4 Ways Elon Musk Lives Frugally

Elon Musk is the richest person in the world with a net worth of $249.1 billion as of May 5, according to Forbes. But despite having more wealth than most people could even fathom — enough wealth to casually drop $44 billion to buy Twitter — in many ways, Musk doesn’t live an over-the-top lifestyle.

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Here’s a look at a few of the ways the Tesla CEO lives frugally.

In an interview with Vanity Fair, Musk’s on-and-off partner Grimes revealed that when she shared a home with him in Los Angeles, the mattress they slept on had holes in it.

“Bro [Musk] wouldn’t even get a new mattress,” she said.

When Grimes brought up the issue of the holes in the mattress, Musk suggested they replace his mattress with the one at her house rather than buy a new one.

Musk has eschewed mega-mansions for much more affordable homes.

“Bro does not live like a billionaire,” Grimes told Vanity Fair. “Bro lives at times below the poverty line. To the point where I was like, can we not live in a very insecure $40,000 house?”

Musk tweeted about living in a tiny house in June 2021, writing, “My primary home is literally a ~$50k house in Boca Chica / Starbase that I rent from SpaceX. It’s kinda awesome though.”

Musk once had a $100 million real estate portfolio, but he listed the last of his properties in June 2021, The New York Post reported.

At the time, he tweeted, “Decided to sell my last remaining house. Just needs to go to a large family who will live there. It’s a special place.”

He explained that he was selling his properties to fund his mission to bring human life to Mars as well as other projects.

“Working on sustainable energy for Earth with Tesla & protecting future of consciousness by making life multiplanetary with SpaceX,” Musk tweeted. “Also, AI risk mitigation with Neuralink & fixing traffic with Boring.”

It seems that he may have given up his rental as well. During an April interview with TED, Musk said, “I don’t even own a place right now, I’m literally staying at friends’ places,” the New York Post reported.

It doesn’t seem like you’ll find cases of caviar and champagne at Musk’s home. In the Vanity Fair interview, Grimes said that when she lived with Musk she would eat “peanut butter for eight days in a row.”

“I’m not super into amenities,” she told the magazine. “But, um, I need nutrition and stuff.”

Musk said on a 2015 podcast that he once limited his food budget to $1 per day.

“My threshold for existing was pretty low,” he told Neil deGrasse Tyson on the podcast “StarTalk,” CNBC reported. “So I figured I could be in some dingy apartment with my computer and be OK and not starve.”

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