If you are a renter, then you’ll know that it is nothing short of a nightmare.
Despite often paying the equivalent of a mortgage each month, you find yourself living in a home that isn’t yours while trying to scrimp and save for a deposit to change your situation.
One man grew so sick of the whole system that he decided to take much more drastic action than, say, moving back in with your parents to save up a deposit.
Instead, he decided to live in a cave, and he ended up spending a whopping 16 years living out a modern caveman’s dream.
Daniel Shellabarger AKA Suelo didn’t just live in a cave though, he ended up rejecting modern life entirely and was completely cashless the entire time he lived there.
He first decided to pack up his old rented life and move into a cave near Moab in Utah.
So, how did he survive?
Well, he lived on rubbish that he found in bins, roadkill, and the vegetables he grew near his cave.
But sadly the modern world and civilisation ended up calling him back in 2016, when he had to return to help look after his elderly parents.
Opening up about his unusual lifestyle on an episode of Only Human, Suelo said: “I’ve actually been sleeping in caves longer than I’ve lived without money probably since the mid-90s.
“When I had a respectable job in town I decided I didn’t want to pay anymore and live outdoors.”
When Suelo lived in a cave full time without money, he only lived with a few primitive possessions.
He explained that it’s easy to eat when you have no money because ‘so much’ is ‘thrown away’, and he said nothing he has ever eaten from a bin has made him sick.
Suelo said that he never had food stamps or any governmental support when he gave up the trappings of modern life, but he did admit to using a library computer to write his blog.
Recalling the moment he gave up money, he said that he put the last of his cash on a phone box and walked away from it.
“I took money out of my pocket and went to a phone booth in Pennsylvania and I put it on top and I figured somebody will take it,” he said.
“When I did it it was really mystical to me, I walked out and it just felt like freedom like warm water was pouring over my head.
“And I just felt like wow I feel completely comfortable and completely free I feel like I’m at home and it doesn’t matter where I am I feel like I’m at home. “
Suelo explained that he was severely depressed with his modern life – so much so that he considered taking his own life.
But after adopting his nomadic lifestyle, he found freedom and his depression lifted.
