Just because you never had a bad experience doesn’t mean it isn’t likely. You are lucky that nothing ever happened. I know that most people are good, but I’m not putting myself in such a vulnerable position. I hope nothing ever happens to you, but by saying nothing has ever happened therefore you think it is safe enough you are using flawed logic.

As for hitch-hiking, how many people have considered a CL ride-share? ever think about how close those two are?

Safety, after a certain level, starts to fall under the law of diminishing returns. You can add a lot to your safety by avoiding the truly risky things, but you can’t remove risk completely. You can drop your risk of an automobile accident substantially just by not driving while drunk, but it takes giving up driving, riding, and being a pedestrian on public roads to avoid all risk of it, and still an airplane could drop flaming out of the sky and land on your house.

You just look at the costs and the benefits of any course of action and decide what your risk tolerances are and what you’re willing to do to limit them. For some people, hitchhiking is too risky; for others, the risk is negligible. It has to do with how they view that risk, and how they weigh it with the benefits of taking that risk, the costs of avoiding it, and what they can do to deal with the worst should it happen.

My own preference is to be proactive about reducing the consequences, rather than reducing the risk. Things that reduce the damage roll, so to speak. Martial arts or a self-defense course won’t change the odds of either being picked up by a rapist or killer when hitchhiking, or being abducted by one, but they might change the risk profile of the encounter itself. In automobile racing, the cars and safety restraints and protective gear are all designed and built from the perspective that accidents are going to happen and the human in the car has to be protected from them.

I’m fond of five-point seat belts, and full-body motorcycle armor, and being reasonably confident that I can handle myself in a fight. I’m more fond of knowing how to get myself un-lost than I am of google-printout maps with directions, and more fond of knowing how to pull out of a fishtail on an icy road than I am of my (dubious) ability to judge what speed guarantees me traction in a progressively-worse sleetstorm—and knowing how to pull out of a fishtail serves me not only when I misjudge but when the driver next to me misjudges and slides and bumps me.

That’s my risk-tolerance profile. And my risk-tolerance profile is fine with driving out with a radio to look for tornados and report them to weather services, but balks at swimming near the intake drains of swimming pools. And my risk-tolerance profile would probably result in me attacking a mugger who has a knife because I’d rather trust my skills than his intentions, but hitchhiking is out of the question because I’m shy and the prospect of going up to people and asking for a ride freaks me right out. And my risk-tolerance profile says I don’t ride a motorcycle without armor, but I do ride a motorcycle.

And that works for me. Your mileage may vary, and that’s as it should be.

Can I ask, would you encourage your daughters to just get into strangers’ cars? Would you really tell them it’s not that dangerous, that most people mean well and you think the adventure would be good for her?

I’m sure if those squatters had access to proper housing they would decide to live in.

On the other hand, if I decide to care about the environment (yeah right), I would rather go for the efficient and less heating approach.

So it’s rarely about convenience and low cost, but more about personal circumstances.

My friends and I have been in situations where men in cars have followed us after we got out of our high school when we were teens, and btw this has happened to us in middle class suburbia.

We were teens in the late 90s, this is why I am very concerned, when you get scared like that, where men follow teen girls for no reason, there is a right to be concerned. So I am speaking from experience.

You just can’t take chances, and no we didn’t wear clothes that were skimpy, we’re not those type of girls. Btw, this happened to us separately, we weren’t hanging out together when this happened to us, but its still scary that it did.

So yea I do have a reason to be concerned. And while there are many good people in the world, given that in the U.S. the population is 300 million, and that the entire world population is 6 billion (I think), there are plenty of people who seek to do harm, and who are bad people and have no remorse for their actions.

Once you have a situation where you were followed for no reason, its always there in the back of your mind, and your brain becomes very alert to the what ifs, what can I do to make sure to be safe, its a hard thing to turn off after you have been through that.

There is a reason why I’m cautious and its not because I just pulled it out of thin air, I’ve had little scares and those were enough to make me guarded.

I’m not paranoid, but in this world and age you can’t be too careful. I still have to disagree on the hitchhiking, its just dangerous and no one should take that chance. You never know what you might encounter, no one thinks they’re going to end up being mugged, murdered, raped, etc.

