A Google engineer has creatively dodged his rent. It is no secret to most the bountiful perks you get when you work for Google such as gourmet offerings, vintage arcade games and in house hair stylist. These may have been the reasons of one engineer not to look further for a place to stay. Brandon S. has decided to live in the parking lot of the tech's company Mountain View California headquarters.
As reported in Washington Post, Brandon, a 23 year old employee was hired by the company in mid-May of 2014. He then moved to San Francisco from Massachusetts. Incidentally, San Francisco is one of the most expensive places to live in the United States. He was already paying $100 a night for an apartment he barely uses.
The least expensive corporate housing would put him in a two-bedroom space with three other roommates which will cost him around $2,000 a month.
"I wake up, catch the first GBus to Google, work out, eat breakfast, work, eat lunch, work, eat dinner, hang out at Google, and eventually take a bus home, pack my gym bag for the next day, and go to sleep," Brandon wrote on his blog.
Inspired by another Google worker who lived out in a van in a parking lot for more than a year, he decided to buy a 16-foot box truck with 128 square feet of indoor space. He reported spent about $10,000 for the truck including repairs. His only expense for his improved dwelling is $121 for insurance.
The software engineer has documented his journey in a blog called "Thoughts from Inside the Box". Brandon described the site as "pretty much a source of truth as far as my life is concerned" in an email he sent to Washington Post.
As of early Wednesday, his net saving were reported to have surpassed $170 and is increasing steadily with all the costs he was able to cut living off in a truck. He also eats mostly at the Google campus for free. He avoids bringing any food inside the truck to keep off rodents.
Google security personnel didn't mind any Brandon living in the parking lot. They just cross checked the car's registration file with the company's database. "As far as my break-even point goes," Brandon wrote in an email to The Washington Post, "I'm ecstatic, and it's all up from here."