Gene Holloway • Ohio to Arizona since 2017 Launch price $77 $47 5d 00:00:00 Get the book • $47

By Gene Holloway, 30 years a pipefitter

Find $4,000 a year on a Social Security check.

I'm Gene. I've lived on about $1,400 a month since 2017, most of it in an old Ford Econoline. This is every bill I cut and every benefit I had to dig for, written down plain, so you can do it from your kitchen table or your steering wheel. Housed or on the road.

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Gene Holloway
Gene, on the road
Living on $1,400 by Gene Holloway
837pages
85chapters
10parts, one per bill
30day refund

The money book, or the money book and the winter book

One payment. No subscription. Both arrive in your email within a minute.

Best value • both books
Living on $1,400Warm on $5

Living on $1,400 + Warm on $5

The whole check, every bill and benefit. Then the cold nights, for about five dollars of supplies.

  • 837 pages, 85 chapters: rent, heat, phone, food, medicine, insurance, the vehicle, benefits
  • 137 pages on staying warm in a car or van without running the engine
  • The 30-day road map, the $1,400 Ledger and the Cheap Kitchen
  • Lifetime updates when the benefit amounts change
$66 $96
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Living on $1,400

Living on $1,400

The money book on its own.

  • 837 pages, 85 chapters, 10 parts
  • The road map, the Ledger and the Cheap Kitchen
  • Lifetime updates
$47 $77
Get the book • $47

30-day money-back guarantee

Secure checkoutInstant email deliveryPhone, tablet or computerPrintable30-day guarantee
MILE1

The math nobody sits down and does with you

Most of the $4,000 isn't a coupon. It's money with your name on it.

When my house went, I thought the only way to live on a check was to go without. Turns out a good part of it was going to things I didn't have to pay for, and to programs I qualified for and never asked about, because nobody tells you. You have to know the name of the form.

Here's a page from the kind of ledger the book walks you through. Tick the lines that sound like you. You won't qualify for every one. Nobody does. In my experience it's two or three lines that do it.

A Social Security letter and a stack of bills on a kitchen table
The lineA year
A Medicare Savings Program pays your Part B premiumThe 2026 premium is $202.90 a month. If your income and savings are low enough, your state pays it and it comes back in your check. Source: CMS, 2026 Medicare Part B premium.up to $2,434.80
Lifeline knocks $9.25 a month off your phone or internetIf you get SSI, SNAP or Medicaid, or your income is low enough. Source: FCC Lifeline program.$111
Your prescription costs stop at $2,100 for the yearThe 2026 Part D out-of-pocket cap, and a payment plan that spreads it month by month instead of all in January. Source: CMS, Medicare Part D 2026.capped
SNAP counts your medical bills if you're 60 or overOut-of-pocket medical costs over $35 a month can be deducted, which can raise what you get. Most seniors never claim it. Source: USDA Food and Nutrition Service.your number
LIHEAP heating money and the free weatherization workAmounts differ by state. Chapter 15 shows who to call and what to say. Source: U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services.your number
A $15 phone plan on the same towers you're paying three times forThe big companies rent their towers to the small ones. Chapter 26 has the plain way to switch and keep your number.your number
Six lines. The book has 85 chapters.↓

Honest word: the book doesn't hand you money. It hands you the names of the programs, who qualifies, the number to call and what to say when they pick up. The rest is still your phone call. I just made sure you know which calls to make.

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MILE2

Three kinds of people write to me

Which one are you?

“Its just a matter of time for us.”

Still housed, and scared you're next

Rent going up faster than the check. Start with Know Your Number, The Roof Over Your Head and Medicine. Keeping the roof is the cheapest way to live.

Start at Part 1 →

“Been running off from truck stops after 2 or 3 days.”

Already in the car or van

Part 9 is yours: what van living really costs a month, where you can sleep by the rules, keeping benefits with no street address, and getting back inside.

Start at Part 9 →

“Can I buy it for my mom?”

Watching a parent on a check

Part 8, Benefits Most Seniors Never Claim, is the one to sit down with them and go through. Print the Benefits Checklist and take it to their kitchen table.

Start at Part 8 →

Two minutes from Gene

Turn your sound on. He tells you what's in it, and who it isn't for.

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MILE3

837 pages • 85 chapters • 10 parts

One part for every bill that eats the check

Three cash envelopes labeled food, gas and everything else

Part 1

Know Your Number

Before you cut a single bill, see where the $1,400 really goes.

  • The one-hour count that finds your first $100
  • The bill calendar that ends the week-before-the-check panic
  • Three envelopes and a coffee can: the cash system I've used since 2017
  • Your bank is charging you for being poor

7 chapters

Part 2

The Roof Over Your Head

Keep the roof you have, pay less for it, and have a plan if it goes.

