Stuart Schuffman was born into a secular Jewish family in Los Angeles. At the age of two he moved to El Paso and then moved to San Diego at age seven. He has one younger brother. He went to University City High School. In 2003 he graduated from University of California Santa Cruz with a Bachelors in American Studies. He then moved to San Francisco and worked in various establishments including but not limited to bars, the public library, a hat store, restaurants, a candy store, a jewelry store and an ice cream shop.

Schuffman’s explanation for going into travel writing in his own words from the introduction of his books:

“I was working in a candy store in San Francisco when all this madness started. One day, an older kid from my neighborhood in San Diego came into the store with his fiancée (they’re married now). It had been years since I’d seen him, so it was really nice to hear what was going on in his life. After we chatted for a bit, and they bought some candy (I slang candy like a motherfucker), the fiancée handed me her card and told me that I should give them a shout next time I was in San Diego. After they left, I looked at her card. It said she was a travel writer. I thought to myself, ‘Travel writer? I wanna be a travel writer,’ and it was then that I decided to be one."

Upon graduation from UCSC, he moved to San Francisco, compiled his knowledge on living a frugal lifestyle in the city and wrote the first edition of “Broke-Ass Stuart’s Guide to Living Cheaply in San Francisco.” The end product was a 33 page black and white zine printed on regular computer paper which he first made copies of at Kinko’s and later published at Pip Printing. The first fifty copies of the book quickly sold out, as did the next 100. The first edition sold around 1,000 copies and garnered him the “Best Local Zine” award in the SF Bay Guardian’s Best of the Bay issue.

“Broke-Ass Stuart’s Guide to Living Cheaply in San Francisco v.2,” still in the zine format, came out on July 2005 and sold 300 copies in the first week. Final sales estimates range around 3000. V.2 also came with more publicity. There was a book release party held at The Balazo Gallery (now called Submission), various television and radio appearances as well as web interviews.

In 2006 Schuffman obtained a job with Lonely Planet as a contributor for the books Western Europe and Europe on a Shoestring. He traveled through Ireland for two months and composed various narratives and tidbits on attractions for the young and thrifty travelers of Europe.

In November 2007, the third version of Broke-Ass Stuart’s Guide to Living Cheaply in San Francisco was released, this time with Falls Media publishing company. With the assistance of the publishing company, Schuffman was able to promote his book to a wider audience with increased internet presence, more television and radio appearances, and another book release party which was attended by over 700 people.

December 7, 2008 marked the release of his latest publication: Broke-ass Stuart’s Guide to Living Cheaply in New York City. The release party for the book (once again published by Falls Media) was held at the Delancey Bar and Night Club in the Lower East Side of Manhattan.