She’s a happy camper.
Just in case you thought NYC housing prices weren’t taking a toll on people’s wallets: A New York mom has saved nearly $50,000 by quitting her job and living in a tent full-time with her son — which she claims has made her happier than ever.
Videos detailing her minimalist lifestyle have racked up thousands of views on TikTok as fans praise her for her downsizing journey.
“Being in the outdoors like that was like a breath of fresh air,” Christine Blue, 41, — who goes by @appaloosamama on the platform — told Caters of her Daniel Boone-esque saga. “I went from being tied down to four walls, not being able to keep up with life and bills to being completely free and at peace.”
Blue, who worked as an Uber driver, was inspired to live off the grid in 2021 after racking up serious bills while living in the Big Apple. She was reportedly paying $2,500 a month on rent, water, electricity, gas, and trash removal in her home.
So, like Alex Supertramp from Jon Krakauer’s non-fiction epic “Into The Wild,” the Gothamite decided to leave the big city behind and live like a nomad.
She quit her job, bought a tent from Walmart and pitched it in her garden.
Blue’s nomadic lifestyle initially began as a fun “90-day camping challenge” to bond with her 14-year-old son Britton, but after only several days, she was convinced to rough it full-time.
“One or two weeks in, it was a lightbulb moment about how much I could save doing this,” declared the burgeoning minimalist, who initially decamped in Illinois before settling on a place in upstate New York.
After deciding to make life in the great outdoors permanent, the happy camper upgraded to a larger tent for $1800.
Blue also dropped $1,500 on a solar generator, which allowed her to run her crochet business, Spotted Horse Design Co., from home.
The duo also outfitted their new abode with a wood stove for cooking, cozy blankets, a bed, rugs and furnishings from Blue’s house, as seen in a “tent tour” clip with millions of hits on TikTok.
“This is our life in front of the river and we absolutely love it,” gushes Blue in the clip.
This might seem like a reverse rags-to-riches story if the mother didn’t save oodles with her Spartan accommodation.
Evoking something out of the frontier days, monthly costs total $340, including the land lease ($180), water delivery ($55 for 275 gallons for drinking/showers/cooking), firewood delivery ($75), and propane to help heat the tent to colder nights ($30).
Solar power, meanwhile, is free.
All told Blue and her son’s pauper lifestyle has allowed them to save $48,000, allowing the mom to focus on growing her online business full-time.
In other words, being homeless has paradoxically proved quite lucrative.
Of course, life in the quasi-bush isn’t without its challenges, which include showering with a bucket, gathering firewood and other chores reminiscent of the pioneer days.
“Of course, it’s hard, I had to haul the water myself, chop the firewood, make sure everything’s safe – you have no one to rely on but yourself,” recalled Blue.
Particularly challenging was the severe winter weather.
“When the fire would go out at night and the tent walls would get cold again, snow would pile up and I’d have to get up in the middle of the night and get rid of it to stop the tent falling in,” the modern-day frontierswoman described. “Britton was such a trooper; he’d be there in the middle of the night helping me shovel the snow. It was always a team effort with us.”
As for the bathroom, Blue described: “I went outside just like everybody did for thousands of years. We used a bucket and biodegradable bags.”
This Lewis and Clarke-esque lifestyle was a particularly major leap for Blue, a self-proclaimed “non-outdoorsy person” who had never even gone camping before.
The experience is a tad less extreme for Britton, who splits his time between his mom’s tent and his father’s house.
However, along with the obvious monetary benefits, Blue said that “living outside and hearing the sounds of nature” really helped improve her “mental health.”
“I really loved living alone in the woods, I’m an introvert by nature so it never felt lonely, I was just completely peaceful,” she said.
Blue and Britton’s Davy Crocket-esque accommodations will receive an upgrade in the near future.
The homesteader is currently living in a temporary home in upstate NY as she works on building a mini cabin in the same place where she pitched her tent.
Perhaps we can view this mother-son team’s journey as a microcosm of 1800s Westward Expansion, in which rough and tumble frontiersmen eventually settled into more permanent lodging.
Blue’s saga comes as citizens leave the Big Apple in droves with many citing the exorbitant cost of living as the primary reason for their exodus.
