YMCA gym membership is ~ $50 per month and you can use the showers and hot tub as much as you want. Some areas have low income discounts. There are also “day rooms” or drop in centers that provide free shower and laundry facilities for unsheltered folks.

Most Sikh temples serve a free vegetarian meal every day (langar). All are welcome and there is no religious component or requirement to attend religious services.

Food banks will typically provide food that needs prepping- bag of potatoes, a frozen chicken, a carton of eggs. Soup kitchens provide prepared meals (but may require you to attend religious services).

Many cities offer “safe parking” programs. They are areas where you are allowed to sleep in your vehicle without being bothered by the cops and have a portable restroom and running water. Space can be limited though.

General

Get to know at least three or four of your neighbours. Be in good terms with them. When shit hits the fan for one of them, help them out. Because eventually shit will hit the fan for you, too, and they’re probably geographically closer to you than your family.

Safety

When in doubt, disengage and leave. Even if you need to bullshit your way out. Lies are cheap.

Strangers don’t care about you. By default, people approaching you are doing so for their own benefit; doubly so if they claim that it’s for your benefit (it isn’t).

Drink at home, or at most alongside people whom you know and trust. “A drunkard’s arsehole has no owner” - common saying here. I don’t smoke weed but this likely applies to weed too.

Every neighbourhood is unsafe at night, unless you know that it’s safe.

Talking with cops vary depending on where you live; but at the end of the day “polite, cooperative, succinct” should yield you the least amount of trouble. Lying to cops is usually a bad idea, by the way.

Money

Staple starches (polenta, rice, bread, etc.) are the cheapest to fill your belly with, and should be the basis of your nutrition. You probably consume way more proteins (chickpeas, beans, eggs, meat) than you need, in a pinch it’s fine to cut off the amount.

If you’re unsure if you need something, then you don’t need it.

What I said about strangers not caring about you applies to advertisers, sellers, etc. If they’re trying too hard to convince you of something, then odds are that it does not benefit you - disengage and leave, without spending a single cent.

This might sound obvious for some, but wear your old clothes at home. Clothes wear down with usage, keep the good clothes for when you’re going out. It’s fine to use that shirt full of holes and a permanent stain when the only one seeing it is your cat or your SO, neither will judge you for that.

There’s a whole internet of information out there. Before buying something, look for alternatives. You’ll be surprised.

Even more general, but I see it so often that it is driving me nuts.

Wear light colored clothes and reflective/high vis layers at night when crossing streets or biking in the late afternoon, evening, and night hours. Cars cannot see dark colors very well on dark backgrounds or against oncoming headlights. Same with people stepping into bike lanes in dark clothes. If you are biking, have multiple lights, front and back. Ideally, on the bike and on you.

If you are walking a dog, give them a light vest, especially if they are head of you and crossing before you do on a longer leash. You want cars and bikes to see you well before they get there.

Never stop or speak when someone walks up to talk to you.

Be nice to your neighbours and they’ll be nice to you, maybe even help you with things.

Free book to get free everything else:

https://archive.org/details/the-art-and-science-of-dumpster-diving-paladin-press

Don’t make eye contact with people on the street unless you actually want their attention. My mom taught me this at a young age when I was growing up in the Boston suburbs and she worked in the city so I was there a lot as a kid.

When riding the bus, just pretend you’re as crazy as everyone else. I am crazy, so I don’t have to pretend. Much.

1. Stores often have food they are willing to exchange for currency.

2. If you fold the rear seats down and put a matter diagonally in the space of your boot and rear seat you can probably lie down well enough to sleep, also remember to get some curtains for the windows.

3. For the most part, you can just leave, sorry is just a word, use it and walk away, taking a hit to your ego/pride is far less bad than taking a hit to your eye.

4. Don’t show off valuables, wear worn clothes, look bored and uninterested, get a pair of cheap sunglasses so you can scan the area with you eyes without showing it to others.

Be moderately or extremely wealthy