What to Buy if You are Homeless

I spent a lot of time fantasizing about what I would buy if I ever got some cash when I was homeless. When I finally got some cash, I had a plan on how to spend it.

You can read more about my homeless experience at What I Learned While I Was Homeless.

Goals:

Getting a regular job.
Keeping a regular job.
Conserving enough money to get an apartment or rent a room.

To do these things you must be:

Clean
Well-groomed
Rested
Fed

To accomplish your goals you must have:

An address
A phone number
An alarm clock or watch
A place to bathe
A clean place to sleep or a way to stay clean when you sleep
Clean clothes
Food

A backpack is probably the single most important item you can buy.

A backpack allows you to carry all of your belongings with you at all times. Unattended items will get stolen or vandalized, so everything you need must come with you wherever you go. Sleep with your backpack on. I used to reverse mine and wear it on my front when I slept.

You can buy a backpack at a thrift store like Goodwill or Salvation Army for about $5. Don't worry about how it looks, if it has cartoon characters on it or whatever, only concern yourself with whether it is tough and will hold up with lots of use.

You can use bar soap to get yourself and even your clothes clean in a pinch.

Bar soap usually costs less than $2.

Get some good, scented antiperspirant. Be sure it says it's antiperspirant and not just deodorant. Antiperspirant contains deodorant but it also reduces the amount you sweat. Deodorant usually just covers up odors with a scent or perhaps neutralizes them. But deodorant still allows you to sweat and the sweat that wicks into your clothes will soon start to stink.

You can get a stick of antiperspirant for around $2.

Well-brushed hair can pass for clean longer than un-brushed hair. A comb will work too, and it is smaller to carry. You can buy travel-sized brushes for a dollar or less in many stores and combs run even less.

You can't keep your teeth clean and your breath fresh without using a toothbrush so invest in a toothbrush and some toothpaste. Toothbrushes and toothpaste can usually be found for $2 or less.

Buy your clothing at a thrift store. If you can't find everything you need at a single one, go to others. If you can't find a particular item, wait a few days, they might get it in.

Buy polyester or other thin, synthetic fiber shirts and pants - they might not look as nice but they shed dirt and wrinkles much more easily than natural fibers, also they can be rolled or folded up very small to pack away in a small bag. Additionally, they dry more quickly when washed.

Also, buy some cotton t-shirts of the sort that can be worn without a shirt over them. You can wear these on days you don't have a job interview or work to go to.

Try to get at least three shirts, three pairs of pants, and three t-shirts.

If you stick to the suggested fabrics, your entire wardrobe will fit in a single washer and dryer load so you may be able to wash your clothes at a Laundromat if your funds allow.

For women, the socks to get are called trouser socks. For men they are called dress socks. You can usually get these for about a dollar a pair in dollar stores or big box stores.

Try to have at least three pairs of socks.

The best underpants you can get for men are actually those silky bikini style briefs. The best underwear and bras for women also follow this trend - thin, synthetic fabrics which can be hand wash and dry quickly. They don't take as long to dry as cotton.

Try to have at least three sets of underwear.

These are not the undergarments homed people tend to desire but their ease of care and ability to dry quickly allows you to have clean underclothes which feels a lot better than the alternative.

A plastic drop cloth of the kind people use to shield floors and furnishing when they paint will provide you with a clean surface to sleep on and can shelter you from the rain in a pinch. You can fold it up small to carry with you.

You can buy a plastic drop cloth for under $3 at most hardware or home improvement stores and in stores like Walmart, Target, or Sears.

If you can't convince someone to let you use their phone number as a message phone you may need to get a cell phone.

Pay as you go cell phones are getting cheaper these days. You can buy a cell phone for as little as $10 and you can get enough minutes for three months use for about $20. This will give you a functional phone number to put on job applications.

Additionally, many cell phones have an alarm clock function which will help you keep appointments and get to interviews on time. If your cell phone has a clock and alarm function, you won't need to also buy a watch or alarm clock.

It can be tricky to keep your cell phone charged. If possible, try to pick up a solar cell phone charger. If you have a job, plug your phone in at work. If not, perhaps a friend or acquaintance who has a home could be convinced to let you charge it at their home.

If you are homeless in San Francisco, California, you can get a free local message phone number through Project CARE (Communications And Respect for Everybody) a project of Grand Central, a Google owned message consolidation system. They hope to extend the service nationwide.

Do your darndest to get a friend or acquaintance to let you use their mailing address on job applications. Check at local churches to see if they would allow you to use their address for this purpose. I have heard that many of them will provide this service for homeless people.

Another option is to go to the Post Office and apply to get your mail by general delivery, which means you get your mail right at that specific Post Office. Unfortunately, many Post Offices don't do this anymore.

The other alternative is to buy a Post Office box so you can have an address. The cost of this varies but you should be able to get a basic Post Office box for $25 - $45 for six months rent. Unfortunately, most PO boxes have to be paid in a lump and some require an additional deposit.

If you are unable to get a box at the Post Office due to not having an address, try the private mail service companies like Mail Boxes Etc, the UPS Store, Pak Mail, or similar stores.

Even if you can't get a friend or acquaintance to let you use their address to receive mail at or to list on applications, you may be able to get them to let you use their address to get a Post Office box or mail box at a mail store.

Check out the food banks and soup kitchens in your area before buying food. Also, apply for food assistance through your local human resources department. They may also be able to direct you to other helpful resources. It can be hard to take charity but this will allow you to save up for that apartment or room.

