How to live in San Francisco or the Bay Area on a budget?

The main Bay Area cost is housing. I will focus on this because general advice for anywhere in the nation can address other costs.

Even then, the solutions are limited:

#1 Get roommates and split a larger house

#2 Downsize housing

#3 Live further out and commute longer

#4 get on the Section 8 housing list if you qualify

#5 get on the list to buy a government-subsidized subsidized house if you qualify

#6 get a rent control lease and hope for the long-term savings

Overall the Bay Area is not a sustainable place to live with a decent quality of living if you are on a limited income. If costs are an issue for you, I recommend planning to increase your earnings or move somewhere else.

It's going to be the usual things. Spend less on housing, spend less on transportation, spend less on entertainment, spend less on communications, spend less on food.

If you rent, can you find something else that fits your needs and costs less? Or costs similar but lets you have a less costly commute? If you have a mortgage, is it worth refinancing to get a better rate? (kind of late for this one, rates were very low for a long time and have been going up lately; if you've had your loan long enough, maybe refinancing to a lower rate 20-year or 15-year could be an option?).

Can you trade your vehicle for something that is less costly to operate? Is your work close to mass transit, such that it might be less expensive to take mass transit for part of the journey; maybe they offer a transit benefit?

Spending less on entertainment is eat in restaurants less, go to bars less, reduce pay tv subscriptions (and other subscription entertainment), etc.

Can you reduce your internet and cell phone bills? Buy phones less often and switch to a less expensive prepaid plan, if possible ($15-$25/month gets you something decent from the prepaid arm of major carriers, you can go less with a MVNO)

For food, restaurant eating is often extra expensive, but for home cooking, smart bulk buying, following bargains and eating what's in season (and usually less costly) can help. Avoiding waste is important, if you bulk buy but end up not using most of the package it can be worse economically than buying a right sized package (but not always, sometimes the bigger packages are cheaper than the smaller ones).

Avoid spending money on drinks. Water is fine.

Make sure you're contributing to 401k, especially if there's a company match. If your company has an espp program with a discount and minimal sales restrictions, that's a way to earn some extra money with limited risk just by delaying income.

I lived in the Bay Area for a few years. It was south Bay (Sunnyvale and Los Altos), it was 1989-1992, and I had no dependents and an engineer's salary. I ended up living in a single room, and I still wasn't quite making it financially. I moved to Texas.

I met a guy from the bay area who was living on a boat. Didn't get too far into the technicalities / legality of full time living on your boat, or if he had to move it around, but he said there were quite a few people doing the same thing.

Personally I don't think it would be very pleasant (everything you own gets mouldy, power issues, internet issues, boat disintegrating in front of your eyes etc) but he was a fairly carefree dude running a small unfunded startup so didn't seem to care too much about that sort of stuff.

Check housesitter.com and do a g search for "jobs with room and board"...most are with non-profits etc. Also and this may not be up your alley, but find a smaller landlord and offer to onsite pm in exchange for rent. Also check Wwoof USA. Found 44 in the area when I did a quick search. They generally offer room and board in exchange for work. Also Wwoof is seeking a programmer....maybe you could apply and ask for housing in lieu of some portion of salary.

Outside of the usual answers, check out coveredca.com for insurance. Unless you are pulling in a strong salary you might be able to save a bunch of health insurance, even if your workplace partially covers your costs.

One extreme option: #vanlife.

Move across the bridge.

Share living spaces.

limit eating out, cook your own food, don't have a car