By the time Ken Ilgunas was wrapping up his last year of undergraduate studies at the University of Buffalo in 2005, he had no idea what kind of debt hole he'd dug himself into.
He had majored in the least marketable fields of study possible — English and History — and had zero job prospects after getting turned down for no fewer than 25 paid internships.
"That was a wake-up call," he told Business Insider. "I had this huge $32,000 student debt and at the time I was pushing carts at Home Depot, making $8 an hour. I was just getting kind of frantic."
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The first few weeks were rough. "By the time I bought the van, $2,000 was gone," he said. "I knew it was going to be tough because I still had car insurance, gas bills, a cell phone, and food to buy. Those first few weeks, I was almost starving myself to spend as little money as I could."
Eventually, he got to work turning his van into a proper home. "Over time, it became a mini dorm room," he said. He took out the back row of seats, which left plenty of room for "furnishings." He used a plastic bin to store food, supplies and school materials.
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He kept a headlamp charged up and ready for late-night study sessions. He joined the campus gym for $34/semester, which gave him a place to shower. He gathered drinking and cooking water there, too.
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All along, he was inspired by Henry David Thoreau's solitary lifestyle in the woods. "I was inspired by the very idea of turning the wildest figments of your imagination into something real and creating a life for yourself."
"The van was more than just a way to save money. I wanted it to be an experience, to see how little I could spend. I didn't want to be borrowing money from my parents any time I had a hardship."
Grad student lives in van to avoid student loans
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Originally Posted by skip
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