  • Ask for less rent the right way: the letter and the timing
  • Get on the senior housing lists years before you need them
  • Before the eviction notice: the calls that keep you housed
  • When the house is going: the step-down plan I wish I'd had

7 chapters

Gene in a recliner under a heated throw

Part 3

Heat, Power and Water

Smaller bills in every season, from the programs and from your own two hands.

  • LIHEAP: the heating money most seniors never ask for
  • Winter shut-off protection and the medical certificate
  • Heat the person, not the house
  • Propane, kerosene, wood or electric: the cheapest safe heat by the hour

10 chapters

Part 4

Phone, Internet and TV

Stay connected for a fraction of what the big companies charge.

  • Lifeline: the $9.25 a month most people on SSI, SNAP or Medicaid can get
  • The $15 phone plan: same towers, a third of the price
  • Internet without the $80 bill
  • Cut the cable, keep the news and the ballgame

5 chapters

Gene cooking beans on a one-burner camp stove

Part 5

Food on $35 a Week

Eat decently on a check, in a kitchen, on one burner or with no stove at all.

  • SNAP at 60 and over: the medical-cost deduction most seniors never claim
  • My $35 week of groceries
  • Food that keeps without a fridge
  • Eating for diabetes, a bad heart or bad teeth on a budget

9 chapters

Part 6

Medicine, Doctors, Teeth and Eyes

The biggest money most seniors on a check leave on the table.

  • Medicare Savings Programs: the form that can put $202.90 a month back in your check
  • Extra Help: prescriptions for a few dollars a copay
  • Teeth on a check
  • The hospital bill: charity care and the itemized bill

12 chapters

Part 7

Insurance and the Vehicle

The car or van is often the second-biggest bill. Make it smaller.

  • Re-quote your car insurance every year: the 30-minute call
  • The mature-driver course discount
  • Keep the old vehicle running for less
  • Tags, registration and tickets: the fees that sneak up

7 chapters

Gene at a library computer helping an older man apply for Extra Help

Part 8

Benefits Most Seniors Never Claim

The money that is already yours, if you know where to ask.

  • The free 20-minute benefits screening
  • SSI on top of Social Security: who gets both
  • Veterans: the pension and health care many never claim
  • When 211 hangs up on you: finding help when you're not an addict and have no kids

9 chapters

Part 9

Living in a Car or Van for Less

For the readers already on the road, or getting ready for it.

  • What van life really costs a month: my own ledger
  • Retired government vans: how GSA auctions and GovDeals work
  • Free and cheap places to sleep, by the rules
  • Keeping your benefits coming with no street address

12 chapters

Part 10

A Little More Coming In, and the Long Run

Small income that doesn't cost you benefits, and a plan for the years ahead.

  • Earning a little without losing your benefits
  • Paid training at 55 and over: the Senior Community Service Employment Program
  • Campground hosting and seasonal work
  • When you can't drive or live this way anymore

7 chapters

And at the back of the book

  • The 25 Living-on-a-Check Rules
  • The Plain-English Benefits Glossary
  • The Benefits Checklist: who qualifies and who to call
  • The $1,400 Ledger
  • A Note on Doing It Safely & Legally
  • A Final Honest Word
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From the comments under Gene's YouTube videos

What folks write to Gene

Quoted word for word, spelling and all.

This is some of the best advise I have come across! Thank you for sharing your knowledge!
@jppickavance
legal parking video
this is the best video I have ever watched for this subject, I have not been homeless but I have been camping and froze in a tent not fun. some of the best information thanks.
@gordongrimes2797
freezing nights video
Excellent video which could save lives. Thank you!
@SteveinLondon9843
freezing nights video
At 60s my man cheated with a married woman 20 yrs younger than us. And wanted to be with her. I took my dog and started living in my car. I’m on SSDI. My dog got cancer and dead. I got a van. I’m loving life. I am blessed. No one can hurt me again.
@debra.609
highway video
Excellent video my friend. Thank you very much for helping us.
@FunnyThoughts44
freezing nights video
Thank you for sharing your knowledge with us. Great video. Please take care of yourself.
@patricialewis-payton7114
legal parking video
Thanks for sharing your story and the warnings . Keep up the good work and God bless you . 😊
@MaritzaAgosto-e1g
drawbridge video
MILE4

The honest part

What this book is, and what it isn't

I'm no lawyer, no social worker and no financial man. I'm a pipefitter who sat in those benefit offices, sat on hold with the phone company, and slept in parking lots where people told me things nobody prints. Where the rules matter, the book names the agency and the program, so you can check it yourself. Where something is my own way of doing it, I say so.

Prices are 2026 prices. Benefit amounts change every year, which is why the updates are free for life.