When those resources are exhausted and you must buy food think cheap, easily prepared without a kitchen, and high in calories. This is not a nutritionally sound diet for long term use but it will prevent outright starvation. Ramen noodles are one of the best deals. They are high in calories, very light to carry around and you can eat them dry if necessary. Bread is also light and cheap, especially if you buy day-old baked goods. Canned beans are cheap and provide protein.

Once you can swing it, buy nutritious foods including vegetables and fruits. Avoid buying meat as it is difficult to prepare without a stove and is not a cost effective source of protein. Avoid soda, candy, and salty snacks, they have no real nutritive value and don't provide the energy other foods do.

If you live in a rural area, you may be able to convince farmers to either let you glean their fields (pick leftover fruit or vegetables after the harvest) or pay a small fee to pick fruit or vegetables from their fields.

You will need something to keep time with such as a wrist watch or travel alarm if you want to get to interviews, appointments and work on time. A watch is probably most practical as you can look at it at any point without pulling it out of your pack.

You can usually buy a cheap digital watch for around ten dollars. If you are lucky, you may find a functioning watch with a battery in a second hand store for less.

If you already have a cell phone or intend to get one, check to see if it has an alarm and clock function before buying a watch.

Save it.

If possible, put it in a bank account. If that isn't possible, buy travelers checks or money orders made out to yourself. This will prevent people from stealing your hard earned cash.

Do not spend any money on anything at all but necessities. This means no entertainment, no alcohol, no drugs, no single nights in motel rooms.

Be strong and think about the future. Save every penny you possibly can to get an apartment or to rent a room. Keep that room with a locking door in mind as your motivation.

Now here's the hard part. It's hard to stay clean when you are sleeping outside.

Lay down your tarp and put your bedding on it before lying down.

Wear the same clothes to sleep in for several nights and change into clean clothes from your backpack for work or interviews. Don't sleep in your day clothes, roll them up neatly and store them in your pack to avoid getting them soiled or wrinkled.

When you go into a public restroom, grab some paper towels and wet them before going into the stall. You can do a little clean up in the stall with the wet towels.

If you find a bathroom with a locking door like a gas station bathroom, wash right at the sink as best you can. Use lots of soap and water and use a lot of antiperspirant after you dry your underarms.

To get even more out of your antiperspirant turn your shirts inside out and rub a bunch of antiperspirant into the cloth of the shirt everywhere your underarms might touch. That way, in case some of the antiperspirant wears off of your body there will be a little bit of a backup on your clothes.

If you can find a truck stop, you have hit cleanliness gold. You can buy a shower for several dollars at many truck stops.

Please, if this page is useful to your mission to help homeless people, use it in any way you like.

Some soup kitchens have printed out a less detailed version to hand out, making a slightly edited version of the text available for people to read. Some churches have edited the information in this lens to add to church bulletins.

If you want to take it to a more personal level you could print off this page (or the parts you'd like to) and put it and as many of the items listed as is practical into backpacks to distribute to homeless people. For the clothing, many thrift stores either have gift certificates or credit vouchers one can buy to serve in its stead.

I have been delighted and humbled by the number of people asking me how they can use this information to help others.

I made this lens to help people without hope make a plan to spend any money they get to better themselves or to encourage people to buy these sorts of items to give to homeless people they know. This list of items and suggestions comes from my own experience, these are some of the things I bought with an unexpected windfall when I was homeless.

It's all about helping people make a plan, spreading awareness, and giving people something concrete and empowering to do about homelessness. I think it would be of great benefit to everyone if we citizens could take it upon ourselves to help end this problem, starting with the people we see every day.

This is not just about ending homelessness, it is about understanding our obligations to each other as human beings. I'm a humanist and to me, that means that the only help and hope we have as human beings necessarily comes from each other. I also believe that helping the less fortunate members of the family of humanity helps the helpers as well. It's like being a good parent, child, or sibling - it gives a person a sense of connectedness and strength.

My prospects were pretty dim; I had little work experience and nowhere to shower regularly. I walked funny and talked with a slurred voice after the brutal beating that had hospitalized me.

I couldn't get a regular job so I walked from door to door in suburban neighborhoods, scouting out homes where older folks lived. I knocked on doors asking to mow and rake lawns, scrub toilets, clean out homes and garages, and clean up dog poop. I also picked up bottles and cans for their deposit. I managed not to starve to death. Just barely.

One day I had a particularly bad day after almost a week of bad days. I'd been beaten up the night before and I hadn't convinced anyone to hire me to do any odd jobs in almost a week. No one seemed to appreciate the bargain at which my services could be had - not even poop scooping a really nasty yard for $2. I hadn't eaten in several days and was feeling pretty down. I thought about suicide.

As I walked along the freeway picking up trash and cans I found a number of cigarette boxes that day. When I picked the last one up I saw the edge of a paper bill sticking from the package. This was pretty common; often people would put a few dollars in their cigarette pack and forget about it. My hands were shaking and I was tearing up. I was going to get something to eat! As I pulled the bill out I couldn't believe what I was seeing. It was a folded hundred dollar bill! I looked at it in disbelief, thinking that somehow it must be a fake.

This was a turning point for me. I was able to rent a Post Office Box, buy a tarp to sleep on, buy showers at the truck stop, and clothes from a thrift store. I had an address to put on job applications and I could stay clean and well-dressed. I was then able to get a regular job, ten days after finding the money.

A few people have asked me "if homelessness has affected you so deeply, why don't you donate your lens earnings to charities that fight homelessness?"

I would love to donate the proceeds of this lens and all of my others to help homeless people. Unfortunately, I'm on the very edge of homelessness myself.

You can read about why I'm in financial difficulty here.
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