No one thinks that its going to happen to them but it does when people aren’t careful. Its not paranoia, its about taking care of yourself in a dangerous world. Oh and I’m not living my life in fear, but at the same time I have to protect myself.

btw, sometimes people take it for granted that they live in a safe world, sure the chances of being mugged in Omaha is much less than NYC, but at the same time, I don’t want to take that chance. I practice safety. I guess I care more about safety since I’m a woman but you know what, given what they do to victims in this world, I have a right to be very careful.

In seconds, you could be taken to a remote location, tortured and killed. This is the world that we live in, oh and btw, the prison population in the U.S. is larger than any other country in the world. So you guys may make fun of those of us who are against the hitchhiking, but look at the world.

You need to be careful. I don’t understand how people can sit here and argue against safety, I don’t worry about people attacking me when I go out into the world, but when I do go out, I do make sure that I don’t take stupid risks.

Again, its not living in fear, its not paranoia, its using your brain, taking care of yourself, and being a responsible human being for yourself and your future.

Oh and just because you’re a man doesn’t mean you’re safe and can take wild risks that endanger your life, look at what happens to strong men all the time. I have to look at the world realistically. Man or Woman everyone must take care of themselves.

The people who argue pro hitchhiking argue for it because nothing bad has ever happened to them, but just because it hasn’t happened doesn’t mean that it won’t if you aren’t smart.

Sorry for writing a novel, but I feel very strongly that people must be wise and practice caution when they go into the world. Never put yourself at risk for the sake of frugality.

Not everyone has to be a murderer or kidnapper (or more likely a thief or rapist). Only a few people do. And, as #46 said, when you’re little and female, it’s a lot easier to be taken advantage of than when you’re big and burly. One of my grandmothers died from complications of a thief breaking her hip when she was walking in an unsafe part of town. I know plenty of folks who have been mugged. It happens.

Anyway, I’m not entirely sure he should be working odd jobs…as a tourist, I don’t think he’s supposed to be working at all. I know I sound like a spoilsport, but, if we’re going to do this kind of thing, I think it should be strictly by the laws of the land where we are.

There’s a fine line between been a moocher, bum, and happy-go-lucky person out for adventure. Each person will have to decide for himself where that line is. Others may disagree. While I willingly help others as needed and we’ve certainly kept many people in our home over the years, the attitude of someone who can see how little he can spend while trying to live off others’ generosity doesn’t do anything for me.

I love the gist of this article – that other people’s extreme choices can shake up our complacency and help us think of alternatives to the status quo. It’s not advocating particular actions per se, it’s encouraging people to consider extreme (to them) ways to save money. I would liken it to the forwards in Amy Dycyzyn’s Tightwad Gazette. She said the main purpose was to spark people’s creative thinking, not just provide an xyz list of things people can do to be frugal.

That said … as a woman, I would never hitchhike except in dire need. Just doing a quick google search, I found an FBI report that forcible rape (excludes statutory rape and other sex offenses) was at about 56.6 per 100,000 female inhabitants. And I found on Amnesty International that a woman is raped every 6 minutes in the US. It’s never the woman’s fault, but I do my best to reduce the risk of being a part of these statistics. No amount of financial savings are worth it to me to experience the “adventure” and savings of hitchhiking.

Funnily enough, I did once pick up hitchhikers when I was about 19. It was a small group – two young men and 1 young woman, plus two dogs. The dogs and woman made the decision for me because I felt that made them more trustworthy (irrational yes, but that’s what I thought) and because I wanted even just the 2 hours I drove them to the next town to be with someone who wouldn’t try to hurt them (her).

I think people are by and large better than all the paranoia swirling around. It’s really not that hard to exercise realistic caution rather than livng your life in fear. Hitchhiking is, in my opinion, on the other side of the line and I would never feel like I wasn’t an adventurous person because I didn’t find it safe enough to use recreationally.

I also second what Tyler said. Despite what your local news reports, not everyone is a murderer or wants to kidnap your children.

(let’s be honest: here in New York City, we have plenty of people who squat or porch-surf and don’t have or provide their own food or transportation because they are unable to. Yet no one lauds their frugality; they’re called nasty names and accused of leeching off the system. Choosing to live that sort of lifestyle is exactly that–a conscious decision, a choice, when many people don’t have the means to do that. Just… check your privilege, y’all.)

ps. I’ve hitchhiked, in a situation where I almost certainly would have died otherwise, and I still don’t think that made it a great idea. Sure, you can decide for yourself that the risks are worth the rewards, but there’s no shame in NOT choosing that for yourself. If you’re dead, you can’t reap the benefits of all the money you saved.