It's for you if

  • You live on Social Security, disability or a small pension
  • The check runs out before the month does
  • You're afraid you're one rent raise from your car
  • You're already in a car, van or RV and want it cheaper and safer
  • You'd like to help a parent on a fixed income

It's not for you if

  • You want a get-rich plan. This is about keeping what you've got
  • You're after van-life pictures and road-trip dreams
  • You want somebody to make the phone calls for you
  • You need legal or medical advice for your own case. Call the numbers in the book for that
Gene Holloway by his van
Gene and the Econoline
MILE5

A note from the author

I didn't plan on writing a book from a van

For thirty years I was a pipefitter and maintenance man at a plant outside Dayton, Ohio. Good work, steady, the kind where you think you've done everything right.

Then 2017 came. A divorce, a layoff and a stack of medical bills, all inside two years. The house went. At 53 I moved into my Ford Econoline “just until things settled.” They never did, and somewhere along the way I stopped waiting.

Since then I've wintered in Walmart lots, church lots, truck stops and on BLM land from Ohio to Arizona. I learned how the cold can hurt you, how the knock on the window goes, and how to live decently on about $1,400 a month. Mostly I learned it the expensive way, one mistake at a time.

The book came from the parking lots. Retirees who'd just lost their apartment. Widows sleeping in their sedans. Men my age too proud to ask. They kept asking me the same questions, and I kept scribbling the same answers on the backs of receipts. So I sat down at the fold-out table and wrote all of it out, bill by bill, with the program names and the phone numbers and what to say when somebody picks up.

“Most folks in America are a job loss or a couple of missed paydays from where I ended up. Nobody wrote down how to live on the check. So I did.”

If it helps you keep your roof, good. If you're already out here, I hope it makes the road cheaper and the nights warmer.

Gene HollowaySomewhere between Ohio and Arizona

Everything that comes with your copy

Five envelopes. One price.

I keep my money in envelopes. Seemed right to pack the book the same way.

The manual

Living on $1,400. 837 pages, 85 chapters, 10 parts.

Value $47
First 30 days road map

Week by week: which bills to cut first.

Value $19
The $1,400 Ledger

Printable monthly budget, bill calendar and benefits checklist.

Value $19
The Cheap Kitchen

30 costed one-pot and no-stove meals and a $35 week of groceries.

Value $17
Lifetime updates

New benefit amounts every year, free.

Value $21

Total value $123 • Regular price $77

🔒 Launch price • ends in 5d 00:00:00

$47

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Read it for 30 days

If it's not for you, send one email within 30 days and you get every dollar back. No form, no hard feelings. Money's too tight to spend on something that doesn't help.

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Through Gumroad's secure checkout. I never see your card number.

2

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On the next screen, and a copy lands in your email. Nothing is mailed to you.

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It's yours

Read it on a phone, tablet or computer, or print the pages you need. Lose it? Write and I'll send it again.

Warm on $5

The winter book

Warm on $5

137 pages on getting through a freezing winter in a car or van for about five dollars a night of supplies or less, safely, without running the engine.

  • The five-layer bed that works without a heater
  • Carbon monoxide: the rules that keep you alive
  • Cover your windows without becoming a cop magnet
  • General Delivery: getting mail with no address
Get both books • $66

Questions folks ask me

Asked and answered, plain

Is this a printed book? Will it come in the mail?

No. It's an e-book, a PDF that lands in your email within a minute. Nothing is mailed. You can print any page you want at home or at the library.

I'm not much for computers. Can I manage this?

If you can open an email, you can read it. You click the link, the book opens. It reads fine on a phone, and the type is big on purpose. Get stuck, reply to the email and it comes to me.

Money's tight. Why would I spend $47 on a book?

Fair question, I'd ask it too. One phone call in Part 6 or one switch in Part 4 can save more than that in a month or two. And if it doesn't help you, the 30-day guarantee gives you every dollar back.

I'm not living in a vehicle. Is it still for me?

Yes. Nine of the ten parts are about keeping a roof and living on the check: rent, heat, phone, food, medicine, insurance and benefits. The van part is there for those who need it.

Can I buy it for my mom or dad?

Plenty of people do. Buy it with your email, then print the Benefits Checklist and sit down with them. Part 8 is the one to go through together.

Will reading this or using it affect my Social Security or SSI?

No. Reading a book changes nothing. Where earning extra money or a change in your situation could affect a benefit, the chapter tells you plainly, and tells you who to ask first.

Are the prices and benefit amounts current?

They're 2026 numbers, with the agency named so you can check them. Amounts change every year, so you get the updated book free for life.

What's the difference with your free videos?

The videos are one tip at a time. The book is the whole thing in order, bill by bill, with the program names, the numbers to call and what to say, and the ledger to keep track. You don't have to pause anything or take notes.

The check comes the same day every month. Make this one go further.

People who did everything right and the math still doesn't work. That's who I wrote it for. Start with Part 1 tonight. It takes an hour and a pencil.

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Living on $1,400 + Warm on $5

Warm on $5: Get through a freezing winter in a car or van for about $5 a night of supplies or less, safely and without running the engine.

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