Instead of rent, I pay my parents by cooking meals. Lexi Inks My parents offered to let me live in a camper van on their 120-acre property in rural Georgia. I had conflicting feelings at first, but the amount of money I'd save made the choice a no-brainer. I've gotten closer to my parents and paid them back by cooking them homemade meals every night. If you'd told me six months ago that I'd be living in a roughly 200-square-foot camper with my two rescue dogs, I would have laughed in your face