@Niel. Great comment. I appreciate the reminder that the definition of “wealth” really has many contexts.

We heat with just a woodstove now. Found new EPA approved one for a song on CL. So far, our wood is either harvested from our long neglected acreage/down & dead trees, donated by neighbors, or bartered for on CL.

It can get cold up here in the woods in Wash State, and sometimes I do miss having a furnace. Constantly stoking the woodstove, cleaning the ash, hauling & stacking the wood can be a chore. But, our heating bill is virtually nonexistent, and the glow of the fire is nice.

I can forego a furnace for now. When I’m 70? We’ll see.

Also, I think it is walking a fine line when people mooch off other people’s stuff in order to call themselves “frugal.” That building you are squatting in belongs to someone. That couch you are sleeping on is paid for by your friend, who also is paying rent and utilities to keep a roof over your head. You aren’t being frugal, you are mooching… in my opinion, anyway!

I will disagree, I think its dangerous to hitch hike, I know everyone has their version of frugality but hitch hiking is not for me. If you have the money and can afford it, why should you have to give up convenience?

Why put yourself at risk? Why does convenience get a bad rep at PF blogs? What is so bad about convenience? I’m not afraid of living but you have to protect yourself against psychopaths, better off safe than sorry.

I do agree that many people are decent, and I moved all the way from the West Coast to Omaha, Nebraska, I drove all the way to Omaha. I stayed in hotels, I kept to the road, I didn’t take wild chances and that’s how I was safe.

With food, gas, and hotel it was about $600-700. I tried to stay at affordable places. Convenience doesn’t need to cost an arm and a leg. Sometimes safety is more important, I’m sure that guy could’ve stayed in hotels and could’ve still gotten an American experience if he wanted to.

I’m not afraid of other people, but at the same time I’m not willing to risk my life and be that one in a million attacked by a psycho news story. This advice is just dangerous.

In that case, its all about adjustment, and a key to becoming truly frugal.

I’ve been to practically every major urban city in the United States and have never felt uncomfortable walking around, even at night. You just need to be aware of your surroundings and stay out of bad neighborhoods.

One of my own goals in life is to hitch hike. Back in the 70′s it was a common way for folks to travel if they didn’t have the cash. In Hawaii, I picked up a hitch hiker and, yeah, he was an interesting character, but it was fun. He had some interesting tales to tell.

I guess what I’m trying to get at here is that it seems to me that our society as a whole (generalization forthcoming) likes to shelter ourselves and lock out the rest of the world. We drive alone in our cars to work, we go straight home and lock ourselves in our home, hide behind whichever monitor is most convenient and “communicate” with the rest of the world via Facebook.

Our vacations to foreign lands consist of a homogenized experience at an American brand hotel, eating at American restaurants and trying our best to avoid any interaction with the people who actually live in the places we are visiting. We want our guided tours and tourist attractions…again, we isolate ourselves from having a “real” experience.

I think what this young man is doing is awesome and I wish more people were just like him, not afraid of their fellow man and willing to take a risk on the kindness of others. Bravo to him!

However, with this talk of infestations, I did a little search on the current plague, and while they are disgusting, they don’t seem to spread disease–unlike mosquitoes, which I positively detest.

It says in the texts I’ve read that even nice hotels can have bedbugs, so nobody is safe. Places affected? Victoria’s Secret, Abercrobmie & Ficht… Bill Cinton’s office! The NYC library (2 bedbugs).

I guess we are all safer if we stay locked up at home and don’t talk to anybody. Ha!

Really, if they want you, they will find you. There’s no point in hiding. Wash your bags often and travel safe…

Now… about mosquitoes… those monsters can drive a person mad.

1. Fear of Experiences: The people who see the fear-based isolated incidents on the news (violence, kidnapping, muggings, etc) and over encumber their lives to prevent that stuff from happening to them or someone they love.

2. Fear of Being Screwed Over: The people who are so freaking cynical of everyone else, they create walls around themselves so that no one can get too close to burn them, which ultimately prevents them from creating all kinds of networking opportunities in their lives.

As others have said, the vast majority of people in this world are either good or indifferent. But our access to 24/7/365 news and media online has allowed all kinds of fear-based stories to warp our views and negatively impact our lives.