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Budgeting With Thoreau: How Much He Spent in Walden (1854)
Today I’m writing about one of my biggest influences…
Not my (surprised) cat, but Henry David Thoreau.
In 1845, a 28-year-old Thoreau decided to quit his day job working in a pencil factory and concentrate on writing. He located a piece of land near Walden Pond in Concord, Massachusetts and built himself a small house. (Luckily for Thoreau, the landowner was his friend Ralph Waldo Emerson, so he didn’t have to squat illegally.)
He recorded his start-up costs in Walden. Just for fun, I’ve converted them to today’s dollars and summarised how much he spent on the house, the farm, and food & other household supplies.
House building expenses (US$1,023 today)
Costing a grand total of US$28.12 (about US$1,023 in today’s dollars), the raw material for the house was the biggest start-up cost. On the other hand, after building the cabin mostly with his own hands, Thoreau successfully secured a dwelling incurring rent or a mortgage.
Farm expenses (US$536 today)
Thoreau incurred quite a hefty US$14.72 (US$536 today) on tools, labour and seeds to start his farm.
He grew beans, potatoes, peas, sweet corn and turnips, not exactly a roaring success I think, but good enough. Some of the produce he consumed, while the rest he sold, presumably at the local farmer’s market.
Food & household supplies (US$318 today)
In his cabin, Thoreau subsisted on a shoestring budget, paying US$8.74 (US$318 today) for eight months’ worth of food supplies.
He describes his diet:
It was, for nearly two years after this, rye and Indian meal without yeast, potatoes, rice, a very little salt pork, molasses, and salt, and my drink water
He supplemented his bread-driven meals with some produce from his farm (more on that below) and the occasional fish caught from Walden Pond.
Other stuff he spent on were oil, clothing, and other incidentals.
Summary of Thoreau’s expenses
Excluding his housing costs, Thoreau’s living expenses at the eight-month mark totalled US$33.88 or US$1,233 today.
Converting this to one year’s worth of expenses, his annual expenses were about US$1,850 in today’s dollars. And you thought you were good at budgeting.
Including Costing a grand total of US$28.12 (about US$1,023 in today’s dollars),
Though Thoreau was jobless while living in Walden, he did earn a bit of money from selling vegetables and working as a day labourer. He just about broke even, which pleased him very much, since he essentially gained, at zero cost,
beside the leisure and independence and health thus secured, a comfortable house for me as long as I choose to occupy it.
Leisure, independence, and health! Three simple words that don’t sound like much. And yet, what else could a person need to feel rich?