. In fact I'll be renting mine out in a few months and would be very happy to get $4-500/month from a stable renter who'd take good care of the place (managing the catchment, taking care of the various plants - especially my coffee keiki). But it's 15 miles to Hilo and it rains a lot at times.
Me ka ha`aha`a,
Mike
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#15
Topo, We have acerola & Brazillian cherries (aceralo are tart tangy & Brazillian are sweeter, juice dark skinned with white flesh), both from the BIAN sale 5 years ago

The peach is still newish, (purchased at a Puna Hongqanji rummage sale a few years ago, this year it fully flowered for the first time, but I pinched them all as I had also done it's first shaping... and wanted it to spend the energy on root structure this year... the lady selling the trees has a not-yet-ripened fruit from her trees...it looked peachy...
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#16
There is a thread on city-data.com, where there are many more of these types of posts like the OP, and a guy is saying "Stop encouraging the minimalists to move to Puna". If all you do is encourage the ghettofication of Puna, then how can Puna expect anything?

It's really not making any rational sense. The police are no good, we need more police. There is too much government, we need more government services. We need to pay less taxes, but we want a government clerk there right now. We need giant parks but we can't repair minor roads. We want free bus service and free solar panels, who cares where those subsidies come from.

If a large percentage of the population is minimalist to be indistinguishable from poverty, then that does not lead to a robust society structure. People living on bare minimum social security are not going to grow an economy, and actually are a load on two to three younger people that are working and have jobs.

"This island Hawaii on this island Earth"
*Japanese tourist on bus through Pahoa, "Is this still America?*
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#17
quote:
Originally posted by pahoated

If a large percentage of the population is minimalist to be indistinguishable from poverty, then that does not lead to a robust society structure.
I think a large number of people who self-identify as "minimalist" (myself included) do not necessarily fit into the poverty category. My version of minimalist is a direct repudiation of the over-consumption lifestyle I see as prevalent in today's society, and I still believe in "use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without" as a first option- but that does not stop me from paying (more than) my fair share of taxes, and expecting the government services those taxes are supposed to fund.
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#18
I saw this today on Craigslist if you think you can fit yourself into a Henry David Thoreau at Walden Pond sized space:
http://honolulu.craigslist.org/big/grd/3830513825.html
"I'm at that stage in life where I stay out of discussions. Even if you say 1+1=5, you're right - have fun." - Keanu Reeves
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#19
A big part of keeping low carbon footprint / low cost life style is fixing stuff - stuff that can be repaired having a greater value than one time use - on any island I've been on.

Good Honda i series generators better than cash the other constant.....
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#20
Thank you topograph. My sentiments exactly.
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